“We’ll get him on the way back.”
“The way back?” Justina echoed in confusion. She didn’t like leaving Adam, but her curiosity got the better of her and she followed Gawyn into a large tower on the corner. She was sure it was the guard tower. “Are we allowed in here?”
Gawyn smiled at her. “I am the captain of the guard. I can go anywhere I want.”
His grin was contagious, like a little boy in a room filled with sweets. They moved up one flight of stone stairs and then turned a corner and continued up more stairs. Three times they did this until Gawyn stopped before a door. His brown eyes twinkled in merriment as he gazed at her. He slowly opened the door.
A walkway stretched out before her. It lined the wall all the way across to the other guard tower. Justina stepped out onto the wooden planks. She looked down. Far below them, she saw the kennels, but she couldn’t hear the barking. The wind blew gently, rustling her hair. She pushed a strand away from her face, marveling at how quiet it was here. There were no sounds of the crowds, no merchants hollering, no animals barking or neighing.
“Better?” Gawyn asked.
“Too bad the view isn’t better,” she joked. “But yes, this is wonderful.”
Gawyn took her hand and pulled her to one of the merlons. “This is Acquitaine.” He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her so she was looking between the crenels, away from the castle. “We try to please.”
Justina gasped at the sight. Mountains rose in the distance; the river rushed by before them, reflecting their snow-capped peaks in its glistening water. The sun was setting, bathing the lands in a soft red glow. It was magnificent. So beautiful. So...
“Better?”
Justina couldn’t answer. It was the most beautiful landscape she had ever seen. She glanced back at Gawyn. And he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. For a moment, she couldn’t tear her gaze from his. Words escaped her. Her gaze swept his face, his strong, square, clean-shaven jaw, his generous mouth, his straight, proud nose, and his eyes. Oh, those eyes made her knees weak. She could see intelligence in them and a bit of humor. It wasn’t what she could see in them, but how intense his gaze was when he looked at her. As if she were the center of the world, more beautiful than the view. “It’s magnificent,” she whispered.
He took her hand again and she was suddenly aware of the way it engulfed hers, warm and strong. He jumped up on the edge of the crenel, all the while holding her hand.
Her heart flinched. “No,” she said, panicked. “Get down from there.”
He gently tugged her. “I’ll help you.”
“As I’m falling?” she asked and pulled her arm free. She shook her head. “I like the view from right here.” Of course, looking up, she did have a grand view…of his rounded bottom.
He shrugged and leaned back against the merlon, his arms crossed. He looked out toward the mountains and for a long moment said nothing.
Justina followed his stare. The wind worked its way through the strands of her hair. She pushed them back from her eyes, not wanting to miss one second of the marvelous sight.
Gawyn inhaled. “I come up here to get away. When it all seems too much.”
She looked at him positioned precariously on the edge of the crenel. He seemed so strong, so confident. “It’s hard to believe there is anything you can’t handle.”
He glanced down at her, his hair falling forward. “Says a girl who took me down to the ground the first time we met.”
“I...” she stuttered for a moment before clamping her lips closed. Her father had taught her the move. It was for defense. She shrugged. “I didn’t know you. You could have been a robber.”
He jumped down to her side. “How did you do it?”
Justina rolled her eyes. “I put my leg behind yours and pushed. It really wasn’t that hard.”
“How did you learn to do that?”
She couldn’t look him in the eye. She shouldn’t have been able to push over the captain of the guard. “I was the daughter of a rather overprotective father who worried about me wandering around the countryside. He wanted me to be able to take care of myself.”
Gawyn leaned back against the wall of the castle. “What else did he teach you?”
Justina inhaled, thinking about all her father had taught her. “How to survive in the forest by eating what nature offered. How to hide in the forest. How to cover my tracks.” She shrugged.
Gawyn laughed aloud. “That’s not typical training for a young farm woman.”
“I suppose not.”
“Have you ever had to use any of your training?”
