That being the case, she decided to see what she might learn from Gaelen once she had set the tent up. He still had the baby, after all, so that was a good excuse. If he seemed unreceptive to chatting, she could just leave with the baby.
He’d settled near a campfire to play with the baby, she discovered. The look he gave her when he heard her approach wasn’t exactly welcoming, but his expression cleared so quickly she decided the anger behind it wasn’t directed at her.
“You have come to collect His Highness?”
Emma smiled, thinking how ‘heavy’ that title was for such a tiny being. “Yes.” She hesitated. “I was sort of hoping you’d tell me a little about the local wildlife?”
He seemed to have trouble following that question.
“Things that live in the woods that might eat me,” she said with an attempt at a joke.
“Ah!” he said, nodding. “Tiny morsel—Emma hardly mouthful for most tings.”
She smiled uneasily. “That isn’t very reassuring.”
He studied her then and finally pointed at the beasts they’d ridden. “Dem no let nuting come too close.”
“They’re that fierce?” she asked doubtfully.
He shook his head. “Dem scared ob eber ting. Scream.”
Emma chuckled in spite of her anxieties—which he’d done nothing to appease.
Chapter Eighteen
It transpired that Gaelen hadn’t actually been joking. The damned thingswerescared of anything and everything that moved in the dark—including windblown foliage. Emma thought it might be partly because she was still getting used to the time rhythm of the planet. And it might have been the long nap she took when she was riding with Kadin. Undoubtedly, her uneasiness at being in a strange land with the strong possibility of dangerous alien creatures made sleeping difficult and she would have slept lightly anyway. But the shrieks of terror those damned things let out any time a limb brushed them or they heard a rustle was mostly what kept her awake half the night.
She was so tired when she heard the camp stirring all she really wanted to do was pull her covers over her head and go back to sleep, but of course Princess Bitch wasn’t going to let that pass.
“She slept all time,” she muttered as she passed Emma on her way out of the tent.
“Your English sucks,” Emma retorted.
“Your Hirachi, also,” Valee flung back at her.
Since Emma’s grasp of Hirachi was non-existent, that went without saying, but she supposed Valee was having difficulty flinging insults back at her.
Nye, thankfully, was still sleeping so that gave her a few minutes to wake up. Remembering they’d made camp near a small stream the night before, she left the tent, blinked her watering eyes until she was able to focus them and headed in the direction she thought the stream lay.
Fortunately, she wasn’t off by much. She decided to pretend she’d meant to wander off course and used the time to relieve herself.
She really, really hated going in the woods, but it wasn’t the first time she’d found herself in a situation where it was that or soil/piss herself and squatting sure beat the hell out of that!
When she’d finished, she headed to the small stream and fell in.
The damn bank was slippery with some kind of moss-like vegetation and damp with morning dew and all she had to do was plant one foot in the middle of it and she slid to the bottom and into the water.
When she’d stopped moving, she glanced around to see who might have observed her mishap and discovered Hauk was standing on the bank grinning at her. She shot him a bird, but she chuckled. “Shut up! This shit is cold as hell! Must be mountain water.”
It certainly woke her right up, though.
It was amazing how fast dipping one’s ass in icy water could do that!
Irritation flickered through her at the reflection that she was going to be stuck with one of the gown-like things since she’d wet her pants, but she tried to be philosophical about it. She’d rode on the stinky beast yesterday. She still smelled it and that probably meant herandher clothes needed a bath.
It was a damned shame she didn’t have soap!
Hauk made his way down the bank very carefully and held out a bar of soap.
Emma gasped in surprise and delight, grabbing it. “Where did you find this?”
Hauk looked taken aback. “Onboard. You didn’t find the soap in the bath?”
“It took me half a day to find anything to dry off with,” Emma said dryly. “And that tank thing was filled with salt water so I didn’t feel clean even when I bathed.”
Hauk studied her thoughtfully. “I will go out on a limb here and guess that Princess Valee did not show you the bath? That wasnotthe bath, by the way.”
Emma stared at him, struggling with the rage that surged through her. “That … total bitch!” she growled.
“I thought you had already determined that,” Hauk said dryly.
“Yes, but ….” She dragged in a calming breath and released it. “She has no reason that I can think of to act that way toward me. I didn’t do a damn thing to her!”
He shrugged. “Except that she thinks Gaelen, Kadin and … I are enamored of you.”
Emma gaped at him. “What? What in the world would give her that idea?”
Hauk looked uncomfortable. “I cannot imagine.”
Emma frowned. “Well, Gaelen’s her brother, isn’t he?”
“Yes. But I am thinking she blames you for the rift between them.”
That time Emma’s wrath boiled over. “She did that herself when she … uh … when she … uh … stuck her nose in his business,” she finished lamely, feeling her face turn ten shades of red at the knowing look in Hauk’s eyes.
Unable to sustain that look, she focused on using the soap. She really wanted a thorough bath but the water was cold enough she was starting to feel numb.
He declined to take the bar when she tried to hand it
