Chapter 13
Barath looked down at her head, which was almost touching his chest, and took a slow, deep breath in, and a slow, deep breath out.
He took a step back, as if his breathing would reach her.
Selene was dressed in the most basic attire for riding a horse: shirt, vest, riding breeches, and boots.
But why is she nowhere to be seen.
Why does her riding outfit make me feel slutty?
…If it’s erotic and pretty in his eyes, it’s erotic and pretty in other people’s eyes.
Barath rolled his eyes and glanced around. The shields had turned sharply as soon as they realized Selene’s destination was their master’s side. Now every single one of them had their backs to her.
He looked at her again and tugged on his cloak. He draped it carefully over her shoulders and said.
“How did you get here?”
Selene took Barath’s cloak as if it were her own. She, too, had been uncomfortable with being the center of attention.
“I walked here with Anna. You didn’t tell me where you were.”
The word ‘you’ out of Selene’s mouth made the silence around them draw in a breath.
Barath was surprised, too, though he didn’t show it, and his head began to spin.
Is that you when you say honey, does that woman think of himself as her husband.
The more he thought about it, the calmer her head became.
He realized that the thoughts were just wishes, not facts.
‘Was it.’
Barath thought as he watched Selene look over his selection of horses.
‘You want her to see you as a man, not just a casual eye contact.’
Now he’s going to have to go chase after that asshole with flowers.
He should whistle and smile and twinkle his eyes and give her gifts and serenade her under the window, as the Shields do to most women.
He already paid for her, put Anna on her watch, and drugged her old lover. And now he was keeping him in prison.
He’d even gone so far as to make her meet him in person to try and get her to leave, and he’d told her he was closing the inner sanctum. What to do with all the mistakes he made in the past.
…He just made her forget about it and start fresh. No one will ever know.
He figured if he looked hard enough, he could find a way to make him forget.
Then we’ll lock her up.
She’s too dangerous. She’s messing with his head like she’s a witch, so we might as well just lock her up and pretend the world doesn’t exist. It’ll be easier on him.
Selene looked at the white horse she was to ride. She never saw a real, live horse in her life.
It was bigger than she expected, and she wondered how she would fit on it, but then she saw the bigger black horse next to it and felt strangely confident that she could ride the white one.
She swallowed hard and said to Barath, ‘I don’t know if it’s safe to get on with all the luggage I’m already carrying.’
“I think I would be too heavy for the horse.”
Barath hid a snort of laughter.
“Don’t worry.”
The horse was too gentle to be used as a warhorse, but a woman like Selene was a fine mount for five. Her weighed as much as a rabbit and was unconcerned.
Barath loosened his grip on the reins of both horses and headed for the back of the stable, where the back door led directly out of the castle and was the shortest and most unobstructed route to the outer walls.
As Barath started to move, Selene moved in close beside him.
She was actually both uncomfortable and frightened in this position.
It was quiet now that she was by his side, but earlier, the constant whistling and the stares of everyone around her had made her head spin.
If Anna hadn’t been behind her, reassuring her that she was with him and everything would be okay, she wouldn’t have been able to push her way through the crowd of rough-looking men to get to him.
When she arrived in front of him, the noises stopped and the aggressive stares dulled.
But more than that, she was relieved to be with him. She was relieved. She felt safe.
Is it because he’s the strongest man in the world and she’s the weakest woman? Or maybe it was because she was in this strange place and still willing him to be her husband. Or maybe it was just that her crush on him was blocking out the rest of the world.
When he moved, though, she walked as close to his side as she could, almost instinctively. A whistling sound came from Selene’s near back.
She jumped and gently grabbed Barath’ arm next to her. Well, she wouldn’t call it an arm grab, more like a pinch of the corner of his shirt.
***
The last person to whistle behind Selene’s back was Anna.
She smirked as she watched her lord’s mood soften even more with the shirt grab.
Her behavior was the reaction of a normal young lady. It would have been better if she hadn’t been so confident, then she would have felt more dramatically secure in her lord’s presence. It was a pity, but not a bad thing.
