Damn.He was caught.
“Begging your pardon, my lady.” Stalling for time to invent some halfway reasonable excuse for his presence, he cleared his throat. Twice.
There was no reasonable excuse.
She drew the neck of her shift up to cover her shoulders but kept her back turned to him, making no attempt to speak into the silence hanging between them.
“I was... I was cleaning the rabbit.” Like a half-witted sop, he lifted the spit in his hand as if that might explain his standing there fumbling for words, ogling her like some common lecher.
When she didn’t respond, he hurried to add to his growing story. “The waters took it from my hands and I had no choice but to follow after. I came this way only to... to retrieve our dinner.”
The words sounded as false to him as if he’d shouted,“I’M LYING!”at the end of his sentence.
He had no doubt they sounded equally false to Bridget. She still made no move to respond, leaving him to wiggle on the spear of truth.
“I’ll leave you to your... I’m going now.”
Making no effort to muffle his departure, he stomped back to camp and fixed the spit over the fire.
When the time came to compile a list of the world’s greatest fools, he’d have no competition at all for the top spot on that list. He’d just proven his eligibility.
Prince of All Fools!A perfect title for him.
Spying on Bridget had been bad enough. But having lied to her about it was shameful.
Unwilling to face her after his complete lapse of acceptable behavior, Hall had busied himself at the fire, eyes downcast on his work, when he heard her approaching.
“Is the rabbit done?”
“Not yet. It’s barely begun to brown.”
He poked at the flames with a stick, wishing the beastie were done. Wishing they’d already eaten and wrapped themselves in their blankets for the night. He could only hope his luck would hold and Bridget wouldn’t discover his stupid falsehood.
The coming meal was likely to be the worst—and the longest—of his life.
“Strange...” She drew the word out, as if puzzling over some great mystery.
A shiver of apprehension rolled down his back. “What is that you speak of?”
“Well, yer fire there must be blazing hot, given that you had to chase our dinner into the water, and yet the clothing you wear is already dry. A fine trick, that.”
“I never entered the water.” He considered admitting everything, but only for an instant. Like the fool he was, he chose to compound his error. “The current kept the end of the spit close enough to the shore for me to reach it.”
“Really? Now, that is truly unusual. I’ve never seen a current such as you describe. One that flows along the shore.” She paused for a moment. “Upstream.”
Not a prince of fools, but a king.
He stared into the flames, knowing he had nowhere to go but to the truth. “I heard you singing. I followed the sound.”
“Why would you do that? You need only yer ears to hear, no yer eyes.”
Why? Because he couldn’t help himself. But that wasn’t something he could bring himself to confess to her. Instead he would apologize. Apologize and pledge never to lie to her again.
“I should not have lied to you. I should have...” He turned to face her, and all thoughts evaporated from his mind.
She stood at the edge of their campsite, still wearing only her shift. Her thick brown hair, released from its heavy braid, rippled over her shoulders like a silken cloak.
He’d never seen a more beautiful woman. Or one he that wanted more than he wanted this one.
