‘Stop. Please just stop. I don’t want to leave it like this. I’ve...hurt you somehow, and it wasn’t my intent.’

She froze but couldn’t immediately look up at him. She didn’t want to leave things this way either and yet wasn’t certain how to mend it. Of course it wasn’t his intent for her to end up feeling bruised and broken and… exposed. Evangelina didn’t do things half way. She jumped in with both feet and committed to loving and living, but it didn’t mean she didn’t struggle. If anything, it was just the exact opposite. She was shuffled backwards among priorities, forgotten, and then expected to be trotted out and picked up as if she’d lived her entire life in the spotlight. Gods, she struggled.

Somewhere on this ride though, she’d slipped. The mask she clung to so tightly had fallen and shattered and left her raw. Evangelina knew it wasn’t his intent for this to happen. Oh, she definitely knew that, the bitter though laughed softly inside her. But she’d been holding onto this façade and now with it gone, she couldn’t seem to grapple with putting everything back neatly into her box. The moment of doubt was out there.

‘You...might have noticed, I’m not particularly adept at these sort of conversations. It’s something that has been pointed out to me often enough lately. But Evangelina…’

Her throat closed and another tremble vibrated through her but she remained quiet as he poured what he could of himself out.

‘I very much value your companionship, your...friendship if that is a thing I may lay claim to. And I do trust you. But I’m a creature of habit, and I don’t...there are some things I don’t take easily to, that’s all.’

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, and he shifted, tilting until she had no choice but to look at him. From beneath her bristly, dark lashes Evangelina stared up at him rooted to the floor of the forest with some unspoken emotion that she’d heard in his voice and found there lurking in the shadows of his eyes. The desperation and unspoken conversation that lingered there in his too-blue of eyes captured her.

Her gaze softened as she tried to convey without words something she wasn’t sure there were words for. That wasn’t how her heart tended to work. Her small hand trembled as it came up and rested on his arm again, softly needing the touch to reassure her as much as him.

‘Maybe it is one of those imperfections you have been looking so hard for? Congratulations, you found one.’

That faint smile was her undoing. Her fingers flexed into a gentle squeeze of his arm before she dropped her hand away from him. He didn’t even realize that this admittance was exactly what she’d needed… what she’d been asking for. One real moment. One real admittance. And just a little reassurance that she wasn’t the only one exposed here in the forest. Taking a deep breath, she felt her eyes softly move back up to meet his and she shook her head almost sadly. He didn’t know. He didn’t know her well enough to know that everything she did, she did with all of herself. If he hurt… she hurt.

“Achilleas,” His name softly slipped from her lips as her gaze tried to convey some hidden message to him. He could say what he wanted but she cared. Taking a slow breath, she frowned up at him, “I just wanted a moment where I didn’t feel like I was being kept at arm's length.” Catching her bottom lip between her teeth she looked away. She was tired of people keeping her at a safe distance. “I shouldn’t have asked that of you but I wanted you to feel as exposed as I did.” Her bottom lip started to tremble and her gaze fell back to the ground as she quietly said, “I’m sorry.”

The trees were veiled with the thick laced mist born from the heavier rain at the tops of the trees. It might have been something spellbinding for the svelte, chestnut haired Leventi if at that very moment she didn’t feel like a firefly captured under a glass. In her weakness, she tried to disarm him enough to reach some part of him untouched by anyone else. It’d been panic at her own crash landing. This was her crash landing and she was skidding figuratively across the muddy, gnarled forest floor to lay at this man’s feet. Disarmed. Unsettled. And not certain how she’d regain her footing.

The husky male laugh sounded as uncertain as she felt, she pressed her eyes closed a little tighter. What a little fool she’d made of herself scampering about the forest and then demanding parts of him she had no claim to, even as a friend.

‘You think I have been keeping you at arm’s length?’ Evangelina let out a breath, she didn’t know what she thought she was doing any more. ‘I think even if I had been trying…’ Lines appeared between her eyebrows as she listened to him. ‘I’m not sure I would succeed at keeping you at a distance.’ Her breathing stilled and she hazarded a cautious glance up at him. Did he mean that? He wasn’t just placating her with words?

Something in her dark eyes gave way a little before she quickly looked back to the ground, uncertain that it was safe for her to expose so much of herself to any one person. People had notoriously let her down, she didn’t want to believe that he would… maybe that was why she’d felt the need for emotional leverage from him.

