“Mother told me that roses are a little bit like children. They need care to survive. In winter, their beds must be cleaned to prevent disease.” She grinned as she took a bite of the bread. “Who would have thought roses had beds?”
Graden grinned. “Your mother taught you a lot about roses.”
“How did you learn so much about them?”
“I’ve been searching for the blue rose for a long time. Some of the legends I’ve come across in my travels were interesting. Take the tale of Merlin and how the Lady of the Lake trapped him.”
Ella nodded. “I know this one. While he was walking through the forest, she trapped him in a tower created from a white rose.”
Graden smiled. He was enjoying the time he was spending with her. Her enthusiasm was fresh and contagious.
“I’ve often wondered how such a beautiful flower could also have such deadly thorns.”
Graden chuckled. “Those thorns have pricked many who have gone after the rose. I see them as guardians, knights, if you will. Guarding the beauty at the top of the castle.”
Ella stared at him with wide, awed eyes for so long that Graden became uncomfortable. He looked away from her with embarrassment. “I know it is a silly fancy.”
“That’s beautiful. I never thought of them that way.”
Graden’s gaze snapped to her. She cast him a grin that opened a longing inside of him. Like a blooming flower it spread through his entire body. He liked the way her lips curled up in a smile and the way her large blue eyes glistened in the sun. Not with hatred, but with… He shook himself. What was he doing? They had no time for this. He had to find the rose.
“We should get moving.” He walked to his horse, tying the sack closed and tying it to the saddle. He didn’t have time for fancy or legends.
Ella stopped her mare before the thicket. The dense growth of trees and shrubbery revealed no sight of colorful flowers. It stretched far back, branches twining around each other as if preventing their entrance into the wilderness. Ella dismounted. The horses would never be able to walk through the bushes.
Graden dismounted. “You stay here with the horses.”
Ella didn’t listen to him. She led her mare to a tree and tied the reins around a branch. “If we split up we can look faster.”
“We are not splitting up.”
“You said to stay with the horses. That would have been splitting up.”
Graden ignored her and started into the thicket. “I don’t see any flowers.”
Ella moved forward, holding her skirt up so it wouldn’t get tangled in the brush. She bent to push aside some of the bushes. “Make sure to check beneath the weeds. Sometimes the weeds try to choke the roses.” She yanked her hand back, shaking it. “Watch for the thorns.”
Graden followed behind her.
Ella wished she had wore her boots, but she had not planned to be searching through a thicket. She looked for roses, but as they continued searching, she could barely find the blooms of any flowers.
Time passed. She couldn’t help but think of Graden searching relentlessly for the blue rose. Would she have made the same deal with the woman to save Edwin’s life? She would. And she could have easily been caught in the same trap that Graden was in. Searching. She paused, twisting to stretch her back and cast a glance over her shoulder at Graden.
He was lifting a bush with his gloved hands, searching. He plucked something from deep in the shade and brought it out. The flower was light blue.
Ella gasped as hope soared within her. She rose from her knees and took a step toward him. Her excitement faded as she spotted the flower in his hand. It was not a rose.
He tossed it aside and continued to look. His determination startled her. For a moment, she was awed. He didn’t let the failure stop him from his mission. He just…continued the search.
It was a strange sight to see such a strong man bent over, searching for a small flower. She couldn’t get the image he had created of the rose out of her mind. The thorns as knights, the rose as the beauty in the tower. It was a strange thing for a knight of his stature to imagine. But she was learning that he was not who she thought he was.
She shook herself. She should be searching just as diligently as he. She nodded to herself and turned away, unsettled by the warm feeling for him that sprang forth. She pushed them aside, determined not to have feelings for him. Not for the man who had killed Edwin.
But even though she knew what he had done, she had seen his remorse. And ever since she had visited the woman in the woods, there was something…different in the way she viewed him. Softer, more tolerant. She didn’t believe in witches or she might have thought the woman put some sort of spell on her. Was this a taste of what it would be like not to be so sad?
“Here.”
She whirled. Graden stood behind her, his hand outstretched offering gloves.
