Page 179 of A Legacy of the Light

Eventually the light slips too far for us to continue riding, and we come to a clearing in the forest that Tavish decides is good enough for camp.

Reyne and I help set up the tents, despite the guards telling us to sit by the fire and let them take care of it, earning scowls from us. They insist on ours being nearest the fire and in the middle of all the others so we are safest from danger.

“Why aren’t we sharing a tent?” I ask Tavish as we sit down to eat the meal being passed around the fire.

“They’re pretty cramped on short trips like this.” He leans in closer to me, whispering in a low voice full of heat, “And I don’t know if I can keep my hands to myself. I don’t want everyone here knowing how you sound when you come all over me with my name on your lips. Some things are just for me.”

The breath stalls in my chest and I look at him from the corner of my eye, willing my heart to remain steady, since everyone around this campfire will hear its heavy beat if I don’t.

He looks at me knowingly.

“Good point,” I concede.

“We’ll have a night together at the inn when we reach Claver, and a few days at my house when we cross the border,” he adds more gently, knowing exactly why I asked that question, and it had nothing to do with us being naked.

Guards agree a rotation to keep watch. Despite knowing that there is a lookout for Dorche and Brollachan, the slightest noise in the forest around us has me on high alert—not helped by the fact that I’m lying on the damp ground on a thin sleeping mat.

Thank fuck this is only for two nights.

◆◆◆

We’re up early again the next morning. Bleary eyes greet each other good morning over breakfast. Tavish drops a kiss on the top of my head as he settles next to me. I grumble in response.

“Ah, so this is what you’re like without coffee in a morning,” he quips, with a smile and a playful nudge.

I level him with a flat look. I am not to be messed with today. Certainly not when I’ve had a shit sleep and there isn’t a drop of the caffeinated nectar in sight.

Tavish holds his hands up in defeat and laughs to himself softly, leaving me well alone.

We pack up camp and mount the horses. We need to cover a lot of ground today before we make camp again. My aching muscles and general mood is not going to make for a good trip.

As with the previous days, we keep our stops to a minimum. We stop once mid-morning to rest the horses, once for lunch, and once again in the afternoon. Each time I mount and dismount Mabel, my muscles scream in protest.

That night, we camp along the shores of a stream cutting through the forest. Exhaustion takes me quickly after I crawl into my tent, and I sleep a deep and dreamless slumber.

I wake with the sun and scramble out of the canvas to find Tavish kneeling before the fire, stoking the embers with firewood that he then adds to the flames.

“Morning,” he says without looking up at me.

“Good morning,” I yawn.

“Feeling better today?”

“Yes. Yesterday was hard.”

“You did well.”

His praise sends a trickle of warmth running through me.

“I’m sorry.”

Tavish stands and walks toward me. “What for?”

He has soot smeared on his cheek and I stretch to wipe it away. “For being a grumpy asshole.”

Mischief sparks in his eyes and he wraps his arms around me.

“It’s okay, you can make it up to me in Claver,” he says, kissing my lips lightly.