Free Vixen Hunted by Christopher Kincaid Page B

keep your ears
covered."
    Timothy choked. Kit's
eyes widened.
    "True reds often
get cold ears." Abel winked. "My wife was a red. Thought she was the
last too."
    "How did you
know?" Timothy's palms sweated.
    "As I said, lad,
she moved like Anise. No mistaking that lovely sway."
    "Master Abel, do
you know about my home?" Kit asked.
    "I know nothing of
your home. Anise was from around here before…well you know what happened all
over. No sense in disturbing the dead." Abel looked at the sky. "But
I did hear about a place east that is safe. Anise sometimes wanted to go, but
we were too busy with the farm and the younguns. I don't know what I'd do with
all my boys if Anise didn't come along. Took them all in as her own brood, she
did." Abel laughed. "Twice widowed. Perhaps Mary will outlast my old
bones. Best get going. Light be wasting."
    "East." Kit
chewed her lip.
     

    Dust pillowed their
feet. Timothy kept his eyes open. The few travelers they passed stared at Kit's
red locks. He rubbed his still-itching eyes. He felt exposed now that they left
Abel's farm. Cat frolicked and sampled the late summer weeds.
    "Timothy?"
    "What? What is it?
Do you hear something?"
    "I'm sorry."
Kit watched the road at her feet.
    He blinked.
    "I am sorry."
Her gaze flicked up and away again.
    "I am too."
    "You have nothing
to be sorry about. I offended you." Kit fanned her blouse.
    "I took my nerves
out on you," Timothy said. A farm wife passed with a wicker basket on her
back and a small child strapped to her chest. "I shouldn't have done
that."
    "Accepted. See? I
can be forgiving," she said.
    They walked on in
silence. Timothy kept a little distance between them. His eyes still itched. He
sneezed.
    "Why are you still
avoiding me?" Kit asked. "I don't stink."
    "Honestly, it's
your tail."
    Her ears pushed against
the kerchief tied over her hair, and her tail fluttered under her skirts. Kit's
mouth hung open. "You don't like my…tail?"
    "I do like your
tail. Just not right now." Timothy suppressed a grin and a sneeze.
    "Not. Right.
Now." Kit frowned. Her kerchief bobbed again, and she stumbled over a
stone.
    "Careful! I am
starting to like it again."
    "Shepherd, you are
making me upset. Do not talk around me. I said I was sorry."
    Timothy held up a
finger. "I am sensitive to certain things during the summer." He
pointed at Kit. "And it seems I am currently sensitive to you."
    Timothy sneezed his
point.
    "Of course, it
isn't just you." He gestured. "Grass really makes me itch and sneeze
too, but I cannot avoid that."
     "You made me
worry that I—" Kit crossed her arms. "You owe me an apology.
Now."
    "Apologize for
something that is only natural for me? No. You should apologize for your
tail." He rubbed an eye.
    The rear of her skirt
flopped. She sniffed.
    "You won this one.
You won't win the next ."
    Timothy looked down the
road. He felt his mood slip. "I am not sure how mother and Aunt Mae
will—"
    "That is quite all
right, husband. I am sure she will like your choice in a mate. Of course, that
doesn't mean you are not under my paws for making me apologize for
nothing."
    Timothy shrugged.
"I am a condemned man who has given up on deliverance. At the least, I
will heckle my executioner."
    Cat bleated at the
joke.
    The sun dipped low on
the horizon when they entered a small hamlet. A wooden sign with a crude
engraving of a mug and a bed marked the small town's inn. Scents of hard work,
cheap ale, and food fought for dominance. The mix made Timothy light-headed.
    "Do people ever
wash?" Kit wrinkled her nose.
    "Hey! No
livestock," a barrel of a man behind the bar bellowed. "There is a
stable behind the inn." He jerked a fat thumb.
    "Sorry,"
Timothy told the lamb. "Mind ordering dinner, Kit?"
    Kit smiled.
"Certainly, husband!"
    Timothy suppressed a
groan. No doubt dinner would be payback for earlier. He led the lamb behind the
inn. The stables were cleaner than Timothy expected. A donkey and a gelding
regarded him. Cat bounded over to the donkey's