CHAPTER 24 #2
Soon after, they took a break for lunch.
Helena suspected her ankle could have handled the dismount, but she didn’t protest when Cap offered his hands to lift her down like normal.
She liked the feel of his solid shoulders under her hands.
Also, silly though it seemed, his large hands wrapped around her waist made her feel. ..safe. Cared for.
She couldn’t let that go before she had to.
Once she was securely on her feet, Helena began to limp past him so she could help Rouge unpack their rations. Cap brushed her arm with his gloved fingers, letting them trail down to her elbow before dropping away.
She turned to face him. He watched her steadily with those serious, hazel eyes of his. “I’m sorry to hear you were kidnapped as a child. And sorry that you re-experienced that trauma on my watch.”
“It’s all right, Cap. My capture wasn’t your fault.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “You rescued me, and it didn’t even take twelve hours. That’s a great improvement over twelve—”
She cut herself off. Cap, watching her with that calm but sad expression, finished, “Years?”
Helena tried to hide her gulp. “Yes,” she agreed.
“But enough about me.” She brushed past him, turning to speak over her shoulder.
“I’m curious how you came to lead a band of outlaws in the woods after training for the royal guard.
Did you wake up one day and think, ‘Guarding a bunch of royals is boring; I’d rather fight for justice on my own terms’? ”
He crouched next to her while she dug through the pack of dishes. “The story of each person here is their own to tell,” he quietly replied. “I will not reveal what they wish to keep to themselves.”
“I was asking about you,” she said with a pointed look. “You keep collecting pieces of my history. I would like to know more about the man who currently has control over my life.”
He pulled his chin back. “I don’t have control—”
“Relax, Cap; I’m not accusing you of anything.” She resisted the impulse to nudge him with her elbow. “I only meant that we’re stuck together for the foreseeable future. Which I do not mind, but it would be nice to know more about your past.”
While he seemed to consider this, Jean-haut plopped down next to them. “For me, it started the day King Antoine was murdered.”
“How so?” Helena asked. “I thought it was Prince Raphael that General Valentin accused. Or are you preparing to tell me that you’re the party responsible?” she joked.
He shook his head with a half-smile and contorted his hands in his lap. “No, I’m fairly certain that would be the General.” His head turned to the south as his eyes began to glaze over. “I was the one who warned the prince to flee.”
Her eyes widened. “You know him? Come to think of it, Alanna said something about that.” A mischievous smile spread across her face. “What’s he like, this prince that General Valentin has convinced the kingdom is a murderer?”
Jean-haut didn’t answer, but when she looked back at him, she suspected it was because he hadn’t heard her.
“Why do you want to know? Planning to become a princess?” Cap asked with a disdainful tilt to his lips.
“Of course not; I hate princes. And noblemen,” she replied absently, watching the forester. “Is he all right?”
“He’s searching the plants on the forest floor for a suitable camping spot,” Cap calmly replied. “Due to the size of our group, he needs to look while we can still change course. But the farther away he is, the more magic and concentration he requires. He likely can’t hear us right now.”
“So not something to do unless he’s certain of his safety,” she mused, still watching him with a critical eye. Come to think of it, he had been rather distant during meals the last week.
“He puts his life in our hands every time,” Cap softly agreed.
Pulling her attention from the magic-user and his trance, Helena took a stack of bowls out of the sack and handed them to Cap. He calmly held out his other hand for the next batch.
“Jean-haut shared his story.” She grabbed the last stack of bowls and struggled to her feet. “What’s yours?”
“You aren’t letting this go, are you?” Cap sighed as he followed her around the group to pass out the dishes.
“Think of me as a dog with a bone,” she grinned.
He snorted. “An apt description. Gryphon doesn’t often have a bone, but he gnaws it incessantly when he does.”
“Who’s Gryphon?”
Cap paused in the act of handing a bowl to Laurent. “Princess Daphne’s border collie,” he finally answered. “He is a well-known figure in the castle. Or was, a year ago.”
“Princess Daphne... is that the Daphne that you and Jean-haut were discussing before? With Raoul?”
His eyes darted sideways, but the hint of a curve tugged at his mouth. “Yes.”
Personal guard that had fallen for his princess? Or one that thought of her like a younger sister?
“So if I’m Gryphon, and your story is my bone…” she prompted, elbowing him lightly as she passed bowls to Adrien and Alanna.
“Oh, go ahead, Cap,” Adrien encouraged with a wink. “Our Margit won’t betray you.”
They returned to their seats next to Jean-haut. Cap stared into his bowl, but Helena made herself wait patiently. Too much pressure might keep his story hidden away.
He thanked Rouge after she filled his bowl, then scooped up a handful of dried fruit. Instead of putting it in his mouth, he transferred his unfocused gaze to it.
“My story is very similar to Jean-haut’s,” he finally confessed. His voice was quiet, barely audible over the conversations surrounding them.
