Later, Karigan waited beside the wagon with the mules and Gallant while Cade fetched Raven from the stable. She tried to slouch against the wagon to look sick, but she could only guess she was radiating the complete opposite. Repeatedly she had to wipe a silly grin off her face.
When Cade returned without Raven and there was a troubled expression on his face, Karigan straightened up. “What’s wrong?”
“Your horse almost took a hunk out of my arm.” He showed her his ripped sleeve. Immediately she was at his side, examining him for a wound, but thankfully found none. “He smells you on me,” Cade said in a low voice. “I’m sure of it. I think you should try to get him.”
She nodded and, adjusting her cap, set off for the stable. Fortunately no one else was about, so she would have no audience. Raven gave a high-pitched whinny when he saw her, then lifted his nose into the air, curling back his lip to take in her scent. This was followed by a round of more whinnies, kicking at his stall, and his making a general ruckus. Karigan approached ever more cautiously.
Cade, she saw, had managed to attach a lead rope to the stallion’s halter. Raven whipped it around as he tossed his head and circled.
“Calm down,” she said. “You might hurt yourself.”
This was answered by another ear-splitting whinny and a half-rear.
“Stop.”
He did not. She waited for him to settle down before she attempted to approach him again. When she opened the stall door, he lunged at her. She backed out swiftly and slammed the door shut.
“Listen,” she told the stallion in low, heated tones, “you are a horse. I am not. So whatever possessive nonsense you are feeling has got to stop. It has got to stop, or I am leaving you here.”
Her words were followed by another whinny and a crack at the wall from a hoof. Karigan turned her back on him. She would leave him behind if she had to. Their mission was too imperative. She noted silence behind her. When she started to walk away, there was another whinny, but this one was quieter, held a querying note to it.
She paused and turned. Raven stared at her over the stall door, ears attentive.
“Are you going to behave?” she asked.
His ears flicked as he received her words. He blew through his nose. She approached again, and when he did not act up, she reached in to stroke his neck.
“Go easy on Cade,” she told the horse. “He’s a good man and, well, I love him and you should, too.” She almost choked when she realized what she’d just said. Did she truly love Cade? Some words had flowed out during their coupling, but she had thought it was just a result of being in the moment. As she stood there considering it all, she decided there was a very good chance that she in fact really did love him. It left her giddy and off balance.
Raven nuzzled her belly, seeking attention, and she gave it to him, stroking him and running a brush over his hide. She checked his hooves, and after giving him a hug around his neck, she led him from the stable.
Cade and Luke stood waiting as she entered the courtyard. Cade’s face shone with relief as she led the now well-behaved stallion to the wagon and hitched him to it. Then she joined Cade up on the driver’s bench. Luke, now astride Gallant, looked them over closely.
He muttered something under his breath, then said aloud, “Try not to be so obvious. Not decent for a pair of lads.”
Karigan and Cade exchanged glances. Then burst out laughing. He could tell.
“Two lads in—” she started to say, reaching for Cade’s hand. Before she realized what was happening, Luke’s whip ripped through the space between them and slashed the back of her hand.
“Ow! Damnation!” Karigan retracted her hand and held it close. Cade stood, crackling like the manifestation of a storm.
“Sit down,” Luke commanded, his voice harsh. Cade did not. “You must not even joke about it. You, Cade, as well as anyone, know why.”
A tense moment passed before Cade nodded and sat. He left a large space between him and Karigan. It felt like a hundred miles. Luke grunted and reined Gallant around, and rode out of the courtyard. Cade didn’t follow.
“Let me see your hand,” he said.
Karigan, who had been too stunned to react, held her hand out. The flesh had been torn open and bled. It stung fiercely. Cade took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and bound it around her hand.
“Luke is right,” he said quietly. “We cannot forget where we are. We cannot joke about such things.”
“But—”
His voice dropped even more. “I do not know how it is in your time, but men loving one another is not tolerated here. They are publicly stoned to death.”
“But that’s monstrous,” Karigan said, thinking of family friends back home, and of a Green Rider or two.
Cade nodded. “It’s the empire.” After he finished bandaging her hand, he squeezed her wrist, but that was the only affection he dared show her.
Karigan held her stinging hand protectively to her once again. What hate, she wondered, had Amberhill held for Sacoridia and its people that he’d gone to such extremes? He had never struck her as so destructive, so monstrous. She’d known him as an annoying aristocrat too full of himself and his own good looks, yes, but she’d never have guessed to what extent he’d go to attain power and keep it. There was more to him than she could ever have supposed.
Her thoughts did not linger long on Amberhill, however. It was terribly distracting to sit next to Cade like this and not be allowed to touch him. She recalled moments from their night together, and when she realized she was smiling so hard, she cleared her throat and did her best not to smile. Maybe passersby would assume the wine merchant’s servant boy was simple, but she preferred not to invite speculation of any kind.