It Is You I Have Loved

Chapter 25

When the group was officially done with their lunch, Charlie paid the satyrs a gold coin and they packed up whatever food remained to eat later.

Their next stop was at a river. Alastor grabbed a tree and easily bent it over to make a bridge for the others.

"Right this way my lady." Alastor said offering his hand to her.

She placed her own hand into his and allowed him to escort her over the bridge. But, lost in Charlie's eyes, Alastor let the tree go before Angel could make it across and he was flung all the way to the edge where they started from.

"Hey!" Angel called. "Aren't you guys forgetting something?"

But Alastor and Charlie didn't even notice. Luckily Vaggie did and she gave him a quick fly over the river.

"What's the matter with those two?" Angel asked. "It's almost like they don't even hear me."

That's because they didn't hear him. The princess and the wendigo didn't hear anything save for the voices of each other. And they didn't see anything except for each other's eyes, and the way Alastor looked at her set her heart a flutter. He kept gazing at her as if she was the most lovely thing in the world. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at her that way.

"I wonder if my groom to be will look at me that way." She wondered as she thoughtlessly undid her braid and ran her fingers through her hair.

The wind started to pick up and it caused her golden tresses to float in the breeze. Her locks brushed against Alastor's cheek and he instinctively smelled the scent of apple blossoms which her hair was fragrant of. Now normally the smell of sweet things disgusted him but this woman's natural perfume had him completely allured. Without thinking clearly, he would catch a little of her hair in his fingers.

"I wonder if her hair always smells this sweet." He smiled dreamily.

"Excuse me?" Charlie asked.

Alastor blushed when he realized that he had spoken his thoughts out loud.

"I mean...I...I...I."

"You were smelling my hair?"

"Not intentionally! The wind keeps blowing your hair awfully close to my face and I...I...I..."

"Oh I'm sorry." She braided her hair back into place.

"I do apologize for being so uncouth my dear. Believe me, I would never be so perverse."

Charlie believed him. She believed that he was no pervert, but she didn't believe he was immune to getting the wandering eye if he really liked someone, and she felt the urge to tease him a little.

So later when Vaggie and Angel had moved ahead and Alastor had trailed behind her, she slowly hiked up her skirt a little to see if he would look at her legs. He did, he didn't mean to but her pretty white legs could rival a doe's and for a moment he was captivated by them. Then she turned to smile at him mischievously and he immediately looked away. His face was so red and sweaty, his palms were shaking.

"Is something wrong Alastor?" Charlie asked him feigning innocence.

"Oh ha-ha, I'm fine." He laughed nervously.

"Are you sure? You appear to be a little flushed."

"Flushed? Oh you must be mistaken. I am in perfect health. Illness is a rarity for me."

"Well you know becoming ill isn't the only reason people become flushed."

"Really? What other causes are there?"