The warmth of the fire cooled the distance he made between them.
He said something she did not hear for the rush of heat infusing her face. She dared not look up for fear of the rejection she would surely see there mocking her. He was a nice man. She was naught but a naive girl. She clasped her hands in front of her waist and straightened her spine. Behethlan Boatman had nothing to fear. This was her new life.
He stood by the fire, hands on his waist. “I apologize.” His hands dropped, and he stepped closer. “I wanted to say that ye need not fear. I will watch for ye.”
She lifted her chin. “Ye needn’t worry, Mr. Smith. Toby will sleep under the wagon. I am perfectly safe.”
Would that it was true. The past nights Toby Abbot had spent in the taverns, returning in no condition to keep watch. Zeke had kept his own watch. He reckoned it was mostly the Army training. He’d sat innumerable nights waiting and watching for any sign of the enemy. Mose was right. At this point it felt normal to sleep a couple of hours, watch a couple of hours, and doze again. Except this time he hadn’t gotten clear orders to watch a road or pass. This time, it was a woman. He didn’t know what he was going to do with her yet, but he’d have to keep her safe while he figured it out.
Zeke rubbed his hands up and down his thighs and paced across the back of his wagon. He’d nearly kissed her. What was he thinking? He had no right to think that way about Beti. He couldn’t even stand up long enough to give her the thorough kissing she deserved. His ears pinked at the thought of her in his arms. Soft. She fit just right, and the way she’d looked at him made him plum forget he was a cripple unfit for any woman.
He climbed up into his wagon, his rifle across his knees, and settled in to watch through the canvas.
“We should just step right in there and ask her if she’s the princess. Then when she tells us she is, we ask her if she wants to come home and rule her kingdom. Who could turn down that kind of an offer? No one, that’s who. So when she says yes, we take her wagon and go home. It is that simple.”
The old man chuckled at his protege. Soon, the young man would assume his duties, and Hagbard would gladly relinquish the burden. He would spend his last years resting in the warm springs near the castle pondering the old days. Perhaps dictate his memoirs. Oh, yes. Agmund could have it, the job, the special privileges, the whole thing. But not until he, Hagbard, had completed this last task. And he would do it right.
It was an old promise made when his hair was still ruddy and his arms held steady a broadsword. And yet, promises made were meant to be kept. He must be certain. He would not allow an incompetent to sit on his old friend’s throne. The kingdom wouldn’t survive. On the whole, the king’s brother had held it together, but his sons were a disaster. The youngest of them was strong and selfish. Dane, the eldest, appeared weak in body and though not in mind. He spent more time at his desk with dusty books than the old warrior thought necessary. Perhaps given time he would prove himself. Hagbard often wondered how two such different creatures could come from same joining.
“Nothing great is done in haste,” Hagbard responded.
The young man’s frustration vibrated the air between them. “Would it not be easier if we did not hover in secret merely observing? Would it not be easier to talk to the woman, and from there determine her suitability?”
He kicked at a glowing log sending luminescence into the canopy above them. “She is at risk. Ye saw what happened today.”
“That I did. She behaved most admirably.”
“Surely this hiding in the woods is not easy for ye either, Hagbard.”
“That is the third time ye have used that word, ‘easy’. Use care with that word, Agmund. It isn’t made of sterling stuff.”
Agmund huffed down onto his bedroll. Arms crossed, he turned his gaze to the sky. “Do ye think the messengers are with her?”
“I have seen signs of their presence.”
Agmund swung up to a sitting position. “Then it is settled, we just go get her.”
“The presence of angels does not mean she is chosen. It simply means she’s of the royal household of Hakaan. They will protect her.”
“They did nothing to protect her today.”
“So long with me, and yet ye don’t learn. They must protect her right to choose. We will do the same.”
Hagbard was sure he was not supposed to hear the frustrated huff of his student.
“Was her mother this difficult?”
The playful countenance of Sigrid danced across his mind unbidden as she sometimes did. A beauty that knew nothing of indulgence, Sigrid had captured Hagbard’s heart the way his own daughters had done, but not her father’s, Hakaan was a king. A flinty man who had time only for strong sons. “Astrid’s Papa” she called Hagbard, until that last time. When he came first to this land of many forests to tell her of the death of her bothers and of Hakaan’s command to return. “No, Papa,” she’d said. “I will not leave my home.”
“As stubborn as yer father.” Hagbard had countered, thinking only of taking her home.
“No, not as stubborn as my father. As committed to my loves as my Papa.” She’d thrown her arms around him then, and then they both cried.
His mind returned to his present companion. “No. Her mother was a woman in love. A woman who was loved and needed by her family,” he said to his protégé.
“Her country needed her. Easy solution: bring the loves with ye.”
“And the loves have no say so in the matter? I see ye need more than schooling in diplomacy. Do not forget Prince Dane.”
“There is nothing to forget. He grows dusty in the library.”
Ten
Beti stood at the water’s edge joy rising as the early morning sun saturated the sky with liquid color. Silas bleated not far behind as he scrounged for greenery in sandy soil. Since she was next to last in the wagon train, she and Toby reasoned they had plenty of time before their turn on the ferry across the Elizabeth River. She could not be sorry she had time to make some coffee and something to eat. It would be a long day.
“Miss Beti?”
Beti turned to find Mrs. Baldwin with her hands gripping a tea towel over the babe blossoming in her midsection.
“Good morning.” The woman smiled and cast her gaze down. She took a step closer and nearly whispered. “I would have come to see ye last night, but by the time we stopped I was tuckered. I heard what them women said when ye came out of the woods. And, well, I just do not see how’s I would have made a different decision. I mean when my little one comes along, I would be thankful to anyone who would protect him from harm. I mean. I do not think I want to know a person who would not take such care of a child in danger.”
Beti took heart at the woman’s words. “Thank ye.”
