The Locket (15 page)

As he stood up, he began tugging at her arm for her to follow him through the woods.

“Wait a minute!” He stopped instantly at her pause. “First of all, we can’t go now, it’s too dark to go anywhere else tonight. Secondly, why go to your father? Wouldn’t it be a better idea to just go to the king?”

Realizing that he had almost revealed who he was again, he tried covering it up with another lie. “Eeerr … yes. But I should discuss this with my father beforehand. He is crazy for new inventions!”

Thankfully, Savannah did nothing more than shrug her shoulders. “All right, we can go in the morning then … oh.” Thinking about what she had just said, she forgot her promise to the royal family.

“What?”

“I forgot that I was asked by the king to do him a favor. The royal family is counting on me,” she said, although she had a feeling that they were not all that confident in her.

Christian crossed his arms and held an expression in his face that showed both interest and lack of trust. There was also a hint of sarcasm in his eyes. “To do what, may I ask?”

“To find and warn the kingdom’s general of the war about to break out. He’s at the edge of the other side of the forest and—”

“You need to cross it to save the town because no other soldier would.”

Savannah nodded her head. “Exactly.”

“Like mother like daughter,” he added with a captivating smile.

“I guess,” she smiled back. She really hated to admit it, especially because nothing so ridiculous had ever affected her this way before, but it was hard to stay mad at someone who had a face like his. Of course those toned muscles on his arms and, from what she could see beneath the slightly ripped shirt, his stomach, were a very good mind-changer.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, she thought. What am I doing? No pompous jerk like him has ever made me rethink my feelings about him before. They’re all the same—good looks, yes, but horrible attitude! And a self-centered, selfish, materialistic, blonde-haired-blue-eyed-beauty-wanting core. I couldn’t even consider befriending this kind of jerk! Nope, it’s simply out of the question. True, his eyes may be gorgeous and his smile may be … no, stop it! Just get rid of him, that’s what I should do. Just get rid of him. “Hey, Chris?”

“Yes?”

“You wouldn’t want to come with me, would you?” Crap. Why did she just ask that? She was supposed to be getting rid of him! Well, now that she had said it, there was no taking it back. Might as well deal with it. “I know that my asking is a bit sudden, and that you had another journey to partake in, but you probably know the forest better than I do and—”

“I would be delighted to accompany you on your quest, Miss Morgan,” he bowed to show his respect to her. Whether or not she had good manners was hardly a reason for him not to prove his. Though he was initially shocked to hear her address him in such a casual manner, he knew that if he wanted to live a life away from the palace and all its formalities he would have to get used to the idea.

When Savannah first saw Lance bow to her as she arrived, she thought that it looked goofy and a bit ridiculous. Yet now, as Christian made the same motion to her, it was no longer goofy but more sincere and even charming. Oh, boy. “Good.” He straightened his back again, reminding her of how the queen presented herself. “At least one of us will know our way through the forest,” she added under her breath.

It wasn’t easy to admit she wanted him to come along for reasons she didn’t quite understand. But it was, however, easy to admit it might be a good idea for him to come in case she happened to bump into any non-sociable fairytale creatures. She might not be a complete coward, but she definitely could not be deemed the world’s bravest girl. She might have thought so earlier when she was talking to the king and queen, because she immediately thought of the most innocent creatures. Now … she shuddered at the idea of being alone. Plus, Christian would also give her someone to talk to. She could imagine that walking by yourself for three or four days would get both lonely and boring, two adjectives she preferred not be described as.

“So shall we awaken at the crack of dawn?” He asked the question as if it were something that he was used to doing and came to expect. Something in his tone also told her that he was not as much asking as he was more assuming.

Even though Savannah was a tad shocked by his question, she did not let herself reveal it in her voice. Maybe she’d have better luck with fairytale creatures if she didn’t act so flabbergasted all the time. “No, I think that we will just get started whenever we wake up.”

Christian appeared stunned and a little reluctant. “But that
is
when I wake up in the morning.”

“Oh.” Weirdo. “Then in that case, consider this a once in a lifetime event. You can sleep in later than six o’clock tomorrow.”

Unsure he had heard correctly, he said, “Sleep later than sunrise? I have not done that in years.”

Both alarm and interest took over as she asked, “Why not?”

Since he could not tell the truth, and was apparently gruesome at making things up, Christian decided to explain his life with a half lie. “My father used to wake me up every morning at sunrise to … get the shop ready.” The part about his father waking him up was true enough. “He says that it will turn a growing boy into a man. I still do not understand why, but if that is what he says, then it must be true.”

Savannah thought for a moment. Even though they had just met, Christian could already tell when his new acquaintance was deep into thought. She moved her lips to the side of her face and rolled her eyes up to the sky. She only held that face for a second or two before she came up with an idea. “Maybe it’ll help you become more prepared for an obstacle.”

“Really?” He gave a slight grunt, thinking that it would be intriguing to hear a women’s point of view. “Explain your reasoning.” Another demand. Savannah hated that.

She had to think again, making that same cute pout that he immediately became found of. “How about if you are sleeping in the middle of the night and all of a sudden you hear a crash in the living room. You wake up quickly, not feeling as tired as you probably would be if you weren’t used to getting up early, and run down the steps to find a burglar in your house.”

