Page 56 of Ladybird

Chapter 13

Frustrated as all hell, Hunter made his way back to his chamber to try to calm down before he continued his search for the thief. He entered his room, stomping over and sitting down on a chair with his head between his hands.

“What the hell is happening to me?” he mumbled, not expecting an answer. Then, that damned voice in his head started up again, about driving him mad.

You failed, Hunter. You lost Luke’s love and now you’ve lost Regina’s, too. You don’t deserve it. You have no right raising a child. You shouldn’t be in the castle either. Find your thief and go back to your pathetic hut in the woods. You were better off as a bloody mercenary. All you know is how to fight and how to kill. You know nothing of love and never will.

“Nay, damn it. Stop it!” he screamed, jumping up so abruptly that the chair fell over behind him. Part of him believed the voice of his late sister and it didn’t feel good at all. Mayhap he didn’t deserve to be here dressed like a noble and sleeping in a bed that could fit four. Perhaps he should just leave and go back to his horrible life in the woods. Alone.

“Nay, I won’t leave before I find the thief. I gave my word and I will keep it. I will do the job I was hired to do.” He looked down at his clothes. The clothes of a noble. “But not dressed like this, I won’t.”

It wasn’t who he was and he was tired of lying. If he was going to earn the respect of anyone, especially Regina, he would do it as himself. Not as someone else.

He opened a trunk in the room, rummaging around for his clothes. The clothes he’d been wearing when he first arrived here at Shrewsbury Castle. He’d put them in here somewhere and wanted to take them back.

Flipping open the lid on the trunk, he found his tunic and breeches right on top and donned them quickly. Then he kicked off the boots the nobles had given him, going back to the trunk to try to find his.

He dug to the bottom, and pulled out what he thought was his boots. That’s when he realized these weren’t his at all. These were the boots that Luke had been wearing when he tripped. It irked him because he hadn’t had time to even reprimand the boy about it yet.

Throwing them down, he dug deeper. That’s when he found a crossbow wrapped up in Luke’s tunic.

“What the hell?” Hunter ran his hand over the crossbow in thought. He was sure this wasn’t in here when they’d first arrived. Suddenly, he saw things clear as day. Hadn’t Luke asked for not only a black cat but also a pair of boots and a crossbow? It was a little too convenient that Hunter would find most of these things in here.

Placing the crossbow on the floor, he dug through the trunk some more.

“Ouch!” he spat, pricking his finger on something sharp. He picked it up and his mouth fell open. It was a lady’s brooch. That is, a brooch in the shape of a hawk with diamonds on the tips of the wings and a ruby for its eye. “God’s teeth, this can’t be true.”

Hunter felt like a fool. He’d been so infatuated with Regina that he hadn’t even seen what was right under his own nose. “Luke is a thief,” he muttered, his heart breaking, but the proof was as clear as day. Hadn’t the boy been acting strange lately? And things he’d always wanted kept appearing in his life like magic. “Damn it, Luke. Why? Why!”

There came a knock on his door and he spun around. “Who is it?” he ground out.

“Hunter?” came a muffled voice from the other side. “It’s me. Regina. Can we talk?”

“Hell, not now,” he grumbled. This was the worst possible timing of all. He needed to talk to Luke, not Regina. Then again, if he turned her away, things might be over between them forever. Not that they already weren’t. “Just a minute,” he said, tossing the brooch back in the trunk and then the boots and crossbow and slamming the lid shut.

He hurried to the door and opened it to see his beautiful angel standing there. All he wanted to do was to pull her into his embrace and hug and kiss her and tell her that he never wanted to leave her side.

But he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Things were not the same between them anymore.

“Can I come in?” she asked. He saw her red nose and wet eyes and knew she’d been crying.

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a good idea, Regina.” He didn’t move aside to let her enter. If he were alone with her again, he’d only want to comfort her and hold her and kiss her. He already knew how well that would turn out. Nay, he couldn’t be alone with her again. “Perhaps we can talk while we walk.” He started back across the room, looking for his damned boots.

“Hunter, I’m scared. I just heard from Robin that while we were gone the thief also stole one of the huntsmen’s crossbows.”

He stopped in his tracks. “God’s eyes, nay,” he said, running a hand through his hair. He looked back over his shoulder at the trunk. So, it seemed his suspicions were correct. He had raised a thief and now had to decide whether to turn in the boy or not.

“Can we please talk right here inside your room?” she begged him. “There is something I want to say to you but I want to do it in private.”

“Regina, I don’t think⁠—”

Too late. She entered the room anyway. With a sigh, he walked over and closed the door.

“Hunter, I will make this fast,” she told him.

“Good. Because I have a lot to do.”

She paced the room and wrung her hands as she spoke. “First of all, I am not happy at all that you didn’t tell me about your past. Being a mercenary, I mean.”