Rescuing the Captive: The Ingenairii Series (45 page)

“
Alec, it was a simple question. It just takes a simple answer. One word – yes or no,” Caitlen said, standing up. “I hoped you would be open enough with me to give me that one simple word, whichever it was going to be.

“
No, I don’t want your blood in me,” she said.

“
Caitlen, use some common sense! Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be,” Alec said, agitated.

“
Goodness knows, you can’t dislike my blood. You shed it last night; you’ve put me in enough situations where it’s been shed for you,” his exasperation poured out. “This is what the prophecy called for; it’s not a bad thing. All your blood will leave your body – it will all flow into mine. And my blood will take its place in you as our hearts pump it all around and around through both our bodies.”

“
Just take me back to our part of Vincennes,” she replied stiffly, confounded by what he was saying. “I’m ready to go.”

“
Where is the uniform of the dead cavalry officer?” Alec asked.

“
On his body, out there,” Caitlen answered.

“
I’m going to go get it,” he stood up angry and heedless of his nudity for the moment. He stomped out of the barn, and came back several minutes later wearing the uniform.

“
Well? Aren’t you going to take me home?” Caitlen demanded, upset by the delay in his use of his translocation powers.

Alec sighed. “I am, but we’re going to ride the horses back. My energy level has been weak and taxed the past day or so, and I’d rather not use it if I don’t have to. Plus, these are two beautiful animals, and I would enjoy taking them back with us,” he told her. “I miss having horses around.”

“
Alright,” Caitlen said sullenly. She picked up Alec’s discarded shirt and pulled it on over her bodice, then hopped on the saddle of one of the horses and kicked its ribs, sending the animal flying out of the barn.

“
Hey!” Alec protested; he looked at the items scattered around the barn, picked up the blankets, stuffed them in the saddlebags on the second horse, then climbed on and left the barn in pursuit of his runaway princess.
I’m going to let you have it when I catch you
, Alec projected a warning to Caitlen. He reached the road, and saw Caitlen, already far down the road and riding her horse at a rapid pace.

Alec pushed his horse’s gait to keep the runaway in sight, while he stewed over her immaturity. She was going to have to submit to the operation to make her an ingenaire if he was going to have any hope of protecting her. The alternatives were that he keep her in sight for every second of every day, or they would have to accept that they were going to lose her; neither alternative was realistic. He had lost everything precious in his life for some unknown reason, and been thrown into this other world just to protect her; she had become his only mission in life, and he was not going to lose her.

He admitted to himself that he did love the girl. He admired her determination and her resourcefulness. She showed courage and humor and compassion. He thought about the travel conditions he had forced her to accept on their trip to Black Crag, when he hadn’t known she was a princess. She had accepted treatment far below the level she was undoubtedly accustomed to on that trip, without complaint.

And despite that treatment, she had told him she loved him. He remembered when he had been on the floor in the restaurant in Eckerd, suffering from the bandits’ wounds; she had wept over him and declared her love for him. But then had come the prophecy that had frightened her, the one that had predicted seemingly dire actions, but which he now understood was not a threat at all.

The sun was high overhead already, he realized, and it had been a long time since he had left Caitlen’s followers; he needed to let them know she was in his hands again, at least in a way.
I have the Princess,
he sent a message to Bethany.
We will return tonight or tomorrow
. He sent the same message to Rahm, then refocused his attention on his own situation. There was other traffic on the road, and Caitlen was still far ahead of him. He needed to rein her in and be with her.
Caitlen,
he projected,
slow down. I will ride with you, and talk. I will not spank you to punish you,
he added with a grin that he knew she wouldn’t see, but he hoped she would share.

Caitlen had apparently dropped her horse from its frenetic pace, and by late afternoon Alec had caught up with her. “How do your legs feel?” he asked solicitously, wanting to start their conversation on a good note. He reached over and touched her thigh, taking away the pain he sensed she was developing from her hours of sitting in the saddle.

“
Did you make my legs feel better so you could make me feel worse when you try to spank me?” Caitlen asked archly.

Here we go again
, Alec thought to himself.

“
Alec, I want to thank you for saving me. Again,” Caitlen said, expressing what she had been thinking during her ride on the road. “You’ve done it over and over, and I know that I owe you more than I will ever be able to express.”

Taken by surprise by her humility, Alec stumbled over what to say. “Every time I’ve had to rescue you, it’s been after you were caught at the palace. Have you thought about picking a new place to live?” he grinned.

Caitlen looked sideways at him and grinned as well, pleased that he had accepted her peace offer. “I’m famished, not to mention filthy and tired. Do we have any dinner plans?”

Alec felt in the pockets of the uniform he had stolen, and discovered several coins. “We’re in funds,” he announced. “Look for a nice inn, and we’ll get a room for the night. We can just spend the night in town, instead of trying to push all the way through to the palace,” he said, still feeling weary from his use of powers during the past few days.

“
And we’ll get a meal,” he added.

“
And a hot bath?” Caitlen asked.

“
And a hot bath,” Alec agreed.

“
Let’s go there,” Caitlen suggested, pointing at an inn on the south side of the highway, one of several buildings that bordered the road, evidence that they were well into the fringe of Vincennes’s outlying suburbs.

Apparently the inn was used to seeing Conglomerate officers and women, because they readily rented him a room, and agreed to have a tub of hot water provided. Caitlen went up to the room while Alec took the horses to the stables to attend to their care. They too were suffering from the difficult journey, and Alec gave the stable hand extra funds to provide some oats in their feed.

By the time he went upstairs to their room, Caitlen was already soaking in the tub that had been filled with many buckets of hot water from the kitchen. “Oh Alec, this is heavenly,” she murmured in a satisfied voice as he passed her to sit on the bed and remove the ill-fitting boots that came from the cavalry officer.

