B00CGOH3US EBOK (24 page)

"Right." She cast him a brittle smile that said she knew exactly what he was doing but she didn't have to like it. "It has been a 'trying' day. Come on, Owen. Let's hit the sack."

The boy stood to follow her, but looked first to Sir Roderick for permission. The knight nodded and sent the boy on his way.

As the pair prepared their pallets, the knight watched in silence, his gaze following Lady Jill's every move. Baelin was not certain if he observed her out of curiosity over her odd behavior, or if he viewed her with a less than honorable interest altogether. Either way, it did not sit well with him.

Once Lady Jill and the boy were settled in for the night, the knight leaned back against the log and turned his attention to Baelin. "Tell me, Sir Baelin, have you lands?"

"I do. I should be returning to them in a fortnight." That is, if the curse was broken. If not, he would be returning to his cold, dark cave instead.

"And what of you?" he asked Sir Roderick, trying to deflect the knight's prying interest away from himself. "Are you landed?"

The knight smiled a bitter smile. "Nay. I am the third son of my father. What fortune I have, I must make for myself. So here you see me, earning my way as a dragonslayer. The gold is not so bad." He cocked his head, his gaze penetrating. "But you would know. You said you were once a dragonslayer yourself, did you not?"

Indeed, he'd told the man that very thing as they ate their evening meal. "I have hunted a few in my time."

"But no longer. Why did you stop?"

Baelin took a large gulp of his wine. What could he tell him? That he couldn't hunt his own kind? "I grew weary of it. You will too. You are young now, but you will soon learn hunting dragons is not all about the riches and the glory."

The knight laughed. "Young? Pray tell, I am not much younger than you."

"I am older than you think," he said.
By over two centuries, at least
.

Sir Roderick poured himself more wine from the sheepskin flask, before moving on to another topic. "How long have you and Lady Jill been traveling together?"

"A fortnight. I am escorting the lady back to her family." It was the truth, in a manner of speaking, if it was as Lady Jill believed and breaking the curse would send her back to her time.

"And where might that be?"

"South."

"We are to the south ourselves. Perhaps we can accompany you and your fair lady on part of your journey. Safety in numbers and all that."

Baelin wanted to shout
no
. Pack your things and leave, but he couldn't.

Did the dragonslayer sense his hesitation, his reluctance to have him along? Was he even now growing suspicious? Better to be rid of him come the morning.

"There is a great deal of England to the south. I doubt we travel the same path."

"But perhaps we are. I am to home myself, to Kendale."

Baelin started. "Kendale?"

"Aye."

His pulse pounded in his ears, the name long unspoken but still dear to his heart. "Then you are a descendent of Amdarch the Black."

Sir Roderick's brow furrowed as he pondered the name. "The Black? Aye. Tales of his valor have been passed down in my family for over five generations. Why? Are you kin to the family of Kendale?"

"Nay. But many, many years ago the families of Kendale and Gosforth were bound together, pledged as allies."

"Aye, that they were, before Gosforth was driven from his lands."

Baelin's grip threatened to crush the cup in his hand. It was true his family had been forced from their home. After he'd returned as the dragon, many who'd once called the Gosforths friend had turned against them, Kendale included.

"I am of Gosforth."

"Are you?" Surprise registered on the knight's face. "I thought there were none of you left."

"I am the last."

Sir Roderick straightened, interest and excitement radiating from him. "So you go to reclaim your lands, then?"

"That I do. But it will have to wait until after Lady Jill and I have completed our quest."
If
they completed it. He couldn't very well take on the mantle of Lord of Gosforth if he was still a dragon.

"A quest? How noble. What is it?"

"That, I am not at liberty to reveal."

"I see." The knight nodded, but would not be swayed. "A secret quest. Tell me, do you both seek the same thing?"

"In a way we do. The same thing, but for different reasons."

"How intriguing." Kendale smiled and toasted Baelin with his goblet of wine. "I always enjoy an adventurous journey. If you will permit it, perhaps I shall join you and Lady Jill on this secret quest of yours, since there seems to be a shortage of dragons about."

Baelin looked down into his goblet of wine. Instead of his own reflection, he saw the dragon staring back at him from its mirrored surface.

"I do not know about that. There may be one closer than you think."

"What do you mean, they're coming with us?"

Baelin had thought long and hard about allowing the dragonslayer to accompany them as far as the next town. He hadn't told him they'd been avoiding towns ever since Lady Jill's unfortunate experience in the last one.

"After you sought your blankets, Sir Roderick told me more of who he is."

"So?"

Baelin tried to explain, though he knew Lady Jill would never truly understand a knight's code and all it entailed. But after learning of the knight's lineage, his duty to the man's family turned out to be far deeper than a chivalrous pledge made on bended knee. "'Twas his forefather who fostered me, his kinsman who knighted me, men of his blood who died beside me fighting the Dark Witch and her dragons. I cannot turn him away."

Lady Jill shook her head. "That was over two hundred years ago. It doesn't matter who his great, great, great-granddaddy was. The man asking to join this little convoy of ours is a professional dragon hit man."

She was right, and Baelin was just as uneasy about it. But as he'd lain awake last night, contemplating the situation, another possibility had come to him.

"Have you given no thought that this knight may be the next challenge?"

She glanced to where Kendale and the boy were busy packing up their supplies. "Him? Mr. I'm-Too-Sexy-for-Myself? You've got to be kidding."

