CHAPTER 24
Helena
They kept moving for the next week. Every night, they set up camp only to tear it down again the next morning. Helena could put up and pack her tent with her eyes closed.
The constant travel gave her shoulder plenty of rest, but Helena didn’t miss her archery too much. Since her ankle was still healing, she continued to ride Farrell. And she had no regrets about spending her days next to Cap.
She still had to make him laugh, after all. That single bark after he rescued her from Erwan didn’t count.
“He hadn’t taken his eyes off her all afternoon,” Helena said, continuing a tale from before the curse.
Jean-haut grinned back at her, but Cap maintained his careful watch of their surroundings.
“After listening to him sigh for several months, I knew he would lose the battle soon and try to kiss her.”
“And what did you do about it?” Jean-haut asked.
She batted her eyes and pasted on an innocent expression. “Me? What makes you think I did anything about it?”
“The fact that you decided to tell the story,” Cap calmly inserted. So he was listening. “I doubt you intend to regale us with your brother’s success.”
A broad grin stretched across her face. “Of course not; no one wants to hear a story about someone else kissing.”
She’d hoped to rile him up, but not even the tip of his ear changed color.
“Being a conscientious sister, I took steps to prevent it,” she admitted with false humility. “I dumped out the river stones they’d collected and used the bucket to scoop some water from the Felsig River.”
Jean-haut started laughing. Cap gave a tiny shake of his head.
Grinning, Helena said with relish, “When he started to make his move, I dumped it over their heads. He came up sputtering, and it was beautiful.”
“You must have been a joy to have as a younger sister,” Cap commented dryly.
“Was your sister any better?” Helena asked with a smirk. Would he tell her if he had one?
“I’m smarter than that,” Jean-haut replied instead. “Our middle sister is too sweet, but Rouge would follow your example if given the chance. That’s why I don’t meet my ladylove with my sisters around.”
“Just your friends?” Helena quipped without thinking.
Cap and the forester both turned to stare at her. “What?” she protested. “Do you deny slipping off with Marielle when you were there?”
Cap’s right hand reached for the arrows under his cloak. “How long were you watching us?”
“Not very.” Helena shrugged and blew a stray hair out of her face.
She felt a little guilty when she remembered her reasons, but they were no longer valid.
And she couldn’t regret being right where she was.
“I overheard you discussing how we met, then ran back to the house for some supplies. When I returned, Cap was alone.”
Clearing his throat, Jean-haut threw a glance at his friend. “I’m glad you aren’t really a spy, Margit.”
“Who says I’m not?” she returned with a straight face. It was hard to maintain when they exchanged alarmed looks. “I’m not spying for the General, but I could be for Ralnor.”
The tension in Cap’s shoulders melted away. “Unlikely. King Steffan has better things to do than track Amitié’s bandit problems.”
She bit her tongue before she could quip, He’s too busy hunting for runaway daughters. Instead, she glibly suggested, “What if Un—Prince Felix requested his assistance? General Valentin isn’t getting the job done, and so Marielle has been stuck here for the last year.”
Cap snorted. “If that was the case, Marielle would have warned us. Besides, she hasn’t been eager to travel.”
Because she’d been helping them, no doubt. But Helena kept that part to herself; she no longer believed that they had carelessly put her cousin at risk.
“Speaking of traveling, Cap, should I be looking for a spot for a single night?” Jean-haut interjected. “Or a longer stay this time?”
The question of how Jean-haut found campsites burned her tongue, but Helena kept it in. From what she’d gathered, they were past Cap’s usual range. Yet without riding ahead to scout, Jean-haut always led them to a suitable clearing.
How?
Tucker’s laugh burst out behind them while Cap fingered the fletching on his arrows.
Helena peeked over her shoulder, a fond smile crossing her face as she watched the teenager joke with his friends.
He’d been wide-eyed and withdrawn when Cap brought her back to camp a week ago, and he hadn’t lost his terrified look until they had put a good three days between themselves and the camp they’d fled.
Seeing him happy again was a relief.
“At least two nights,” Cap finally said. He glanced back at the group trailing behind them. “We need a rest day, and we haven’t seen any guards or had any magic winds.”
“Magic winds?” Helena echoed, sitting up in the saddle.
Jean-haut gave him a wry smile. “But we didn’t have a wind last time. I don’t think we can trust its absence.”
