CHAPTER 4
The sun had begun to set in the sky by the time Kergot returned and Penelope had started to grow a bit worried by his extended absence. When she finally heard footsteps approaching, she held her breath in anticipation. It was only when she saw him making his way toward her that she calmed.
“Were you getting worried?” he said with a smile.
“Me? Of course not,” she lied.
“That’s good. It took a little longer than expected. I had to elude some men who seemed to still be wandering about in hopes of finding something . . . or someone.”
“They are still hunting for me,” she replied, her voice trailing away.
“It seems so. How about I start us a nice, little fire, and we can discuss it while these rabbits and apples roast for our dinner?”
“That sounds fair.”
“Oh, here. I brought you some shoes.”
Penelope looked at him curiously. She hadn’t mentioned her shoes, and where in the woods would he have found any to fit her. She had to wonder about where he came about these things, didn’t she?
“The men had attacked a wagon that was traveling and left the woman’s things on it when they abandoned it.”
“And the woman they belonged to?”
“Won’t be requiring them anymore, unfortunately,” he said sadly.
Penelope looked at the shoes he had extended toward her, a dead woman’s shoes. They looked warm and clean, hardly showing any signs of wear. No doubt they had been recently purchased, and she had not had them long enough to even break them in. Penelope took them from him and sat them beside her bare feet.
“The dress looks lovely on you.”
“Is it another treasure you found in the woods?”
“No. Not the dresses. They were my mother’s.”
“Oh, god. I feel so . . .,” she began, searching for the right word to express herself.
“No, don’t. It’s okay. She passed away a few years ago. I didn’t have the heart to get rid of her things. I brought them here with me and stored them in the bureau my father had built for her.”
“All these things in here? How did you get them here?”
“Under the cover of darkness. I flew them in through the falls to the outer ledge and then carried them the rest of the way. Some of the larger things I built inside, and some I took apart and rebuilt once inside.”
“A labor of love then,” she said softly.
“Something like that.”
“You’ve no mate?” she asked.
“No. I’ve never had a mate. And you?”
“I had a mate, but he was human. When he found out what I was, he couldn’t accept it, but rather than tell me and just leaving, he decided to end me, apparently.”
“Why ‘apparently’? You aren’t sure?”
“I’m fairly sure. That is why those men are after me.”
“I’m not following.”
Penelope sighed again. It was a painful subject, but one she supposed she owed him an explanation for if he was going to shelter here at his own risk.
“We had been together for near a year and things had become more serious. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. But, I had never told him what I was. I thought I could live like a human, never tell him, but then I thought about what might happen if we had a child. If that child shifted before he knew how to control it or was it fair if I never told that child of his or her abilities? All sorts of things.”
“So, in the end, you did the right thing and revealed yourself to him.”
“Yes. He didn’t believe me. He thought I was just teasing him, so I took him out into a field at night where no one could see, and I showed him. At first, he merely marveled at it. He was fascinated and seemed to accept what I could do. I thought everything was fine.”
“But, it wasn’t?”
“No. He began to act odd, asking me all sorts of questions about my ability and speaking about how it was not natural. He began to question whether it was against God, if I was cursed. Then he talked me into going with him to see this old woman. She gave us drinks, said they were to cleanse our thoughts, to purify them for her to peer into our souls.”
“And, you believed that?”
“Absolutely not, but I thought he did, and that it was just an innocent, little thing that might make him feel more at peace with our situation. I had no idea he had even told her my secret. I thought she only knew that there was something he felt wasn’t wholesome, and the process of purification, no matter how useless, might make him feel more accepting of it.”
“You compromised yourself in order to make him feel at ease with the situation.”
“Yes, in a sense. I loved him, and I thought he loved me.”
“What happened next?”
“I drank the potion, and I began to feel woozy. Next thing I knew, I felt as if I was falling into some deep pit, falling and falling, ever further downward. I could still see around me, but it was blurry. I could hear voices, lots of voices. There was hers and his, but then all of these men joined in, and they were talking about me as if I wasn’t there.”
“How did you escape them?”
“I don’t know. I was drowsy, so drowsy. I felt like I was there, but somehow removed from what was happening to me. They carried me outside, and as soon as the fresh air hit my face, I shifted and took flight.”
“That is how you got far enough ahead of them to run.”
“Yes. My dragon form seemed to wash away some of the heavy fog that had been swallowing me up, but as I flew, something else began to happen. I found myself shifting again, against my will. I dove down into a clearing in the woods, barely getting close enough to the ground not to do too much damage when I resumed human form and impacted on the dirt.”
“And you began to run,” he finished, stoking the fire he had been building so that it was fully involved.
“Yes. I just ran until I wasn’t sure if I could run any further. If you hadn’t happened along to help me, I would have dropped from exhaustion and they would have taken me.”
“What do you think they wanted you for?”
“I don’t know. Exhibition? Torture? Nothing I would have approved of, I’m sure.”
“And, your betrothed?”
“Just a mistake, a mistake I will never make again. I don’t think I could ever trust another human enough to confide my secret in them again.”
“Probably a wise decision.”
“And you? Why have you never taken a mate?”
“As I mentioned before, there aren’t that many of us left here, and I don’t want to mate with a human.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like them very much.”
“But, you are half human,” she pointed out.
“Yes, and it is both a gift and a burden,” he told her, putting the rabbits on a spit over the fire now that he had it ready.
“I might as well be human,” she muttered.
“Why? Because you can’t shift? We will find an answer for that. I will find this woman, and she will tell me what she has done to you,” he said angrily.
“I can’t ask that of you. It is not your place.”
“It is now. First, we have to get you stronger. Your feet need to heal and you need to see if this block on shifting will go away after some time has passed.”
“You’ve been kind enough already. I will leave here come morning and get myself sorted out somewhere safe.”
“Penelope, there is nothing wrong with letting someone help you,” he said, taking a seat in a chair beside her as the rabbits and apples continued to roast over the small spit.”
“I don’t want to be a burden to anyone.”
“Good, because you aren’t. I’ll feel much better knowing you stayed here until you are able to fully fend for yourself than I will if I let you leave and find something has happened to you.”
“I just don’t want to bring trouble to you.”
“Trouble has found its way to me all my life, I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”
“You are certain?”
“Absolutely,” he replied.
“Okay, but if I feel I am becoming a problem for you, I will leave.”
“Deal. Ready for some food?” he asked, getting up to retrieve the food on the spit.
“Yes. I’m starving!”
The two of them settled into eating the roasted rabbit and sweet, tender apples. After only some broth and bread for days, with nothing at all in the day or so prior to that, it tasted like the best meal she had ever tasted.
“How about some wine? I have some stored for special occasions.”
“Is this a special occasion?”
“Yes. We are celebrating our new friendship.”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on. There are no rules here. It’s just you and I. We can do whatever we like. Society has no hold over us here.”
“You’ve talked me into it.”
An hour and two large vessels of sweet, red wine later, Penelope felt a calm she hadn’t experienced in days. She and Kergot talked well into the night before retiring to bed. It was still awkward being in bed with a strange man and fully clothed, at that, but in some way it was also a comfort. She slept without the nightmares for the first time in a very long time.