Page 48 of The Darkland

She was so intoxicated it was comical. But Kirk did not smile, merely nodding, as he had little choice. “It was good.”

“Better than any lady you have kissed?”

“The best.”

“The very, very best?”

“Aye, Mara. The very, very best.”

That seemed to satisfy her somewhat. He thought she might smile, but she suddenly burst into even louder sobs. “The very best and the very last!” she wept. “Now that you hate me, there will be no more kisses!”

Kirk did not change expression, although inside he was shrinking from the stares of his men. Mara moaned and sobbed into her hand and Kirk decided to put an end to her performance. Motioning to Niles, he grasped Mara by the arms.

“Secure her palfrey,” he told the knight, lifting the lady off the small beast without effort. Placing her across his thighs, he ignored her weak protests and spurred his charger forward.

Well in front of the column, he finally responded to her squirming. Squeezing her tightly, he listened to her gasp with the force of his strength.

“Enough,” he hissed. “You’re causing a scene.”

She balled her fists, pounding his mailed hands weakly. “Let me go,” she sobbed, but there were very few tears. Mostly frustration. “I d-do not want to ride with you.”

“Nonetheless, you are,” he said quietly. “Tell me who gave you the whiskey.”

Mara sniffled and coughed, wiping her nose most unladylike. “Lady V-Valdine and Lady Wanda,” she hiccupped. “They care more for me than you do.”

“By giving you whiskey?”

“By giving me medicine to help my cough.” She sniffled again, feeling weak and dizzy and emotionally drained. “They told me it was a cure for the chill, which I contracted last night whilst in the woods where you had left me.”

He did not reply, wondering if he shouldn’t steer clear of that particular subject. Being that Mara was drunk on the ladies’ potent cure, she probably wouldn’t remember the conversation were they to reconcile. And he wanted her to remember.

“I am sorry you are ill,” he replied softly.

In her exhaustion, she leaned heavily against him, too weak to maintain her fight. “You left me all alone, for the thieves and animals and elements. Do you know that I stayed in the trees until Corwin came looking for me?”

He was silent a moment, his stone-gray eyes grazing the landscape. “I knew.”

“But you did not care.”

“’Twas I who sent Corwin looking for you.”

“Why did you not come yourself?”

Because I was drunk.Kirk wasn’t sure how to answer her, the fact that he had immersed himself in liquor to help ease the confusion of their relationship. He’d never been more tormented in his life. “I could not come, lass.” It was the truth. As of this morn, still, he could hardly walk a straight line.

Mara suddenly turned in the saddle, her bright eyes filled with sentiment. Kirk could smell the alcohol on her breath as she reached up, touching the parallel lines she had left on his face.

“Would not come, isn’t that what you mean?” Sobs were close to the surface again. “Oh, Kirk, I did not mean to hurt you. It was an accident. I only meant to push you away, truly. Do you hate me?”

He gazed at her, feeling himself weaken, surrendering to the power of her emotions. Slowly, he shook his head. “I do not.”

“But you said you were a fool to think yourself in love with me. Did you mean it?”

“Nay.”

“Then why did you say it?”

He sighed faintly. “Because a tortured man says many things.”