The Iron Court (River Witch Book 2) by Helena Rookwood

Author:Helena Rookwood [Rookwood, Helena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2018-01-26T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When Tabitha awoke the next morning, Lysander was no longer in the tent. For a moment she panicked, and sat bolt upright, ready to leave – had he left to find Moll and her accomplices? – but then she realised he had left his pack, and so presumably was still somewhere nearby. Heart hammering, she slumped back to the floor, and closed her eyes again.

Tabitha was exhausted, and, truthfully, relieved that Lysander wasn’t there. It gave her some time to think over everything that had happened yesterday.

For a moment she contemplated just falling back asleep again, to rest her aching body and forget about everything that was troubling her, but her mind was already racing. Reluctantly, she sat back up, careful to keep her blankets wrapped tightly around her. Her limbs felt completely solid from being so cold overnight. It was amazing what a difference the fire made, she thought ruefully, and she wondered whether they would ever be able to risk lighting a fire again now… if she even stayed with Lysander, that was.

Tabitha remained huddled up in the tent for a long time, trying to make sense of her thoughts. There were two things that she kept coming back to. First, it was clear to her that Lysander had lied to her, and so she could not trust him to tell her the truth now. But second, from the encounter with Moll it seemed like he had taken her side against the Iron Court’s… and if that was the case, then that did change things. If the Iron City truly was Lysander’s home, and Moll had once been his friend, then he had given up an awful lot to defend Tabitha.

And yet, he had willingly and continuously deceived her…

Tabitha sighed, and wondered where he had got to.

Stretching out her frozen limbs, Tabitha put on as many layers of clothes as she could and slipped out of the tent. The moment she stepped outside she was blinded by the dazzling sunshine. Squinting against the bright light, Tabitha was baffled to see that the sun was already high in the sky. It must be later in the day than she’d realised – the undergrowth they had camped in was just so thick that it hadn’t been noticeable in the tent. So where was Lysander?

Tabitha began packing up the tent. What she really wanted, she thought, was to learn how to defend herself. What she had hated most about the situation yesterday was being caught so unawares – and being so utterly unable to help herself when Moll had held the knife to her throat. Tabitha shuddered. What would happen if something similar happened again and Lysander didn’t return quickly enough to defend her? Or if it turned out that her trust in him was misplaced? No, she wanted to learn to deal with that situation on her own.

The tent carefully shaken out and put away, Tabitha stamped out from the undergrowth, looking about for any sign of Lysander. She couldn’t spot him anywhere – but they had camped somewhere beautiful, she realised.

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