Page 15 of The Conquering of Tate the Pious
“Good girl.Saystopif it gets to be too much.”Another quick grin, and then Adelais bounced on the balls of her feet.It was so youthful, almost boyish of her, like Tate had just agreed to spar outside before dinner.Like Tate had just agreed to sneak into the neighbor’s orchard to steal apples.Like what they were about to do was harmlessly naughty.
“And youwillstop if I ask?”Tate checked.
Adelais gave her a sweeping, courtly bow.“Upon my honor, madam.”
“I can’t believe I’m trusting someone with a band of soldiers camped outside my abbey.”
Adelais lifted a shoulder.Under the tunic, Tate could see the firm muscles of her body.“I have kept my word about our arrangement, have I not?And you can share anything you like with me, because I won’t tell a soul.Think of me as a confessor of sorts.”Another quick grin.And then she took Tate’s shoulders and spun her around so that she was facing the road to the abbey.They were at least a mile or two away from the camp, and all around them was the great emptiness of the moors and hills.“Go.And your stranger shall catch up with you.”
Tate sucked in a breath.She wanted that.She wanted it so much that nothing else mattered.Not even that it was the Wolf, of all people, giving it to her.
And strangely, absurdly, she trusted Adelais.She shouldn’t—she knew she shouldn’t trust a murderer, a Norman, someone who wanted to crash through the gates of her abbey and violate its halls.But she also didn’t get the sense that Adelais was interested in hurting any of her sisters in the process, and maybe that mattered.
I fight fair.
In a war, that mattered a lot.
And more than anything else, Adelais was right: she hadn’t gone back on her word.Tate respected that, found comfort in it.She didn’t mind a villain so long as they were honest about their own villainy.It was how she felt about herself, after all.
She started walking, forcing herself to keep her eyes ahead, her steps regular and even.She wanted to dawdle and she wanted to run.The more space she put between her and the Wolf, the more the anticipation prickled her flesh, and she didn’t know how to alleviate it.Let herself be caught quicker?Give in to her fear and bolt?
No.No.That wasn’t the game…or at least not how the game was supposed to start.The game started with her innocently walking to the abbey.She didn’t know she was being hunted yet.
After another few minutes, she heard them.Footsteps from behind her.Lighter than any solider should walk, but they weren’t careful or measured.These were the footsteps of someone confident, someone cocky.Someone who felt like they had all the time in the world to do what they wanted.
Tate’s heart was beating faster than hoofbeats on the road when she turned to see Adelais’s shadow coming closer.Adelais wore only a tunic, hose, and boots, with her dagger belted at her waist, and Tate could see the tight power in those legs as she strode closer.She could see the small nip of her waist and the slight flare of her hips.
“Hold,” Adelais said.Her voice wasn’t higher or deeper than it normally was, but something about it sounded different to Tate.Maybe that was her own overactive imagination, already panting after what would come next.“Are you going to the abbey?”
Tate’s fingers rubbed nervously against her palm.“Yes.”
“Alone?At night?”Adelais stopped and cast a look around.It was a look a helpful stranger might give, a look that said,See how dangerous it is out here? I’m worried for you!
It also made it seem like she was checking to make sure no one else was nearby.
A chill ran up Tate’s spine and then down again, meeting the heat blooming between her legs.
“I know the way,” Tate managed to say.
“Any way is dangerous if the wrong people are on the road,” Adelais said, all concern.“Let me walk you there.I want to make sure you’re safe.”
“I promise I’m safe,” Tate said, and Adelais merely shook her head.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Nodding her acquiescence, Tate started walking again, keeping to the side of the road so that there would be room for Adelais to walk next to her.The moonlight shone on them and on this next stretch of road before it dipped into a thickly wooded valley, a place of utter darkness despite the moon.
There.It would happen there.
But when Tate looked over at Adelais, she was still walking with the jaunty steps of a traveler on an easy journey.Not at all like she was planning what their game called for.Adelais wasgoodat this, Tate realized.Good at playing the part, good at pretending.But it wasn’t pretending like priests did for the Easter plays, woodenly acting out a part already written for them.Adelais wore this self, this stranger-self, as easily as clothes, her entire body moving loose and carefree, her demeanor completely different from the blunt soldier of the camp.
It sent a strange sort of pang through Tate to see.It was beautiful, and it also filled Tate’s chest full of …tenderness?How many selves did Adelais have inside her?How many other people were privileged enough to see them?
“Where are you traveling to?”Tate asked, unable to keep her eyes from the Wolf for long.Adelais’s hair was as it was last night—the sides braided back and away from her face, the rest loose in long, scarlet waves—and her face was like something from a myth.A Valkyrie, an Amazon.Lovely and deadly to behold.
“Oh, here and there,” Adelais said lightly as her stranger-self.“Wherever my will to wander takes me.”
“This is a lonely place for wandering.”
