Oh, Beatrice. I wish you could see this. I wish you could see the adventure we always wanted to go on.

How many nights had they spent whispering in the dark about just such journeys as the one she was on? They were only girls then, neither of them with any idea of the world outside Thrushwood, so not much about what they’d imagined was true to life.

But the sense of adventure had been there, the sense that something exciting was possible. Traveling on horseback through the woods, never knowing what was coming around the bend.

Listening to the sounds of the birds twittering overhead, watching squirrels as they ran up and down the lengths of trunks and branches.

She giggled at their antics, watching as they chased one another.

There was such promise all around her. That was perhaps the biggest change in her life—even bigger than the presence of Derek.

Promise. Possibility.

Everything had changed so quickly, too. When she looked forward with this in mind, knowing how it took little for life to change course forever, she could only imagine the wonder which awaited her.

Even if there was a measure of heartache to go along with it. She was a reasonable person, she knew such things and what had happened to her weren’t specific to Kirkcaldy. It was the way of the world.

But the heartache only made the sweetness that much sweeter.

And she’d no longer have to go it alone.

“Whoa, there,” she murmured when the mare stumbled over a rock which Derek had easily guided his horse around.

“Is she all right?” he asked, looking over his shoulder.

“Yes. It was my fault. I was lost in thought.”

“Try to keep your attention on what you’re doing,” he advised. “Many the rider who slipped from their mount did so because their mind wandered.”

“You speak as if from experience,” she chuckled, somewhat embarrassed.

“He does,” Hugh called out with a laugh.

She wasn’t aware of how their voices carried and was even more embarrassed to know he must’ve heard Derek chastising her.

“It’s wonderful, having a brother along on the journey,” Derek grumbled.

“What happened?” Margery asked.

“We were—how old were we at the time?” Hugh asked.

“I have no memory of it.”

Hugh’s laughter rang out. “Come on, now. We both know that isn’t true. I believe it was our twelfth summer, though I could be wrong about that. At any rate, we’d both gotten horses of our own on our birthday. A symbol of manhood, I suppose. I know I felt like the king of the world when I was on the back of that beast.”

“Aye,” Derek admitted. “I did, at that.”

“I thought you had no memory of it,” Hugh joked.

“I remember the horse, damn it.”

“As I was saying,” Hugh continued, “we were on our mounts and feeling quite full of ourselves. Pretending at being soldiers, to be honest. We both held such lofty goals in those days.”

“Seems to me I remember serving in later days…” Derek muttered, gazing up ahead to where Hugh’s men rode along with Broc.

Hugh fell back a bit, until he was nearly abreast of Margery.

The humor in his face was unmistakable. “We were pretending, you see, that we were on patrol. I took the east flank, Derek the west. In reality, we were circling a field on the northern end of Duncan territory, but we pretended it was a field of battle.”

Derek was silent.

He chuckled at the memory. “The next thing I knew, I heard Derek’s horse squeal, and turned just in time to see it rear back on its hind legs. I cut across the field, riding as hard as I could, to find our Derek flat on his arse, if you’ll pardon the expression,” he added.

“What happened?”

“What was it, then?” he called out to his brother. “A wee skunk crossed your path? Was that it?”

“Aye,” Derek grumbled.

“And you panicked, was it? Because you were so deep in the story we’d created? Time has softened the memory a bit.”

“It seems you remember just fine,” Derek replied through his teeth. “I’d like to remind you of all the stupid things you did when we were that age, but I’m afraid we haven’t the time. There’s only another two days’ ride to the manor house.”

Margery couldn’t help but laugh, and neither could Hugh. Derek eventually joined them.