Their stops were more frequent today, owing to his horse having to carry the both of them, but she couldn’t be upset about that. Not when it meant more time to walk around and stretch her legs. Not when it meant spending her day so close to him.
Early this morning, riding pressed up against him as she was now, she’d given up the last vestiges of hope that she’d ever be able to exorcise him from her heart. And though they’d likely never cross paths again after their quest came to an end, she’d decided to give herself this time of pleasure being close to him. In her imagination, for at least the next several days, he could once again be her Eric.
“We’ll rest here for a bit,” he said over his shoulder. “There’s some small shelter from the wind up against the rocks and there’s water.”
Once Eric had dismounted, he lifted his arms to help her down. “Stay close,” he cautioned, leading his horse back down the incline to the water.
Jeanne pulled her woolen tightly around her, sorely missing the fur that Dobbie had taken with him. She placed a hand to her neck and stretched. The bundle of her most precious belongings strapped to her back was responsible for the ache in her shoulders, but a short walk to stretch her limbs would help.
Small patches of snow lay in the shadowed spots and she watched her feet to avoid slipping on them as she made her way up and around the rise toward the peak. Bushes, wild and tangled like a miniature wind-ravaged forest, stood between her and the spot she had her sights set upon. Carefully she made her way through them, stopping a couple of times to free her cloak from the thorny grasp of the undergrowth as she climbed.
Only feet from the edge of the summit, she tightened her cloak against the bitter wind and dropped to her knees to admire the view. Mountain peaks stretched out in the distance, cupping a lake-filled valley below.
When she heard a noise behind her, she assumed Eric had followed.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked, turning with a smile to find herself staring into eyes as yellow as a summer sunset.
A wolf!
He’d arrived on silent feet and now he stood unmoving, his eyes fixed on her as if she might be his next meal.
“Eric?” she called, her voice so quiet she knew her companion would never hear. But would the creature pounce if she startled it by yelling? She tried again, a little louder. “Eric?”
Slowly, so as not to frighten the animal, she stood, hunched at first, then straightened to her full height.
The animal didn’t move. Jeanne wasn’t even sure he’d blinked those piercing yellow eyes.
“Eric!” she screamed, as the wolf lifted a massive paw to move in her direction.
A small figure darted from behind her in a streak of white fur, and, startled, she jerked backward. Her foot slid into a pile of snow sheltered by a low ridge of rock that bit into her calf and tilted her off balance. Her arms flailed uselessly as she fought to catch herself, and, with another step back, her foot hit nothing but air, pitching her over the side of the cliff.
• • •
Eric could have sworn he heard Jeanne call his name, but when he turned, she wasn’t in the spot where he’d left her.
“Bollocks,” he grumbled. Hadn’t he told her to stay close? He had more to do than spend his time trying to hunt her down if she got herself lost up here. Though, with so few trees, getting lost would be a difficult task, even for Jeanne.
“Eric!”
That scream certainly wasn’t his imagination. He spun toward the sound, pulling his sword from its scabbard, his eye tracking upward.
She stood at the highest point on the promontory, suspended for one brief moment against the stark gray sky, her arms askew above her head before she tumbled over backward, disappearing from sight.