Page 14 of Royal Hunt
I pursed my lips but put one knee up against the dirt wall. Ellis flipped my dress up with a familiarity that riled my anger, then paused as he felt my breeches.
“Now I remember,” he murmured.
I resisted the urge to kick him as his hands glided sinfully up my ankle and calf until he finally rested on my knee. He lingered for an inappropriate moment, then stepped up on my leg without warning.
I grunted at his weight.
“Good thing I’m not fragile like most of the court women,” I muttered.
I couldn’t see his face for a reaction, but his hand landed lightly on my head to balance himself. With painful pressure on my legs, he jumped up, grabbing onto something and wriggling his way upward. Bits of dirt fell and pelted me in the face, and I tried in vain to steady my racing pulse. I couldn’t help but imagine the entire tunnel caving in on me.
For one heart-wrenching moment I was utterly alone, and I thought he’d left me. I’d be forced to bump around in these passageways forever, until I died of thirst or starvation. I could always scream until someone came for me, right? At least Gregory was still looking, even if he didn’t want me for the right reasons. He was better than death, wasn’t he?
I was nauseated all over again. My breaths came too quickly, and I resisted the urge to shout after him.
Bright daylight suddenly blinded me, my eyes stinging after being in the dark for so long. I stared up dumbly at him.
“You coming or not?” Ellis’s head appeared under a thin cover over the hole, followed by one lanky arm. Sunlight outlined the edges of his body, giving his outline an ethereal glow. I could have cried in relief, but merely swallowed heavily and reached up as high as I could.
My fingers ended inches from his, and he huffed in frustration. “You’re going to have to jump, and I’ll try to use both hands to pull you up. Let me look for something to brace against.”
Ellis disappeared for a moment, then reappeared. He reached toward me, both hands outstretched. I gathered my strength and jumped as high into the air as I could. My heart caught when my hands met his, his fingers entwining tightly around my wrist and refusing to let go. He grunted with effort, and then slowly I started to rise out from the tunnel, inch by inch. Sweat broke out on his brow, his white pallor reminding me that he wasn’t exactly in peak physical condition despite those muscles.
And as previously stated, I wasn’t a wisp of a woman. I realized this at the same moment he did, and our eyes met.
He wasn’t strong enough to pull me out.
I saw a divot in the dirt wall and jammed my foot into it. I pushed all my weight against it, using the makeshift ledge to propel myself the rest of the way out of the tunnel. Ellis wasn’t expecting the help, and the end result was me tumbling out of the hole and on top of him. We rolled together until he landed with his back flat on the ground and me on top, pressed so tightly together it was difficult to tell whose ragged breaths were whose.
His eyes studied me intently, his lips hovering inches from mine. That kept happening.
I quickly rolled off and glanced up at the sky, never so happy to see it before in my life. I wiped my face with my hands, my nose wrinkling in disgust. I had dirt everywhere.
“Claustrophobic?” Ellis asked quietly.
I snapped my gaze from the clouds to him. He was propped up on his elbows and still on the ground, those gold eyes boring into mine.
I huffed, and Ellis stood to cover the entrance to the passageway with a large net that was covered in leaves and twigs. When it rested over the hole, it was perfectly camouflaged to look like solid ground. Clever.
A horse whinnied loudly, snapping my mind back to current worries. My dress was an absolute horror of dirt and ripped fabric, and Ellis didn’t look much better. He crept around the edge of the woodpile, his body tense.
“I thought you didn’t believe me,” I whispered viciously. “Why don’t you just saunter up to the castle if I’m a gold-digging hussy?”
His body went rigid. “I didn’t say that.”
I snorted. “You implied it.”
He looked away. “The guards aren’t in their places,” he muttered out loud, not really speaking to me.
“Because they’re dead or kissing Trenton’s ass,” I offered.
“The castle isn’t safe then. I need to—”
“Get away somewhere to gather supplies and better assess the situation. My manor is north.”
He shot me a glare. “Suspicious how you have it all planned out.”
I stomped up to him, his eyes glittering with the anticipation of battle. Something in me snapped, and I slapped him across the face. His expression crumpled.
