Page 35 of Hooked

“What if there are mermaids in it?” I asked.

Marilee turned her head just enough that I could see her profile and hear her voice. “A mermaid lagoon would be lovely, so long as I never had to be in it. I would be more than content to sit on the edge and just enjoy the sights. And if anyone were to try to haul me in”—she abruptly turned to spear her husband with her dagger eyes—“they would suffer the consequences.”

“Not to worry,” Sir James agreed easily. “I learned my lesson the first time.”

Ah. This must be the spot where James had carried Marilee into the water as a playful surprise, only to discover that she had a keen fear of water. Her brilliant imagination conjured ethereal images from the beauty of nature, but it also came up with nefarious scenarios about water so deep that you couldn’t see the bottom.

I drank in the sight of the cool swimming hole as we passed by, imagining how refreshing and free it would feel to immerse myself in it.

“You are disappointed,” Falstone said as the path widened and he was able to pull his horse up beside mine.

I pulled my eyes from the rippling water and smiled, eager to set him at ease. “Only a little.”

“Wading into a swimming hole appeals to you?”

“Swimming appeals to me.” I tipped my head back to enjoy the vibrant green of leaves filtering sunlight overhead. “Especially in a place like this. It would be marvelous to float on my back, watch the clouds overhead and let the water carry my worries away.”

“Lovely, indeed.” There was a wistfulness to Falstone’s comment.

I turned back to look at him and realized his gaze was fixed squarely on me and not on the water or the sky. I turned away to hide my blush, thinking of our very-near kiss that Marilee had interrupted.

Falstone cleared his throat. “When did you learn to swim?”

A wave of nostalgia washed over me. “There was a pond by my childhood home. My father taught me to swim. And to fish,” I admitted with a laugh, “though I’ve forgotten most of that. I was his only child. There was no son for him to pass things on to. So I learned to ride, fish, swim…” I sank into a memory of tromping through a creek, my father coming to my rescue when I would get too far out in the water…. I shook it off. I so seldom allowed myself to pull out those memories, but they cropped up now along with the sense of love and security that I had enjoyed in my early years. Before my father’s betrayal had been discovered and that security had been shattered. Before living in my uncle’s home. Before Huckley had chosen me.

“Your childhood was a happy one,” Falstone commented.

“For a time,” I conceded, still lost in memory.

Marilee called back from up ahead. “We are approaching the fairy queen’s domain now, so be on your guard.”

Her feigned seriousness when speaking of imagined things left me shaking my head. “Should we expect a contingent of pixies to challenge our entry?” I asked.

“I think not,” she answered. “I am known here, so as long as you all behave with the proper decorum, we should be allowed entry.”

I just smiled in amusement. As we approached the spot where a little island sat in the middle of the stream with a young tree growing in the middle, I gave the most proper salute I could manage.

The princess and Sir James pulled their horses to a stop and James dismounted before helping his wife to the ground. They didn’t tell us what they were doing or where they were going. In fact, it felt very much as though they’d forgotten Falstone and me entirely as we watched them walk hand in hand toward the stream. Rogue circled around them before launching himself into the water. Sir James straddled the stream, one booted foot on the bank, the other resting on the little island, or fairy realm. He helped Marilee across and they both ducked beneath the low branches of the tree. The tree, though young, had enough foliage to almost conceal their upper halves once they were on the other side.

Blissful newlyweds. I wanted to be disgusted by their flagrant displays of affection. Instead it just made me smile.

“I don’t know about you,” Falstone said from beside my knees, “but I feel utterly superfluous at the moment.”

I hadn’t realized he had dismounted, but he stood now with one hand gripping the reins of his horse and the other resting on the neck of my own mount as he observed our ardent master and mistress with one eyebrow raised.

A small laugh escaped me. “It does make one wonder why they insisted on our company.”

He looked up at me, a radiant smile on his face. “Would you like to get down?”

“Oh,” I answered, a little blinded by his boyish grin. “Yes.” I accepted the offer and unhooked my right leg from around the pommel before resting both my hands on his shoulders. His large hands clasped my waist, and though I may have been mistaken, it felt as though he took longer than usual to settle my feet on the ground, and even longer to release his hold on my waist.

Once he did step back, we both took a moment to breathe some much-needed air, and Falstone pulled his wooden flute out of his saddle bag and went to throw himself onto the soft moss that blanketed the ground at the foot of a large tree. “Come sit,” he said, raising his flute to his mouth. “I imagine we’ll be here for a while.” He started playing a tune and I went to join him there on the ground, grateful for the width of my riding skirt that allowed me to sit comfortably.

I leaned back against the tree, closing my eyes and trying to let my worry slide away, trying to believe that my life as I knew it wasn’t going to be viciously ripped from my grasp at any moment. “What am I going to do?” I opened my eyes when I realized that the words had come out of my mouth. They weren’t loud, only a whispered cry for help to whatever fairy might be listening.

Falstone’s music stopped, so I knew he’d heard.

“Marilee thinks we can just run away to Dalthia if Huckley comes back,” I admitted.