Licking her lips, she wrapped her arms around her small frame hugging herself quietly. This wouldn’t go down as her proudest moment for herself. She didn’t want to make those she cared for to bleed when she bled. That wasn’t her. She bore the weight and found her release in the stable, as she let her trouble sink away from her. Another small tremble shot through her, what she’d done was such a Leventi trait! It was like the more she was around them the more their behaviors were seeping into her being. That terrified her. Swallowing, she was reminded of why she’d taken off running through the forest without her shoes.

The weight of this realization that even discarding her shoes and running into the forest, she couldn’t escape it. Evangelina’s fingers tightened around her sodden chiton, her nails digging into the flesh of her side. There wasn’t an escape. Running away hadn’t helped. The weight was settling into her chest.

‘I’m not trying, though. I enjoy your company. I should apologise if I have led you to think otherwise.’

He hadn’t even gotten to the fourth word and she was shaking her head at him. No, this wasn’t his fault this wasn’t anything he needed to apologize for. He was giving what he could of himself and she was being greedy. Her spine straightened, lifting her frame. If she couldn’t escape then she would bear her burdens with something… if not grace than at least perhaps some grit.

Slowly her chin came up and she met his too-blue of eyes, the dark lashes framing them only making them stand out more here in this wet forest.

“Do not apologize.” Her voice only trembled every so slightly, she pressed her lips together tightly. Stop trembling. “You have done nothing wrong except been too kind and too forgiving of my ridiculousness. My complaints are more to do with me than you…”

‘But if we can agree on that point, I should very much like to see you back to the city and relieve myself of the worry that you will catch a chill or that Krysto will dispatch a whole retinue of guards to find me. That would be embarrassing.’

She almost smiled at that and nodded except she stopped, her hand coming out to grasp his arm and halt him. The lines on her face disappeared for a moment and showed a tiny bit of fatigue as her voice softened into a raspy whisper, “We are still friends, aren’t we?”

Peering up at him from beneath her moist, sweeping eyelashes it took her a moment to decipher the almost soft look in his in answer to her question. Her worrying hands went limp and she felt silly for even having to ask that question. Warmth spread up her neck to flush her cheeks, the curve of her lips tilted up on the corners into the most earnest dimpled smile she could.

‘Yes, Lady Evangelina. We are still friends.’

He might not be in the habit of picking people up and setting them down but that was a disgusting custom of people who floated among their stations. She should have known he wouldn’t, but there was that tiny, needy part of her that had to ask and had to be reassured that despite all of the erratic, more than slightly looney behavior she’d displayed that she’d not scared him away.

‘I shall, however, have to reassess such an arrangement if it turns out I have pneumonia from this diversion.’

Her lips fell slack for a moment before she snorted an indignant laugh, shaking her head and feeling more like herself than she had moments ago.

“A little rain has never hurt anyone, but should you fall ill… I promise to fix you some honeyed tea and knit you some mittens to keep you little hands warm.” She wrinkled her nose and feigned a confident smile that was anything but confident…. There was no way he could know just how bad her knitting was.

‘Come.’

Not objecting, she took his arm and leaned her smaller frame into him almost conspiratorially as he spoke of not ever being able to escape from the palati again after being gone so long. That was something she could be quite a bit more helpful with.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” She squeezed his arm, “Just give a little whistle and I’ll come bust you out of your prison.” Bumping his hip with her own, she sighed, “I’m sure I can sneak you in some sort of disguise that no one would recognize.” Her mind curiously drifted to fake mustaches or outrageous wigs that would have sent him scurrying back to the horses at an ever faster pace if he knew what she was thinking.

At the horses, her careful gaze shifted from Altair to Achilleas and back again. Her chest hurt a little more at the reminder again that the little grey stallion was growing older and she was going to have to take it easier with him. In an easy movement, she was up on the bay stallion and settling into the saddle. She’d ridden enough different horses to be comfortable on the bigger bay but he didn’t feel like home.

Heading back down the trail, in the wrong way… Evie was pretty certain of that now, but she didn’t feel like mentioning it to her companion at the moment. He broke the silence and she tilted her head and looked down at him.

‘You should be flattered he’s taken to you so easily. I am not sure whether to be impressed or offended.’

