Authors: Barbara Ann Wright
Starbride bit her lip. True, one kiss did not mean their lives were irrevocably tied or that they had to spend every free moment together. But Katya was always so busy. Free moments were all they had, and Katya had given the impression she wanted to spend them with Starbride. Then where was she going? Starbride’s feet followed Katya as her mind worked. She was almost to the stables when she had it. Katya was investigating the incident at the shop
without
her father’s pyradisté and with just a few friends to guard her!
More importantly, though, Katya was heading off to investigate without
Starbride
. After Katya had looked her in the eye and promised to keep her informed, Katya was striking out alone. Crowe must have told her something of note, and wherever she was going couldn’t be all that dangerous if she chose to go herself.
Why couldn’t Starbride go as well? Anger hurried her footsteps. Katya was leaving early, no doubt hoping to elude her, to be back later in the day in time for a quick cuddle and a dose of misinformation. As she rounded the next corner, she saw that Katya had stopped. Starbride leapt back the way she’d come. Katya’s friends loitered, their backs discreetly turned from where Katya stood with a young blond woman, a courtier Starbride had seen before. It wasn’t Lady Hilda, but as the blond courtier giggled at something Katya said and smiled coquettishly, who she
wasn’t
brought little comfort. Their words just reached Starbride down the hallway.
“Where have you been hiding yourself, Highness?” The blond courtier lowered her eyes and looked up through her lashes. “Not that I have the right to ask, but I have missed you.”
“We all have,” another voice said. Several courtiers, men and women, approached Katya from an intersecting hallway. So, Starbride wasn’t the only one up early, but of course, she hadn’t gotten up to catch a princess.
Katya leered before she raised the blond courtier’s hand and kissed it. Starbride bit her lip so hard it pained her. The kiss was slow and languid, exactly as it had once been on Starbride’s own hand. “I promise, Miss Greyson, that when I come back from the hunt, your company will be the first I seek out.” Katya bid them all farewell, and then she was gone down the hallway. The courtiers clustered around Miss Greyson and led her away in a gabbling horde.
Starbride stood still for a moment, her legs paralyzed. A kiss, a promise to return? It all sounded terribly familiar. Was Starbride the same as everyone else, then? Or was Katya only paying her special attention out of guilt? If Miss Greyson had been tied to that shop table, would she have earned a trip to Hanna’s Retreat?
Starbride clenched her fists and told herself it couldn’t be true. It was an act, like when Katya had to follow Lady Hilda into the Courtiers Ball and leave Starbride on the balcony. Katya’s face with the courtiers was a mask, but Starbride had seen her real face.
Hadn’t she? She hurried after Katya again, telling herself that Katya didn’t want her out of the way in order to go whoring. No, it couldn’t be true, it couldn’t! Katya was being
protective
. She was
worried
.
However, a promise was a promise, and there Katya went, breaking it and being a flirtatious ass on the way. If Katya wanted Starbride in her life, she would have to learn she couldn’t just
choose
to shut Starbride out, especially to act like an idiot. It seemed there was only one way to teach her.
The stable yard stood empty of grooms. Without calling for help, Katya’s group saddled four horses and rode out. Starbride waited in the doorway, wondering at the lack of grooms, before she decided to take advantage of the situation. She slipped into the closest occupied paddock, and when her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she spied the horse she’d ridden before and moved toward it. She took a saddle blanket from a pile in the corner. The horse turned one large eye toward her, and Starbride mumbled to it as she eased the blanket over its back and tied the strings underneath.
After glancing at the saddles, Starbride shook her head. Under her ridiculous gown, a saddle would chafe horribly. She bridled the animal and led it out of the stable. The grooms still hadn’t emerged.
Before anyone could notice, or at least before they could stop her, Starbride guided her horse out of the yard. She walked it after Katya’s party, keeping her eyes on the large man and his equally large horse. Any crowd parted before him like wheat in a high wind. They moved quickly, and Starbride tried her best to keep pace without mounting. She was saving that embarrassment until the very last minute.
