Chapter 13: The Road North

We rode north for two days before I said the rule out loud.

Linnet was strapped against my chest in a wool sling, asleep.

Her white lock lay tucked under my chin.

The Greywater healer had said wolves heal fast and I could ride on the fourth day.

She had been right, and I hated how right she was.

Torin took the lead on a gray mare.

Aldric rode a length behind me, and I felt him there the whole way.

At noon I stopped my horse in the middle of the road.

"I have a rule," I said.

Aldric stopped too. "Tell me."

"You don't touch me. Not my hand, not my arm, not my back when I climb down."

"Until when?"

"Until Rowan is home."

"Understood."

"Say the whole thing."

"I will not touch you until Rowan is home." His jaw was tight. "I'll hold to it."

"Good."

Torin turned in his saddle. "I'd like it noted that I'm the witness."

"Noted," I said.

"I'd also like it noted that he's been looking at her hands for an hour."

Aldric's head came round. "I have not."

"You have. It was like watching a dog stare at a sausage."

I almost laughed.

It came up in my chest before I could stop it, and Linnet stirred.

Aldric's face changed.

He looked at my mouth, then he looked hard at the road.

I told myself he was a man who hadn't seen me smile in seven years.

At the creek I filled a flask and held it out to him from the saddle.

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