Eventide (Meratis Trilogy Book 2) (14 page)

Chapter Eight

A
s soon as his feet came unglued, Jeff ran to the door and threw himself into the hallway, disappointed to find it already empty. No movement or sound gave away which direction Cassie might have gone, and he was too aware of his directional challenges to attempt going after her.

Besides, what would he say?
You’re right, I do hold it against you that I’m now a waste of air.
Or
No, I’m glad that I’ve lost my reason for living so I can stand by you while you go on to be successful
.

It was all so bitter.
He
was bitter. Having never been a bitter person, the development wasn’t a comfortable one. He felt twisted in his own skin, a loathsome version of himself.

Tearing at his hair, he kicked the door closed and slumped down on the sofa to stare up at the ceiling. Eventually things would make sense again. There would come a time when life would be no more stressful than choosing what laundry detergent to use. Hopefully sooner rather than later. He had no intention of helping with the Raul search. He would only get in the way and be a walking target if he stayed. Like Cassie, he would get Maggie to send him home, and then he would work on getting his life back in order. Somehow.

Voices punctured his self-focused thoughts, and Jeff’s attention turned towards the window. Man and woman, they sounded close, but Jeff guessed they must be down in the garden. The man’s voice was familiar—Jayden—and it didn’t take much to guess that the woman was Princess Ariana.

Curiosity drew Jeff closer to the window, even as his conscience told him to get back in bed and stuff his pillow over his ears.

“—this time. Gods, Ana, it’s been a decade! No word, no sight or sound of you.”

Jeff was no stranger to Jayden’s anger, but this emotion had a quality to it he didn’t recognise in the warrior. Definitely an anger only a strong passion could evoke.

“And you missed me?” Ariana replied. “How very sweet.”

“Missed!” Jayden sputtered. “You think well of yourself,
Princess
. The only thing I missed about you was your ability to throw your feet over your head.”

Jeff winced. Had the man learned nothing in the queen’s chambers today? There were lines one did not cross with royalty. He leaned closer to the window, eager to hear how the princess reacted.

“That wasn’t even your favourite part.”

Jeff’s eyebrows rose. No wonder these two got along so well. Or didn’t get along at all. They were too much alike.

When Jayden spoke again, his anger was all but gone. “Give me and my friends this one night, Ana. That’s all I ask. Let us stay here for the next couple of hours, and then I’ll disappear and we can go back to pretending our time together never happened.”

As if he wanted her to contradict him, to ask him to stay.

Jeff suddenly felt that he’d crossed a line. Eavesdropping on a loud public conversation was one thing, but the tone had dropped to a level of intimacy that begged privacy.

Trying not to make too much movement, Jeff closed the drapes and climbed back into bed.

There must have been something in the air, all of these relationship issues coming to a head. Hopefully he would dream a resolution and know how to act in the morning.

***

Jeff woke drenched in sweat, his heart racing, but he had no time to sort through his latest nightmare or last night’s latest stresses. The sun streaming through his window told him he was running late. He scrambled to get out of bed, cursing the servants for not coming to get him, and hurried to throw on yesterday’s clothes. As he rushed down the stairs towards the main hall, he accepted that with his recent luck, he would probably miss his ride back to Feldall’s Keep.

Rounding the corner, he almost bumped into Basten and a tall balding man with dark hair, dark eyes, and a morose expression, having a hushed conversation in the corner. Basten didn’t look happy.

“See that it gets done. We can’t—”

When they saw him, they broke apart. Basten adopted a forced smile as the other man strode away.

“Ah, you made it,” the advisor said. “They started to speak of leaving without you.”

“Sorry,” Jeff mumbled, half embarrassed that he was last to arrive, and half curious about the intense conversation he’d interrupted.