“You fled on the day the king died?” she clarified. “Did you go with Jean-haut to warn Prince Raphael?”
He slowly shook his head. “No. I was there when he found the prince. Prince Raphael had been hunting in the woods. He was almost back to Laurier when Jean-haut showed up.”
“So he was gone when it happened?” Helena asked, fascinated. “But what about General Valentin’s story?”
Cap’s fist clenched around the dried fruit. “At the time, I told myself that he must have been mistaken. But now I agree with Jean-haut that General Valentin probably murdered the king himself. The prince’s absence made it easy to frame him for the crime.”
“But if you know the truth...” Taking a bite of her own food, she puzzled through his motives. “Why didn’t you return to the castle and tell everyone that Prince Raphael couldn’t have done it?”
“No one would take my word over the General’s in his court,” Cap snorted. He tossed a few pieces of fruit into his mouth. “And the prince was supposed to be in the castle at the time. It would sound like a convenient story.”
Helena stirred the food in her bowl. “I suppose that’s true. So then what? You and Jean-haut hid the prince away and then ran off into the woods? Why didn’t either of you go back?”
“Jean-haut returns occasionally to gather intel,” Cap replied. His eyebrows pulled together as he watched his mentally absent friend. “Several guards followed us when we fled. He almost died that day because of my mistakes, but I did manage to keep them from recognizing him.”
“But they did recognize you,” Helena guessed. He was rubbing his shoulder again, just as he’d done when she accused him of not understanding her injury. When he’d referenced the painful lessons he’d learned the day he became an outlaw.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I had no choice but to flee.”
“Why do you think your mistakes nearly caused his death?” she couldn’t help asking. He was wearing the same weight-of-the-world expression she sometimes saw on her brother’s face. “Did you shove him in front of a sword?”
“He didn’t run the minute he saw men he trusted,” Jean-haut supplied. Uncurling his hands, he reached for the bowl in front of him. “That gave them time to attack, which risked my exposure and made him a liability when he took an arrow. And for that, he believes he failed me.”
“Cap.” Helena adjusted her seat so she could face him fully. “It was an understandable mistake. A royal guard isn’t expected to be perfect. Did you disobey an order from the prince?”
His jaw tightened, but he shook his head.
“There you have it. It wasn’t your fault.” She jabbed him in the shoulder, but he didn’t loosen up.
“Even princes are allowed to make mistakes,” Jean-haut added. “I don’t hold it against him.”
“It’s true,” she chimed in, ducking her head to better see his face. “Even my—prince isn’t perfect.” She dropped her eyes, remembering Axel’s distress. “He and one of his friends were hurt once when events didn’t go according to plan. But no one blames him for it.”
Cap didn’t respond, staring at the bowl in his lap and clenching his fist. Why was he so hard on himself?
Helena reached over and set a hand on his. “Not everything is your fault, Cap. You don’t have to bear everything alone.”
He didn’t look at her, but his hand slowly uncurled, his fingertips brushing her gloved palm as they slid past.
“Like finding our camp for tonight,” Jean-haut inserted. “We need to travel a little more east. It will put us almost in the foothills, but...”
Helena pulled her hand back and pretended to listen, but the forester’s words bounced off her ears. The memory of Cap’s fingers wouldn’t leave her be. When he accidentally caressed her palm, it felt like—
Like the first moment she touched the cane that Jean-haut made for her. While it still tingled from the use of his magic.
Why had it felt like that? She couldn’t be—She wasn’t attracted to Cap, was she?
Keeping her face down, she brought a handful of dried berries to her mouth and studied Cap out of the corner of her eye. She did like his broad shoulders. And his face was nice to look at as well. The scruffy beard was debatable, but she suspected he had a fine chin underneath.
But it was more than that. When all she knew was his beard, he’d been kind to her, despite his belief that she had come to spy on him for General Valentin. He’d helped her to feel truly accepted for the first time since she woke from her curse and discovered that Michael was married.
He’d made her feel—
Helena released her thoughts like an arrow from the string. If she kept down this track, she would only embarrass herself. Cap was kind to everyone; it was part of his adopting-strays personality. She shouldn’t read too much into it.
She resisted the urge to sneak another glance at him. He wasn’t a prince or nobleman, but she still wasn’t interested in more than friendship. Ex-royal guards could cause heartache too.
Cap adjusted his position, causing the back of his hand to brush her knee. Her eyes darted over to him, but he was looking at Jean-haut.
As if drawn by her eyes, Cap’s met hers. They locked gazes for a few moments before he returned his attention to the forester.
Helena forced her eyes away from his profile and picked the last pieces of food from her bowl. If there was anything in his hazel eyes, she couldn’t read it. And she wasn’t interested even if there was, she sternly reminded herself.
Too bad her heart wasn’t listening.