“Listen, Natt,” Ella said, with an unwilling grimace. “I need to be clear with you about this, all right? Me escorting you safely to your mountain is stillnotme volunteering to be —yours. Okay? I still need to go home, after this, once you’re safe. I still have commitments. Obligations. Important ones.”
“Ach, like this man?” came Natt’s voice, suddenly chilly, brittle. “And yourhoard?”
Ella flinched, and shot a glare at his still-distant eyes. “No, like the rest of mylife,” she countered. “The life I’ve lived for the past nine years, without you, before youkidnappedme. The life my father wanted me to have. And perhaps you’re not as familiar with Sakkin’s inheritance laws as I now am, but my father’s wealth should, by rights, now belong to my distant cousin, up north. And the only reason I still have it, or my house and my forest, myhome, is because my father spent appalling amounts of time and research and money to buy me six months, after his death. Six months to marry a man of standing — now only one month — and then myhomestays with me.”
“With thisman,” Natt’s smooth voice corrected. “To do with as he wishes.”
Right. He was referring tothatagain, to what he’d said at the hunting cottage, before Ella had left. Have youonceasked this man? Have youonceused your voice against him, to learn what he seeks to do with all your riches?
Ella’s throat felt very tight, her eyes darting back to Natt’s stiff face, to his glittering eyes. And surely, by saying that, he’d meant — surely he’d meant — that Alfred would use her money to keep hunting Natt. Tokillhim.
“Look, Natt,” Ella said, over the sound of her suddenly hammering heartbeat. “Once we have you safely home, I — I’ll talk to Alfred, all right? I’ll tell him Ididhire you, and you were kind to me, and not cruel or vicious in the least. And I’ll say” — she took a breath — “that as a condition of our marriage, he needs to let you go.Forever.”
She couldn’t quite read the look in Natt’s eyes, but her resolve was tightening, condensing, becoming truth. “And if you like, after that,” she said, more quickly now, “I reallywouldhire you — atverygenerous wages — to patrol my lands, and stay nearby. So we could still — see one another.”
The words came out almost triumphant, because in truth, it really was the perfect, neat solution, wasn’t it? Well, except for the fact that Alfred had wanted to leave and live out east in Tlaxca, but perhaps Ella could argue that as well. Perhaps — perhaps she could even suggest that they live apart, due to her many responsibilities here, and Alfred’s seeming proclivity toward blatantly fucking other women. And that trulywasthe perfect solution, for everyone involved, wasn’t it?
But Natt’s face hadn’t changed, his eyes still glittering watching blackness. “So you shall finally use your voice against this man,” he said thinly, “so you may keep me near you, to use me as you wish. As apet.”
What? Ella blinked at him, and made herself shove down the rising, twitching unease. “Of course you wouldn’t be a pet,” she snapped. “We’re stillfriends, Natt, aren’t we? You’re my oldest friend in theworld, I’ve missed you somuch, and after all this, I” — she drew in a heavy breath — “I don’t ever want to be parted from you like that again. I couldn’t bear it. Okay?”
It was an admission, a true confession, and there was a replying shift in those eyes, something changed. “Foolish lass,” he said, his voice quieter than before. “After this, we shall never again be only —friends. If you yet wish to see me, after you have wed, you shall betray this man with me. Again, and again, andagain.”
There was an odd, bitter-sounding triumph in his voice, like he knew he had her, and this would be the end of it. But Ella felt herself swallow hard, take a breath — and nod.
Saying —yes. I know. Iwill.
Natt’s face was a blank mask again, his big body before her gone almost dangerously still. But Ella knew him, shedid, and suddenly there was the hurtling, twitching awareness that he wanted that. Of course he wanted that. He wanted vengeance, he’d kept saying. And what better vengeance was there than to thoroughly and repeatedly cuckold the man he hated? The man who’d hunted him, for nine whole years?
But Natt still wasn’t moving, wasn’t speaking, and the unease flared again, close and uncomfortable in Ella’s gut. Waiting, and waiting, until finally his throat convulsed, his eyes sliding intently away. “Ach, lass,” he said, the words a heavy sigh. “You know not what you ask for. What you wish for.”
But Elladid, and she squared her shoulders, gathered her courage. “I do,” she whispered. “I want you safe, Natt. And I don’t want to lose you again. And I have the resources to accomplish this, I should have the influence with Alfred. So why shouldn’t we at least try, if it’s what we both want?”
There was another heavy sigh from Natt, a hard clench in his jaw. “Foolish lass,” he said, and it sounded almost pleading this time. “You know not what I shall want from you. Or what vengeance we shall take.”
Vengeance again. But even so, the sudden shiver down Ella’s back wasn’t dread, or fear, or unease. Just pure, rippling, bright-hearted excitement, unspooling under her skin. Natt was saying yes. He was. Wasn’t he?
“But youdowant vengeance,” Ella whispered, as her brazen hand reached out to brush, careful and tentative, against his warm bare chest. “Don’t you?”
His eyes dropped to follow her hand, watching her touch him, and when his gaze finally came back up, it was dangerous, warm, alive. “Ach,” he said, so quiet. “I do.”
He did. And that was all that mattered, in this moment, and Ella’s relieved smile was so sudden, so broad, it felt like it might split her face.
“Then that’s our plan,” she said firmly. “I escort you back to your mountain, I return home in time to deal with Alfred, I make him stop hunting you,forever, and afterwards, we stay — friends.”
Natt’s mouth twisted, his eyes again looking intently away — but he’d taken a deep breath, and he was nodding. Saying yes.Yes.
“Ach, my foolish lass,” he said. “Friends.”
16
The trek to the mountain was… lovely.
It should have been a highly unpleasant experience, Ella rather thought. Racing through the forest with an injured orc, while wearing only a sleeping-shift and a sheepskin, and all the while being chased by horrible hunters sent by one’sbetrothed.
There was no question of them not being followed, now, between the regular barks off in the distance, and the punishing pace Natt had set, alternately striding and running along invisible paths through the trees. But the sky above was bright and clear, Ella’s boots were sturdy and dry — and, most of all, she was with Natt.
And despite his injuries, Natt was still, after all these years, utterly at home in the forest, and therefore, a highly amusing travelling-partner. Swinging on tree-branches with his good arm, darting off to look at this or that, coming back with handfuls of seeds and berries for Ella to snack on while they walked.
