Reckless (Age of Conquest #5) - Tamara Leigh Page 0,52

silver began to appear.” She glanced at their meal. “Dare we cook it?”

“Once we go farther into the interior.”

“Then we shall remain in this wood?”

“As there is little extensive cover in East Anglia, it must serve for now.”

“But surely ’tis near or upon Wulfenshire that Daryl and his men search for us.”

“For that we came east.” Vitalis started back toward camp, and when she hurried alongside, continued, “However, if Daryl is thinking right, at the least he will divide his men to search both Wulfenshire and East Anglia, at the best gain extra men to more thoroughly cover both areas. That last I believe less likely since it decreases his chance of being the one to give me into William’s hands, and much he wants that to gain revenge and great reward. And there is another enemy whom we—nay, I—must watch for.”

“Who?”

“Your ransomed cousin who has yet to deliver the mantle piece.”

She looked to his purse where he had placed it when she bathed in marsh water.

“And with it, me,” Vitalis added.

“Not you.” She shook her head. “When I tell Maël—”

“All I require of you is that you do as I say without complaint or argument, Nicola.”

She jumped in front of him, and when he halted, said, “You speak as if I have not done as told since…” Remembering Zedekiah in the alley, then at the stable, she closed her eyes. And behind her lids, more clearly she saw those events as she dare not—at least until she was distant from Vitalis whose scorn would make her hurt more. Once she was alone, she would let out all she struggled to hold inside.

“Since?” Vitalis said, and when she did not respond, said, “Since I stopped you from riding into the night alone, which would have further endangered us.”

She stepped nearer. “You did not stop me. I stopped myself.”

His nostrils flared, and she knew what was inside him also needed out. He would not bruise nor bleed her over the loss of his friend, but she would almost prefer that over him voicing accusations that further evidenced he wished he had not given his word to aid her.

Nicola raised a hand. “Let us not argue further. I admit I have been impulsive and reckless, and I am aware of what it has cost others. Thus I am determined to do as you say so sooner you may be rid of me.”

A muscle convulsed in his jaw. “Good intentions are a starving man’s gruel. Responsible actions are what feeds his family, ensuring their survival. Even in an England ruled by your people.” He stepped around her.

Staring after him, once more she wished these past weeks were not engraved in steel—that she could do the one thing he had asked of this Norman, that the mantle piece was in William’s hands, and Zedekiah remained at his side. Then possibly the king’s attention would be on matters other than capturing Vitalis.

Once again feeling tears, she swallowed hard. Then silently vowing she would prove herself to Vitalis so when she crossed his mind in years to come he might dislike rather than hate her, she hurried after him.

“I go to town on the morrow.”

Nicola’s thumb popped out of her mouth like the plug in a flask that kept drink from a thirsty man’s throat. If not for worry over what Vitalis told, she would have lingered over the shame of a lady caught sucking from fingers what remained of the meat that had broken her fast earlier this day and again at supper.

Looking to Vitalis on the opposite side of a low-burning fire over which the hare had been cooked hours past after they moved camp, she saw his brow was furrowed. For that which he had yet to tell? Or over disgust at her lack of manners?

She lowered her hand and clasped it with the other. “Why risk going into town when we have all we need here?”

He lifted the wineskin from beside him and tossed it above the flames. When it landed at her feet where she sat on the ground, he said, “That is the last of our drink. As you know and much I have experienced, at best the flux is debilitating, at worst deadly. Though the water here is cleaner than that of the harried North, we will not chance it unless necessary.”

She retrieved the wineskin they sparingly shared, and from its weight knew it held mere sips. “But surely greater the risk of finding yourself debilitated or dead from