Katya and her friends arrived at a side gate packed with produce-laden wagons and a flock of sheep. Starbride waited on a corner and craned her neck to see, until Katya passed out of sight. She then walked her horse closer and paused again, letting the sheep pass by and allowing Katya to get well ahead on the road.
She glanced at her patient horse and around the crowded street until she spied an empty crate on the side of the road, near the gate itself, and led the horse to it. Once atop the crate, she hoped she hadn’t forgotten everything about riding bareback, bounced on her toes several times, and then jumped, pushing on the horse’s back to help her up. Her legs tangled in her wide skirt, but her push and jump were enough to lie across the horse. It shied, whickering, and she muttered to it, ignoring the farmers’ laughter as she swung one leg around the back and pulled toward the front of the horse until she could sit astride it. She pushed as much of her dress underneath her as she could, but she knew she looked silly sitting on the horse with her skirt just above her knees.
The gate guards whistled when they saw her. She heard a few mutters about strange Allusian customs, and one of the farmers called, “Forgot your saddle and your trousers, miss!” Starbride set her jaw even as she blushed, not giving them the pleasure of any other reaction.
Katya had nearly reached the forest when Starbride set off down the road. She couldn’t get too close, but she didn’t want Katya to get too far ahead. It would be safer to stay in shouting range. She hoped to tail Katya’s party for about an hour before she caught up, far enough away from Marienne that Katya couldn’t just send her back.
Just outside the gate, someone said, “Starbride!” and Lord Hugo Sandy rode out of the gate, waving his arm, and grinning like a fool.
“Damn.” Starbride kept going, pretending she hadn’t heard, but he caught up to her a little way down the road.
He doffed his cap and stared at her legs. “Um.” With a swallow, he tore his gaze from her legs, focused on her face, and put on his cap again. “You, um, don’t have a saddle.”
“This is how we ride in Allusia.”
He accepted the lie without question. “Right, and where you’re from, everyone usually wears trousers, correct?”
Starbride straightened with surprise. He
had
been studying. “Yes.”
“Did they not have a sidesaddle in the barn?”
“A what?”
“A saddle that allows a lady to wear a dress and still ride, um, comfortably.”
“There’s a…?” Starbride clenched a fist. Damn, she’d never heard of such a thing! “I…was in a hurry.”
“I see.” He stared ahead for a moment. “Will you allow me to ride with you?”
Starbride cast a glance ahead. Katya disappeared as the road wound into the woods, and Starbride kicked her horse into a canter. “It’ll be very boring. I’m not going far.”
“More entertaining than a tour with Lady Hilda! It was like an inquisition. She grilled me about you and the princess the entire time. She certainly loves gossip.”
“Does she?” Starbride tried to think of some way to leave him behind. She couldn’t even fake an interest in what he’d said to Lady Hilda.
“She wanted to meet again today. I think she thinks I’m keeping something from her, but I sent her a note saying I’ll be out all day, so I have to make up lots of things to do. I’d be happy to spend a few hours with you if you’re amenable.”
“Actually, Lord Hugo. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do…about how my time would best be spent in Marienne.” It sounded feeble, even to her ears. “I might go into the woods to, um, meditate.”
“Ah,” he said, and she thought that might be an end of it. “I can be very quiet. I can meditate, too.”
“But, Lord Hugo, as I said—”
“I’m sorry, Miss Starbride, but I can’t let you go into the forest alone.”
Starbride stared at him; he’d followed her from the library, and now they were outside of Marienne, with only a handful of people on the road, and those not within earshot. Lord Hugo was armed with a rapier and a belt knife, and Starbride didn’t even have Dawnmother’s scissors to protect her. She stopped her horse and called herself a fool. “Why not, Lord Hugo?”
He didn’t meet her eyes for a moment but finally nodded, seeming resolved as he looked up. “Because you are a young lady, Miss Starbride. Who knows what ruffians await you out there?” He took his cap off again and pressed it to his breast. “Forgive me. I didn’t say this at first because I didn’t want to scare you, but the reason I caught up when I saw you riding alone is because the world outside the city can be a dangerous place. It is my duty to act as your escort.”
