Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen

Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen

Author:A.C. Gaughen [Gaughen, A.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780802736178
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2015-03-14T16:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER

We all ate dinner in the Great Hall, sharing whatever we could for food, but we were running low. I sat by Rob, our food spread on a linen on the floor. There weren’t near enough tables to seat all the people we needed to feed, and I never had a problem sitting on the ground.

Rob took my hand, and I looked at him, watching him, as he unwrapped the bandage on one, looking to see how the cuts were healing.

I wanted to pull away. If he were going to touch me, I didn’t want it to be to check a wound, some necessary thing. I wanted it to mean something more.

That didn’t mean I’d rather him not touch me at all, though.

“We should hunt tomorrow,” I told him, eating a bit of cheese. “We don’t have any meat left.”

He looked at me, the corner of his mouth rising. “Guess we don’t have to worry about a lord catching us poaching.”

“They’re royal forests, not shire forests. The only person who has the right to truly punish someone for poaching is the king.”

He flipped my hand over, stroking his thumb along the beating vein in my wrist, making the blood rush faster. “Then we’ll hunt happily. Everything seems easier in the forest, anyway,” he said, and his voice were rough.

“I don’t know if I can shoot anymore,” I told him soft.

“You haven’t been gone that long,” he told me, brushing my wrist again.

Wondering if two could play such a game, I took his hand and traced my fingertips over his palm, edging one finger, then the next, then the next. He sucked in a hard breath. “Not because of the time,” I admitted, unearthing my half hand from where I’d hidden it in my skirts.

He took this hand, unwrapping it and really looking at it for the first time. The scarred stumps were discolored, almost black, and tough and rough to the touch. Hard. Flipping it over, the palm were red and scraped up from the rope. He lifted my hand, kissing a bit of the uninjured pad at the base of my thumb. “Your hands have seen far too much pain. But if you want, I’ll teach you to shoot like I taught you the first time.”

I pulled away from him with a gasp. “The first time!” I yelped, outraged. “You never!”

He grinned. “You couldn’t shoot a horse’s ass when I found you,” he boasted. “I taught you everything you know.”

“You taught me some things,” I said, lowering my voice. He raised his eyebrows and leaned closer to me. I pushed him back with a grin. “And none of them have anything to do with weaponry.”

My eyes dropped to his mouth, and lingered there for a long breath.

He sighed and stood. “Scarlet, we should—I should—” He stopped, and he shook his head.

I stood as well. “Rob, I shouldn’t have walked off this afternoon.”

He looked at me, waiting for me to speak.

I lifted my shoulders. “I know you were trying to



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