Page 38 of Stay with Me

“If that’s so, then maybe people stay away from the deep Weald because they fear the archers more than the devil.”

“Perhaps ’tis some of both.” He bent and let the loose tangles of her hair brush his face. The strands had long since dried, and he wanted to let her hair loose from the knot she’d fashioned. Instead he wrapped the reins around his hand more securely to keep himself from doing so.

She dropped her gaze to his fisted hand on his thigh before training it on the forest ahead. “You’ve yet to tell me how you became good at the longbow.”

“You are assuming much.”

“Then prove me wrong.” Her voice contained a low challenge.

Something about it shot raw desire through him like an arrowhead hitting the center of a target. Saint’s blood.

He uncurled his fingers with the need to press a hand to her hip and hold her more possessively. But at the sight of Father Fritz drawing alongside them, he rested his hand against his thigh once more.

“Praise be, we’re almost there,” the priest called. “This noggy body can’t take what it used to when I was in my prime.”

“Tell me, Father,” Sybil said. “Who is the best archer in the Weald?”

Father Fritz released a merry laugh. “Why, yer riding with him, bab.”

Sybil shifted enough that Nicholas could see the start of a smug smile upon her lips. “I’ll look forward to my first lesson.”

Had he seen her smile yet? He couldn’t remember one. Was this as close as she came? “If I give you archery lessons, then you will teach me your kickboxing.”

“Right.”

Did her easy acquiescence mean she wouldn’t be in a hurry to travel onward from the Weald? And if she did, where would she go? He couldn’t imagine allowing her to just walk away. Even if she was able to defend herself proficiently, she’d only find herself in trouble sooner or later.

All the more reason to consider marrying her. Then she’d have no reason to leave.

“Ye will be needing a place of yer own now, my dear son.” Father Fritz fanned his flushed face as he rode beside them. His wide forehead was dotted with perspiration, and his tonsuredhair stuck to his head, the heat of the day proving to be the most summerlike they’d had yet.

“I shall stay with Ralph and Beatrice like I usually do.”

“Ye can take my home. Ye’ll be wanting the privacy.” Father Fritz glanced pointedly at Sybil and then made a kissing motion.

The sight of the portly man’s puckered mouth and rolled eyes would have made Nicholas laugh under any other circumstance. But at the insinuation that he’d want to be alone with Sybil while he took her to bed, flames skimmed through him, scorching him.

Father Fritz ended with a knowing nod. “It’s sure good to see that yer gawking over a woman. Can hardly keep those hands to yerself, can ye?”

Nicholas pressed his lips together to stop from reprimanding Father Fritz. The rebuke wouldn’t do any good since it never had previously. The priest was helplessly outspoken.

“Mighty fine to see you agog for once.”

“Gawking?” Sybil murmured, another smirk playing at her lips. “Agog?”

He shot a glare at Father Fritz.

The priest’s smile only widened, and he made kissing motions in the air again, this time loud enough so that Sybil could hear them.

She ducked her head.

“Father,” Nicholas whispered harshly, as if the whispering could prevent her from hearing his conversation with the priest. “Cease the lewdness at once.” He kicked his horse ahead of Father Fritz’s, his gaze sliding back to Sybil. “I apologize—”

He expected to behold blushing cheeks, wide surprised eyes, even mortification crinkling her forehead. Instead, she was shaking with muffled laughter.

The humor in her gaze and the turned-up corners of her mouth made her more beautiful than before. After a moment, he allowed himself to grin, relieved she hadn’t been offended andhad instead found the same amusement in the priest that he oft did.

Before he had a chance to say more, the forestland gave way to a clearing and a cluster of thatched wattle-and-daub cottages. In the common lands beyond, the flocks of shorn sheep were grazing, their bodies bare except for the tufts left around their feet and head.

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