“No! Let me out!” she yelled, sitting bolt upright and opening her eyes. She blinked several times, running her hands through her hair. “Where am I?”
“In the barn with me,” he said, kneeling beside her. “Here, eat this.”
“I’m not a rabbit,” she said, looking down at the green pile at her feet. “Is that grass?”
“It’s hawthorn leaves, best I can do for now.”
“No bacon and eggs?” She yawned loudly. “Cup of coffee?”
“There may be better food when we get to the castle.”
“The castle. Oh, goodness. I’m still here, aren’t I. This isn’t a dream. I’m really here.” She picked up a couple of the leaves and ate them, tossing her hair back a moment later. “Then I suppose we better get going.”
Once again he marveled at her. He’d never known anyone like her. She could go from despair to determination in the blink of an eye. She was on her feet a moment later. “How long to the castle?”
“About twenty miles from here if we cut through the mountain pass.”
“Then we go that way.”
“How good’s your climbing.”
“Good enough. How long will this take?”
“If they weren’t looking for us, I’d have said two days but we need to move swiftly. If news gets back to the castle that we’re on the move, Ronald will have his entire guard out looking for us. Dinnae forget you’ve a bounty on your head.”
“I meant to ask yesterday, why does he want me dead?”
“I dinnae ken but I bet it’s got something to do with that key of yours. Kill you and no one kens what it can do.”
“You know.”
“Aye and I’ll be dead by your side if he has his way.”
She stuffed the last few leaves in her mouth. “I’d kill for a coffee and a donut.”
“You do talk strange sometimes, lass.”
“So do you. Now are we walking or are we talking all morning?”
He suppressed a laugh. “Yes, my Lady.” With an exaggerated bow, he backed out of the barn. She followed him in time to see the sun rising over the distant mountains.
“Tell me those aren’t the ones we’re going to climb.”
“Nae,” he said, taking hold of her shoulders and turning her to face the opposite direction. “Those ones.”
“Oh,” she said, looking at the soaring peaks in front of them both. “Fine.”
The journey took longer than he expected. It wasn’t just the wind which blew directly into their faces, slowing them down. It was his injuries. For the first time he was aware of his age, of how long he’d spent in exile.
He hadn’t really thought about his body aging before but the wounds which he might have laughed at when he was younger were plaguing him and draining his energy. He said nothing about them, slowing only when absolutely necessary.
They stopped twice. The first time he managed to catch a rabbit but it had little enough meat to sustain the two of them, not helped by the size of the fire upon which he cooked.
The wind kept sending the flames down to the ground and even with a stone wall to shelter against, there was never enough heat to sear the animal properly.
The second time he stood alone while Jessica went behind a clump of bushes to relieve herself. He rubbed his aching muscles while she was out of sight, bringing them back to life.
His hand had stopped sending pain shooting up his arm but the tiredness he felt was out of all proportion to the length of the march. Was it the injuries or the wind? Or perhaps because it had been a long time since he’d needed to march this far. He was clearly out of shape.
