Free Poison by Sarah Pinborough Page A

none in evidence when she finally sent him on his way. Maybe he had been foolish, but there had been too much wickedness around him of late and nothing shook that away like the pleasures of the body, whether they be taken with a queen or a serving girl.
    He concentrated on the task she’d set him. He was a straightforward man, but he was learning the wiles of the wealthy. It seemed that no matter how much he wished for a quiet life, fate had drawn him into royal games once again, and this one would have a twist in it before it was done. There was still a debt that needed paying and he wouldn’t forget it.
    Ahead, just out of sight, a horse whinnied and pawed at the leafy ground. His skin prickled and he edged silently forward, ignoring the tiny insects which hovered and darted around his head in the muggy heat. The air so close to the base of the mountain carried a tang of minerals from the mines, and as he peered through the low branches to the pool beyond, it grew stronger. A thick mist coated the surface of the water, thinning into steam as if the water was warmer than the air. Perhaps it was. There were no mines in his homeland and who knew how the metals in the earth changed its nature.
    From somewhere in the haze came splashing, light and free, and as he was sure that he couldn’t see her then he believed the reverse must also be true; he slipped between the trees until he was in the clearing beside a fine horse with royal colours in its reins. He patted the thick black neck and calmed it, impressed by its size and strength; not the steed he expected for a princess. Dark eyes full of fire watched him warily. This was no prancing pony, this was a stallion fit for a fighting king. What was it about the women in this royal family that made them so strange? An ice queen in a tower and a princess with a knight’s horse who swam – he took the pair of riding breeches and white shirt from the horse’s back to find her underclothes there too – naked in the forest? There was nothing normal about this – but then, with his adventures of late, normality was becoming a rarity. He hid behind the thickest willow trunk and waited.
    She emerged from the water not long after, standing on the bank and tipping her head back to squeeze the water from her black hair, as naked as the day of her birth and brazenly comfortable with it. Suddenly, he understood the horse. Where the queen chose to hide in her tower, this princess was earthy, a creature of nature. Her slim legs were long and firm and she moved with the grace of the finest white stag. This was no delicate animal; no skittish forest deer. She was beautiful without a doubt, but not fragile. She was fuller figured and rounder featured than her step-mother – generosity made flesh. Her stride was confident and sunlight glittered on the drops of water that clung to her skin like jewels. She paused and stretched, smiling at the mix of warm air and cool liquid on her drying body.
    That was what was so wrong with the queen, he realised as he watched the girl so comfortable in her nudity. She was equally beautiful but with none of the freedom or calm of this princess she hated. She was harder. One day she’d harden so much the pressure would shatter her.
    Snow White paused and frowned, and before she had time to realise she wasn’t alone, the huntsman stepped out in front of her. He held up her clothes.
    ‘Looking for these?’
    She crouched slightly, making ready to fight, but made no effort to cover her glorious nakedness and her eyes darted here and there searching for a potential weapon. He liked her more already.
    ‘I’m not here to harm you,’ he said. ‘Well, technically I’m here to kill you, but she owes me a life in exchange for one she wasted, and so I choose to spare yours.’ This girl’s life for the stag’s would be a good payment. One creature of nature for another. He held out her clothes but instead of reaching for them, she’d been distracted by