“Christelle, you need different clothes,” Erik told me the next day. Simeon looked fairly shocked to hear him use my name.

“No, I don’t,” I challenged him amiably. I stretched out my leg, examining the healing bruises. My arm was feeling much better, but my lower appendages were still wobbly.

“Yes, you do,” Erik snapped. For some odd reason, since last night, he had been unusually short with me. “I’m sick of seeing you running around wearing my clothes. It’s not proper for a woman.”

“I agree with Master,” Simeon told me. I rolled my eyes. Outnumbered! Damn them!

“I don’t have any money,” I pointed out. “Unless you’d like me to wear those other dresses.”

“We can take care of money,” Simeon shrugged as he began to take down the tent. “There’s an open air market in a village a few hours away.”

I grumbled as I pulled myself onto the back of Erik’s horse. Erik pulled himself up behind me. We did not resume our previously uncomfortable positions, but rather, we sat close together. He now seemed completely unwilling to reach around me to grab onto the reigns. Simeon scoffed as I was forced to take the reigns and give the horse a quick nudge. He happily trotted off towards a stream. Cursing angrily, I gave his reigns a slight jerk and turned him, nearly running him into Simeon’s horse.

“I cannot handle a stallion of this size,” I told Erik angrily. He gave me a look that clearly illustrated how pathetic he thought I was. Gingerly reaching around me as though I carried some infectious disease, he took the reigns from my hands. Slowly and awkwardly, we meandered out of the forest and into the morning light. Stupid bastard.



We tied our horses off outside of the village and walked towards the open air market. There were people every few feet trying to convince the shoppers of the quality of their wears. I had little experience with this type of place, and I gazed in wonder at the passing tents and booths. Simeon seemed to know where he was going as he strode purposefully through the colorful tents to one being headed by an old woman with bright red hair.

“Agathe, some clothing for m’lady,” he leaned over to murmur into her ear. The woman nodded imperiously. She silently dragged me to the back of the shop and began forcing me into dresses.

“You’re lucky to be traveling with such men,” Agathe told me roughly. “I have known Simeon all his life. He would not travel with a dishonorable man.”

“What families do they come from?” I asked the brusque woman. She opened her mouth to answer.

“Christelle! We’re leav—” Erik stopped in his tracks. I realized that I had not finished changing into my next dress, leaving my breasts fairly well exposed. He gave a yelp and spun on his feet. “Get changed, quickly!” he said angrily as though it were my fault for being naked. Quickly, I laced up my dress, which was made of a flexible green linen with a silken collar.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. Following Erik out into the sunlight, I saw a pair of long leather boots laid out for me. Quickly pulling them on, I glanced around. Simeon was urgently shelling out some gold to Agathe, and Erik was stamping his feet impatiently.

“Look,” he urgently passed me a length of parchment that appeared to have been torn from a post. I blinked owlishly at it.

“I can’t read,” I explained sheepishly. Erik sighed furiously.

“It’s a bounty. On your head!” he yelled a little loudly.

“Be quiet, Master!” Simeon hissed sharply.

“My father?!” I blinked back tears. Neither man would answer, but I saw from the unadulterated loathing marring Erik’s face that I guessed correctly.

“Yes. We need to go. Now.” Simeon swept up the spare dresses into his saddlebag. Erik quickly pulled me onto the back of his horse. Quickly, we pounded along the pathway at a full gallop. Erik leaned forward in the saddle, forcing me to press myself into the raven mane of the horse. I could see a tiny river of tears sliding gently down the dark, rough hairs. Why did my father’s behavior still do this to me, even after seventeen years of this treatment?

“Oi!” I heard a voice shout. Erik and Simeon wheeled their respective horses to a stop. Erik’s stallion bucked with a frustrated whinny.

“Easy, Charger,” Erik murmured, reaching over to stroke the beast’s neck. “What can we do for you…?” his amiable sentence drifted off. I couldn’t blame him. Gentlemen wasn’t how I’d describe this motley crew.

“Your woman. She’s wanted dead,” the leader of the greasy band of five bellowed. Erik placed a hand on my hip as all my muscles immediately went rigid.

“You plan to kill her here?” Simeon asked. His hand was amiably drifting to the hilts of the butterfly knives he kept tucked in his saddlebag.

“Well… later…” the leader said, and the other men laughed raucously. I realized what they were insinuating. A fate worse than any punishment my father had inflicted, a fate worse than death.

Simeon opened his mouth to give one of his convincing, gentle, reasonable replies, but Erik cut him off. “Not on your life.” Erik coldly reached for the hilt of his sword.

He moved like the wind as he launched towards his adversaries. All hell broke loose, suddenly. Two of the burly warriors launched for me, but Simeon elegantly jumped from his horse, giving one a harsh kick in the chest and slitting the other’s throat with his flashing twin blades. With a battle-cry to raise the dead, Erik threw himself at the leader, swinging his sword in a wide circle. Simeon fended off the blades of the other two, and, within moments, the two men were back to back, fending off blows from all sides. Suddenly, an enormous weight came onto Charger’s back, sending the beast shooting off into the forest. The fourth villain, I realized, had jumped onto the horse.

He threw himself off the horse, dragging me with him. Charger launched into the forest, leaving us lying on the dirt. The villain rolled over so I was pinned under him. Pinning my wrists above my head with one hand, he began to feverishly claw at my dress, messily unlacing the strings.

