pay for the wasted water. I do not want to kill this man.”
With a long, regrettable sigh, Halsteri snapped his fingers. “Put your blade away, Lakatt. This ruffian is the commander of the Warriors and I want no trouble with him.”
Caleb waited until Lakatt sheathed his weapon before sheathing his own, and then he turned to face Willow. There was no anger in his voice when he spoke to her, no fury in his brilliant eyes the way she had expected. What she saw was much worse.
“Willow, water is very precious in Predaria,” he spoke gently, as if she were a child who did not understand that she had just broken her mother’s most treasured belonging.
“I know that,” she argued. “But he—”
“You don’t behave like you know it,” he cut her off. “How could you know?”
He left so much unsaid, but Willow saw it all in his eyes. She was nothing but a pampered child to him, a spoiled princess with no thoughts in her head save what gown she would slip into after her bath. His tender, almost pitiful expression told her that she could never understand because she never knew hardship, hunger or sorrow. How could he be angry with a spoiled brat who knew no better? What were those things he wanted to say, but didn’t? Did he want to tell her that her conceit sickened him? That her jewels meant nothing to the starving, save their value in trade? She did know that. If she didn’t before, she understood it now after seeing the desert people. And why didn’t he say those things to her? Was it his noble heart Jonas told her of that stopped him? She would have preferred his anger rather than his pity. At least then, she could argue back with him that he was wrong.
He was already speaking to Halsteri when Willow finally thought of a response that might erase those accusing looks he offered her. “Caleb?” she said quietly. She tried to prepare herself for what she was about to say, for she had never said it to anyone before. “I’m sorry.”
She watched him through a cloud of tears and then she fled the tent.
Chapter 8
Caleb finished his business with Halsteri quickly, paying the trader two coins for the water that was spilled and wasted. He left the tent with arrangements to pick up his water later on in the day and searched the crowds for Willow. Each time she ran away from him, he realized that she had no idea how dangerous Predaria was. She was a princess, pampered and waited on all her life. She probably never traveled without an entourage of guards and vassals to protect her from even breaking a fingernail. He should have thought of these things before he took her. He should have realized that she would try to escape without any fear of attack. The plains were treacherous and Theshwar was filled with men drunk with wine and looking for a warm body to help them forget their troubles. The thought of it made Caleb curl his fingers into his palms. Halsteri had asked, someone else might not be so polite.
When he spotted her sitting on large rock, all alone with her face in her hands, something tugged at Caleb’s heart. She was soft, untouched by this harsh world. Why had he dragged her into it, under this brutal sun that would burn her pale skin and dry her beautiful, full mouth?
He wanted to make up for it a little if he could. He knew she liked trinkets and jewelry, so without taking his eyes off her, he stole down the crowded street and stopped at a large table of wares where everything from pots and other cooking utensils to jewelry and perfumes was being traded by a woman whose dry, leathery skin resembled that of an ancient, weathered tree trunk. She offered Caleb a quick nod and narrowed her eyes suspiciously while he looked through the pieces of jewelry set out before her. Nothing caught his eye at first, and then he spotted something that made him smile.
“How much?” he asked the woman, holding up the item.
“What is ya tradin’?”
Caleb opened his palm and held up a shiny coin of silver. “Is this enough?”
The woman snatched the coin from his hand and offered him anything else he wanted from the table. But he had found what he was looking for. A figurine fashioned from simple clay but painted so skillfully it may