AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Na!” Nimue said, shaking her head, her hands digging into Chrisdean’s sides. “Why would I trust ye?”
“Ach, when have I done anythin’ to hurt ye, lass?”
That question gave Nimue pause. It was true that Chrisdean had done nothing to hurt her, at least not physically, ever since they had first met, and she couldn’t think of a reason why he would start all of a sudden, especially when he wanted to secure an alliance through her.
“Dinna go too fast,” Nimue pleaded as Chrisdean put the horse into motion, and the two of them began to ride out into the open lands. Chrisdean did as he was told, and though Nimue was still scared, she found herself relaxing and her grip on Chrisdean loosening.
“There ye are, lass,” he said. “Ye’re na scared anymore, are ye?”
“Aye, I am,” Nimue said. She doubted it would be that easy to let go of her fears. “But I suppose it isna as bad as I thought it’d be.”
“It’s an improvement,” Chrisdean pointed out. “Why are ye so scared of horses, then? Did ye fall off one as a bairn?”
At Chrisdean’s words, Nimue froze, her mind once again flooded by images of a raging horse, its hooves in the air as it threw off its rider. The buzzing in her ears came back, only this time, it was louder, almost deafening, and though she could tell that Chrisdean was saying something, she couldn’t hear a word of it.
Somehow, she found herself standing on solid ground, though she hadn’t noticed Chrisdean jumping off the horse and helping her off, too. She was grateful for it, though, and the moment her feet touched the ground, she began to calm down once more.
“Perhaps it’s best for ye to sit a while,” Chrisdean said, as he took Nimue’s hand in his and led her towards the shade of a large tree by the edge of the path. Once Nimue could take in her surroundings again, she realized that, though they were still very close to the castle, the area looked as though it had come straight out of a fairy tale, with the impossibly green grass and the small lake that sprawled toward the center of the woods. She couldn’t help but look around in awe.
There was one thing that she had to admit: if she were going to spend the rest of her life, or at least the foreseeable future away from her home, the Highlands were far from the worst place to spend it.
