Serafina and the Black Cloak - Robert Beatty Page 0,34

onto the back of one of those stompers and expecting it not to kill her.

“We can walk,” she said.

“Eleven miles is a long way to walk in these woods,” he said. “Especially at night…”

He kept looking around, obviously frustrated, and she was, too; but there was something she liked about the fact that they were in this together. He was thinking of her as an ally. She’d never spent much time with other people, but she was beginning to see why people liked it. Although she was pretty sure that not everyone was as clever and kind as Braeden Vanderbilt.

“If we stay here, we can use the carriage for shelter,” he said. “My uncle sent a rider ahead to tell the Vances that I was on my way. When I don’t arrive, they’ll come looking for me. I’m sure of it. I think we should wait for help.”

She didn’t want to agree—she wanted to keep moving—but she knew he was probably right. She kept hearing the words he’d said to the horses: We’re in this together. We’re going to be all right. The words felt strangely reassuring to her as well.

She watched as Braeden unharnessed the horses for the night. The horses couldn’t go far because of the fallen trees blocking the road, but at least they could move around. He gave them hay and water from the supply that Nolan had stowed in the back of the carriage. Prior to this, she had only seen horses from a distance, and they had always seemed like terribly wild and unpredictable beasts, but as she watched Braeden working with them, talking to them, and caring for them, they seemed to be such good-hearted creatures, far more intelligent than she realized.

“Horses usually sleep standing up,” Braeden said. “And they always take shifts so that at least one of them is awake and alert for danger. If they sense something, they’ll raise the alarm. You just have to know the signals.”

“Excellent. We have watch-horses,” she said with a smile, trying to cheer him up.

Braeden smiled in return, but she could see he was still very frightened by what had happened, and she was, too. When a gust of wind passed through the trees, she reflexively spun around, fearful that the flying specter had returned.

“What do you see?” Braeden asked.

“Nothing,” she said. “It’s just the wind.”

The night’s cold had settled onto the forest, and with the moonlight that filtered down through the trees, they could see their breath. When a screech owl gave an eerie trill in the distance, it startled Braeden, but the sound of the bird calmed Serafina. She had lived all her life hearing those sorts of sounds on her nightly prowls of Biltmore’s grounds.

“Just an owl,” Braeden said as he exhaled.

“Just an owl,” she agreed.

As they climbed into the carriage, Braeden held the door open for her and helped her up the little steps, touching her back with his hand. It was as if they were entering the Grand Ballroom for the holiday dance. As a young gentleman, it was a natural gesture for him, probably just a habit, but it was a sensation she had never felt before. For a moment, that gentle touch of Braeden’s hand against her back was all she could feel or think about. It was the first time in her life that anyone other than her pa had touched her in a kind and gentle way. She tried hard to tell herself that Braeden’s touch probably meant a lot more to her than it did to him. He probably wasn’t even aware that he’d touched her. She knew that he had danced and dined with many fancy-dressed girls. It was probably silly for her to think that he wanted to be friends with a girl who wore a shirt for a dress and couldn’t ride a horse.

“Come on,” Braeden said quietly to Gidean, and the dog hopped up into the carriage with them. Braeden shut and locked the wooden door and shook it a few times to make sure that it was secure. Gidean circled twice, then took his position on the floor guarding the door.

“I’m sorry there aren’t any blankets,” Braeden said, looking through the carriage’s storage cabinets and trying to figure out how they were going to stay warm. “Not even a good cloak to sleep under.”

“I’ll pass on the cloak, thank you,” Serafina said with a smile, and Braeden laughed a little, but he seemed almost as nervous as she was