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She scanned at her feet. She’d edged too far out from the trunk, teetering on wispy thin branches high above the ground. Too high to survive a fall. As though on cue, there was a groan and a snap, louder than before, and the branch simply dropped away from her feet.
Elspeth clung tight to the boughs at her chest, feet scrabbling like a beetle on its back. She regained footing, and quickly began her descent, hugging her body close to all the branches, hoping if she spread out elbows and hands and feet, the thinner branches would hold her.
She grew calmer as she neared the ground, but she grew more cavalier too, and made the mistake of grabbing something too thin to support her weight. As she reached her leg down, searching for her next step, there was a loud, splintering crack, and she toppled forward into the other branches, arms splayed before her, one leg dangling in the air, the other crooked awkwardly high behind her. The branch she held was still attached to the tree, but not for long, and not strongly enough to support her weight. She was paralyzed, feeling absurd, like the statue of some great, ungainly bird, frozen in flight.
“What on earth are you doing?”
Oh damn, damn, blasted … Every curse she could muster tripped silently through her lips. He’d come. She peered down through the leaves to see him standing beneath her, greenery casting dappled light on his sweatsheened body. Cripes.
Of all the people to come witness her folly, it had to be Aidan. Why couldn’t it have been someone else? Her father? Angus even?
She reached her free leg out, bobbing her ankle, in a blind attempt to find purchase that wasn’t there for the finding. Criminy.
Clearing her throat, she assumed what she hoped was calm and ladylike composure. “I… I seem to be …”
“Stuck in a tree? I can see that, luvvie. ” Amusement threatened to curl his mouth into a smile, and Elspeth wished the sight elicited anger rather than this hideous mortification she currently felt. “Might I be of some
assistance?”
“No, thank you,” she said primly. “I can manage. ”
“Clearly. ” Humor tinged his voice, and she pretended not to hear it. He strolled a circle beneath her, and she flushed red and hot to realize he must have a perfect line of sight straight up her skirts. “But,” he added, “before I leave you to your… aerie, I must ask what you’re doing up there in the first place? You are a wise and wide-eyed girl … perhaps you are playing at being an owl?”
She set her chin, mustering as much dignity as one could when one was stuck in a tree. “Athena scampered off, and I was merely trying to find her. ” She stretched her leg all around, and though she finally found a branch on which to rest, she could tell by the give at her foot that it wasn’t strong enough to bear her weight.
“Athena?”
She caught his eye, informing him in all seriousness, “My sheep. ”
“Your sheep. ” That budding smile bloomed full force. “Your sheep has a name?”
“She does. ”
“And that name is Athena. ”
“Yes, that’s right. ” She adjusted her hands. The bark was beginning to cut into her palms, sweating now with her efforts. “It’s the Greek goddess of wisdom. ”
He nodded sagely. “Wisdom … like climbing onto a too-thin branch?”
“She is the patron of Athens,” she explained. Her voice was even, but inside she was crowing, Go away, turn around, leave me be.
A fine plume of panic was unfurling in her belly. If she had to fall—and she feared she might—she’d just as soon fall in private.
“Oh, well that does change it, doesn’t it? Does this goddess of a sheep come when called?”
“Don’t mock. ” Her humiliation gave a snap to her voice.
He chuckled. “Oh, luvvie, I’d not think of it. ”
She’d pretend he was being serious, hoping the equanimity in her voice would show him how blind to fear she was. “As you can see, she most decidedly does not come when called. ”
“Or whistled, as the case may be?” He cocked his head. “Because you told me you whistle to herd them. So I think you meant that this Athena does not come when whistled. ”
“I think you are mocking me. ” She clamped her teeth against the quivering of her chin.
Aidan gave her an earnest half bow. “There are many things in this world that I mock, and to my surprise I am finding that you, Elspeth, are not among them. ”
The sound of her name on his lips sent a quivering through her limbs. She studied him intently, wondering if this was fresh mockery of a sort.