Together they walked into the hall, and the first thing Jeff saw was the younger Dorning, all tall, dark, and handsome cliché, helping Cassie fit some food into a small leather pack. Like his father, his Queensguard uniform of blue and silver was gone, replaced with his personal crest: a red and black grizzly on its hind legs stitched onto the breast of his tunic. As he slid the pack up onto Cassie’s shoulders, Jeff’s vision went hazily red. He clenched his teeth and went to see to his own pack and breakfast. Conflicted emotions or not, he still cared enough to be jealous.

Neither the queen nor Ariana were there to see them off, and when he mentioned it to Michael Dorning, the older soldier threw back his head and laughed. “Think you’re important enough for a royal farewell, eh?” He gave Jeff’s arm a nudge. “If you really want someone to wave goodbye at the gate, I’m sure the advisor’ll be more than happy to oblige.”

He jerked his head towards the door, and Jeff looked over to watch Basten stride back and forth across the room, overseeing the smallest details of their trip.

“Be glad he’s not coming with us,” whispered Dorning. “He’d call you on the way your ass hit the saddle if it didn’t match his opinion of how it should be done.”

Jeff shuddered at the thought of anyone judging his riding. Getting into the saddle would be his greatest achievement. He slung his bag over his head and went to join the group huddled in the middle of the room.

“The queen has offered you some of her best horses to reach the Keep, which you will send back once you reach home,” Basten was saying. “One of my men will accompany you as far as the Keep to facilitate their return.”

He gestured to the same looming man he’d been speaking with earlier. Jeff’s curiosity rose about who he was and if their heated chat had anything to do with this trip.

“We appreciate Her Majesty’s generosity,” said Brady. He left it at that, and Jeff suppressed a smile. The scholar was a natural diplomat, skilled at holding onto a veneer of civility in the face of pretentiousness. Much better than Jayden, who kept his back to the advisor under the guise of digging for something in his pack.

“I suspect the journey back to Feldall’s Keep will take you about four days. You should reach the Amesbury Retreat by this afternoon if you keep a good pace. By orders, we’ve provided enough supplies for the entire trip. If you find you’re running low, Her Majesty has granted you permission to use her name at the Queen’s Head Inn outside Glenbury.” Basten stroked his moustache and almost reluctantly added, “They serve a very nice pork pie.”

“Please pass along our thanks,” said Brady.

Loaded up, they headed outside where seven horses stood tacked and waiting. Among a mish-mash of colours and breeds, Jeff sought out the smallest one, content to ride a pony if it meant reaching the Keep in one piece.

“This one is for you. Allegria,” one of the stablehands said as he brought forward a chestnut-hued mare. “We were told you aren’t an advanced rider, and she’s the calmest horse we have.”

Jeff exhaled sharply. “Oh good. Thank you.”

“Just pray it doesn’t storm. She gets a little skittish with the thunder.”

The stablehand passed over the reigns and Jeff swallowed. He stared up at the azure sky and waited for the heavy grey clouds to form.

He strapped his bag to the back of the saddle, as everyone else appeared to be doing, and lifted one foot into the stirrup. As he hauled himself up, his right foot nudged the pack, knocking it to the ground just as his ass hit the seat. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips together, wishing no one else had seen that.

It’s all right. I don’t need food.
He weighed the choices of dismounting or leaving it there.

Darcy Dorning stooped down and picked it up, strapping it more tightly to the saddle. “You’ll be a practiced traveller by the time we reach the Keep. Don’t worry about learning along the way.”

After what he’d witnessed between the handsome soldier and Cassie, Jeff struggled to be polite and say thank you. What right did this man have to be good-looking, and suave, and considerate? Really wasn’t leaving much of a chance for the rest of them. The only consolation Jeff found was that she wasn’t likely to fall for someone from another world.