With a rueful smile, she gave a small shrug of her delicate shoulders. “I don’t have a problem with horses that I have with people.” Her hand reached down to pet the stallion's dark brown wet neck and sighed, “That is probably why Lord Gavriil and I get along so well. Birds of a feather or something similar.” Shifting a glance back at him, she frowned a little, “I take it marriage isn’t exactly what you expected?” She chewed on her lip and considered what he’d said about kissing someone else. A part of her wasn’t certain that it would be as large of a concern for Theodora as it would have been for herself. Looking back down at him, “My mother has always said there is a learning curve to the early days of marriage. We aren’t born with this innate sixth sense of how to live with someone else.”

The curvature of her mouth lifted faintly on one corner as she stole a quick look down at him after such an inelegant noise erupted out of him. She had wasted so much time with the opinion that he was just another one of the perfectly poised shells that were so abounding at court. It was gratifying that under that shell such a noise could have found a home. With the faint amusement, she looked back to the trail they were traveling down, not that they were going at such a pace that she didn’t have plenty of time to duck under a low hanging limb or see the small curves along the path that drew them deeper and deeper into the dense forest.

Conversations drifted as they tend to do and she found herself asking him about his marriage. Perchance because the way her mind bounded and worked talking about Gavriil made her think of marriage and marriage made her naturally curious about his and her cousin’s. The Leventi cousins were always a tight-knit group, you simply didn’t endure some of the things that the Leventi family put you through without bonding a little. That being said, the dark haired beauty was both superior to Evangelina in age and beauty. She’d watched her cousin from a distance, having never felt the same kindredness to her that she’d felt for Selene who shared her love of horses with. She’d always seen Theodora as a pretty doll, her life lived on a pedestal with the world at her feet. So naturally, there was a curiosity to how her life as a wife was progressing.

There was a slight pause before he answered, she assumed he was considering his words carefully and when he did speak it was her turn to give a soft nod of agreement that her mother was in fact a wise woman. She was, and something that Evangelina was learning was that her wisdom hadn’t been acquired through an easy life.

‘It’s…different certainly and I haven’t...its been such a time, even discounting the marriage, I think we have neither of us seen the best of one another.’

Hazarding another stolen look down at him, she tried to gauge the depth of his words and what she saw forced her to hold her tongue for the moment letting him speak and find his own path to this conversation without her meddling.

The faint almost unnoticeable frown as he looked at his feet made her chest hurt a little. Pressing her lips together, she dropped her gaze to her dirty hands on the reins with a feigned intent.

‘I’m sure it’s fine. When I return from Egypt, then things will be more settled.’

Things were that bad. Evangelina tightened her grip on the leather without directly pulling on it, digging her nail into the leather pretending she was strong enough to leave an indent in the wet leather. A mark that she’d been there, that today had existed. Glancing sideways at him, she wondered if he’d said that to pacify her or himself more?

Time and distance did not make the heart grow fonder in her experience. What space had grown there only faded further away… Before his wedding he’d seemed so enamoured with Theodora, and her mind absently wondered what had happened to change that. Did her cousin have faults that she’d never seen? She bit her lip but pushed the questions down for another time.

He twisted to look back up at her and she felt her eyes pull down to meet him and wondered if that was panic in his eyes. Her breath hitched at his words, ‘Why do you ask? Has Theodora said something?’

A plaintive lift of her lips, and something shifted in her gaze before she looked back down at the reins again. Swallowing, she gave a small shake of her head in reply. No, Theodora hadn’t said anything to her about it and she probably never would. Which had been why she’d asked? Evangelina felt like she was watching her cousins lives through a window in a tower. They were shared blood and features but that was where the comparison stopped short.

“No.” She mused, still picking at the leather of the reins. “It was just curiosity on my part. Theodora and I don’t really run in the same circles.” Glancing over at him, she smiled faintly to add some levity to her words. Theodora’s circle had been so full that her own circle had found comfort on the walls of a room or a gathering, going unnoticed until the swarm of social butterflies thinned enough to be seen. At some point, Evangelina had just stepped backward and accepted that there were some people created to live their lives in the limelight while others learned to thrive in the shadows.

“But if you are curious, there are no rumors, to my knowledge, swirling around about you and Theo within the family.” She offered with the clear intention of hoping to set his mind at ease. It didn’t mean that Theo hadn’t spoken to her sisters… but if she had then it wasn’t a common topic of conversation even in Georgio’s household. With that attempt made, Evangelina drew quiet and seemed to withdraw into her mind with thoughts of her own.