In fact, the cheers were louder at first sight of Selene, then died down when Anna appeared behind her. That’s when the shields caught his eye and he saw Anna’s ‘I’m okay, keep going’ sign.
Then the whistling and flirting started again, starting with some brave soul. He couldn’t bring himself to approach her.
Smiling slightly at how his plan had worked, Anna caught sight of Zart inspecting a carriage separated from the horses at one end of the stable.
She approached him, who didn’t seem to move unless it was on Barath’ orders.
“Are you going to use the carriage?”
He jumped to his feet at her question.
“Yes. My lord has asked me to prepare a carriage for the journey to Lebelaberg.”
Anna thought for a moment, then asked again.
“When…?”
“In the evening.”
Anna swallowed an inward sigh.
“You don’t really intend to go in the evening, do you?”
“What?”
By the look on his face, he really was going to be there at that time. Men.
“Go tomorrow at dawn. You should be there around dawn.”
“Yes?”
“It’s better that way, for the Lord’s sake.”
Anna turned away from him, still puzzled by what he was saying.
‘That’s why she’s not married yet, tsk.’
She remembered hearing him ask his colleagues to introduce him to a true lady. That was why he hadn’t ‘married’ yet.
Zart pricked up his ears as he pondered Anna’s words. His face brightened as he remembered the way she had glared at him and then turned away.
He knew Anna was difficult. She was his boss now, running the castle’s affairs as Handmaiden, and she had been his boss until she was injured two years ago, so he still found her difficult.
***
It was time to mount the horses at the north gate of the outer castle. Barath tried to help Selen mount, but she wouldn’t budge, so he stood still and waited by her side.
Well. The feeling of her still holding onto his shirt was a little ticklish, but it felt good.
But it didn’t look like he was going to get off to a good start. When Barath opened his mouth to speak, Selene beat him to it.
“I can’t ride that horse.”
Barath’s head tilted at her words.
He looked up to see Selene looking up at him, her eyes searching as if she meant it.
It seemed genuine.
It was true whether she could ride or not, but right now she didn’t seem to have any intention of riding alone.
Barath hesitated for a moment. Should he ask her to ride with him at this time of year?
Selene thought she must look strange. She’d told him beforehand that she couldn’t ride, but he hadn’t said anything until they’d come this far, and then he’d suddenly said he couldn’t.
When they brought the horse to her, she thought she could ride it. It looked gentle, but when she tried to get on it, it was too big and high. She thinks she’s going to die from falling off.
She closed her eyes tightly and said.
“I can’t ride that horse.”
As she shook her head, Barath kindly offered another suggestion.
“Then why don’t you learn to ride and come back another day?”
That seemed like a good idea. She was about to nod when Barath made another suggestion.
“Or you could ride with me.”
Selene hung her head in thought. How could he not take that the wrong way, ‘Ride with me,’ she thought, ‘ride with me, that means carry me.’
Why is it that he’s acting like he doesn’t care when it comes to the crucial moment, with that green glow in his eyes?
The pulling was too vague and the pushing was too obvious.
She stared at the ground, biting her lip, and when she looked up, Barath, who had been watching her head, looked away.
At that, Selene blurted out.
“Well, since you’re all ready to go… I suppose I should go.”
With that, she jerked her head away. Barath felt a tickle somewhere, a little stiff, so he turned his head and cleared his throat, clenching and unclenching his fists.
Barath tied the white horse to the back of the black horse. He held out some of the black horse’s reins to Selene. She took the reins, returning his cloak to him.
Her foot stepped on the stirrups as she gripped the reins with a frightened look on her face, and Barath grabbed her by the waist to help her settle comfortably on the horse.
Her other foot was placed in the stirrups as well, and once he was sure she was sitting steadily and securely, he swung himself onto the horse.
Only then did Barath realize that something was terribly wrong.
He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut.
Her sweet hair tickled the nape of his neck as they sat side by side. Why the hell was her back against his chest cute? No. How can something be cute to the touch, he thought.
But that wasn’t the real problem.
He and Selene were both wearing riding breeches. Her… pressed against him through that thin strip of fabric. His…
