Lovers of Legend (2 page)

"I am very glad to hear that, otherwise I'm afraid you would have ordered your father's men to extract me from the land," he returned.

"Perhaps I would, and perhaps I would not," I countered. I turned and continued the walk along the path. He followed behind me.

"You are a strange one, even for an elven girl. Your character seems to change between kindness and disdain," he mused.

"I only follow what I feel in my heart," I told him.

"No, what I think you follow is your heart and mind, and those two are at odds with one another," he countered.

I stopped again and half-turned to the strange human. "What do you mean by that?" I asked him.

He shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. "Only that you seem of two characters. One wishes to be as free as the birds in the forest and never again return to a life of status bondage, and the other is she who has been taught to obey her elders without question," he explained. I was taken aback by his astute comments. He had perfectly guessed the struggle inside of me. Ethan chuckled. "I see you agree with me."

"I-I do no such-"

Ethan held up one hand. "You don't need to raise the curtain of imperiousness to me. You'd only be wasting your time. I happen to be a free spirit myself and I feel the pain you feel at being trapped. It must be frustrating living a life you wish you could throw aside," he mused.

"I-I am perfectly happy where I am in my life," I stuttered.

He chuckled. "Judging from your tone I believe you're lying, but I won't argue the point. Lead on, my beautiful guide, and your servant will protect you," he assured me.

I spun on my heels and hurried along the trail, fearful he would read more into me than I cared to be read. After a few miles we heard the sounds of hoof beats on the path ahead of us and soon a retinue of horsemen with Steven at the head rounded the nearest corner. The group all wore swords and dire expressions. They galloped up to us and he dismounted near me. "Alexa, my dear, are you all right? We were worried when Beferon returned without you," he explained.

"I am fine. Merely a bump here and there from the dismount," I replied.

Steven looked past me at Ethan, and he frowned. "Who is this human?" he asked me.

Ethan smiled and bowed. "Ethan, at your service," he answered. "And who might you be, kind sir?"

Steven placed his hand on the grip of his sword. "That is none of your business, human, now leave these woods before I throw you out. You are on the lands of Stethana and-"

"-and he has helped me on my journey back to the estate. He saw my accident and offered to protect me from the wolves while I walked back," I interrupted.

Steven snorted. "There are no wolves in these woods," he argued.

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "On the contrary, there is a pack which moved in a few weeks back. The manor lord would do well to investigate the matter and see why they have appeared after an absence of so long," he advised.

"What were you doing in the woods for so long, human?" Steven persisted.

"I have a land grant, if it pleases you to know," Ethan told him.

"No, it does not, and I require proof of it," Steven demanded of him. I understood now why Ethan carried it on his person as he pulled the envelope from his shirt and handed it to the disbelieving Steven. Steven read the contents and sneered. "A forgery, no doubt. We will return to the manor and see if a copy is retained in the lord's documents," he explained as he stuffed the envelope into his own shirt.

"That is mine!" Ethan insisted, and jumped at Steven to snatch the envelope. Steven whipped out his sword and pressed the blade against Ethan's throat. Ethan tilted his head back, but glared at Steven. "That does not belong to you," Ethan reminded him.

"Do not push me, human," Steven growled.

I inserted myself between the men, freeing Ethan from the point of Steven's sword, and held my hands against their chests to push them apart. "This is enough arguing," I ordered them, and turned to Steven. "Steven, return the document at once," I ordered him.

Steven frowned. "I will not let a squatter on your father's lands leave before I can prove he is innocent," he refused.

"Guilty until innocent? What a reversed sense of justice," Ethan quipped.

"Do you wish to die, squatter?" Steven growled.

"Since I am not a squatter, I can't answer that," Ethan argued.

"Enough!" I shouted. I whipped my head between them and cowed them with the glare of all women. "That is enough! Ethan, please allow Steven to borrow the document for a time. I promise it will be returned once his doubts are shown to be unwarranted," I swore.

"When?" he asked me.

"Within a day," I replied.

Ethan's eyes flitted between my face and Steven's smirk, but he gave a nod. "Very well, I will take your word, but no longer or I will come for it myself. When you wish to return it then meet me where we first met. I want only you to return the document, and please refrain from an entourage. It seems I'm not welcomed by others," he instructed me as his eyes glanced at Steven.

"Very well, I will," I promised.

Ethan shot one last hateful glance at Steven, then turned and strode back from whence we came. I breathed a sigh of relief and heard Steven sheath his sword. "What a nuisance," he muttered.

I turned to him with a frown. "Matters were taken care of before you took the document and pulled your sword," I pointed out.

"The matter of a squatter was not taken care of, but I will do so once we reach the manor and inform your father of this human," Steven assured me.

He mounted his horse and offered his hand to me. I ignored his hand and instead took to the saddle of one of the horsemen. Steven frowned, but said nothing and turned his horse back toward the manor. We rode back and found my father, Lord Stethana, impatiently stalking the doorway of the stables. He stopped when he heard us coming and crossed his arms when we rode up. I dismounted and he immediately flew at me with questions.

"What trouble, by all our woodland gods, did you find to have Beferon dismount you and ride back in such a flurry? The horse is frightened out of its wits!" he scolded me.

"I traveled farther than he was used to and a human's shadow scared him," I explained.

My father frowned. "A human in the woods? What was his business there?" he asked me.

