“I was afraid,” she whispered.
He helped her to her feet, his voice coming in a sigh. “There’s no need to fear me.”
Caspian
The woman watched him as he fed another log into the flames. Clearly, she was feeling ill at ease. He punished himself inwardly once more for threatening her. He’d wondered if he wasn’t alone for some time. When he’d seen movement in the trees, he’d assumed the worst. He should have caught himself sooner. He certainly couldn’t blame her for being wary of him now. Caspian sat back on the ground, trying to arrange himself as casually as possible.
She was still watching him.
He smiled, and her eyes widened.
Did she think he was making an advance? Caspian resisted the urge to rub a hand over his face. Or maybe she was just afraid. He knew that some found him imposing. Even when he was young, his eyes had unsettled some. But now he’d grown larger, stronger, thanks in large part to his time in the war. Add to his stature the scar that now marked half of his face, and he had to work doubly hard to convince others he meant well.
The woman’s gaze fell down to her hands. Suddenly, he was very glad he had found her. Though it did appear that she was well muscled, her frame seemed so small against the dark silhouette of the pines looming over them. She had nothing to defend herself but a hunting knife on her belt. If there really was something in these woods… His eyes scanned the outskirts of their camp for movement.
“I’ve heard stories about you.” Her soft voice drew his focus back at once. Her gaze remained fixed on her hands as they twisted nervously in her lap. “Is it true they call you the White Knight?”
“I suppose,” Caspian said. He’d never cared much for the nickname, or the myriad of tales that seemed to sprout from it by the day.
“You saved the prince’s life at Icespire Pass?”
Caspian studied the crackling fire. The log was beginning to catch as he had hoped. “Yes, we fought together there.”
“How did you…?”
“Save him?”
She looked into his eyes for the first time since he had caught her hiding in the brush. “How did you survive?”
Caspian took in a heavy breath, turning back to the fire. “I nearly didn’t.”
He could feel her gaze tracing over his scar. He had been unconscious for weeks before he woke in the field hospital. His head injury had been severe, not to mention the broken bones. “I would have been written off, a lost cause, if the prince hadn’t demanded that the healers do everything they could to save me. Even with all their help, it was months before I was back on my feet.”
She nodded. “And now you’re a lord?”
He shuffled, uncomfortable under all her curiosity. “I do my best to look after the lands the prince put in my charge.” Some regarded him as little more than a folktale these days. The soldier who became a lord, a hero who had single handedly saved the heir to the realm in the war. These were the kinder tales. Others thought he had coerced the title through brute force or even magic. In either case, the events of that day had transformed him in the eyes of everyone else. But beneath thetitle and the keep, the legacy and the responsibility, he still felt like the same person.
Her eyes found him again, narrowing. “So, what are you doing out here?”
“Something’s been attacking the farms, eating livestock, destroying the crops. Something more than wolves.”
“You mean to hunt it, then?” she asked, a little more energy in her voice than before.
Caspian paused to study her. She didn’t seem the least bit frightened at the notion of a terrible monster in their midst. “It is my duty, yes.”
“I could help you,” she offered without hesitation. “I’m an excellent tracker.”
Absolutely not. That was his first thought. His second was that a tracker might be exactly the thing he needed. He had no doubts about defeating the beast, whatever it was, but he’d searched an entire day and had felt like no more than a fool stumbling through the woods.
“You don’t need to refuse in order to protect me,” she said, as if she were somehow able to read his thoughts. “I’m more capable than I seem. I can handle myself.”
There was a sure twist of her lips as she spoke, a confidence that conjured a ghost of a smile within him as well. “I’ll take all the help I can get.”
Satisfaction blossomed within her as she nodded.
“For now, we should, um-” Caspian looked at his carefully laid bedroll. “-sleep…” She had no supplies but what she wore. Nowhere to rest but the ground. He supposed if he were to lie on his side then she could- Caspian pushed the thought of her body pressed against his own far from his mind. “You can have the bed. I can sleep on the ground. It’s-“
“Of course not,” she refused him. “I have my cloak.” She demonstrated wrapping it around her shoulders until she was nearly hidden within.
