“You like to hear yourself talk,” I grumbled.
“Hmm. Quite the contrary. I think I just like mysteries; you are a mystery to me and therefore worthy of discussion.”
“The men you are referring to? Allow me to explain.”
He held up his right hand momentarily as if to say,Please.
“The owner of this caravan, these wagons, is simply a childhood sweetheart and was once married to my sister,” I began. “Any other connection you draw between us is in your own mind. He is the father of my niece, was a good husband to my departed sister, and gave me my first kiss. That was twenty-five winters past. We are nothing but loosely connected family.”
“I wouldn’t say that tohim,” the one-eyed man advised.
I ignored him. “Secondly, Herschel is a casual one-time lover. We were never courting. We never meant anything more than rolls in hayto each other, and now there is nothing more to that. We are cordial with each other. We even call each other old friends.”
“If you are correct on that front—and you are not,” Reed rejoined, “as I have seen him watch you when you don’t realize he can see you—then you have to admit you are also incorrect about the first man.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Your rolls-in-hay man asked you to not show any signs of intimacy between the two of you so as not to upset the caravan’s owner. If you say you are no longer anything to each other, then you have to admit you agreed to that because you yourself know that your childhood sweetheart still carries a torch for you. And believe me, madam, even a one-eyed man can see it.”
I decided to wager a guess and allude to the first night we had seen each other in The Pale Horse. “And the third man, Wynne,” I went on, not addressing his interjection, “would swive a badger if it put a dress on.”
There was a cackle of laughter, and we both looked up to see Ilsit leaning out of the wagon with a grin on her face, one arm slung along the lip of the wood, her eyes puffy from sleep. “That is true about the badger,” she said to Reed.
I smiled up at her, grateful for her intrusion. I was nervous. I both wanted to get away from this man and found myself disappointed that he would likely ride away soon.
“But,” Ilsit was saying, “he speaks true, Robbie. Thane has drool on his lip like a hound when you are nearby. It is pathetic.”
“See?” Reed said softly to me.
I did not turn my head to him.
“Herschel, now,” my friend continued to speculate. “Actually, he might salivate too, but more so with a fondness for all the times he and Robbie rutted in the stables of The Pale Horse. He is more likely wistful than randy.”
My gratitude at Ilsit inserting herself switched to aggravation quickly. I continued to avert my eyes from Reed, not wanting to seehis reaction to “rutted in the stables.” I would have smacked her if I could have reached.
“Would you say your friend is a known seductress?” Reed asked her. “I have a theory that she uses her wiles with such recklessness it has become second nature to her. What say you?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Ilsit agreed, waving her hand at him. “But she isn’t so clueless as you generously suggest she might be. She swings her hips around like they’re weapons. She acts like she doesn’t know the power of her own backside, but believe you me, foreigner”—and here she paused to nod with solemnity at him—“she does.”
“And you would know this, then, as you are family? Or dear friends?”
“Since childhood,” Ilsit crowed, eyes flicking to me.
“You have had your fun with her, Ilsit,” Tessa called from the front. “Let poor Robbie be. It’s not her fault she has a magnificent rear end.” And then my sister-in-law gave out one of her bellowing laughs.
Ilsit cackled again and, from the pallet in the wagon, I thought I could hear Jade giggling.
It occurred to me that our conversation with her was louder, that Jade, Tessa, and Fox could hear us now. And I wondered if they had caught any snippets of the exchange between just Reed and myself. I remained turned away from him but found myself eager to see if he had reacted to Tessa’s “magnificent rear end” comment.
“You Evangeline’s replacement today?” Ilsit asked him.
“Something like that,” he answered. “She’s riding ahead. I’ll report back that the five of you are safe from any men sniffing around your wagon.”
“Men lured in by Robbie’s rump,” Ilsit added, again solemn.
I felt more than saw Reed smile next to me. “Off with you,” I said, turning to him, my words were dismissive. “I’m sure you’ve scouting to do, and you can report back to Evangeline that we are well today. Thank you for your visit.”
He gave me one of his slow blinks and then nodded. Withoutbreaking stride in our progress, he untied his roan, mounted her, and rode away from the wagon at an easy trot.
