The Locket (17 page)

Savannah all but bared her teeth as he sauntered further and further into the distance. His ego was getting to be much more than she could handle, and his opinions about things, particularly about her, made her want to smack him. How much longer was he going to keep this charade up? “I don’t have to answer any of the questions you throw at me.”

“True,” he said with cocky tone. Just one more know-it-all face—one more reason to annoy her—and she would be ready to pop him one. “However,” he went on with that all too irritatingly condescending voice, “as long as we are sharing the same expedition across the forest, I would prefer to know my companion rather than walk around with, as you say, almost a total stranger.”

“But that does not mean that I have to tell you anything about my relationships,” she said sternly, balling her hands into fists.

“Again, true. I have it. How about if I tell you all of my past relationships, and there are more, I assure you, than you, for I do not push away love, and you can tell me all of yours. I am not expecting an extensive list, so you will not have to speak very long anyway.”

“What do I care about all of your stupid past girlfriends?” she snapped.

“Jealous?”

Savannah blew out a breath. “Uh, definitely not. The day I’m jealous of you or of the girls you date is the day pigs fly.” At his quizzical face, which was soon followed by a shrug, Savannah thanked God for his silence. He was becoming more and more of an impediment by the way he didn’t allow her to walk around him or leave his side without an argument. There was something unusual about Christian, and not just in sense that she couldn’t understand why he was not as open with her as he wanted her to be with him. He was confusing, yet somehow in an interesting way, if that were possible.

A way that aggravated her, yes, but more so, and she wasn’t quite willing to admit this to herself yet, a way that fascinated her, challenged her. She was used to guys her age cowering if she so much as argued against them. It was a gift, really, to scare off men. One she had relished for years, but had lately begun to question.

As they continued quietly—and she was thankful for that!—something crept into Savannah’s mind that bugged her until she finally asked, “What do you think about the way the king is governing his kingdom?”

Christian looked up, his face showing both interest and a quickly growing resentment. “I trust that he is governing it well. You have doubts?”

She shrugged. “Sort of. I don’t have a problem with King Fredrick himself, I just don’t agree with a few of his laws.”

“Such as?” He turned his head, ready to dismiss any complaint she had.

Savannah ignored his tone, toying with whether she wanted her hair up or down. After deciding to tie it up, she answered him. “Well … for one thing, I don’t like this marriage law. It goes against so many of the rights that the people should have, it’s crazy.”

“Go on,” he said thoughtfully.

“For another thing, I hate how women have such little respect in your kingdom. I thought that you said that the people in your town had more manners.”

“They do,” he said, with less interest than he initiated with. “It is just that giving certain rights to the women in our town would be a mistake.” He said it simply, as if it were something everyone just understood and widely accepted.

“A mistake?” Pausing for what she intended to be the last time, since they still had a long journey ahead of them, Savannah stared at Christian in what she thought would be considered a reasonably surprised face. She didn’t want to let her anger get the best of her, even if what he had just said was pigheaded and sexist. “How could allowing a person her rights be a mistake?”

Christian seemed both puzzled and annoyed when he rotated in her direction. “In more ways than one, I can assure you of that.”

Taking her turn to cross her arm in front of him, she glared at him. “And what is
that
supposed to mean?”

He shrugged and turned to keep moving, slightly quicker than he had before.

“Hey!” she yelled out to him. “Hey, don’t walk away. I’m not finished arguing with you yet!” When he didn’t stop, she ran after him. Once she caught up, she tried getting his attention, and to each attempt, he kept his face forward and his mouth silent.

“Fine,” she huffed out, and deliberately strode in front of him, so he could watch her walk away in what she hoped resembled disinterest. See if he tried talking to her now, ha! She’d sooner talk to a tree. But after twenty minutes of complete, uncomfortable silence, Savannah couldn’t take it anymore. Even if it meant arguing, she had to say something. “And I don’t care very much for the people in your kingdom either.” Okay, so that didn’t quite come out the way she wanted it to. She preferred not to argue if at all possible. That apparently did not work when she was around him.

“And just what is wrong with the people in my kingdom?” he wondered.

“Well with the exception of the royal family, they don’t seem to like newcomers very much.”