"He claimed to have a land grant from you, My Lord," Steven spoke up as he dismounted. The horsemen took his horse into the stables with their own. Steven removed the document from his shirt and presented it to my father. "This is his proof, if it is not a forgery," he added.

My father took the document and hurriedly read the contents. His face paled and his hands quivered. His eyes flickered over the document to Steven. "Where is this man?" he asked him.

"In the woods. Alexandra let him go," Stevens replied.

I turned to him in fury. "I knew the document to be real, so I allowed him to return to the woods," I defended myself.

"Is it real, My Lord?" Steven wondered.

"Real? Yes, unfortunately my daughter is correct," my father replied.

I smiled triumphantly and held out my hand. "Then Ethan requested that I return it to him within a day," I told him.

My father's pale face whitened. "You will do nothing of the sort. I will have the messenger deliver it," he argued.

"But I gave him my word I would deliver the envelope back to him," I insisted.

"And I say you will not, and no more arguing. You are in enough trouble as it is galloping off into the woods and making your mother worried sick you would miss her afternoon woodland picnic," he reminded me. "Now where are you to meet him to give back the document?" he wondered. I glared at him and said nothing.

"She was to meet him where they first met, and I believe that to be along the left woodland path," Steven spoke up. I sent him a look that would have burned a green forest had it been directed at such.

"Excellent. I shall deliver it myself and speak with this descendant of a noble human. They are few and far between," my father commented. He stuffed the document in his shirt and took a rough hold of my shoulder. "Now to your room, young lady, and prepare yourself for the picnic," he ordered me.

Chapter 3

I sullenly strode toward the manor which stood beside the stables, but my curiosity was piqued by my father's strange insistence on my not seeing the human. I glanced over my shoulder and noticed Steven holding out his hand. They were too far to overhear, but their mannerisms told me my father was tense and Steven pleading. Steven no doubt wanted to speak with Ethan and make more threats, but my father firmly shook his head. I slipped around the corner of the stables and watched their argument for a few more moments before Steven bowed his head and strode off. My father took out the envelope and peered at the paper for a moment before he frowned and firmly stuffed it back into his coat.

"My horse!" he shouted.

His horse was brought, and he mounted and was soon off down the road. I rushed into the stables. "My horse!" I shouted like my father. The stable boys rushed to fill my order. I turned to the doors and watched my father disappear into the path toward Ethan's property.

In another minute I was down that path mindful to gallop at my father's pace so I wouldn't catch him, and he wouldn't catch me following him. I followed close enough to hear the faint clops of his horse's hooves. After a few miles I noticed the stumps created by Ethan's ax and heard my father's horse slow to a walk. I came to the last corner before the point where I met Ethan, dismounted, and led Beferon by the reins so I could peek around the corner.

There, in the small clearing, stood my father. He, too, had dismounted, and in his hand was the envelope. "Stethana!" he called to the woods. I frowned. What could my father be doing calling our name to the air?

At the call Ethan appeared from behind a tree at the edge of meadow. He walked onto the path and stopped five yards from my father. "What is it, Lord Stethana?" Ethan wondered.

My father held the envelope between them. "Are you the one who gave this to my daughter?" he wondered.

"I am," Ethan replied.

"What is your name?" my father questioned him.

Ethan smiled. "I go by Ethan," he answered.

"As some play on the name of my house?" my father growled. I couldn't understand his anger toward the human.

The smile slipped from Ethan's face. "Your house owes us a great life-debt, My Lord, and one that document well reminds you," he countered, nodding at the envelope.

"And you mean to collect with my daughter, is that it?" my father guessed.

"You have no male heirs. If we do not collect now all your wealth will pass to another family and your word will be broken. I only mean to keep your word," Ethan insisted.

"Is that why you bewitched her to this place and brought the rumor of the wolves to my people?" my father argued.

Ethan chuckled. "The wolves came to the woods because darkness lies in your heart. They are beasts of wrath meant to remind you of your oath, and if you do not heed their warning they will ruin you," he replied.

My father ruffled at the man's words. "You mean to threaten me?"

Ethan shook his head. "No, merely to warn you that the woods knows you mean to break your oath. They were merciful when they called your daughter to this spot. An ancient tree never forgets. The trees call to her as a child of the forest, and they remember the pact written and signed here so many years ago," he countered.

"I will not have it, you hear? It was a foolish mistake on my part to allow such a contract, and I will not allow it to happen." My father raised the envelope between his hands as though to tear it in two, but a breeze swept past me and over his hands. It tore the envelope from his grasp and whisked the paper into the raised, waiting hand of Ethan.

"It seems the woods disagree with your dishonorable choice. If you value your honor you will tell her the truth and bring her here," Ethan told him.

My father bristled at his words. "I will not! I will see to it that she will never set foot off the forest road again!" He turned and strode over to his horse that stood patiently close by.

I saw he meant to return, and there was no spot where I could hide Beferon and myself, so I, too, mounted and raced down the trail before my father noticed my eavesdropping. As I rushed past the green trees my mind was a mess of questions and half answers. There was some deeper relationship between my father and Ethan's family than I knew, and it all lay in the document. I couldn't imagine what the message was for there had only been the usual legal agreement signed between Ethan's ancestor and my father.

I broke from the path and onto the road that led to the manor before my mind had settled on what to do and with my father still behind me. I ran into a most unwelcome figure when Steven rode down from the stables. We met twenty yards from the path and I hoped he hadn't seen from where I came.

"There you are, my dearest. I've been looking for you everywhere, and was only now just told you had gone on another ride," he told me.