“Burglar?”

“Bandit.”

“Oh.”

“Then,” she persisted. “You wouldn’t be too tired to hit him over the head or something and defend your belongings, whereas if you weren’t used to getting up that early, then you would be too tired to know what was going on, and once you find out, the bandit would have already left with your things.”

He contemplated her reasoning for a moment and finally said, “I am impressed.”

“Get used to it, because I do that to people often,” she smirked.

“And you do not think that that would be too terrifying?”

“What would be?”

“Hitting someone? You don’t think that the idea is too revolting?”

Savannah laughed. “No. Heck, if I had a bandit in my house, I wouldn’t wait for my husband to do something about it, I would throw him out myself, or at least try.”

Christian formed a slow smile in reply that made Savannah’s heart skip a beat. Either that, or speed up one. She wasn’t quite sure what it was doing—never a good sign. “You are not like any of the other maidens in my town.”

“Thank you, I take that as a compliment.”

“You should; I do not care for any of the girls in my town,” he waved a hand across the air in a disregarding manner. “They are all too feminine.” Not knowing how to answer that, she simply suggested getting some rest.

“I thought that we were not going to get up that early.” When she looked over to him, Savannah saw humor flashing in his seductive blue eyes.

“I said that we weren’t getting up at dawn. I didn’t say anything about not getting up early,” she played along. Seeing that he wasn’t about to disagree, she reached for the makeshift bucket and put out the fire. “By the way,” she murmured to him. “Unicorns … they give you your greatest desire, right?”

“Yes.”

“And ogres, they—”

“Are something that we should stay as far away from as possible.”

“Right.” After hearing so many wild things today, Savannah wanted to be sure that at least some of them were truthful. There had to be some constant for her here, or else she didn’t know how she was going to get by.

“Good night, Savannah.”

“’Night, Chris.” After that, the two of them fell asleep under the cool, dim blanket of the night sky, resting for tomorrow’s surprises and the long journey that awaited them.

“Yes,” he blinked out of his daydream. “Yes,” he said again looking at her. “I was just thinking.”

Savannah spread another gaze over his haggard face. “You don’t look all right. Actually, you don’t look like you got any sleep at all. Were you too cold?”

“No,” he moaned, grabbing for his head again.

“Were you scared?”

“Certainly not.”

Savannah furrowed her eyebrows. “Well then, what’s wrong?”

Running a hand through his disheveled hair, Christian paused, and then squinted his eyes as he looked up. “I think a coconut fell on my head.”

“Coconut?” She cocked her head in disbelief. “There are no—” Her words cut off as she followed his gaze to an enormous coconut tree right above their heads. Shocked, she quickly surveyed the area to find two other trees that made their way in a small circle around them. “That’s funny—these weren’t here last night, were they?”

Massaging his neck a little as he started breakfast, Christian shook his head. “No. Fruit, among other trees, tend to move around the forest randomly. One night they will be in one place, and the next they will be in another. They are very fickle creatures.”

“Huh,” Savannah considered this as she took a last bite of her breakfast. It had never occurred to her to think of trees as creatures before, not that she’d really thought of them as anything other than trees. This world was so strange. Everything was upside-down or on its side when it should have been upright, or multi-colored when it should have been black and white. The people were kooky, the rules absurd, and the creatures frustrating. Absolutely nothing was as it should be.

On the other hand, the town was beautiful, the food delicious, and the weather was perfect. It could be interesting to vacation here, if only it were real. “So, what did you dream about last night?”

With a mouthful of sausage, he didn’t skip a beat in replying. “Ah, it was a great dream! I dreamt that my father decided I did not have to marry so young and that I was free to do as I pleased and make my own choices.” Spreading a grin on his face, he added, “I wish I did not have to wake up.”

Sifting through what he had just said, Savannah could not think up one good reason why anyone would want to make a silversmith marry at seventeen. Maybe this place really was just that odd. “Why would you be forced to marry so young?”

“Hmm?” He brought his attention to her after taking another bite of his sausage and coming out of his daydream.

“I said why would you have to marry so young? I didn’t think a silversmith’s life was so demanding.” Christian choked on his breakfast when he went to swallow. What had he done? “Are you all right? You are definitely not having a good morning.” Patting his back, Savannah felt a twinge of sadness for him. Whatever was troubling him was beginning to make him outwardly nervous. She could see it first on his face and then throughout his body.

Suddenly recollecting everything he had told her the night before, he hoped to God he had not just ruined any chance of pulling off this little scheme. Quickly running possible excuses through his mind, he attempted to relax his face so as to no longer appear out of the ordinary. “Well, you see, Miss Morgan, in my dream I was the prince and my father was actually the king.”

“You dreamt that you were Prince Rupert?”

“Heavens, no!” he scowled. “I dreamt that I was his brother, the younger prince.”

“Oh.” Was it her, or did she detect an unusual hint of haughtiness? Savannah angled her head in thought, trying to muster up as much information as she could about the youngest prince. Not much came to mind, save for that he liked to run away and was to be the next in line for the crown despite Rupert’s eligibility. “You know, I haven’t met the prince’s brother, but from what I saw of Rupert, I don’t see how or why anyone would ever dream of being him.”