“Help!” I screamed, hoping, praying another soul wandered these woods. “Please, help!”

“Shut up!” he roared, pausing at his messy attempt to strip me long enough to strike me.

“Someone!” I ignored him, wishing to be saved, or just to DIE, but not this, oh God, not this… “Erik!”

Suddenly, too quickly to be anything but some kind of magic, surely, Erik launched forward, swinging his sword wide. The would-be rapist’s head spun away, showering the clearing with blood.

Erik was panting and sweating, with blood dripping from a deep cut in his right arm. There was a kind of deep-set anger in his face, the likes of which I had never seen before.

“Erik…?” I whispered quietly. He stared silently at the body of his enemy, panting slightly. I laced up my shirt carefully, and exited the clearing. That fury sparkling in his steel-grey eyes frightened me. Charger approached me, nickering quietly. Carefully, I grabbed his reigns and led him back to Erik. Erik looked at me, an unreadable emotion in his eyes. He was angry, but he was also horrified and frightened. But why?

“Christelle,” Erik murmured my name quietly, pulling me into a gentle embrace when I approached. “When we go find Simeon… please, promise me you won’t look,” he requested simply. He gently fingered the edge of my short hair as he pulled back slightly to look into my multicolored eyes. “I don’t want you to see…” We climbed back up to the horse. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly. I would take his word for it. Something else was twisting my stomach, though. My wounds were completely healed, and I think Erik knew it.



Simeon wisely suggested that we stay in an inn that next night. Erik and I ate a hasty meal and we quickly climbed to the second floor, where a servant was awaiting us. I had no idea how much money Simeon had squandered on our lodgings, but I could only assume it was a ridiculous amount, because we were shepherded into a steamy room with a large tub in the middle.

“You go first,” I told him embarrassedly. Erik, despite having washed his clothes, was still veritably caked in blood.

“Fine,” he grumbled. I kept my back to him as he bathed, not saying a word. I was still slightly frightened about the demon glint I had seen in his eyes. I heard Erik leave the tub. I immediately began to strip down, but a hand on my wrist stopped me.

“Your decency is my qualm,” Erik grumbled mysteriously, closing the door behind him.



“There you are, miss!” the innkeeper smiled cheerfully. “Your husband is in the chamber.” Husband?! I was going to murder Simeon in the morning, I really was. Storming into the chamber, I saw a very unhappy looking Erik sitting on the bed.

“That servant of yours has a bad sense of humor,” I snarled, flopping next to him.

“I know,” Erik agreed lamely. His loose trousers were slung rather low on his wiry hips, and someplace between the room and his bath, he had lost his shirt. “Simeon is Simeon, I guess.”

“I’m tired,” I told him. We both blinked owlishly at each other, realizing that there were two of us and one bed.

“Here,” Erik sighed unhappily and pulled a thin blanket off the bed. With that, he curled up on the hearth. I climbed into the enormous luxurious bed and spread out. I loved the way the soft sheets felt against my skin. Marie-Claire had a bed something like this, but never would father even think of giving me such a gift. I plumped the large pillows until they were as clouds, and I gently laid my head down. But still, something felt wrong. I didn’t like this bed at all. It made me long for the days when I was in a crowded tent with two strange men. I wanted something less isolated, less lonely.

“Bastard,” I sighed angrily. Erik didn’t stir. My silken nightclothes rustled as I slid out of bed. Grabbing one of the grand pillows, I came up behind Erik, spooning up against him so our bodies were curled up together. I felt is back stiffen a great deal against my chest, and to some surprise, his neck turned pink.

“Christelle…” he muttered sheepishly.

“Erik, you may be the most enormously selfish bastard I have ever met,” I told him, still, for some odd reason, fairly angry at him, “but I’d rather be on the floor with you than in bed without you.”

“Since decency seems to be no qualm of yours,” to my surprise, Erik sat up and gave me an equally angry look, “shall we compromise?”

“I thought you said my decency was your qualm,” I continued to lie down.

“It is,” he told me mysteriously. “Oh, God, is it ever.”

“Erik—” I gasped as I realized what he was insinuating.

“Mademoiselle, you are infuriating. You take nothing for yourself and you would happily let others take what they want from you. It’s a wonder you remained a virgin this long,” he picked me up and slung me over his shoulder. “You need someone who has no desire to take from you, but rather wants to give himself to you.”

“And you think a selfish—”

“Selfishness distances people. Distance prevents bonds. Being without bonds prevents pain. It’s your own fault for screwing up my system,” he tossed me down on the bed.

“I don’t want—” I began, scrabbling backwards.

“Then tell me why, Christelle?!” his voice was raised. Grabbing my face in his hands, he positioned me so I was forced to stare into those intense grey eyes. “Why do you opt to stay with two strange men when you could have any companionship? You obviously want something! Is it Simeon? Because, if it is—” I braced myself for some harsh words. “—I’ll do anything to make you happy,” Erik choked out, hating himself as the words were ripped from his throat. “I want to be able to give you joy. I have never wanted to bring someone aside from myself joy, Christelle. Let me make you joyful…” his hand slid to the edge of my nightclothes. “Let me give myself to you,” he whispered harshly, his breath hot against my ear.

“Say it…” I whispered back in an equally harsh tone. “If you truly want to make me happy…”

“Christelle…” he whispered, moving on top of me, kissing my face, “I love you.”