The Duke and the Dryad (Elemental Series) (7 page)

After the meal
, Lord Wolfe seemed to have more energy, laughing and joking with his men, consuming vast amounts of ale. She needed to get outdoors, as she felt herself tiring. She stood to leave and instantly he was at her side.

“Where are you going, my little sprite?”

“If my services are no longer needed, I’d like to retire for the evening.”

She saw him staring at her mouth again and knew he was thinking of their kiss in the solar, just as she was. He’d said he wanted her to warm his bed, yet he’d denied her. She
had once again given him the opportunity to finish what they started, but somehow she knew he was not going to take it.

“Nay, no more services needed of you this night,” he told her. “You can use the bed in the solar, as I’ll be sleeping in the great hall tonight.”

She didn’t answer, just nodded and rushed away. She ran to the solar and slammed the door, throwing herself onto the bed, face down. What had she done wrong? He seemed to have wanted her just as much as she’d wanted him earlier. But yet, he kept his distance. She’d always felt so alone her entire life, and this wasn’t any different. That’s why she’d joined the Druids, for a sense of belonging. But even tho she was at the lord’s castle with people everywhere she went, she felt so alone she could think of naught but getting back to the forest where she’d at least have the company of the animals, the plants and the trees. She couldn’t stay here tonight and in his bed. ’Twould only keep her awake all night wondering about what almost happened. She would wait until the castle’s occupants retired for the evening. Then she would sneak out and go back home.

Chapter 4

Wolfe awoke early as always, feeling antsy and needing to ride. His head pounded from drinking too much ale with his soldiers and from lack of sleep after staying awake most the night.

’Twas still dark out, and not even the servants yet stirred. He pushed up from the wooden bench that had served as his bed, now regretting he’d told Rae to take his soft pallet stuffed with downy feathers
, the bed of a noble - and in his private solar. Instead, he - a duke - was sleeping on hard wood with no pallet - the bed of a servant instead. What the hell was happening to him lately?

He brushed off the rushes covering his legs
, being quiet so as not to awaken the rest of the inhabitants sleeping in the hall. He’d fallen from the bench more than once during the night while trying to get comfortable. He stood and stretched his stiff legs and back.

The little sleep he did get
was far from comforting.

He’d been
haunted by the cat-like green eyes of his earth sprite now occupying his bed while he slept with the lower class and tried to ignore the rats scurrying through the shadows looking for scraps of leftover food.

He thought of going to his solar right now, reclaiming his bed and the girl as well, but changed his mind quickly. She was c
ontrolling his thoughts somehow. She had to be. He’d never been this smitten with anyone and especially since he didn’t even really know her. He needed to ride the moors in the moonlight and think. Mayhap the wind through his hair would help him clear his cluttered mind.

He made his way to the stables, an
d not wanting to wake the stable boy, he saddled his horse by himself. Then he mounted the steed the headed for the castle gate. He stopped just outside the gatehouse waiting to be acknowledged.

“Lord Wolf
e?” came the voice of Sir Braden. “Is that you?”

“Open the gate, Sir Braden, I am going riding.”

“At this time of night?” came the man’s question.

“Open the gate and lower the draw bridge and quit asking questions.”

“Of course, my lord.”

Two men ran out from the gatehouse, pulling open the heavy wood
en doors that added as extra defense against attackers. Then the portcullis was raised. The chains rattled as the squeak of the windlass being turned, lowered the heavy wooden bridge, awaiting his crossing. Once over the bridge, he’d have to pass through the barbican and yet another gate before he could ride freely. There was no way in hell the dryad brought his bull through here with no one noticing. She’d lied, and that upset him greatly. Curiosity also ate away at him, wondering how she’d really accomplished the task.

“Leave the drawbridge down but lower the gate for protection until my return.

“Aye, Lord Wolfe.”

The sound of the heavy metal
-encased gate as it lowered, echoed through the night. He galloped his steed across the bridge and through the barbican and took off at a good clip through the dark, heading for the moors.

* * *

Rae trudged through the forest, holding up her gown, full of energy now that she was back in nature. She’d discarded her shoes along the way, reveling in the feel of the earth beneath her bare feet. It didn’t phase her that she’d been walking most the night and in the dark, making her way back home. She’d sneaked out the postern gate of the castle when no one was looking. Actually, that was the same way she’d stolen the bull without being seen although she’d told
The Wolf
differently. She just wanted to see him squirm wondering what else she could do with her powers.

