A Love Unveiled

Chapter Twenty-Five

    

           It turned out that there had not been a neighboring village nearby and wouldn’t be one for many miles.

            Alana and Nettie had made a pallet out of the forest floor and slept restlessly through the night, fearful of what the darkness concealed.

            As Alana rose, stretching her limbs, she wondered if Fallon realized they were gone and could he possibly be looking for her now?

            Brushing the twigs from her skirt, she gently shook Nettie awake. Her cousin moaned and rolled over, opening her eyes to a stream of sunlight pouring through the canopy above.

            “We should get going.” Alana said, peering around.

            “Why do you sound suddenly nervous?” Nettie asked, sitting up and following Alana’s gaze with growing peril.

            “I’m not, it’s just we’ve slept long enough and wasted time. Come on.” Helping Nettie to her feet, they started back on the trail. Alana realized mayhap this had been a mistake. She had not thought beyond the point of escaping the keep and now that they were far from Linden, she truly didn’t know which direction to go. There village was gone, so they had no real home to return too and now that the land belonged to Normans, that danger was at most present.

            An hour passed and they finally came to a small stream. Alana couldn’t have been more relieved to get a drink and wash some of the grime from her body.

            “We’ll rest here.” She said to Nettie, pushing her sleeves upward as she knelt to palm some water.

            Nettie sank against a rock and swept her forearm across her brow. “I’m so hungry, Alana.”
            “Let’s take a minute to rest and than look for food.” Just as she said that, a sudden rustling came from the opposite side of the stream.

            Her heart lurched against her chest as she sprang to her feet, her eyes widening as three men on horseback broke through the clearing.

            “Alana-“ Nettie’s voice, threaded with fear, came from behind as all three pairs of eyes settled on them.

            Fallon woke to the blinding afternoon light and an insistent ache in his head with no memory to the previous night’s events.

            Groaning, he rolled away from the window and let his feet fall to the floor. He dropped his head in his palms and waited for the room to cease spinning wildly out of place.

            Raising his head, he waited for his vision to clear before making an attempt to stand on two feet. How much mead did he consume to get so sloshed?

            Cursing his feeble mastery when it came to honeyed liquor, he vowed to not touch the wretched drink again as he clumsily slipped into a tunic.