“
Oh, before you do that, would you go downstairs and order dinner to be delivered up here to our room? It would be so pleasant to just relax and rest here tonight,” Caitlen proposed. “And a bottle of wine? Will you drink it with me? I’ve never seen you drink anything but juice and water.”

Determined to try to be at peace with the girl, Alec pulled the offending boots back on, went downstairs to the kitchen, and ordered a dinner tray. He hesitated momentarily, then asked for two cups to go with the bottle of wine, and dutifully carried it all upstairs, to where Caitlen continued to rest in the hot water, gently enveloped by wisps of steam.

Alec placed the tray of food on the table in the room, then poured a cup of wine for Caitlen, and delivered it to her and returned to the table.

“
Well?” she questioned. “Aren’t you going to drink with me? It looks bad for a gentleman to let a girl drink alone. Or are you hoping to get me drunk and take advantage of me?” she asked archly.

Alec poured wine into the second cup. His eyes locked with Caitlen’s over the rim of his cup as he took a sip, and she raised her cup to him in a mock toast.

“
Now, you just have to feed me,” she suggested, threw her head back, and opened her mouth like a baby bird. Alec picked up a grape and arched it high into the air, then watched as it landed off target, making a splash as it hit the water in the tub.

“
Alec!” she laughed, and flung a handful of water at him. She gracefully reached for a towel outside of the tub, then carefully stepped up into the towel and came to join him at the table.

“
What is this all about really?” Alec asked her as he sipped his wine.

Caitlen looked at him quizzically.

“
This coup; why would the Conglomerate and the nobles try to overthrow the monarchy? Just because of a tax increase? It doesn’t seem right,” Alec explained. He watched her face as she made the mental adjustment to the topic.

“
It is many things,” she answered, in a serious tone, sensing that they were beginning a conversation, one that might begin with policy, but that could evolve to delve into the personal issues they needed to address. “A small part of it is grumbling over taxes, though that’s not sincere. Part of it is the fact that I am the first female to take the throne; that doesn’t sit well with some folks. But a bigger part is something else, something far away. It’s something that I don’t understand.

“
In terms of the southern rebellion, there are islands far to the south that are nominally under our control. There is a royal governor and a great many garrison, and some plantations that produce various goods, foods, fruits and spices. In recent years there have been rumors about strange happenings in the lands beyond those islands, other islands further east and south. They say there are monsters and slavery and other barbarous practices.

“
The Conglomerate wants to allow those practices to be permitted in our territories, and I have said no, just as my brother said no. There will be no slavery in our lands while I am on the throne,” Caitlen told him. “The planters and the traders and the sellers, the members of the Conglomerate, they say they need to use slavery to compete with the nations that do allow it, and so we have disagreed strongly.

“
And so I am no longer on the throne because they apparently feel entitled to use other people as slaves,” Caitlen concluded, and she tilted her head back to drain the last of her wine. “The south rebelled, and then the midlands and the Conglomerate rebelled.

“
But I am no longer their captive, because you have set me free,” she added as she poured more wine into both their cups. “So if we are going to talk about serious things, tell me what happened when you left to go back to your own home land?”

It was Alec’s turn to pause. “I returned, and no one knew me, no one recognized me. I was put in a prison cell for a night, and when I finally was able to talk to someone, I learned that a great gulf of time had opened up, from the last I remember of my life, getting married to Jeswyne, until the present day, something more than two hundred years have passed. And when I add the time I spent in a curse before that,” he added, as his eyes grew moist, “it means that the days when I was as young as you must have been three hundred years ago.”

Caitlen watched him speak, and sensed the sadness that was in his soul. She realized afresh how much she cared about him and for him. “Alec, you don’t look a day over one hundred,” she kidded gently. “You must find so much strangeness here. What do you miss most from your old life, other than your wife and your fiancée?” she asked, sensing his need to talk.

“
I miss Ari,” Alec told her. “He was the man who picked me out of the tannery in Frame, and took me with him in the carnival, and treated me as if he were my father and my friend. Then later I found out he was the head of the Ingenairii Council, and I became an ingenaire, and he was someone who I could always trust and rely on. I could ask him questions, and I could get good advice. He knew what was good for me even when I didn’t know myself,” Alec told her.

“
I don’t doubt how good his advice must have been, but I’ve seen you in action Alec, and I can’t imagine that you could have handled any of the challenges I’ve seen any better than you have, with just a couple of exceptions,” Caitlen told him. “I know I trust your judgment.”

“
What exceptions?” Alec asked after he took another sip of his wine.

“
Well, there was this morning,” Caitlen answered. “I asked you a simple question, and you wouldn’t give me an honest answer.” She took another drink and poured the last of the wine into their cups.

Alec stood up, and wiped his hands as he ate the last of the food on his plate. “I’ll go get another bottle of wine,” he said. He walked to the door. “Yes, Caitlen, although I know it’s wrong, I do love you.” He said, and then closed the door behind himself.

The girl gave a chuckle of delight and grinned. When Alec returned she was still smiling. “Alec, I know you think it is, but it’s not wrong to love someone. I’m not asking for anything from you; I just needed to know what you felt.

“
If you want to trade blood with me, you can,” she said as Alec placed the second bottle on the table and sat down. “But there will be consequences, you know,” she warned with a gleam in her eye.

“
What consequences?” Alec asked with a laugh.

“
I’ll be able to contact you any time I want,” Caitlen replied. “’Alec, my feet are cold,’ ‘Alec, these people are boring, make them go away,’ ‘Alec, tell me again that you love me,’” she mockingly quoted potential messages.