Chapter 65. A Splash of Water on My Boot Was the Best Thing That Happened All Morning

Chapter 65: 65. A Splash of Water on My Boot Was the Best Thing That Happened All Morning

Alicia caught me alone the next morning while I was saddling Biscuit.

It was early, and the camp was still half asleep.

A thin pink light was creeping over the eastern hills, and the guards were moving about with the slow, grumbling efficiency of people who hadn’t had enough coffee.

I’d been fighting with a buckle for about two minutes, mostly because my ribs wouldn’t let me bend properly, but then... I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Let me," said Alicia, and took over the strap.

She worked in silence for a moment, tugging and tightening, and I watched the side of her face. It was calm, and a little thoughtful.

Still the same beautiful Alicia that I love.

She’d tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear, and she had that faint crease between her eyebrows that meant she was trying to decide how to say something.

"You know I can’t talk about this in front of anyone," she said, at last, very quietly.

"About what?"

"The system." She pulled the strap through the ring. "We’re alone enough... Nobody’s near us."

I glanced around. The nearest guard was thirty feet away, arguing with Ferris about a missing spoon.

"Go ahead."

"It’s about Eveline..."

I’d been waiting for it, and I’d still managed to wince.

"I’ve been watching her," Alicia said. "Not in a sinister way... I mean, I’ve noticed how she looks at you now."

"She doesn’t know she’s doing it... If you asked her, she’d say she admires you as a knight and wants to learn from you, and she’d mean it with her whole heart."

"But she watches you across the fire... She goes quiet when you talk."

"When you said that thing in the woods about being scared for fifteen years, she looked at you as if you’d given her a present."

Alicia knows this because I tell her. And well... I tell everything to her since she was the one that sometimes gave me a suggestion.

And yes... she’s my home where I can talk about anything to her.

"She was upset... People get attached to whoever is kind to them."

"That’s true... It’s also how a lot of things begin." She finished the buckle and slid her hand along the saddle, smoothing the leather. "I’m not worried about her feelings at all..."

"And to me... I think they’re sweet, and she deserves to have them." Alicia looked at my eyes. "But still though... I’m worried about the thing in your head."

"The panel?"

"If it starts nudging her along, if it starts telling you ’this is the moment,’ and you listen..." She shook her head. "She’s not a character in a fairy tale, Roland."

"She’s a girl who cried in the dark because she couldn’t forgive herself for a mistake... If someone had pushed her toward a relationship while she was that raw... I think it would have broken her."

"I know..."

"I know you know... I’m saying it anyway just to clarify it." She turned to look at me, and her blue eyes were steady. "So here’s the rule, again..."

"Before anything happens, before there’s any question of a bond or a kiss or a hand held for too long, she hears about the curse from you... and not from me nor from the panel."

"I want it from your own mouth, in plain words... with all the awkward parts included. Especially since she has to know that you already have two girlfriends."

"She gets to decide what she wants after that, with full information... And the panel does not get a vote."

"The panel doesn’t get a vote, yes."

"And you don’t grow feelings in her on purpose to refill your tank."

"Alicia," I felt my face heat. "You know that I would never..."

"I know you wouldn’t... You’d rather be set on fire." Her mouth twitched. "But I’m the head of this ridiculous arrangement, and it’s my job to keep an eye on everybody for their and our safety."

"It’s not because I don’t trust you or anything... It’s because I do, and I’d like to keep it that way."

I let out a breath and looked at the ground. There was something in the way she said it that made my throat tight.

She wasn’t scolding me. She was telling me, quite plainly, that she believed I’d do the right thing and that she’d stand next to me while I tried.

"I’m not going to chase her," I said. "If it happens... it happens because she wants it, and not before she knows everything."

"And I won’t let the thing in my skull make decisions for me."

"I believe you."

"You’d make a terrifying royal inspector, do you notice that?"

"I already am," said Alicia serenely, and patted the saddle. "You’re ready~!"

She kissed my cheek and gave a gentle tap on the other cheek. "Don’t forget to breathe, my sweet boyfriend~!"

She went off to check on the wagon, and I stood there with my hand on Biscuit’s neck, feeling oddly lighter.

It’s a strange thing... to be trusted by someone who is watching you closely. It makes you want to be worthy of it.

...

By the third day, the land had begun to change, and the mood in the column changed with it.

The rolling green farmland of the first two days gave way to something rougher and drier. The road narrowed and dipped between two long walls of gray rock that rose on our left like the sides of a giant bowl.

On our right, a slope of loose gravel ran down to a wide, slow river the color of old pewter, and its surface was dotted with flat black stones that looked like the backs of sleeping animals.

The air smelled of wet earth and cold iron. A few crows wheeled overhead, calling to one another in hoarse, bored voices.

Nobody was joking anymore.

Even Ferris had stopped, and he was the sort of man who joked at funerals.

The guards rode with their hands near their weapons, and every now and then somebody would glance up at the cliffs.

I felt it too. It wasn’t fear exactly, just a tightness, like a drawn bowstring.

We were close... and every hoofbeat on the stones made it feel closer.

"S-sir Roland," said a small voice at my elbow.

I turned. Eveline had fallen into step beside my horse, walking, because Duchess had once again refused to cooperate, and she was holding out a leather water bottle in both hands.

Her ears were slightly lowered, and she was looking at a point just beyond my shoulder.

Wait a minute... she called my name with such formality.

"What’s with the ’Sir’?" I said. "We’ve been over this."

"O-oh... Roland... Sorry." She cleared her throat. "I thought you might be thirsty."

"You haven’t had anything since breakfast." She smiled. "And I counted!"

"That’s... very kind of you."

"It’s not kind... It’s logistics, and it seems like it’s my job now~!"

"I’ll take it anyway."

I reached down, and she held it up, and I took it. Our fingers brushed, just for a second, and she jerked her hand back as though she’d touched a hot stove.

The bottle, which had not been fully secured, tipped sideways. A splash of cold water ran straight down the outside of my boot, soaking it thoroughly.

"Oh no..." she whispered.

"It’s fine."

"It’s not fine... it’s all over your foot."

"It makes it cool, and yes... also refreshing."

"I’m so sorry!" Her ears slid down to her shoulders. "I’m so, so..."

"Eveline."

"Yes?"

"I’ve had three days of Laura’s ice-cold tea. A little water on my boot is the best thing that’s happened to me all morning."

She stared at me for a second, and then a small, reluctant, absolutely adorable giggle escaped her.

She slapped a hand over her mouth, and her whole face went scarlet, and she bobbed an awkward bow before hurrying toward the back of the column with her head down.

The more I talk and look at her like this... my heart just can’t stop beating really fast, and maybe it was my curiosity... what happens if I date a half-human and half-rabbit in this world?

I took a long drink from the bottle. It was the best water I’d ever tasted.