I swatted it away. “I got it.” I got to my feet and brushed all the dirt from my palms and knees.
His eyes shifted back and forth as they looked at me, with a tone of apology in his gaze.
“It’s fine. My mom was a mama bear too… I get it.” I turned to the mare that was brought for me, white with patches of gray dots. “Let’s go.”
Riding my own horse in unfamiliar territory was a lot different from holding on to Huntley as he controlled the reins, but I got used to it almost immediately, ducking my body forward slightly like he did, running fast down the trails and through the valleys.
Huntley glanced at me often to make sure I hadn’t fallen off the horse and collapsed along the way.
It was a hard ride, but Huntley seemed to know exactly where he was going, as if he recognized markers we passed. A pile of boulders here. A copse of trees there. Indications that meant nothing to me.
At sunset, we entered a forest, the light even dimmer under the canopy of trees.
He tugged on the reins and brought his horse to a walk.
I followed close behind him, the horses giving neighs in the quiet.
The darkness crept in further, but he kept going, like he knew the way even in the dark.
Then I heard it—the sound of a stream.
My horse seemed to see better than I could because he came to a stop.
A moment later, there was light. Huntley lit a torch and guided his horse forward by the reins, leading him to a stream so he could drink.
My horse did the same, not waiting for me to dismount.
I rubbed the back of her neck as she bent down to drink. “My kinda girl…doesn’t wait for nobody.”
Huntley’s hand reached for my waist and started to guide me down.
I swatted at his hand. “I can get down myself, alright?”
“Sure about that, Princess? Can you even see the ground?”
“Ooh…don’t start with that princess nonsense.”
“Answer my question.”
I ignored him and started to dismount.
And because I had the worst luck ever, I slipped on the way down and almost landed on my ass.
Of course, he was there to catch me, his large arms a powerful net.
Thankfully I faced the other way, so he couldn’t see my embarrassment.
His arms remained locked around my waist even though I was stable on the ground, and his smile was right against my ear. “Guess not, then.” He finally let me go and pulled out his bedroll from the saddlebag.
The torch burned on the ground where he’d left it, tipped up on a rock. It was a beacon of light in the dark forest, but the circumference of illumination was limited, plunging the rest of our world into darkness.
He got the camp ready while I ran my fingers through my horse’s hair, giving her a nice rubdown after riding so hard to get me there. She continued to drink from the stream, her front hooves in the water.
“Do you have any oats for them?”
“They’re horses.” He finished the campsite, a single bedroll and a single pillow. “They can eat grass.”
“They worked their asses off to get us here.”
“And they’re fed regularly and sheltered from the elements the rest of the time.” He grabbed his horse by the reins and tied them to a long rope hooked to the trunk of a tree. That way, he had ample room to graze and reach the stream.
I did the same to my horse.
We sat together in front of the light of the torch and ate our dried dinner, both of us too tired for conversation. Without four walls and a bed and a fireplace, it was just us and the elements, and that joy we had was long gone. We exchanged looks from time to time, but we didn’t have the same heat as we did before.
“How long until we get there?”
“Couple days.” He bit into his dried meat and chewed, his arms on his knees as he sat on a rock.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
“What difference would it make?”
“Well, does it have a bed and a fireplace?”
He gave a slight smile. “Not a princess, my ass…”
“Don’t act like you’re enjoying this trek through the wilderness.”
“I don’t mind it.”
“Liar.”
He took another bite.
“You’d rather be fucking my brains out in a four-poster bed, and you know it.”
His grin widened. “You’ve got me there.”
“So…how am I helping you? Because if you have an animal that’s needed my help this long…it’s probably dead by now.”
“I’m sure they’re fine.”
“They? As in there are several?”
“Three.”
“Wow… This is going to be a big job.”
“You have no idea.” He chewed his piece, his eyes on me.
My heart tightened just the way my stomach did. “What are they?”
He took another bite, as if he had no intention of answering my question.