With the passing hours, Catrin’s typical chatter diminished until we rode side-by-side in companionable silence. Once a sizeable, sheltered clearing appeared, Emrys commanded that the camp be set.
I hadn’t even fully dismounted when he turned on Catrin and me with a wild look back in his eyes.
“You will stay here,” he ordered. “Do not wander. Do not speak to anyone you don’t know.”
Six soldiers appeared beside us like summoned ghosts.
Catrin blinked. “Six? Really? We’re still in Darreth.”
Emrys’s expression was one of exhaustion, not hostility. “I’ve been idiotic enough to bring twowomenon what may turn into a battle campaign. This is what you get.”
“We’re hardly helpless,” she argued.
“Debatable,” he muttered. “When your guards aren’t around, you’ll stay by my side at all times for the rest of this journey,” he said, turning to me.
I nodded. His eyes lingered on mine for a beat longer than necessary, trying to convey with a look just how much it meant to him. Then he turned and disappeared into the whirl of activity.
He shouted to a group of nearby soldiers, “Set up their tent.Now.”
“Yes, Stormdân,” they chorused.
Catrin and I tried to help but were summarily denied. I overheard the lead guard practically on his knees, pleading with Catrin to persuade me to give up any attempts to help with anything but the cooking in the future, considering Emrys’s strange temper about it.
Ridiculous.
All of this was about him being overprotective, and he wasn’t only worried about protecting a foreign diplomat, or his childhood friend. He was worried about me in ways that went beyond simple politics. The butterflies I’d been squashing since first arriving in Darreth took wing, free to flutter about in my stomach once again.
While our tent was being built, Catrin and I decided to gather firewood, shadowed by our excessive contingent of guards.
It didn’t take long for Catrin to start barking at them too. “Just look at your fine lady bending over to gather wood foryourdinners! If you menfolk can’t gather wood faster than us in dresses, you’re not fit to travel with Stormdân!”
That got them moving. Less than five minutes later, we’d gathered enough for several fires. Unfortunately, most of it was still damp from the last storm.
They struggled against it with flint and steel, sending showers of sparks into the cooling evening air. Without a fire, we’d be eating cold rations and having an even colder evening ahead of us. Even in early summer, the nights were chill.
While I was preparing the stew pot, they turned their expectant looks on me, Catrin with one exasperated eyebrow raised, as ifIheld the key to solving their problem. My cheeks blazed,even though I should’ve been used to this misunderstanding by now. “Wrong kind of mage for fire magic, sorry.”
“But I’ve seen you fling open doors with your mind!” Catrin argued.
I shrugged, palms upraised in apology. “Fire was never one of my gifts. You’re all too used to the princes. They’re the exceptions. It’snot normalto be able to use so many types of magic.”
With his characteristically impeccable timing, Emrys walked up just as I finished speaking. He kneeled beside the arranged wood in silence and reached out with one hand. The moment his palm hovered over the damp kindling, flames roared toward the heavens.
“Show-off!” Catrin huffed. Then, noticing the guards’ startled expressions, she added belatedly, “Thank you, Lord Prince.”
His mouth twitched. “I’ll return after I start the other fires.”
“Prince Emrys,” I shouted after him, “will you eat with us? I’m cooking, so I need to know how much to add to the pot.”
“You cook?” His brows lifted. Curiosity replaced his disbelief, like he was discovering a new part of me he hadn’t expected.
I sent him a flat look. He knew I wasn’t the noble lady weeks of good food and expensive clothing made me appear. That I was from peasant stock was possibly the worst-kept secret in the history of Darreth at this point.
He nodded and grunted.
“Is that a ‘yes,’ Lord?”
“Yes.” The sound was long-suffering, but the corners of his mouth twitched upward again, and my butterflies took wing at the sight.