He walked Allegria around in circles to get used to the feel of her. She heeded the pull on the reins without difficulty, speeding up to a brief trot and back to a walk with ease. Jeff relaxed into the movement. He felt guilty, like he was cheating on his horse buddy, the bay gelding, Swish, but it was sort of like trading the car with the wonky gear shift for one that drove smooth as butter. You loved the old beater for the memories and quirks, but it felt good to drive something you didn’t worry would stop on a dime because it didn’t feel like moving anymore, and kill you.

Once everyone was mounted and ready to go, with Basten’s man—Jeff thought he caught the name Harold—trailing behind as if to announce that he was there but not with them, they started down the road.

Jayden urged his mount to a canter, but when he looked to see that no one else was keeping pace with him, he slowed back to a walk. Jeff caught the furrowed brow before Jayden turned back to the road and understood his impatience. He knew the faster they got to the Retreat, the faster they could get to the Keep, and the faster he and Cassie could get home. On the other hand, he didn’t know if he’d be able to keep his seat at anything faster than a trot.

The path was wide enough for two abreast, and Jeff didn’t like how they sorted themselves out. Michael rode with Jayden in the front. Cassie was with Darcy in the middle, and Jeff and Brady took up the rear. Jeff glared at the pair ahead, at the way the soldier pointed things out on the grounds, while Cassie listened with fascinated interest.

“Probably pointing out all the places he’s killed a man,” Jeff grumbled.

“Hmm?” asked Brady.

“Nothing.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much, my friend. Miss Murphy is not the type to go for the—”

“Handsome and sophisticated?”

“I was going to say ambitious adventurer. Much like our own ambitious adventurer is determined not to glance backwards to say farewell to the woman who’s watched us all morning from the window.”

Brady’s eye fell on Jayden’s back, and Jeff craned his neck to look back at the palace. Up on the second level, Ariana sat on the window sill, one leg draped outside over the wall. For a brief moment his eye caught hers, and she gave a small wave. He returned the gesture, then turned away to leave her with her silent goodbye.

“Did you know?” Jeff asked.

“Not at all. I spent some time thinking about it after the day’s revelations, and I sort of remember when it must have happened. Jayden had gone to the summer house after a fight with his father. He came back a different person, more like the man you know now. Gone was the easy arrogance and ideal views of a young man, and in his place was someone who no longer knew what he was searching for.”

“You say he
lost
his easy arrogance?”

Brady chuckled. “What you see now is a very practiced shield. I’m not saying he’s not still an overconfident son of a bitch at times, but at least now he’s earned it. He was a cocky bastard when he was younger.”

“I’m glad I only met him in his later years then. So what do you think? Did it mean as little to him as Ariana said?”

Brady fell silent, still watching his friend. After a moment he turned back to Jeff, sadness mixed in with his smile. “On the contrary. I think it was the most meaningful experience of his life.”

As the road pushed the group closer together, overtaken by forest on either side of them, their conversation ended. The air grew warmer as the trees canopied over their heads, and Jeff found himself wishing for a breeze.

“Sure got warm all of a sudden, didn’t it?” said Jeff, trying to break the sudden oppressive tension he felt.

Brady nodded. “The temperature hasn’t changed, but I know what you mean. Something’s wrong.”

He spurred his mount forward to squeeze around Cassie and ride next to Jayden. He leaned in to whisper something to him, and Michael rode ahead to offer some privacy. When Brady pulled back, Jayden sat up in his saddle and looked around, turning his horse to ride to the end of the line. He gave a wave to Cassie, Michael, and Darcy in reply to their curious stares.

“I think I might have dropped something,” he said in explanation as he started back down the road. “You go on and I’ll catch up.”

The three listened to his suggestion and rode on, but Jeff stayed behind with Brady who had halted to watch Jayden. Harold reined in as well, but kept his distance.

“What’s going on?” Jeff asked.

“We’re being followed,” Brady explained. “There are eyes in the trees.”

He nodded his head towards the woods on their left, and Jeff stared past the leaves. For a moment, he saw nothing, but then the creature blinked and disappeared, the rich amber-coloured fur fading into the shadows.