“Yes, we did,” Helena stated firmly. “The day before Laurent saw the scout.”
The skin between Cap’s eyebrows crinkled. “I didn’t notice anything.”
“You were at the stream collecting the dishes for me.” She met his hazel eyes. “That’s the reason we left the camp to which you first brought me, isn’t it? The scalp-tingling wind that came through while the two of you were in the woods.”
Releasing a low whistle, Jean-haut looked at Cap and said, “I think we’d better tell the others, Cap. It must take a narrow path – that’s why Rouge didn’t feel it the first time.”
Cap frowned, but Helena could see the acceptance written on his face. “More eyes watching for the enemy’s approach?”
“Or more scalps watching, as the case may be,” she joked. A frown was a long way from the laugh she wanted from him.
He didn’t even acknowledge her comment. “I had hoped not to worry them with it.”
“I think Tucker was more worried by the hurried exit than he would have been by that information,” she observed without thinking.
“Yes,” Cap sighed, his shoulders sagging. “I made the wrong choice. Again.”
“Cap,” Helena said with concern, “you’re allowed to make mistakes.”
“My mistakes could cost lives, Margit.” His voice had a harsh edge as he looked away. “This one would have cost yours if Erwan was better at following orders he disagrees with. If it had been any other guard that found you...”
“You came after me,” she offered. “You would have caught up.”
“Again, if it were any other guard, my actions would have put people in danger. He is not the only one that knows my face.”
“The name you threw away must have been quite popular,” Helena mused. “What was it, again?”
A branch snagged some of her hair. Wincing, she twisted in the saddle to pull it free, then froze when it curled away from her.
“Cap,” she whispered, “Do we have any magic-users in the camp? Or should I be worried?”
She heard his boot scuff on the feldspar under their feet before he released an exasperated sigh. “Jean, save your energy for finding a campsite. Leave Margit alone.”
Looking back, Helena saw the forester’s hands curled in strange shapes at his waist. He dropped them with a grin, and the wood sprang back to its normal shape.
“Sorry, Cap, I couldn’t resist. You officially accepted Margit a week ago, but she hadn’t been initiated yet.”
“If you used magic on that branch just now, why didn’t I feel it?”
“Because I sent it through the ground into the tree,” Jean-haut replied with a wink. “If you had touched the branch, you might have felt it.”
“Why not send it through the air?” she asked. “Were you trying to take me by surprise? Or can you not do that?”
“Oh, I can,” he assured her. “But air isn’t my element, nor have I trained with it, so it’s not an efficient medium for me. It takes less magic to send it through the ground.”
“So your element is earth?”
He shook his head. “Water. But there’s enough moisture in the cracks of the rocks to ease my way.”
“And Rouge’s element is fire?” Helena asked.
Cap raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re not a spy?”
Brushing it off, Helena replied, “Just observant. I had plenty of time to watch people while I was growing up. When I wasn’t looking for an adventure, that is.”
“Your sheltered life included adventures?” Jean-haut asked.
She hesitated. “They were very personal adventures.”
“Like harassing your brother when he came to visit?” Cap interjected wryly.
She smiled down at him. “Exactly.”
“So what happened with your brother and his young lady?” Jean-haut asked. “Did she send him packing after her encounter with you?”
“You got to marry Katy? It’s not fair!”
Taking a deep breath, she shoved the painful memory aside and focused on the two men walking beside her horse.
She had been angry and full of dashed hopes a year ago, but she wasn’t alone anymore.
She had friends. Real friends, whose care for her didn’t depend on familial relationships or concern for her title.
She didn’t need to be jealous that Axel and his childhood sweetheart were happy together.
“She married him,” Helena said simply.
“You didn’t try to stop it?” Jean-haut teased.
“It happened while I was gone,” she explained. “I didn’t have the chance.”
Cap’s eyebrows twitched toward each other. “He didn’t wait for your return?”
Helena hesitated. She didn’t want to give the wrong impression about Axel or her history, but she also didn’t want to betray her identity. Cap might not want the responsibility of a runaway princess.
“I was…hidden away against my will when I was thirteen,” she slowly said. “My family thought I was dead. My brother didn’t know he could wait.”
Instead of responding, Cap tilted his head, looking up and to the left as if her comments triggered a memory. Helena fidgeted with the reins, hoping word of her awakening hadn’t reached Amitié before he left the royal guard.