He paused abruptly in his tracks and waited for her to do the same. His expression didn’t reveal much more than simple dislike. However, Savannah was becoming overly uncomfortable by the way he skimmed his eyes from her head to toe. “Maybe they would, if the newcomer did not look like she was a danger to society.”

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” she asked, peeking down at her wardrobe. Okay, so she’d looked better.

“What does that mean? Look at you! You are not dressed properly!”

“Since when do you care about proper?” When his eyes didn’t detach from her body, her blood began to warm. She put a hand to her cheeks, trying to cover the unmistakable future blush.

“I do not care! You just are not …” he ran a hand through his thick hair in frustration, “appropriate enough. You are not wearing your hair like all of the other maidens in the kingdom, you are not wearing a corset or anything else that is in fashion, and young ladies, such as yourself, are not meant to wear trousers.”

“Well, in my world they do,” she said sternly. This time, she was so enraged by him that she started walking away almost as far as she could manage. Consequently, he trailed behind her, and once she heard him coming close enough, Savannah shoved a tree branch out of her way so that it would strike him with a painful force. Regrettably to her, he was able to dodge out of the way before it hit him. Determined to try again, she got lucky the second attempt and smiled wickedly in satisfaction.

“In case you have not looked around you lately, Miss Morgan, this is not your world!” he shouted, while he rubbed the mark on his head. “You said so yourself, this is not the twenty-first century. You are in my dimension now, sweetheart, so for the love of all that is holy, please learn some manners or shut up!”

“At least my dimension has men who appreciate women and have more courtesy than the amount you have!” she countered.

That sentence blew Christian away. Not be polite or courteous? The Prince? And after all those years of training to eat, sleep, talk, and even breathe the right way. Christian opened his mouth to speak, but Savannah interrupted him before he could get anything out. “Just save it, Chris, okay? I don’t want to have to slap you.” At that point, he shut his opened jaw. To think that a young lady could have such a big mouth!

Jeez, she thought. And I thought that the men I knew were sexist! I guess you can never judge a person from their first impression. For a minute there I thought this guy could become a decent walking companion. Now I see him for who he really is … a big, fat loser!

When Christian was about to pass in front of Savannah, she glowered at him and strolled away faster, not allowing him the satisfaction of being the leader.

You can always judge a person by their first impression, he thought to himself. From the first moment we met, I considered her quite out of place and improper. For a moment, just a moment, I had the notion of considering us friends. Yet now I see the real her and it is just as I had suspected.

Walking on, the two of them drew further and further apart from each other, both in distance and friendship. From that instant, they both thought it would be impossible to see the other’s point of view.

***

As the day grew weary, so did Christian and Savannah. The sky, now as dark a blue as the deepest ocean, was also just as unending. The stars glittered in an infinite race across the heavens, dimly lighting only inches of the path before them. The forest that lay ahead was becoming more and more the nightmare of any child’s dreams, full of shadows and terrors unknown. It was time to set up camp.

Savannah, who had long since cooled from the heat of their argument, cleared her throat. She was never really one to hold a grudge. “So, how much longer do you think we should walk before we set up camp?”

“I am not certain,” he said, taking a sweep of the area around them. “I do not see many open spaces, at least none wide enough for the both of us and a fire. However, knowing the creatures in this forest, we will have to cease our travels as soon as possible … I refuse to continue, knowing what kinds of beasts are out there, hungry and nocturnal.”

Something in his voice comforted her a little. Despite its commanding undertone, what he said held a much larger feeling of courage, or defense. At that very moment, he reminded her of a kind of war general: firm, but only to protect his men from danger.

Nodding her agreement, Savannah made her way beside him, not wanting to spread too far apart. The closer they were, the better their chances of not getting separated in the dark. At least that was the excuse she reassured herself with.

It must have been about twenty minutes before Christian caught a glimpse of something ahead of them. “Look!” The word came out in a light hiss as he tried to grab her attention while being wary of keeping quiet. He squinted his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. “Do you see what I see?”

Following his pointed finger, and growing tremendously aware of the other hand that brushed her lower back as he did, Savannah’s eyes searched until she saw a movement in the air. Taking a closer look herself, her bones iced over when she realized what it was. “Smoke,” she whispered.