Starbride forced down the urge to laugh at his earnest face. His sentiment was sweet, very old-fashioned, and a wee bit self-important, but he also had a good point, even if he was unaware that the world
inside
the city was also a dangerous place. But if she got into trouble outside, she could call for Katya,
if
Katya didn’t get away while she was wasting time with Lord Hugo.
Starbride rode for the forest again, harder this time. She didn’t know Lord Hugo, but she supposed Katya could protect her from him, too, if it came to that. “You don’t need to come with me, Lord Hugo. I take responsibility for my own safety; no blame shall fall on you.”
He slid his cap back on as he kept pace with her. “Forgive me again, Miss Starbride, but that just won’t do. My conscience would never recover, and my honor will not let me turn back.”
Starbride looked away from him and rolled her eyes.
“Isn’t this the very track the princess just took?”
Starbride slowly turned her head and stared at him.
A flush crept from his collar to his ears. “Are you…meeting Princess Katyarianna, and that’s why you don’t want me along? I don’t mean to pry,” he said hurriedly. “After yesterday, all of Lady Hilda’s questions and everything, I assumed you and the princess might be…” His face turned a deeper crimson, and he cleared his throat again. “Well, none of my business. Just…just let me escort you to wherever it is you’re meeting. I’m sure she wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, and you’d probably be safe enough since she knows you’re following her, but still…I’d…I really would feel awful if anything, well…”
Starbride didn’t know what to say. Lord Hugo had the right road, but the wrong end, as Horsestrong once said. “Let’s just hope Lady Hilda isn’t following you following me following her, or we really will be in the middle of a farce, Lord Hugo.”
“I’m surprised at Princess Katyarianna for not giving you an escort.”
“Actually, I’m going to surprise
her
…on a hunting trip. It was a last-minute decision.”
“I heard that she likes to hunt. So, a surprise, eh? No wonder you didn’t stop for trousers or a sidesaddle.” He glanced at her legs, went crimson again, and stared ahead.
He clearly expected them to catch up with Katya right away and reveal themselves, and Katya would wonder what they were up to. Starbride would have to talk very quickly and dismiss Lord Hugo before he had a chance to speak or to see and hear anything he wasn’t supposed to.
Inside the forest, Katya was lost from sight, but the dust from her passage floated above the road. Starbride didn’t want to run her horse, even along the packed dirt. She couldn’t risk unseating herself. Part of her brain told her to just pack it in, to go back to the library, and study. If he was serious about protecting her, Lord Hugo would turn around with her. But then she thought of Katya leaving her behind and flirting with courtiers, and anger spurred her onward. She wouldn’t just be a convenience, even to a princess. And she wouldn’t let Katya go back on a promise. She remembered the kiss on Miss Greyson’s hand and leaned forward.
An hour passed, and Starbride made small talk with Lord Hugo about the court, about the weather, about Allusia. Well into their second hour, her answers became monosyllabic as worry tightened her insides. Katya’s dust cloud had disappeared.
“What’s wrong, Miss Starbride?” Lord Hugo asked.
“There’s no more dust.”
“Beg pardon?”
“The dust cloud is gone. Katya…Princess Katyarianna has either left us too far behind or she’s left the road.”
Lord Hugo took a long look around and frowned. “So, you decided at the last minute to surprise her, but you didn’t know her destination?”
Starbride shook her head, feeling more foolish with each passing second. Katya had left the road at some point, and Starbride hadn’t noticed where. And she didn’t know Lord Hugo, not really. She sidled her horse away from him.
“I know I’m always asking for forgiveness,” Lord Hugo said, “and I’m going to do it again now. Let’s return to Marienne. Perhaps you can think of another surprise?”
Starbride pressed her lips together. Oh, she’d have a surprise for Katya all right: scathing recrimination. Could she yell at Katya for leaving her in the woods if Katya didn’t know she was there?