The chagrin in his muttered reply sparked a look from Evangelina as she stole another glance at him. The wrinkles in her forehead appeared and she pressed her lips together. His apology for asking confused her, it seemed like a perfectly normal question for one friend to ask of another, especially after she’d expressed that she and Theodora weren’t especially close… not like sisters. His constrained manners seemed burdensome to her open and frankness.

But there wasn’t a nice way to tell him that without making him more uncomfortable, all that escaped was a small sigh until she considered offering the information that he wasn’t exactly what their family sat around and gossiped about during their family dinners.

‘I suppose I should be grateful for that then.’ An unladylike snort of amusement huffed out of her and she turned her head seeing the wistful smile on his face. He had no idea how grateful he should be for that concession, truly. ‘I should not like to be the subject of discussion at Leventi family dinner I don’t think.’

The amused smirk that had found its way to her lips evolved into a full dimpled grin hiding a darkened shadow in the depths of it. She drew her dark eyes off of him and looked forward between his stallion’s ears. Being the subject of discussion at Leventi family dinner only meant one thing, the family was interested in you; and that was never a good thing. Her eyes dropped to her hands but the dark smile didn’t fade just yet.

“Yes.” She murmured, “That is definitely something to be grateful for.” Her words rolled out slowly as her fingers tightened their grip on the reins without actually pulling on the leather pieces. She wasn’t certain that Achilleas had ever had to suffer through one of her family's dinners as far as she could remember he hadn’t been to any of them that she’d also had the unfortunate circumstances to have had to enduring that level of awkwardness.

Dinner in Leventi terms was a polite way to say meeting and by meeting she meant a way for the family to align their priorities which in layman's terms boiled down to each and everyone single one of them being blatantly told how they were failing to contribute to the family’s plans. The smile was slipping off her face but she managed to catch herself before the sad sulk caught her features and reined it into a neutral look. Looking at her hands from beneath her lashes for a moment before she looked sideways at him and offered him a rare tender smile.

“I do not know how your family dinners were, but ours are usually just aimed at picking at our flaws and letting each of us know how we are failing to live up to our potential.” She made it a rule never to discuss the inadequacies of families to people but Achilleas wasn’t just another person and he’d already seen enough to sing from the rooftops of her craziness. The corner of her mouth stretched upwards as she added after a moment, “And of course, how we can improve ourselves.” There was a hidden sharpness in her words masked over by sardonic amusement.

The curve upwards to the right, drew her eyebrow up and she shifted another glance at him. He realized they were going deeper into the denseness of the forest, didn’t he? Reaching down she patted the bay underneath her and glanced over at her little grey stallion limping along like some sort of brave, wounded soldier trying to get to the next camp for the night.

Deciding it was best not to point out the fact they were going deeper into the forest because… Well, there really wasn’t another plausible option other than to continue moving forward, Evangelina spoke of other things.

“You know,” She began earnestly, glancing at him softly under rain laced eyelashes. “If you’d ever like a female’s perception of things with Theodora, you can come to me.” She pressed her lips together and looked back at the trail in front of her and very quietly added, “You were compassionate to me when I told you of Lord Nikos, and I’m here to repay that favor should you ever desire it.” It was the only way she figured she could offer to share his burdens that he might at the very least consider. He had listened without judgement as she’d told him of her own burdens with Lord Nikos. He probably would not but at least she’d issued the offer… she inwardly sighed.

He couldn’t have known how badly Evangelina wanted to pick at his reply to her. Was it a thing shared among the families in Greece? She didn’t get the general impression that was the way things worked within the Dimitrou household, but perhaps she was mistaken on that front as well. For the time being though she willingly let that subject remain closed for fear that picking at it would only cause the man next to her to shut down further. And she’d had quite enough of people shutting down around her or worse, shutting her out.

The forest seemed like another world, one where only the two of them were existing in and it was both oddly satisfying and somehow nerve wracking. They were sheltered but exposed, the occasional rain droplet finding an unobstructed path from the sky onto them. The oddness left her in a pensive mood, and her offer was born for him to talk to if he ever felt he needed another female’s perception.

‘I’m not sure that would be...Thank you, but really it’s nothing. My marriage is fine.’

One of her eyebrows raised slightly at him. He seemed so concerned by continuously telling her that his marriage was fine that it only seemed to make her wonder if it truly was. She’d expect bumps in the road for any marriage couple, there was a learning curve of learning someone else that Evangelina believed to be completely natural. And denying that there was anything wrong only made her more curious.

