Her head broke free of the foam, and she immediately took a deep gasping breath, blinking the water from her eyes, hair plastered across her face.
"Are you alive?"
She looked across at the source of the voice that sounded very far away. It was Lennox. He had a firm hold of her wrist and was using his other hand to guide them toward the shore. As the water grew shallower, he stood, pulling her the rest of the way, wrenching her up and onto the riverbank.
The horse had already made it out. It stood looking indignantly at the two of them, steam rising from it in the sunshine. Rose found herself shivering uncontrollably despite the heat, her hands shaking as she sat up and swept the hair from her face.
"Thank you," she managed to say before another bout of coughing wracked her body.
"At least we're on the right side of the river," Lennox replied. " Are you all right?"
"Just cold."
"Come here." He shuffled up next to her, throwing her onto her side and wrapping himself around her, his body pressing into her back.
"Is this what you do with your men when they're cold?" she asked, feeling the shivering slowly subside, replaced by a warmth deep inside her. It was nothing but a spark at first, but it soon grew as he continued to hold her.
"They would know to cross a bridge like that one at a time. Why did you not go back?"
"Is that what you were yelling?"
"For you to get back? Yes."
"Sorry." She coughed again, her body spasming. "I couldn’t hear you."
"No matter, we are both alive. That's what counts."
"If we don't freeze to death."
"I'll make us a fire. You'll soon dry out." He was up and moving away a second later.
Rose sat up once more, trying to ignore the disappointment that he was no longer touching her. The emotions she experienced were bewildering.
She told herself it was only because she'd almost died. Once she'd calmed down, she'd be in better control of herself and not feel so attached to him.
No point getting attached anyway, she told herself. I'm going home soon. "The staff?" she asked as Lennox gathered firewood from the foot of the nearest trees.
"I still have it," he said, lifting his cloak to reveal it trapped under the girdle that bound the sword to the side of his body. "Do not worry. We will soon have you home."
What if I don't want to go home? She watched him closely. Did he know how strong her feelings were? They had crept up on her quietly. Her need for him had grown like ivy spreading across the outside of a house.
He piled the wood in front of her as she continued to drip on the riverbank. "Hold this," he said, passing her a pile of thick branches. "I would bring more, but they are too green."
"What's wrong with green?"
"Too much smoke. We don't want to attract more attention than is needed. Now I just need a decent flint."
He found it after a couple of minutes searching and sat by her side, scraping two stones together until one sparked, the red embers sinking into the dry grass he'd piled under the sticks.
The grass began to produce white smoke, He leaned down to blow gently onto it until there was a flare of flame and then the fire took hold, the kindling immediately starting to crackle and spit.
"It will not take long to warm you," he said, adding twigs to the kindling, shifting the bigger sticks to allow more air to flow through the fire.
Rose sat close, her hands held out to the flames as they grew. Lennox was right. Within minutes the fire was an inferno, and she had to shuffle backward, all sense of cold forgotten in the blazing heat.
"How much further to the stone circle?" she asked as he brought back more wood and piled it onto the fire.
"I do not know," he replied.
