Page 44 of The Stag & The Owl
“Which was what, exactly?”
“I cannot say for certain, but ah, I can say,pretty much everything but…”
“But?”
Roark dropped his hands and stepped back fromher.He laughed, short, quick, and rough.“But consummation, mycurious little owl.”
“Oh.Why not?”she pushed.“Why can’t we doeverything but?Nobody would know, and my precious maidenhead wouldremain intact.”
“I would know, Princess Alina.And so wouldyou.”
CHAPTER 10
The Storm
Roark watched the grey clouds scudding acrossthe sky from the north.“A storm’s coming,” he told Alina.
“Will it hit before nightfall?”
“It’ll be close enough we should startlooking for shelter now.”
“I trust you,” she said, digging the bladeinto his self-inflicted wound a little deeper.
He doubted she’d done it intentionally, as hehadn’t hurt her intentionally last night by stopping their loveplay.Still, he had hurt her.
All day, she’d been trying to act like hehadn’t, keeping up her end of their conversation with a forcedlightness, but she was nowhere near good enough a liar to pull itoff.The sad, confused look in her beautiful green eyes gave heraway every time.
Roark pulled out his spyglass and searchedthe stony mountainside ahead of them.“There’s plenty of wood tobuild a lean-to with, if it comes to it,” he said.“Though if we’relucky, we’ll find a southern-facing overhang large enough toshelter us and the horses.”
Alina chuffed.“Neither luck nor the weatherhave exactly been on my side through any of this,” she said, theclosest to complaining he’d heard from her since being bound andgagged and dragged away from her home.
She urged the lighter, fleeter Etain forward,and Roark followed, scanning ahead of them with the spyglass.Thesmaller woodland creatures had already gone to earth and the birdsto roost when Roark sighted an opening between an outcropping ofseveral large boulders.
“There.”He pointed a quarter league up,grinning as he saw what looked like the entrance to a cave throughthe spyglass.
The horses didn’t show any signs of havingsmelled a predator at the cave, but Roark told Alina to staymounted and wait while he checked.
The boulders formed an overhang large enoughto protect the horses from the worst of a storm, which was good,because the opening to the cave was only big enough for Roark tosqueeze through sideways.Once past the opening, he stopped andwaited for his eyes to adjust to the dark as he sniffed around,smelling nothing more than musty dirt and the vague musk ofrodents.He coughed and the sound didn’t travel far.He didn’t hearthe scurrying of small creatures or the growl or snuff of a largeanimal in response.
He squeezed back out into the open.“Thiswill do,” he told Alina.
“I’ll let the horses graze before the stormhits,” she said, dismounting and removing her gear from Etain’ssaddle.
Roark did the same with Artur and then piledtheir gear and saddles inside the cave as Alina staked the horsesto graze.
“How much firewood should I gather?”
Roark looked up into the sky, which wasalmost black with storm clouds as far north as he could see.“Threedays’ worth,” he said, and then quickly added, “though I doubtwe’ll be stuck here that long.”
She returned with her first armload ofkindling and wood, and Roark stacked it inside the cave and struckhis flint, lighting the dry grass and leaves under the kindling andnurturing it to a steady fire.With the fire’s light, he inspectedthe cave, which was high enough to stand in upright, five paceslong and wide.Plenty big and comfortable enough for twopeople.
“More wood.”Alina dropped another armloadonto a pile outside.“I’m going to forage a little farther for somelarger logs,” she said, turning on her heels and giving Roark herpert backside.
He finished stowing the wood inside the caveand went to find her.He stood at the edge of the woods, cockinghis head and listening for the sound of boot fall or the crunchingof twigs, but heard nothing except the wind and the rustling ofleaves and grass.He grinned.The little owl moved about the woodsas silent as her namesake.
“Alina?”
“Over here.”
