CHAPTER 31
Cap
Cap inhaled sharply. “You’re doing that on purpose!” he growled.
Scrubbing the wet cloth a little harder against his side, Rouge replied, “Yes, I am cleaning your wound on purpose. Because I’m not going to let you die of gangrene because you were foolish enough to take on a bear by yourself.”
“I didn’t do it by choice. It had the boys trapped!”
Rouge poured some of their small supply of alcohol on the cuts. “You tried to send Margit away.”
While Cap ground his teeth against the sting, Margit folded her arms and smirked from her corner of the tent. “Tucker was right; you are a poor patient, Cap.”
“Just wait until I tell him to take it easy for a few days,” Rouge muttered darkly. “He follows instructions as well as you do.”
“I don’t need to rest for this,” Cap complained. “It’s barely a—mmgh.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, but he could feel Rouge’s glare. “If it was just a scratch, that wouldn’t hurt so much.”
“Sadist.”
She poked him in the shoulder instead of the side this time. “Just reminding you not to do something so stupid again.”
His eyes flicked over to Margit. He’d been trying to keep her safe. “Duly noted.”
While Rouge finished doctoring Cap’s wound, Jean-haut leaned forward. “How did the weapons work, Cap? Did you have any problems with them?”
Cap gestured to the sword lying next to the tent wall. “The release could be faster. Also, it wouldn’t revert to the hammer after. Perhaps the word is wrong? It worked fine on my bow.”
“Wait. You didn’t test them beforehand?” Margit’s incredulous expression looked a bit angry. “What would you have done if it didn’t work?”
“The concept had been tested,” Jean-haut replied with a shrug. “This was their first live trial, though.”
“I’ll work on it. After I finish patching you up,” Rouge said, her eyes focused on the bandages she was applying to Cap’s side.
Margit’s heated glare pierced him. “I don’t need protection. You should have let me help.”
She might not need it. But he still wanted to give it.
“You did help. Because you didn’t follow orders.”
“Orders?” Margit scoffed. “That wasn’t an order. And I won’t follow a stupid one, anyway.”
Cap was torn between amusement and annoyance. Not many people challenged his orders, let alone referred to them as stupid. Though considering his friends’ agreement, perhaps this one had been.
But it would be easier if Margit would listen. Little as he liked submitting to Rouge’s tender ministrations, he preferred to suffer through it himself rather than see Margit hurt.
He nodded to her. “I’ll keep that in mind, Your Highness.”
She gave him a strange look, but she didn’t say anything. Jean-haut snickered while Rouge rolled her eyes.
Returning to the subject of their weapons, he said, “I’m more concerned about the speed of release than I am about hiding the weapon afterward.
I imagine it shouldn’t take much to fix that part.
” He looked to Rouge for confirmation. “We’ve dried enough meat and gathered enough winter berries that I think we can proceed to the next step. ”
“The magic won’t last forever, Cap,” Jean-haut warned. “And Rouge and I only have so much magic. These aren’t small enchantments that you’re asking for.”
Cap met his eyes. “I know,” he replied in a somber tone. “I’ll understand if you want to change the plan.”
“We’re not letting you be recognized, Cap,” Rouge grumbled. “Nor anyone else in the raiding parties. You can lower your shirt now.”
Margit’s eyes followed the line of his hem as he dropped it back over his stomach. One corner of her mouth pulled up appreciatively.
Putting the extra bandages back in their medical bag, Rouge continued, “My brother meant that we need to plan with that in mind. We can’t replenish all of the enchanted items in one day.”
“And?”
“I can put the location of our next meeting place in the tokens, but only Rouge and I can find the objects,” Jean-haut explained.
He took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair, exposing the pointed tips of his ears.
“We’ll be our own camp and use the stones and tokens to find the other groups.
Then each day, we’ll put as much magic as we can spare into the objects of whichever group we’re with. ”
Cap’s eyebrows pulled together. “You won’t be coming with me?”
Jean-haut had been on every raid with him since they fled the capital. It was strange to think of entering a dangerous situation without him.
“Not if you want this to work.”
Margit leaned forward and winked. “Don’t worry, Cap, I’ll watch your back.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but her green eyes reminded him of their last discussion on the topic. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.
And if she would be in danger anyway, he’d prefer it to be at his side.
Rouge jabbed him just above his wound. “But you will not be hiking for several days. You need to rest, and I don’t trust you to change your bandages properly.”
“I’ll do it,” Margit volunteered with a mischievous smile. Her eyes drifted to his side. “I don’t mind keeping the schedule.”
“Alanna can do it,” Rouge retorted. She threw the medical satchel’s strap over her head. “She has experience.”
