Virgin Bride(167)

“Trip,” she said, “out.”

I grinned. “I’m the king. I give the commands.”

“Trip.” She stood up.

I laughed and held up my hands. “Okay. I’ll be right out there. But if you take too long, I’m coming in and getting you.”

“I won’t be long.”

I stepped out and shut the door. I leaned up against the wall, smiling to myself.

Not five minutes later, she stepped out the door. Her hair was braided down over one shoulder, and she was wearing a navy blue dress with tall hiking boots.

“You look good,” I said, “but I wish you’d taken longer. I was itching to kick down that door.”

“Come on,” she said. “We’ll find some other doors for you to kick down.”

I grinned and led the way. I headed back down the hall, down the main staircase, and out the back door.

“I love this place,” I said to her as we headed down the back path between the stables.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I bet it’s nicer without all the men holding guns.”

“I don’t know. I like the guns.”

“I bet you do. They make me nervous.”

“They should have the opposite effect.”

Al and his team were trailing us from a distance. She didn’t mention it, but I knew she could tell we were being watched.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I haven’t decided.”

“Did you spend a lot of time here when you were a kid?”

“I did, actually,” I said. “My father was busy in the summer, so my mother would bring me and my brother here.”

“That’s lucky. The only place we ever went in the summer was to the Jersey Shore.”

I cocked my head. “Where’s that?”

“New Jersey. It’s a state.”

“Oh, that’s right. They say it’s the armpit of America. Is that right?”

She laughed loudly at that, and I grinned. I’d heard that in some movie once, though I couldn’t place where. I was glad it delighted her.

“Some people say that, sure,” she said. “It’s not that bad.”

“Well, this place isn’t bad at all. I used to chase the horses when I was barely old enough to walk. In retrospect, that seems crazy.”

“Horses could crush a little kid,” she said, smiling.

“Definitely could. But little princes were not to be coddled, at least not in Starkland.”

“Must have been so hard, you poor guy.”

“Being royalty is tough.”

She laughed as we made our way from the stables down toward the woods and the stream. I glanced back at Al and gestured for them to back off. He frowned but obeyed, moving farther back. Bryce pretended like she didn’t see.

“Up ahead is a little river,” I said. “I call it the bendy.”

“Bendy? Why?”

“It has a bend,” I said, grinning.

She laughed again. “Creative.”

“I was very young when I named it.”

“What’s the real name?”

“Oh, who knows? Some historical figure or some obscure lord or some shit like that. Starkland has a million of those.”

She smiled, and the light streamed through her hair. I felt something inside me, very briefly, something I thought I had lost.

“Listen,” she started, “about yesterday.”

“That was my mistake,” I said quickly. “That was my pride talking.”

“I was going to apologize,” she said softly.

“You don’t need to,” I answered. “You really don’t. You want your parents here? Fine; they’ll be here by dinnertime. I’ll have it done.”

“Thank you, Trip,” she said.

“Come on, let’s forget that.” We crested the little hill and began to head down toward the trees and the stream.

Bryce laughed when the stream was in sight. “Hardly a river,” she said. “Where’s the bend?”

“Farther that way,” I said, pointing upstream. “First, let me take care of this parents thing. Then I want to show you something else.”

I gestured and Al came trotting up. I told him in Starklandian to get Bryce’s parents and to make sure they arrived at the estate by dinner. He bowed and said it would be done.

Bryce shook her head. “Trying to hide something?” she asked.

I grinned. “My English isn’t so good.”

“Liar. What’d you say?”

“Just had him get your parents. Like I said, they’ll be here by dinner.”

She smiled at me and shook her head.

“Come on,” I said, and started walking.