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‘Do you have any idea how many people are looking for you?’ he began.
‘Er—’
‘Everyone! Everyone is looking for you.’
‘We just—’
‘Don’t you dare say you went for a walk.’
‘Not even if it’s the truth?’
‘Where is your guide?’
‘I didn’t think—’
‘Indeed you did not.’
Ana’s beautiful, beloved features took on a mutinous slant.
‘We weren’t going far. We can see the fortress from here!’
‘Oh, you can, can you?’ he snarled, heavy on the sarcasm. ‘Because no one at the fortress can see you.’
‘Well, we could,’ said Ana. ‘And when we couldn’t we sat and waited and here you are.’ She tried a tentative smile and lit Casimir’s fury to new heights. ‘No harm done.’
‘You don’t know these mountains,’ he said.
‘We’ve been gone twenty minutes.’
‘Do you even wear at watch?’ He couldn’t see one.
‘An hour at the most,’ she amended.
An hour too long. ‘You could have been killed. Or taken.’ Or worse.
‘Now you’re projecting.’
‘I have the right. Get up.’
Sophia was already up, staring at the furious man in front of her with wide eyes. He crouched down and ran a hand through his hair. He was scaring them; he knew he was. ‘Hey,’ he said gruffly. ‘I was worried about you.’
‘Me too,’ Sophia whispered, and then stepped closer and put cold hands to his cheeks as she studied his face. ‘Are you crying?’
‘It’s just moisture from the clouds.’ The hell it was. ‘Jelly found you,’ he said and gathered her close and held tight. This child. How had she found her way into his heart so fast? ‘And my horse is going to take you home.’
Her arms tightened around his neck. ‘That’s the cranky horse. Tomas said we couldn’t ride him.’
‘Not alone, no.’ Tomas was right. ‘You can ride with Tomas.’ He spared a glance for the man who’d ridden alongside him.
‘Maman has to come too.’
‘She can ride with me.’ He stood, with Sophia still clinging to him, and stared at the woman who could fill his heart with terror as easily as she could make it soar. ‘I thought I’d lost you.’
She shook her head and her eyes filled with tears. ‘No.’
‘We were coming back,’ his little girl said, with her arms tightly wrapped around his neck. ‘We were always coming back to you. We just couldn’t see the way.’
* * *
A very subdued Ana rode back to the fortress behind Casimir. Sophia rode with Tomas, who had not long ago sounded a hunting horn. A message to those back at the fortress, signalling that Ana and Sophia had been found. Sophia had wanted him to sound the horn again but Tomas had refused her. To sound the horn again and again would be a call to arms, Tomas had told them.
This place…
It didn’t take long for them to reach the stables. The fog was still rolling in but both Cas and Tomas appeared to have a homing instinct and so did the dog.
They were still on horseback when they slipped through the door and entered the stables. The doors closed behind them with an emphatic thud and the number of people waiting for them far exceeded the number of horses.
He really had had everyone out looking for them.
‘I’m very sorry,’ she murmured as she dismounted. ‘I should have been more observant about the weather.’
Casimir’s lips tightened. He didn’t say a word, merely handed the horse to a groomsman.
‘I should have stayed closer to home and heeded Lor’s warning,’ she said next, as Lor took Sophia from Tomas and hugged her close. Tomas wouldn’t look at her, or at anyone else for that matter. The falconer looked pallid and drawn, as if he’d aged twenty years since she’d seen him last.
As for Casimir, he was already striding from the stables.
No one spoke. Not one person, until Tomas finally looked at her. ‘The northerners aren’t co-operating. He thought they’d taken you.’
Oh.
Oh.
She looked to Tomas with his white face and Lor with her pinched lips and to her daughter, who was in good hands. ‘Sophia needs a bath,’ she said, because of course that made sense. And then she turned and began to run towards her king.