A quiet, “Hmmm….” , echoed out of her but she didn’t press him further on that either. If he’d wanted to talk about it with her, he would have, it was as simple and as complicated as that. Pressing him for more information would only lead him to further shutting down and shutting her out. Shifting in the saddle, Evangelina took a moment to take in her surroundings, the gnarled trees that had seen probably their odd characters down this path. Blinking as another raindrop hit her face, she scrunched her features up and looked up at the sky. What sort of things did a tree see on the average day? Quarrelling lovers? Lost souls? The changing of the guards between the sun and the moon? A squirrel looking for nuts? Or a lonely stag wanting to scratch the velvet of his horns off?

She was lost in thought when Achilleas came to a halt and she looked down at him. Had he been talking and she’d not been listening? Blinking her head jerked to look down at him, her eyes full of questions until he spoke.

‘There is a slight chance we might have taken the wrong path back there.’ She pressed her lips together suppressing a laugh. ‘You said the other path led where, exactly?’ Her dark eyes full of amusement, she had to look away or else fall into a fit of laughter.

“You are only just now realizing we are on the wrong path.” The words bubbled and bounced out, not a laugh but proving she was thoroughly amused. With a small sigh, she slumped in the saddle and took stock of where they were at, “It makes a full circle back to the fork in the road… I believe it’s just an old riding path.” Looking down at him, she tried not to smile too brightly but failed. “I could be mistaken but we are about halfway round on this path.” She didn’t want to add to it that the next half of the trail got a little hairier, with lack of use she was certain it would be quite a bit denser than the easy steps of the trail they were on. But, perhaps the Gods had brought Achilleas this direction for a reason. Who was she to interfere?

With a half shrug, Evangelina’s drenched head dipped hiding her amusement at the annoyance in his voice. It wasn’t like he’d have listened to her anyway and wasn’t there something fun about traveling somewhere unexpected? Looking out from beneath her long lashes to him, the corner of her lip lifted in a dimpled smirk.

“Does that mean if I’d mentioned it you’d have actually for a moment considered that I might be right?” She baited him with a teasing tone and the corners of her eyes crinkling with mirth.

She simply continued to smile, trying to resist the urge of reaching her foot out and nudging him softly in the arm as he seemed to be deliberating if they should retreat or continue down the path they’d started. Instead of interfering with his decision making, she shifted in the saddle relaxing, letting her body soften and deepening the curve of her spine as she settled into the seat. It’d be interesting to see what his decision would be. Did they retreat or did he press forward?

‘So it makes no matter if we go onwards or back.’

Pursing her lips, she glanced from him over her shoulder at the trail they’d already traveled and then to the one in front of them and gave another small shrug.

“I suppose not, though, we’ve already seen what was behind us once already.” Her pointy little chin jutted out a little, knowing she was deliberately unhelpful in his decision making. Giving a sniff, she looked down at her hands and fidgeted with her reins until he spoke up again and she settled him with another curious look.

‘I suppose we may as well continue on this way then. Though please, if you have any further insights into the terrain please don't hesitate to share.’

This earned him a raised eyebrow from the pint sized Leventi but he probably wouldn’t have missed the look of approval that lit up her dark, earthy eyes and before he could see it again, her head dipped and her dimpled smile formed again, “As you wish, your majesty.” Her tongue resting in her cheek, she stole a glance at him again and her grin widened. “Are my insights directed to you only in regards to the terrain? Or shall, I share with you my deepest darkest secrets?”

The benefit to watching him meant she saw him ducking to miss the branch and instantly slipped long, lean, and low over the bay stallion’s back all but molding into the horse as Achilleas instructed her to duck the same instant she spoke up as well, “Mind your feet…”

Pressing her lips together she stifled back a throaty laugh at the utter look of contempt on his face as he trudged through the muddy puddle. The back of her hand came up to cover her mouth, and her eyes widened innocently.

“You really should be more careful where you step,” She tried to contain her laughter but it was a losing battle. He’d single handedly just made her day with such a look. Poor man, he’s never going to go for a ride with me ever again… “Oh well, you’re already soaked through… might as well embrace muddy feet.” She laughed and looked down at him, this time not resisting the chance to kick her foot from the stirrup and gently bump his arm with her own foot. “And by soaked through, I mean all the way through… It’s quite a nice view from up here, your majesty.”  The cheekiness seeming to flow from her.  Whether it was true or not, teasing the big old prude was worth it. I might as well make the most of this ride if he’s never going to join me for another one...