A prickling akin to jealousy welled within him. Jealousy? Nay, he refused to acknowledge the emotion. But try as he might, he couldn't swallow the bitter taste that formed in his mouth at the notion she found the knight attractive. At least, that's what he thought she meant by her words. With Lady Jill, he never knew for certain.

Nay, it was probably just the dragon's sense of possession rearing its ugly head again. He had to remind the beast within she was not his to possess. She was a means to an end and naught else.

"How are we to know in what form the challenges will present themselves? After all, he found us. Or rather, he found you. We should bide our time and see what this chance meeting brings." He watched her chew on her lower lip, never taking her eyes off the other knight. "Do not worry. I will do all within my power to keep you safe while he is with us."

She finally tore her gaze away from Kendale. "It's not me I'm worried about, it's you. Letting him spend one night with us was risky enough, but traveling all day together is flirting with disaster. What if he finds out who, or rather, what you are? Being the self-proclaimed world champion dragonslayer he thinks he is, he'll try to kill you and where would that leave me?"

"Ah, yes. Where would that leave you?" He regarded her coolly. Alone with 'Mr. I'm-Too-Sexy-for-Myself,' for one thing. "I wonder which you find more disturbing—the possibility I could die at the end of Sir Roderick's sword or that if I am slain, you will be forced to live out the rest of your days in this time?"

"Of course I don't want you to die, you idiot." She punched him in the shoulder with her fist. "I don't anybody to die. But I'm not thrilled about hanging out in the thirteenth century one more minute than I have to, either."

She growled her frustration. Baelin was not certain he'd ever heard a woman make that particular sound before. Another dragon, certainly. But a woman? Nay.

"It's not a one or the other situation and you know it," she continued on. "I want to go home as much as you want to stay alive long enough to break this curse of yours. And to make both of those things happen, we need to make sure Roderick doesn't find out what you are and turn your alligator hide into a new pair of boots. Having him come with us is just asking for trouble. You might as well go ahead and paint a big old bull's-eye on your chest."

Baelin's head spun at her words. He did not know whether to be touched that she worried for his safety or offended she thought he might lose in a fight to the other knight.

"'Tis too late. The offer has been made. I cannot withdraw it now."

"Of course not. I'm sure it would offend some medieval Miss Manners if you did. Personally, it wouldn't bother me one bit to tell him to go find someone else to tag along with." She wagged her finger at him. "Fine. This is your call. But if this blows up in your face, the screw-up goes on your tab this time, not mine."

She turned and stomped away. He stared after her, fascinated by her angry movements as she shoved their supplies back into the satchels.

The brief pang of jealousy he'd felt when she said she thought Kendale attractive was softened by the knowledge she was as displeased as he was to have the other man around. He didn't know why, but foul breath or not, she preferred his company to that of the handsome knight, and the thought stirred a warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with the dragon's fire burning within.

As Baelin moved to pack his own supplies, the wet snort of Kendale's horse announced his presence behind him. The knight made a show of looking around their camp, a frown marring his brow.

"What, have you no mounts?" he asked.

What, have you only now noticed?

Baelin was about to say they'd been stolen, but Lady Jill answered for him before he could put voice to the lie.

"Allergies."

The knight looked at her strangely. "Allergies?"

"Sir Baelin can't be around horses. It's the hair. It makes him sneeze, his nose gets all stuffy. Itchy, watery eyes." She bowed her head and mumbled something about sounding like a Claritin commercial, whatever that was.

"Ah." Kendale nodded in understanding. "That 'tis an unfortunate aliment for a knight to have. How inconvenient."

"Aye, it 'tis. If you will excuse us?" Baelin pulled Lady Jill aside, out of earshot of the knight. "Horses make me ill? Why did you tell him that?"

"Would you rather I told him you ate yours for a midnight snack?"

"I did not eat my horse."

"I stand corrected. You eat other people's horses. But since I couldn't tell him that, it was the only explanation I could think of on such short notice." She shrugged as she slipped the strap of her satchel over her shoulder. "Besides, it's not completely untrue, although it's more the other way around and the horses are allergic to you."

"Why not say 'twas you who has the aversion to the beasts?"

"Yes, I guess that would've been less of a blow to your male ego, but we can't do anything about it now, can we?"

Lady Jill smirked, strolling away from him with a haughty sway to her hips. His frown deepened as he watched her pass by man and steed, the knight also taking note of her enticing form.

"My lady," Kendale called after her. "Since you have no mount, I would be honored if you would accompany me upon mine. I can not abide to ride when you are forced to walk."

Baelin didn't fail to miss the insult, intentional or not, in the knight's words. Shame lashed at him that he could not provide a mount for Lady Jill, but instead forced her to walk like a common peasant. Little did the dragonslayer realize if his own mount were not so well-trained and accustomed to hunting dragons, he too would be walking, his horse long gone from the fear of the beast.

"Thanks, but I don't want to put too much weight on your horse."

"But you are so light and delicate, I am certain
Flaume Stelan
will not even notice," he patted the horse's neck, all the while smiling that charming smile at Lady Jill.

"
Flaume Stelan?
"

"It means 'flame stealer'."

"Of course it does." She slid her gaze to Baelin, a tight smile painted on her face. "What else would a dragonslayer name his horse?"