Ever Marked by Mary Akers

Author:Mary Akers [Akers, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

“Leaving Windom unfortunately won’t be as easy as walking out the gates at this point,” Asher said, sitting back in his chair twirling the strawberry stem between his fingers worriedly. “Colin has been following you for quite a while and is probably very familiar with the area by now. He knows all the places you go and the people you associate with. And unfortunately, he also knows that I’m here too, considering that he tried to steal my horse this morning. I guess I shouldn’t have gone to the barber,” he said smiling sardonically. “He wouldn’t have recognized me otherwise. I had grown a pretty good disguise.”

“You certainly had,” Winnifred acknowledged, nodding. “I nearly shut the door in your face last night!”

Elora’s mouth fell open as she recalled the man with long hair and a thick beard whom she’d encountered in the road. She turned to study Asher with wide eyes.

“That was you?” she asked, incredulous.

“Yes,” he said smiling. “I thought I’d draw too much attention attending the ceremony looking like some backwoods ruffian so I had a long visit with the barber this morning. Unfortunately, I did a good job of drawing attention even without the scraggly beard,” he said grimacing.

Elora nodded, sympathetically. “That darn wasp.”

Asher’s shoulders began to shake as he quietly chuckled at her teasing. A wide smile spread across her face as she watched him. He turned towards her and she couldn’t help but notice the way laughter made his blue eyes even brighter. He was so strikingly handsome she couldn’t bring herself to look away.

“The fact that you can tease me right now makes me worry that you might not understand the gravity of this situation,” Asher said, his chuckle fading to a sly grin.

“Maybe it just means I’m brave,” she replied quietly, shrugging her shoulders.

“I hope so,” he replied, the smile fading from his lips. “You’ll have to be.”

She nodded solemnly, the moment of humor past.

“So what are we going to do?” her father asked, his voice somber.

“You mentioned last night that you had bought some horses from a farm a few miles outside of town,” Asher said, nodding to her parents.

“That’s what you were doing on Sunday?” Elora asked, her brows lifted in surprise. “Buying horses?”

“We had already decided to take you home, Elora,” her father replied. “The minute we saw that rosebush, we knew it was time. We bought three horses from a rancher outside the walls and paid him to board them while we made preparations for the journey.”

“What other preparations have you made?” Asher asked.

“There are three saddlebags in our closet packed with canteens and bedrolls, but that’s all so far,” her mother replied, shrugging her shoulders. “We hadn’t intended to leave quite this soon.”

Asher nodded in understanding.

“We will make do,” he said. “The horses and canteens are enough. I have my knife and bow. Elora will be able to grow food for us obviously,” he said, motioning to the strawberry plant. “The rest we can figure out as we go.

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