Rosie let out a panicked whinny. Fear gripped me so hard that I even stopped my chattering. I snapped my head toward the narrow cave opening. Someone was there.
Someone was coming.
Planting my blistered hands on the rough, rocky floor, I scooted back toward the far wall, making myself as small as I could, hiding as deep in the deepest, dark shadows as the cave would allow. The unmistakable scratch of boots on the soil followed, accompanied by a nicker of a horse that I didn’t recognize. Not Rosie.
The footsteps continued. Only one set. Only one person was there. For now. How many more would be following? My mind went back to the previous day, the highwaymen that accosted me, and I imagined that this was another, probably one of a group. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. I’d be found, right here, and in my frozen, hungry, weakened state I’d be powerless to stop him doing what he liked with me.
I held my breath, and stared unblinking at the opening of the cave. A dark figure filled the entry, a black shadow against the blackness of the night. But the moonlight made a barely visible silhouette of broad shoulders and the gap between two massive legs.
I drew my knees even more tightly to my breast, and rolled my neck so that my hair covered as much of my cream-colored tunic as possible. I needed to stay small and stay hidden. Falroy scampered from my side to assess the newcomer and chittered in the way he did when he knew someone’s smell.
Oh no. It had to be one of my stepfather’s men. I was sure of it. The sound of a flint strike cut through the silence and a spark shot through the darkness. I braced myself to be discovered, as a torch suddenly burst into flickering flames that licked the cave wall.
Maksim. At least, it was Maksim’s face, Maksim’s body. But his expression, the glint in his eyes…it was that of a wild man. I barely recognized him.
He had the look of a tortured, broken beast. I’d never seen him look like that, not once in all the time I’d known him.
“Maksim,” I gasped.
As soon as he saw me, his face transformed completely. At once, he became himself. A very relieved version of himself. I thought he might have even smiled a little, and ran his hand through his soaking wet hair. But the smile was so fleeting that I thought I might have imagined it, relieved as I was to see him here.
He took a few steps toward me, his expression darkening once more. I knew I had made a mistake, and it was my fault that he was out here in the pitch blackness. As he took another step toward me, I shut my eyes and turned my face away, almost anticipating a slap on the cheek.
You stupid little brat. I could almost hear him saying it already. I don’t have time to chase after your ungrateful ass.
But no slap came and no insult either. I opened one eye and warily looked up at him.
“I can’t go back,” I said, my voice quavering. “I cannot marry him, Maksim. I can’t.” Tears flooded my eyes, blurring the flame of the torch. “I… I can’t…” I stammered. “Please don’t make me.”
Setting the torch on a nearby ledge, he crouched in front of me. And opened his massive arms, taking me in an embrace.
With tears streaming down my cheeks, I wrapped my arms around him. It was the first time we had ever been so close. I melted into him, disappeared into his warmth, his strength, his scent. He swept my hair away from my cheek and nestled his face against mine, his lips to my ear, his rough stubble to my smooth flesh, quieting me as I sobbed into his arms.
“Shh-hhh-hhh,” he said, softly and patiently. “You’re alright. Everything is alright. It is.”
Wracked with sobs, I shook my head.
“It isn’t alright. That man… he’s…. Last night he…”
He breathed out through his nose, a warm and comforting sound of reassurance.
“I know. I know it all already.”
“You don’t know what happened after he killed that man. You don’t know about Nicolette.”
“Hush. I do. I spoke to her brother already.”
Slowly, his body warmed mine a little and his strength calmed me down. Once my waves of sadness had passed, I sniffled against his massive shoulder.
“What am I going to do?”
Cradling me in his arms, he rocked me gently. My heart throbbed in my chest as I clung to him. I had seen him every shade of angry, every hue of annoyed, every version of irritated. But I had never seen him soft like this. I had never felt his kindness until now.
“I promise you, Anika,” he said, his voice gruff and low in my ear, confident and absolute. “As long as I live, you will never marry that man.”