“Take this fellow — I know him by his knots. He’s been setting snares here for six years, and all I ever see are the snares.” He chuckled. “I have to admire him for his cleverness and stealth, even while I despise him for stealing from the landowner.”
“It’s really no different from someone stealing a sheep, or robbing apples from an orchard,” Eric went on. “This forest belongs to someone. So do the things in it. If it were wilderness and unclaimed, that would be different, but it’s not. We even allow people to collect windfall wood, nuts, berries and mushrooms, and there are damn few landowners who will do that. There are places where the penalty for picking up a few sticks for your fire is the same as taking a hare.”
“Oh” was all she managed to say.
“Heh. Not so cut-and-dried anymore, is it?” he asked, turning to look at her again, a sardonic eyebrow raised. “I’m not a good man, Mademoiselle Beauchamps. I don’t pretend to be. But I don’t take a hot iron and press it into a man’s forehead because I find him with a dead rabbit.”
They continued on in silence for a while. Eric stopped several more times, bringing back handfuls of wire, and twice, a dead rabbit, which he stowed in a larger saddlebag. The mule behaved beautifully.
By now Bella was completely lost. If she hadn’t had their trail to follow back, she was sure she would never have been able to get out of the woods on her own. Finally, Eric looked up at the sun again and grunted. “Time to turn around,” he said. “We’ve covered a lot of ground, as much as I could have alone. You and that beast are both steady. If you promise not to try to go haring back to the city, you can ride out alone any day you like as long as you keep to the road. I don’t suppose you’d want to come out with me again.”
“Looking for snares?” she asked. “It was…interesting. I learned a great deal that I didn’t expect to.”
“Which is a polite way of saying no?” There was something underneath the irony. She couldn’t tell what it was.
“Which is a polite way of saying ‘when I get an astride saddle,’” she found herself saying. “I felt as if I was going to fall off more than once, and if you are going to cover rougher ground than this was, or at a faster pace, I don’t want to try and keep up on this thing.”
He turned to look at her with a face full of astonishment, and laughed. “Well, Mademoiselle Beauchamps, you do surprise me! I can see why Sebastian finds you interesting!”
“Isabella, then.” He looked up at the sky. “If we press on at a good pace, we should be well in time for supper.”
Sapphire fussed over her until she changed into one of the new gowns and allowed the Spirit Elemental to put her hair up. Eric had given the rabbits to one of the other Elementals with instructions to put them in the pantry, and she was already planning what to do with them.
When she went down to supper, both Eric and Sebastian were already there and already eating. “I’m sorry I’m late,” she said. Eric shrugged; Sebastian looked apologetic.
“I skipped dinner and Eric was as ravenous as a winter-starved bear,” Sebastian said. “I didn’t think you would mind.”
“You are the master here,” she reminded him. “You are the one who sets the rules.”
Eric snorted, but said nothing.
“It sounds as if that mule Eric found is perfect for you,” Sebastian continued, as the servant set down the first course in front of her.
“I think it’s safe enough for you to go harass the beast and see if she’ll bear your presence,” Eric put in. “Then you can go riding with the girl. Do you good to get your nose out of a book.”
Sebastian made a face, but did not look displeased. “You sound like Father.”
“And this is a surprise, why?” Eric countered. Sebastian looked away.
Eric quickly finished eating and shoved away from the table. “I have a lot of territory to cover tomorrow,” he said. “The earlier I start the better. I was glad to see you aren’t some sort of hothouse flower, Isabella.”
“My stepmother would say I am more like a weed,” she responded in the same spirit. “Good night, Eric.”
Sebastian listened to this exchange with astonishment. “You two are getting along, then?” he asked, tentatively, when Eric was gone.
“Let’s just say there seems to be a truce,” she replied.
He smiled. “Well, then, it’s good news all around today. The Godmother has made arrangements so that you can write to your father and get letters in return.” He reached under the table and brought up a little carved wooden box, just about the right size to hold a folded and sealed letter. “It was on condition that he wouldn’t reveal anything about this, of course. But it seemed heartless to keep both of you so unhappy when something so small would help.”
She took the box in both hands, and found that those hands were shaking. “I — don’t know what to say — ”
“I know this still doesn’t change the fact that — well, we don’t know what is going to happen to you, and won’t be sure for more than two months. You’ve only been here a fortnight. But — ” he shrugged helplessly “ — I think this will make you a little happier. Or him less worried, which will make you a little happier. I hope.”
“I think you are absolutely right,” she replied. She opened the box. It was empty, and would hold no more than a few sheets of paper. “How does it work?”
