*
Raf knew better than to try and talk when she got back to the cave; it was all she could do to keep herself from breaking down in tears. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair in silence, and only after the sun had set did he suggest they might want to start their journey. She nodded, and helped him to pack, and tried not to think about how soon they would also have to part ways. He had a job to get back to, and she had paperwork to file in the archives of the Assessor’s College at Dashfort.
They hiked well into the night, keeping a safe distance inside the forest. It was slower to walk through the undergrowth, but they were out of sight of the road here. Besides, neither of them wanted to hurry. Eventually they stopped, roasted sausages over a small fire, and pitched their tent for the night.
Eleanor had only stepped out of the tent to relieve herself when she heard her name whispered from between the trees. She spun round, knives in both hands, but it was only Daniel.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, keeping her voice to a whisper.
“I came to help you,” he said.
“You’re too late if you were hoping to make me change my mind.”
He shook his head. “We can talk later, it is not safe here. Strike your camp and come with me.”
“How did you even find me?”
“Laban thought you would be here. He said... well, it seems we have much to talk about, but this is not the time.”
“No, it’s really not.”
“Ellie?” Raf called to her from inside the tent. “Who’s there?”
“It’s nothing,” she called back. “I won’t be long.”
“Who are you with?” Daniel asked.
She shook her head. “It’s nothing to do with you. I’ve taken the children out of harm’s way, that’s all.”
“Only one person calls you Ellie. Why are you with him?”
She didn’t answer.
“I came to help you, but instead I find you with him.” He glared at her, and for a moment she thought he might hit her. “You betrayed me.”
“If Raf hadn’t helped me I’d still be locked in an Imperial dungeon somewhere,” she said. “With both our children.”
“That is no excuse for running around with the enemy. And him. I told you you could never be friends with him.”
She met his gaze steadily. “You never did have the power to tell me who my friends were,” she said. “I’ve done what I needed to do, for Isabelle and Martin.”
He grabbed her arm and, before she knew what was happening, yanked the name bangle from her wrist. He threw her backwards; caught by surprise, she lost her balance and fell heavily to the ground.
“Why did I ever try to be with you?” he said, flinging the two halves of her own bangle back at her. The metal stung where it whipped her flesh. “You never really wanted to be a proper wife.”
Eleanor picked herself up slowly, and clipped her name bangle back into place on her left wrist. Single again. She felt more relieved than anything.
“I did care for you,” she said, realising as she spoke that the past tense was more than appropriate. It had been many months since she’d felt anything but frustration and disappointment. “But you’ve never owned me. Perhaps if you’d realised that, things could have been different.”
“While you act like this, it could never have worked.” He spat crossly at her feet. “I hope you do not think you will be coming back after this. No-one will welcome you when I tell them you have been sleeping with the enemy.”
“How dare you–” she began, but looking at him she knew exactly what he would dare. She felt sick to her stomach. Where would she go if she couldn’t return to the Association?
“You have betrayed us,” he said. “You have betrayed me and you have betrayed our children into Imperial slavery. There is nothing you can do to put this right.”
He turned and strode away, and she went back to the tent, still in shock.
“What was that about?” Raf asked as she slid in beside him and rested her cheek on his chest.
“Didn’t you hear? Daniel. He says I can’t go back home.”
“That isn’t his decision.”
“He’ll tell them about you, he’ll tell them that I sold our children into Imperial slavery, and he’ll make stuff up if he has to. And he’s going to get back before I do. So he’s right. I can’t go home.”
“Then what will you do?”
“I don’t know. Do you have any ideas?”
“I wish I could help you.” He hugged her closer. “I wish I could bring you home with me, but you know that I can’t.”
“I know.”
“You’ll have to flee the Empire. What else can you do?”
She looked up at him and he met her gaze, sadness in his eyes.
“What do you want me to say? There’s a war on, and you’ve managed to make enemies of both sides. How else can you expect to survive?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “You’re right, of course. I just have to survive until it’s over.”
“Where will you go?”
“So you can lead your men to hunt me down?” she asked, unable to keep the bitterness from her voice.
He reached out and placed one hand firmly on her shoulder. “Ellie, it’s still me. I want to come and get you once all this is over.”
“Probably the mountains,” she said, hoping against hope that she was right to trust him. “No-one would bother to look for me there.”
She fished around in the bottom of her bag and pulled out the emerald pendant he’d bought for her in Taraska. It was still missing one gem; she’d never asked Harold to fix it in the end, and since then she’d always worn the poison-tipped copy.
“Keep this for me,” she said as she pressed it into his hand. “If you ever need to send me a message, I’ll know it’s really you.”
They couldn’t exchange bangles, not while she was a fugitive and he was wedded to some Imperial wench, but symbolically this was the closest she could think of. If he was ever able to fetch her back to the Empire – if there was even an Empire left to return to – she hoped he’d free himself to marry her. But she didn’t dare ask for that much. Not now.
He nodded his understanding and slipped the trinket into his pocket. “Thank you.”
“I never thanked you for getting Harold to make me that copy.”
“I hope it was useful.”
She thought of Lauren’s crumpled body. “You don’t want to know,” she said. “Not while we’re on different sides of a war.”
“Then I’ll take that as a yes.” She wasn’t looking at his face, but she could hear the smile in his voice, and he ran his hand along her back.
“You’ll give me time to get out of the way, won’t you, before you set your men searching for me?”
“I can’t do anything till I get back to Almont. You have time to disappear.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him as tightly as her injured shoulder allowed. “Send for me once it’s safe,” she said, tears stinging her eyes.
###
Look out for Reformation in 2011
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