Loyalty Or Honour (Book 3)

Chapter Four

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Both brothers clamp up now. Neither has ever felt comfortable speaking their story or their thoughts. Both had kept feelings and everything else to themselves. They had shared enough. They both needed time to consider what the other had spoken about. The rest of the day passes uneventfully. Small, unimportant conversations and petty arguments move the day along fairly quickly. Jacqui at points breaks away from the group and rides ahead a significant distance. She then waits for the group to once again to catch up, pointing out safe drinking places for the horses as well as the riders.

Evening comes and the sun begins to make its slow decent down the sky, casting beautiful warm colours of red and orange against the green landscape. The grass appears to dance as flames at the most intense of moments. The group dismount and begin to set up camp. Hunter does not react as quickly as the rest and sits atop his horse, eyes closed and breathing deeply. There is something comforting about the warmth that spreads across his face and travels down his spine.

He opens his eyes as the hairs on his arms prickle. He finds Jacqui watching him. She smiles lightly, having been caught out in her assessment of him. "I apologise, I just find it so very strange that you and your brother do not differ at all. You would think there would be something different that you inherited from your father's."

"Perhaps Khiara has a type." Jasper chuckles as he nudges his sister. She shrugs her shoulders and returns to rolling out her sleeping mat. She then places a blanket over it and slings her bag down to use as support for her head. Hunter feels anger at her name and pushes the feeling down. He should have more understanding of her now that Orion has shared his upbringing with her but instead it has only brought back feelings of anger and a sense of lost that he had hidden long ago.

"Jasper." Orion calls out to him, stopping him from further joking about the matter. Orion grabs a bow and a quiver of arrows from his saddle bags. Jasper nods and secures his own to his back. Orion looks to the others now. "We should not be long. Behave while I am gone." He looks pointedly at Ross who holds his hands up in a placatory gesture, a smile speaking volumes on his face. Together Orion and Jasper trudge off to hunt for some game.

Zandar, immediately after setting up his sleeping mat, drops down onto his temporary bed and closes his eyes. Jacqui again glances over towards Hunter. Hunter rolls his shoulders and meets her gaze. "How would you like a secret to keep from your brother?" Ross' head jerks up at her peculiar question and he tries to catch her eyes. She refuses to look in his direction.

"I have plenty of secrets from my brother. Why would I need another one?"

"Maybe because it is amusing that your brother has no idea what is right under his nose for months on end?" She slyly replies.

"Jacqueline." Ross says lowly. "Stop fooling around. There is no secret that he needs to be aware of."

Jacqueline rolls her eyes and glances at him. "Not if you speak to me like that." Her reply has an amused smirk falling onto Hunter's lips. His eyes drift over to Ross who bites his tongue to hold back further words.

"Now I am interested. This secret of yours, does it involve Ross?" Ross squeezes his eyes shut as Zandar chuckles deeply, obviously not asleep.

"Jacqueline."

"Ross." She replies in the same tone. Ross opens his eyes and sighs. "It is hard enough to keep it a secret from Orion. I do not want to sneak around his brother also. We will never have any time." She speaks, her long lashes fluttering.

"How do you know he will not tell his brother?"

Jacqui smiles and looks to Hunter. She raises one brow. "If he keeps our secret I will keep every secret he ever tells me to myself."