Remembrance

With her lips tight, she said, “You cannot get out of here. This building has stone on three sides and a hill on the other. The door is four inches of stout oak and the hinges are new iron. You cannot get out.”

While she was saying this, Talis had turned to look at her as though trying to understand what she was saying.

She gave him a hard look. “Now, I think the best thing for us to do is to prepare for spending the night here. In the morning someone will come to fetch us.”

For a few moments Talis stood there, as far away from her as he could get in the small space, and seemed to consider what she was saying. Callie was so innocent, he thought. She still seemed to think they were children and they could sleep snuggled together with the guiltlessness of children. No doubt she imagined them together in the straw, holding each other and

sleeping in peace.

But Talis had only to look at her and he knew that, on his part, there could be no innocence. Her cloak was open, exposing that white wool dress that clung to a body with many newly formed curves. If she had grown breasts could she not have had the courtesy to grow them a bit smaller? Every man in England was going to look at her and—

Best to stop those thoughts, he told himself. Turning away, he looked back at the door. He had his sword with him so maybe he could somehow break the hinges. Or maybe he could cut his way out the door. Or perhaps there was a loose stone in the walls. Or—

At a sound from Callie, he turned back toward her. To his absolute horror, her cloak was puddled on the straw and she seemed to be unfastening her gown. She was leaning against the stone wall, standing on one foot in a way that made her hip jut out and her breasts thrust forward.

“What are you doing?” There was real fear in his voice.

She spoke to him as though he could see the obvious. “I am removing my wet clothes. I told you that I am freezing.”

Logic, Talis thought. Filling the brain with logic would help him keep his head cool. “And how do you plan to get warm once you are…are unclothed?”

She halted with her hands on the ties of her gown, which was now unfastened to her waist. Did she have nothing on under that dress? he wondered.

Callie gave Talis a sideways look. “I had not planned that. I…we could…”

It was innocence on her part, Talis was sure, but Callie was fluttering her lashes at him in a way that made him think of a couple of ways they could use to get warm. “The straw!” Talis said gleefully, as though he’d just had the most brilliant idea ever. “You can burrow under the straw. Deep, deep down inside the straw. Very far down into it. The farther down into the straw you go the warmer you will stay.”

“And what of you?” she asked softly. “Where will you stay to keep warm?”

“Me?” He gave a movement to show that his own comfort had not been a consideration to him. “I will of course spend the night trying to get us out of here.”

Callie’s face lost its calm, almost seductive look. “But Talis! You cannot stay awake all night! I have told you, the walls of this place are made of stone and the door is—”

At those words Talis knew that Callie doubted him. It was the first time she had ever done this, so it did not anger him. But her doubt of his abilities made him resolve that he had to show her he was able to take care of her. Also, it was about time he spoke to her with truth; he must show her that he was an adult, not the child she seemed to still think he was.

Going to her, he put his arm around her, then kissed her cold cheek. “Listen, my sweetheart, I have never failed you yet, have I? And I won’t fail you now. I do not mean to worry you but I do not think anyone will come for us in the morning. We are too far away from anywhere. We might stay here days and no one would find us. Now, while I am fresh and rested, I must do whatever I can to get us out of here. Do you trust me?”

Callie let her body in its half-unfastened gown lean against him limply. “Talis, my love, it is not that I think you cannot get us out of here. If anyone could, you could. It’s that…”

“Yes? What is it?”

“Nothing,” she said tightly. “Go on, spend the night hacking at the door and tearing your hands on the stones. What do I care? What does it matter to me? Go on, go do your honorable deeds.”

Talis had no idea what she was upset about but in the last year he’d never been able to figure out what was wrong with Callie. When she pushed away from him, she almost fell, but when he tried to help her stand, she pushed him fiercely. Her actions made Talis know that he had to get them out of there. He had to once again win her trust of him; he had to make her look at him with eyes full of belief that he could do anything. If he died trying, he was determined to get them out of there.

But an hour later, Talis had made no more headway in getting them out of their cold prison. Callie had tried to interest him in something or other that she was doing, but Talis was concentrating on his mission and didn’t so much as look around. He knew that now she was buried up to her neck in the straw and she was angry at him, so angry that it was something he could feel, like the wet of his cold clothing. But the more he felt her anger, the more determined he was to get them out of their prison. He could bear most anything except Callie thinking he was incompetent.

A scream from her finally got his attention. Turning abruptly, he saw her flailing about under the straw. The monkey, asleep nearby, looked up in interest.

“Fleas!” she screeched. “There are fleas in here.”

Instinctively, Talis took the one step to close the distance between them, just in time to catch a naked Callie in his arms as she rose from the straw as though she were some golden creature rising from the sea.

“Help me,” she cried. “They are everywhere on my body. Help me find them.”

For seconds only, Talis ran his hands over Callie’s delicious body as he tried to rid her of the fleas that were, according to her, scurrying over every inch of her body.

But he could not stand such torture long. Pale, shaking, sweat on his forehead in spite of the cold room and his nearly frozen wet clothes, he jumped away from her. Then, as though he were some great animal of uncommon strength, he used his sword to hack a hole through the dirt roof. Dirt flew everywhere, great clods of it flying about until Callie had to put her arms up to shield her face, Kipp screeching in protest at his disturbed slumber.