Part 36 (1/2)

”My knapsack!” she suddenly exclaimed, pointing across the cave in recognition. She turned to Gabriel with an adoring look of grat.i.tude.

The trace of a smile softened his granite countenance.

”Wouldn't forget that.”

”Did you bring my knife?” she asked eagerly.

”See for yourself.”

As if he had promised to give her a handful of diamonds, she rushed across the back of the cave and crouched down to open the old canvas knapsack that Leon had always kept ready for her, the one she had escaped with on the night of the ambush. She peered inside and found that, indeed, all of her survival things were there. Including her knife.

She sent Gabriel a smile from ear to ear. The threat was over, but she strapped her favorite weapon to her thigh immediately. It instantly made her feel a good deal better.

He shook his head to himself in amus.e.m.e.nt, then took a long swig from his canteen.

Sophia slowly sat down on one of the fur throws beside the fire and stared into s.p.a.ce. Images of all that had happened were flas.h.i.+ng through her mind in the most rapid and disturbing fas.h.i.+on. She barely realized she was still s.h.i.+vering.

Gabriel frowned as he watched her, then he crossed to add fuel to the fire. This done, he went to the stash of supplies and picked up a small bottle of brandy and took the cork out. Pouring a large splash of it into a tin dipper, he brought it over and offered it to her.

”Take a few swallows of this,” he ordered.

She stared blankly at the bottle. ”Are you sure it's not drugged? That's how all of this started.”

”Hey. Look at me.”

She trembled again as she lifted her gaze to his. His cobalt eyes searched hers with probing depth.

”You're safe now. Drink this, Soph-Your Highness. You're as white as a ghost. Go on. It will help.”

Hearing him address her as ”Your Highness” once again was not an encouraging sign. He was keeping his distance, she realized.

But after what she had put him through, not even her royal self possessed the audacity to object. Taking the dipper from him without argument, she lowered her gaze and did as she was told.

”Just sit there and relax for a while,” he said in his terse, no-nonsense way, still in commander mode it seemed. ”You'll feel better in a bit.”

Sophia was not about to argue. Sipping the fiery liquor, she grimaced at how strong it was, while Gabriel took the bottle and walked toward the hanging blanket.

”I'll give you some time alone. I'm sure you could use it. Be right out here,” he muttered, then ducked out again.

Sophia frowned. It seemed as if he was the one who needed some time alone. All things considered, she couldn't blame him. She took another sip of brandy and tried to relax. Drawing her knees up to her chest where she sat, she closed her eyes for a moment and said a prayer for both Alexa and Demetrius.

As tears threatened, she sat up straight again, banis.h.i.+ng them. If she allowed herself to start crying, she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop. She turned her thoughts toward Gabriel and wondered uneasily if he was all right.

Shaking her head at the vivid memory of the savagery he had unleashed on those quite deserving barbarians, she found herself decidedly intimidated by him in a way she had not been before. She had to admit that this side of Gabriel left her a little afraid.

She dared not let him notice her newfound trepidation. After all he had just risked for her sake, she did not think he would appreciate her cowering from him as though he were some sort of wild beast.

After she had finished the brandy, she decided to go and check on him. She rose and went outside, and found him sitting on a boulder at the edge of the cave.

He was just sitting there in the darkness, staring off into the woods and the dark, starry horizon above them, a million miles away. Where are you right now? she wondered. Come back to me.

He took a large swig from the bottle. She frowned in concern and reached out to lay her hand on his shoulder as she approached, but when she saw him tremble once with the lingering aftermath of violence, she thought better of it. She did not dare risk startling him.

With a certain degree of caution, she joined him, uninvited. Going over to his side, she crouched down slowly, resting one knee on the stony ground. She studied him with an upward gaze, but he kept his head down, shutting her out, as deep in his brooding as he had been that first night she had spied him from the hayloft, lighting candles in the little ruined church.

Candles for the men he had slain.

He had a strange look about him. It worried her. He seemed so remote, she did not know if he would permit her to reach him.

When she laid her hand on his knee in silent, comforting inquiry, he still did not look at her, but after a long moment, he slowly turned his palm upward where his hand rested on his thigh.

A tremor of grat.i.tude swept through her at his silent, stoic invitation. Sophia gazed at him with her heart in her eyes as she rested her hand in his.

His fingers closed around hers with a gentleness that shook her after his ferocity up on the mountain.

”Are you...all right?” she murmured, dismayed by how weak the words were in expressing the fullness of her concern for him. How much she cared.

He nodded.

”Does your scar plague you?” she whispered.

He shrugged, still avoiding her searching gaze. ”A little sore.”

”Gabriel.” When she bent her head and kissed his hand, he looked at her slowly, at last. His blue eyes focused on her as if from a great distance. ”Thank you,” she choked out.

She laid her head down on his thigh. Gradually, he let his hand come to rest on her hair. ”Don't thank me,” he said in a hollow tone. ”It was my fault you had to go through all that in the first place.”

”No, it's my fault you had to kill again. I dismissed you from your post and walked right into Alexa's trap. She knew me well enough to play upon my jealousy.”

”Mine, too.”

”Yours?” She lifted her head from his lap and gazed at him.

He shrugged self-consciously. ”When she told me you had kissed the prince, I-”

”Kissed the prince?” she echoed. ”But I didn't!”

He suddenly frowned at her. ”You didn't?”

”No.”

”Oh, for G.o.d's sake,” he muttered, pausing with a look of extreme vexation with himself. ”Well, that is what she told me, and I fell for it. And I thought that meant...” His words trailed off. He tried again. ”I was hoping that I could forget you...with her. Obviously that was never going to work.”

”It's over now. Please, don't be angry at yourself. It was her purpose to divide us so she could carry out her plan.”

”I never would've thought she had it in her.”

”Of course you didn't,” Sophia said fondly. ”Your chivalry causes you to look upon women tenderly. It's one of the things I find dearest about you.” She gripped his hand more tightly. ”We all were duped, Gabriel. Even those of us who knew her best-or thought we did. But if it's any consolation, she did not do it willingly. They threatened to kill her if she did not cooperate, poor creature.”

”That I can believe,” he a.s.sented. ”But why didn't she come to us, and trust us with this threat?”