“Alanna?” Cap frowned as he shrugged back into his fleece-lined vest. “She’s a noncombatant. I planned to leave her in the base camp.”
Pushing to her feet, the redhead replied, “Margit will need to share a tent with someone, and I’ll be traveling with my brother. Adrien and Alanna can run a bluff for you.”
“I can sing,” Margit offered casually. “Pretending to be a group of traveling minstrels works for me.”
Her comment triggered something in his memory. “Where did you say you learned to climb trees?”
“I—” Her face froze. “Didn’t?”
He racked his memory for the name, but he’d been too focused on the bear to register her words.
“Just be careful—if you pounce on the guards too close to Adrien and Alanna, someone might realize your trick.” Jean-haut clapped Cap on the shoulder on his way past. “I’ll start working on the group assignments.”
“Thank you,” Cap acknowledged absently.
What kind of noblewoman was sheltered from the world but allowed to climb trees?
“I’m glad you’re all right,” Margit said once they were alone. “When I saw the bear charge…” Her voice shook a little, but then she lifted her chin and added a lofty tone. “You’re fortunate I ignored you. Maybe next time I won’t.”
She shoved to her feet, but Cap caught her hand as she strode past. “Thank you.”
Her hand was small inside his own. She was tall for a woman, but her form was still slighter than a man’s. And he felt every bit of that difference through her gloved fingers.
Margit smirked. “For ignoring you?”
“For watching my back.” He gulped at the thought of what his decision, his impulse reaction to protect her at all costs, could have cost this time. “For making wiser judgments than I did.”
Furrowing her brow, she squeezed his hand and sat next to him. “Yes, I displayed extraordinary wisdom when I tried to make the bear come after me instead.”
He chuckled. “Perhaps not that part.” Smiling, he met her eyes. They were so brilliant. “But you did save my life.”
She squeezed his hand again and leaned a little closer. “I’m sure there are few people who can say they’ve saved the life of the great Le Capuchon. But I couldn’t have taken down the bear on my own, either. So we’re even.”
Her green eyes sparkled with amusement and maybe something else, but Cap wasn’t skilled at interpreting looks from women who weren’t coy and predatory. He only knew that whatever it was made him want to lean closer. To meet her halfway, if she would come.
Her mouth curved up. “I suppose your mother will want to thank me as well?”
“I am sure she will if I ever make it home,” he replied. The ache filled his chest again when he thought of his family. It had been a long year.
Margit tilted her head. “You say that as if it’s possible, but unlikely.” She leaned a little closer, but the intensity in her eyes had changed. “I know you’re an outlaw now, Cap. But what would it take for you to go home?”
Home...
Margit had run from hers, but he ached to return to his. His forest family helped, but a year without his mother and siblings was a long time.
He searched her face. If he did return home someday, would she come with him? Make his home hers?
Or would she run from him when she learned the truth?
Margit’s face dropped. “Never mind. You don’t have to tell me.”
Her fingers slipped away as he struggled to decide. She was Ralnoran. She’d had poor experiences with men in the past. And her council wouldn’t approve of an outlaw.
But once he had restored the Amitian government to its rightful king, how could they deny one of their noblewomen to him?
As long as she was willing.
“General Valentin,” he said as she stood. “I need to prove he lied about Prince Raphael murdering the king.”
She paused, turning back to him. “You need to bring the crown prince back?”
Fingering the fletching of his arrows, Cap replied, “Yes. When it is safe for him to return, it will be safe for me as well.”
“What will it take to make that happen?”
“A miracle,” he said softly, looking away from her. Her cloak rustled as she settled next to him again. “It’s already been a year, and I can neither enter Laurier nor speak with any of the nobles or guards who might know something. They would not trust a stranger with such information.”
“None of them know you?” Margit asked with a raised eyebrow.
“On the contrary. They would likely all recognize me, so I would have to wear my hood.”
Her other eyebrow joined the first. “I thought guards were invisible.”
Shrugging, he replied, “Royalty makes a difference.”
He could feel her disbelief, but she was silent as she leaned on her hand. Her shoulder brushed against his, sending tendrils of fire down his arm and across his chest.
Cap closed his eyes against the sensation. Did she know what such a simple touch did to him?
“Will you take me with you?” She bopped his shoulder with her own.
Tilting his head, he examined her teasing smirk. The one he wanted to protect, but that he knew would run toward danger instead of away.
“I already agreed to let you watch my back.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know. I meant when you’re able to leave the forest.” She lifted a pointed eyebrow. “Will you let me come with you?”
Her voice was as challenging and strong as ever, but this time, he saw what he’d missed before: the uncertainty. The vulnerability in her eyes that the smirk was meant to hide.
A soft smile crept across his face. “Always,” he whispered.