Her mouth ran dry when her mind filed through all the possibilities of whose fire that smoke could belong to. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the ice melted and her heart slowed as she remembered that she wasn’t in her reality. She was in a make-believe world that didn’t contain the same life-threatening creatures that her world did. Besides, if she died here, nothing would have actually happened to her because she was probably just dreaming … right?

“Someone has made camp before us,” she said matter-of-factly. “Let’s go check to make sure this is a person we don’t mind running into.” But before she finished taking the first step forward, Christian was quick to place a hand on her arm and tug her back. When she fought out of his grip, he put an arm in front of her.

“You do not know what kind of creature started that fire, Miss Morgan. For all we know, a dragon is over there right now, waiting for his next meal to show up.”

“It’s Savannah, and dragon or not,” she began, while trying to push his arm out of the way (Although he was surprisingly strong. Very surprisingly.), “we need to find out who it is. Maybe if it’s someone who doesn’t want to kill us, we can join them.”

Glancing back at the soft blaze of the fire in the distance, Christian sighed and dropped his arm. “All right fine, I’ll go over and take a look. But you are to stay here.”

Savannah shook her head. “No way, I’m coming with you.”

“No, it could be very dangerous,” he said sternly. “Young ladies do not, in any circumstance, put themselves at risk. It is a gentleman’s duty to protect them.” He said it regally, as if he grew up knowing this and that there were no other option.

Savannah caught herself having a mental debate on whether it was more attractive that he was so chivalrous and courageous, or annoying that he was so … male and thought that she couldn’t do anything on her own.

Annoying won. “Listen, I know what you’re trying to do and I appreciate it. But I am not some helpless damsel in distress that needs you to watch over her. I can take care of myself.”

When she started over toward the fire, Christian followed quickly behind, making sure he put himself ahead of her. “That may be, but I prefer you at least stay behind me. You need looking out for.”

“No, I don’t,” she said without sparing him even a momentary look. “I am a big girl, I can look after myself. Honestly, sometimes men are just so self-absorbed.”

When he normally would have come back with an intelligent retort, Christian closed his mouth, knowing that it would not get them anywhere and that there were more important matters at hand. He sat beside her on the one log set in front of the fire and watched as she warmed her hands gratefully. “So you don’t think this could be an ogre’s campsite or anything, right?”

“No, that would be impossible,” he said blandly. “The ogres do not like to pass the fork in the road up ahead, and even if they do, they do not like to come up this far from their part of the forest.” He stared into the yellow and orange flames that stretched from the ground like arms searching for something to hold onto. They were wild and unpredictable, and completely intoxicating.

Much like his companion, he thought. Looking over at her once more, he saw that the firelight agreed with her fair complexion. Her skin was so soft, so gentle, and yet so different from that of the women in his kingdom. It wasn’t perfect; it wasn’t flawless with no lines or shadows of age. But right now, in this light with these stars, her body glowed with beauty. Her eyes reflected the blush of the fire, making a ring of hazel surround the pale orange light that mixed with the blackness in the center of them.

“Do you fight often?” Her sudden question brought Christian out of his trance and back to reality.

“Excuse me?”

“You know, like boxing or fencing or any other type of self-defense? Actually, I probably should have asked if you’ve ever fought before, in general. You know, just in case it is a dragon.”

Those jeweled eyes that were glued to the fire moments ago were on him now, staring deeper into him than she knew. “Oh, you could say that,” he sighed heavily, remembering the hours his father kept him in the practice room, training for what might or might not come. “My parents made me practice every day since I was four. They told me that I would one day need it, and I never disagreed. I knew that someday I would, especially if I were to eventually become k—” Savannah eyed him suspiciously when he stopped mid-sentence and hesitated his next words. “If I were to eventually become kidnapped. You never know what could happen until it is too late, they always said to me.”

“I suppose …” Savannah trailed off doubtfully. There was definitely something he was hiding from her, and for some reason she couldn’t understand, she felt that she needed to know. It was important for her to know, which meant that the only question was how to get it out of him. Maybe if she just played dumb for now and gained his trust, he’d tell her. “Is it really that much work to be a silversmith? Your parents seem to have almost all control over you and what you do. I mean—is this really how you live each day?”