Free Silvermay by James Moloney Page B

towards him, pushing at his shoulder.
    He let the force of my hand twist his body but didn’t take a step backwards. The smirk became a smile. He knew I wasn’t serious, and he knew my lunge had been as playful as my claim to hate him.
    â€˜Three in five is very good. Your father must be a fine teacher,’ he said, teasing me mercilessly. Then he added, ‘I’m sorry, Silvermay. The less you learned about me, the safer you’d stay.’
    An apology at last, sincere and freely offered. I basked in its warmth and wished I could push at hisshoulder again. But I knew it would be too much. Once was understandable, considering how he’d tricked me, but a second time would be something else.
    â€˜Actually, my best is three out of five,’ I said. ‘Usually, it’s two.’
    He laughed out loud, a new first for him, and, as a final comic insult, handed me the rabbit to carry back through the birch trees.
    â€˜Save the arrow,’ he said more seriously. ‘You may need it.’
    Â 
    We returned to Nerigold, helped her onto the horse and, with the rabbit tied to the saddle behind her, set off again with me leading the way. As the light began to fade, so did my memory of the tracks I’d travelled with my father.
    â€˜Yes, I can see how the ground’s beginning to rise,’ said Tamlyn when I told him. ‘I guess we’ll have to blaze our own path from here.’
    Our own path . Did he include me in those words? I hadn’t thought of turning back for a moment, and as we climbed steadily tomorrow and into the mountains of Nan Tocha after that, Nerigold and little Smiler would need me more than ever. I wasn’t a guide now. I didn’t feel like a nurse, either. I was a fugitive, as they were, and happy to be one if it meant spending my days like these last two.
    We roasted the rabbit over a fire and set about devouring every shred of its flesh. Between mouthfuls, I told Nerigold of the hunt and had her laughing at Tamlyn’s tricks.
    â€˜Be careful of him, Silvermay,’ she warned in a mocking tone, while Tamlyn sat there enjoying our attention. ‘That pretty face of his makes people trust him before they really know him.’
    â€˜It’s true, I’m afraid,’ he said, with a devilish wink.
    He could say what he liked, and so could Nerigold, but I’d been fooled once and I wouldn’t be again. I didn’t believe a word either of them said and let the look on my face show it.
    Nerigold went to check on her son, asleep on the other side of the fire. My hands were greasy from the rabbit so I dug a rag out from the pocket of my dress to wipe them clean. When I was done, Tamlyn took the rag from me.
    â€˜You have a smear on your chin, as well,’ he said and, before I quite knew what was happening, his right hand was holding my jaw still and his left was dabbing with the rag at the corner of my mouth and beneath my bottom lip.
    I could have turned away. I could have taken the cloth from his hand and finished the job myself. But I didn’t.
    â€˜That’s better. All gone now,’ he said, and his face lit with a brief grin that melted the heart clean out of my chest.
    It was over in moments, and his eyes had barely met mine since it was my mouth and chin that needed his attention. But the imprint of his fingers on my jaw lingered long after he had joined Nerigold and the baby.
    I watched them together. For weeks I’d observed them secretly like this, searching for accidental touches, for the fleeting opportunities when one could remind the other of the affection they couldn’t display openly. And in all those days, I hadn’t seen any.
    Now, the touches of affection I’d looked for had finally appeared, but not between Tamlyn and Nerigold. They’d passed between Tamlyn and me.

8
Along the Forest Paths
    Near Haywode
    T here had been five riders in the party when they’d left the coast, but only