He frowned at her. “I had no idea that you were so jaded.”
She shrugged. “It has kept me from being with someone that I would be miserable with, someone whom I would not love and who wouldn’t love me. It has kept me from a life of loneliness with another person. Until now that is. I suppose I would’ve saved myself from this problem if I would’ve chosen somebody, anybody.”
“I don’t think that choosing just to be free of bondage from another is the right answer either. Besides, I don’t think the duke would have seen a husband as an obstacle.”
She glanced at him. “Do you believe in true love, Dain?”
“I’d like to. I think my reputation will haunt me forever and keep me from finding it, but one can still hope.” He smiled genuinely.
“One can indeed.”
They rode along further in silence, then as the sun started to drop toward the horizon, he pulled off the road to take a quick rest and let the horses drink. He slid off his mount and held out his hand to assist her off hers. He led the horses toward a small stream that wound its way along the roadside. As they were drinking, he stretched and she sat down in the soft stream side grass and removed her boots. She wiggled her toes to loosen them, stood again, walking to the waters edge. She dipped one toe tip in to test the temperature, then stepped off the bank into the cold water. She inhaled a breath, then sighed with contentment as she splashed around.
“You’re going to freeze them off in there.”
“It’s cold, but it’s refreshing for the body and the soul. Why don’t you try it yourself?”
“You want me to kick off my boots and splash around in the stream?”
“Why not?”
“What would that look like to my men? The king prancing around bare footed in the stream next to a lady?”
She smiled at him playfully, goading him in a challenge. “Well if you’re too embarrassed, I certainly understand. If I were the king, I for one would hate for anyone to think that I knew how to enjoy myself and let my hair down once in awhile.”
He scoffed. “They already know that I know how to do that, more than I should. It’s what has tarnished my reputation thus far.”
She smiled again. “Well I don’t see any ale here, or wanton harlots, and you cannot possibly impugn my honor with nothing but your bare feet. Taking a dip in a stream will not get you drunk or bedded, but it will cool you off and wash some of the sticky dust that has built up from an afternoon on the road.”
He stared at her, mouth practically agape, then he let out a huge guffaw. “Well, you certainly have a way of putting things into perspective.”
“It is what it is, Your Majesty. Your horses know what it means to cool off, so should you.”
He looked over at his bay and her mare, sloshing around in the creek. He smiled at her again. “Well then, since you put it that way.”
He sat down on the bank and proceeded to pull off his boots. He stepped into the water without so much as a toe tip and wiggled his toes in the frigid refreshment.
“Now doesn’t that feel better? All that grime just washing away.”
“I don’t know, does it?” He kicked his foot and splashed water all the way up to her neck.
She stood there in shock from the blast of cold for a moment, then looked over at him, lips pursed, eyes squinted. She reciprocated with a splash of water of her own. His brocaded red velvet doublet spotted with water, and he flipped his damp hair back away from his face.
He peered at her under dewy long eyelashes and smiled playfully. “You’re awfully bold, Your Highness. Too much more and you could be conceived as an usurper.”
She smiled at him and laughed, kicking her feet more and dampening the front of his hosen and face now. He tried to shield his eyes from the onslaught but was instead dampened some more, a trail of cold water sliding down the back of his doublet and running down to his waist.
“Do you yield?”
He whipped his hair back again and smiled at her with all his straight teeth showing. “I surrender, My Lady.” He bowed with a flourish.
“Good. Feel better?”
“I’m not sure. I seem to have water running down in places I will not mention in mixed company.”
She laughed again, sloshing through the slow running creek and slogging back onto shore. She rubbed her feet through the thick riverbank grass to dry them and plopped back down onto the ground to replace her boots.
He shook himself out some more and followed suit, choosing instead a stump. The two men in Dain’s company approached them; one of them cleared his throat. “Your Majesty?”
Dain paused while pulling on a boot, trying to make it slide on over wet sticky skin. “Yes, Malak, I know. It’s getting late. We should be on our way. We were just now coming along.”