Page 25 of Veil of Winter

“We are not plotting anything. We are only travelers who got caught in this storm. We mean you no harm. We do not want your furs.”

“She is Princess Elyce of Montciel.” Ysabeau’s voice was high-pitched.

Elyce groaned inwardly. It must have been fear and desperation that made Ysa say that.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “What is a princess doing in the mountains in a snowstorm?”

“We are on an important journey concerning diplomatic relations.” She was not about to reveal where they were going, lest he tell the guards who were sure to be searching for her.

“Then why do you have only two guards? You are lying. This is treachery. You are here to steal my furs.”

The wolf-dog—for now that she had a better look at it, she could see it was likely only part wolf—started growling and snarling again.

“Sir, we are not—”

“What is he saying?” Sir Gerard asked.

She ignored him and continued. “We are not here to steal your furs. We are cold and hungry—but we do have a little food we can share with you.”

Ysabeau quietly interpreted Elyce’s words into English for the knights.

“I don’t need your food. I need you to get out.”

“We are not leaving,” Sir Gerard said as he leaned back on his heels. “We are here for shelter and will not go.”

Finally, the man slammed the door shut, but he had let in so much cold air, the fire seemed useless. Elyce and Ysabeau were both shivering again.

The man grumbled something under his breath, then waved his long knife at them. “My wolf and I will have our eyes on you. One treacherous move and you will be dead. All of you. The women included.”

The two knights scowled at the man. Even a man with a long knife and a half-tame wolf was no match for two trained knights with swords. And if necessary, Elyce would join in with whatever weapon she could find to defend herself and Ysabeau. She’d already spied a fat stick of firewood she could use.

How dare the man talk of killing her and Ysabeau.

“Stay out of my way.” The man moved farther into the one-room house, pulling his horse behind him. Rather than take the animal into the stable with the horses, he dropped a bucket of something under the animal’s nose, then turned and pointed at Elyce and Ysabeau. “That is my bed.”

Ysabeau sidestepped away from the pile of furs she and Elyce had been sitting on.

“Show some respect,” Sir Gerard said. “These women will sleep wherever they want.”

His words were no more than Elyce might have expected from one of her own men, but coming from this English knight, they warmed her heart.

Elyce and Ysabeau moved from the spot the trapper had pointed to and went about arranging their own furs and blankets to sleep on, as far away from the trapper’s bed as they could get. Jacob and Ysabeau had packed extra furs, thankfully, which had no doubt kept Sir Gerard and Sir Oswalt from freezing.

“Those aremyfurs!” The trapper pointed at Sir Oswalt, who was also pulling furs from a stack onto the floor.

“Calm yourself.” Sir Oswalt turned his back on the trapper, seemingly unconcerned.

“We will not take your furs,” Elyce said. “We only wish to shelter here for the night. We won’t harm your property.”

The man barely glanced her way as he went to stand with his back close to the fire. He warmed his hands behind him and eyed Sir Gerard and Sir Oswalt as they made beds out of the furs that were lying everywhere.

“You are to be gone in the morning,” the trapper growled.

Sir Oswalt and Sir Gerard ignored him. Surely the storm would be over by dawn.

The two knights placed themselves near Elyce and Ysa, between the women and the ill-tempered trapper.

Elyce had never spent the night in the presence of a manbefore, but she was far from objecting to the knights’ close proximity. She did not trust their inhospitable host or his wolf-dog.