Kern. He will probably act like he expected you; he’s that way.”
“Is he a wizard, like they say?” I asked through my second bite of bread.
“He likes to provoke. His wisdom is considerable, and he is able to see into the hearts of men to a degree that might well be magic. But he primarily enjoys keeping people off-balance.”
“Should I trust him?”
“Yes.”
I looked over the map, which seemed pretty simple. The route took us about halfway back to Astolat, where we’d turn onto a secondary road that wound through forests and hills. I tucked it inside my coat, then yawned; I’d had about four hours’ sleep in the last day and a half, and it began to wear on me.
“And now, would you excuse us a moment?” Spears said quietly. He cut his eyes toward Jenny, and I nodded.
I wandered to the stable doors. The path beyond them led to a service gate down the hill from the house. This end of Blithe Ward had no visible lights. The trees, shrubs, and shadows provided plenty of opportunities for ambush, but who would dare it under Elliot Spears’s nose?
I wiggled my fingers in their cast, noticing there was more room; the swelling had considerably diminished. I shifted my shoulders, trying to find a position where the new scabbard didn’t seem uncomfortable. It improved my posture, although the sword’s bare-metal pommel kept tapping the back of my head. A nice leather wrapping would make it a lot more bearable.
I glanced behind me. Spears and Jenny were still deep in soft, serious conversation, their faces close.
I yawned again. I didn’t entirely buy the loony tale of identical half sisters; it sounded more like a bedtime story than real life. Whatever its source, though, the resemblance between Queen Jennifer and Jenny was extraordinary. Still, my job was just to make sure this Jennifer got to her destination, after which I’d have a healthy purse and a clear conscience and could decide then what to do about Iris Gladstone.
Eventually they kissed. Spears took the nearest horse by the bridle and led the wagon to the stable door. I climbed onto the seat beside Jenny. “Have a safe trip,” he said to me, but his eyes never left her. “I’ll send word as soon as I can.”
“Yes,” she said firmly.
I took the reins and urged the horses forward. Spears walked beside us to the gate and opened it. Beyond it, the moonlit road stretched into the darkness. Jenny turned and watched the gate close behind us.
For a long time neither of us spoke. I continued to raid the picnic basket until my stomach stopped berating me. We rode west on the same road that brought me here, and the wagon made a lot of noise on the flagstones. A whistling farmer taking home an empty cart passed us headed east, and we exchanged neighborly waves. Finally I said to Jenny, “So who else knows about your… situation?”
I couldn’t see her face in the darkness. “The other Jennifer. Cameron Kern. Elliot, of course.” I could hear the slight smile in her voice. “And now there’s you.”
Abruptly I yanked the reins, halting the wagon. Ahead the road rose up a slight hill, and three riders were silhouetted against the night sky, stopped and apparently conferring. They could’ve just been ordinary locals on their way home-it wasn’t that late, after all-but I was taking no chances. We were at the bottom of the slope, in a pool of shadow beneath a tree; if they hadn’t heard our clattering approach and we didn’t give ourselves away, we should be invisible. To Jenny I whispered, “Be very still.”
The three riders had not moved. Their voices reached us, but not clearly enough to make out. Were they coming our way, or headed toward Astolat?
They finished their conversation and started down the hill at a fast trot. There was no time to jump from the wagon and hide, certainly no chance of turning around and outrunning them. So I did the only thing I could.
I pulled Jenny into my arms and kissed her.
Even at the time, part of me appreciated how rare this moment was. She was a beautiful woman, and when I held her close, I felt the shape of her slender, strong body against me. I was experiencing the same embrace as both Marcus Drake and Elliot Spears; that was some pretty rarefied company.
She strained against me at first, then amazingly began to relax. I felt her lips part slightly, and her arms went around my neck. It became less of a ruse than I intended.
Then one of the riders said from beside us, “What’ve we got here?”
I looked back at them. Shadowed by the tree, I couldn’t make out their faces, which meant they couldn’t see mine or notice how overdressed I was. I said, in what I hoped was a fair approximation of the local country accent, “Do you mind? We’d like a little privacy here.”
I felt a sword tap my cheek. “Don’t get smart, farm boy.”
I spread my hands. It was dark enough they couldn’t tell I was armed. “Hey, whoa, I’m not trying to start any trouble. We’re just out for a ride, you know?”
The next voice both raised my hackles and made my temper wind to the breaking point. It was the sneering, unmistakably broken-nosed whine of Dave Agravaine. “Forget it. We don’t have time. Come on.”
The sword did not move. Then it tapped my cheek playfully. “Too bad, or we’d share her with you. Maybe she’d like a couple of real men.”
“Come on!” Agravaine snarled. It came out Cub ah!
I watched until they disappeared in the distance, back toward Blithe Ward. I heard Jenny draw a breath to speak and quickly touched her lips with my finger. Still watching over my shoulder, I snapped the reins. The horses pulled us up over the hill and into the open, where at least we couldn’t easily be ambushed. I said, “Okay, but speak softly.”
“Elliot would have you gelded for that.”
“I’m sorry, it was all I could think of.”
“Your first impulse in a moment of danger is to kiss the nearest woman?”
“Yes.”
She was silent for a moment. Then she giggled. She choked it off at once, but there was no denying it. After a moment she added, “My experience with kisses has been limited to one man, but yours was not… unpleasant. I wouldn’t make it a habit, though.” She leaned close and gave me a small but deliberate peck on the cheek.
I might’ve blushed. “I wanted them to think we were just local folks out for a good time and completely uninterested in them. And since they were Knights of the Double Tarn, it was definitely the right call.”
“Knights of the Double Tarn?” she gasped.
“Yeah. One was Dave Agravaine, so I assume the others were Cador and Hoel.”
“Why would Knights of the Double Tarn be here?”
“If they don’t know about you, then those particular knights were probably out to ambush Elliot. If somehow they do know about you…”
“Then we have to get to Cameron’s place quickly. Hurry!” She reached across and tried to grab the reins from me.
“Stop that!” I said roughly, and pushed her back. “There’s no reason to panic.” I held her shoulders until she stopped struggling. “Nice to see you worry about your husband,” I snapped.
“Elliot doesn’t need my help,” she said, still shaking. “But if they catch me, if they hurt me, I can’t bear it-”
“Nobody is going to catch you. You may not believe it, but I know what I’m doing. They’re going the other way, and we’ve got a good head start. Now calm down.”
The wagon seat trembled, conveying her shudders. She was totally unlike the other Jennifer, and I realized that the long-ago decision to switch was right. But I also understood why Drake might see it as treasonous betrayal.
I stopped the wagon and took her in my arms again, not as a man takes a woman but as you’d hold a frightened child discovered far from home. I recalled Mary the servant girl trembling on her stool, face battered from Agravaine’s tender care. That made me even more aware of my responsibility. I kept one arm around Jenny’s shoulders and snapped the reins with the other. The sooner I got her to safety, the better. For everyone.
TWENTY