If the man would be aware to his surroundings, he would know that while the postern gate was small and hidden beneath the vines of the stone wall, ’twas still large enough to sneak a bull through – but barely. She’d calmed the animal with her
mind and helped pull it through the gated passageway, its sides getting scraped on the stone walls in the process. She’d urged it not to panic nor to breath much during the escape. And all she had to do to find the keys to the hidden passage was to ask the vines that covered the wall. It worked beautifully. But then, she’d always had a way with animals, not to mention nature. ’Twas nothing that he, being a hard-headed human, would ever be able to do himself.

Her home
was a small shack hidden in the forest made of the mighty and powerful wood of the oak. She, being a dryad, had a strong connection to the oak tree. ’Twas the most powerful tree of the forest. She approached her home, and stopped just outside her hut, laying her body against the bark of the largest oak there. ’Twas nearly two hundred years old, and revered by her late faerie mother as well as her grandmother through the ages.

She felt the vibrations running through the tree and coursing through her body as well.
She sank to the ground and laid her cheek against the hard earth, breathing in the scent of dog-violet and goose-grass drifting on the breeze. She felt comforted being in the presence of nature. She could feel the heartbeat of the animals in the forest as well as the life force flowing through the plants that covered the ground.

The earth had a heartbeat all its own, though no one, save mayhap the druids, would ever understand. She knew that all living things needed to be honored, and that war and destruction was the enemy of nature more
so than the enemy of man.

She missed her mother since her death at the han
ds of a warlord years ago. Her mother had been caught and taken prisoner by an evil man named Lord Clive, after he’d followed her into the forest one day. He’d wanted her as his own, liking the rarity of having caught a sprite. He’d kept her locked in a tower, not knowing or perhaps not caring, that she needed to be by the earth. That was the death of her. She couldn’t touch the earth to regain her power, but only watch it out the arrow slit window as her life passed before her eyes, quickly slipping away.

Her father was human, and had been a knight of this evil lord
, but over seas in battle at the time. But when he returned and found what happened, he went insane. He fought Lord Clive and was almost killed in the process, but managed to scar the evil man’s face. Then he roamed the lands aimlessly, hoping against hope to still find his wife, but she never returned, because she was dead. Rae wondered what happened to her father. She was young at the time and couldn’t go looking for him. And she was the last of her kind, even though she was only half-fae. Instead, being frightened, she decided to stay in the forest, hidden, lest the same thing happen to her.

She knew now she’d done the right thing
in leaving the castle. Though the man named Wolfe took her interest, he was too dangerous for her. She couldn’t take the chance he’d keep her locked in the castle and she too would die the same death as her mother. She could only hope that some day, she’d find a man to love, and together they could create generations of earth elementals. Then, her kind would not be extinct but would live on, even if it weren’t in the purest form.

Well, at least
she was home now. Though the human side of her craved contact with people, her fae side was satisfied just being part of nature. She’d almost fallen asleep with her check against the earth and her back against the oak tree, until the cry of her wolf alerted her to an intruder.

He eyes flickered open and she listened to the howl again. Then she called with her mind for Zev to join her. And flatt
ening her body against the noble oak, she used her powers of the earth to blend into the tree.

* * *

Lord Wolfe made his way through the forest, following the howl of the lone wolf. His heart raced in his chest as he urged his horse forward. He could see an occasional glimpse of a black tail through the trees. The wolf was leading him somewhere, he thought. The wolf was leading and wanted him to follow.

The animal came to a halt in front of a small hut made of wood, built half into the side of a hill. It was covered with vines and blooming flowers, and if he hadn’t seen the door illuminated by the moon, he wouldn’t even had known it was there.

He’d been through his forest many times before and thought he knew every inch of it. But here was something he’d never noticed, and being curious, he had to know who lived here.

He slid off his horse silently, all the wh
ile keeping his eyes on the mysterious animal that seemed to be trying to tell him something. It knew he was there, and kept circling him with its head down. Still, it didn’t seem to want to harm him, or he was sure it would have attacked already. Instead, it sat down next to a huge oak, looking at the bark as if the tree was speaking to him in some silent manner. He tethered the reins of his horse to a branch, and pulled out his sword slowly, so as not to frighten the wolf. ’Twas the biggest wolf he’d ever seen. And somehow, he felt drawn to it.

He moved toward the tree silently, sure he had seen a shadow in the moonlight. He guessed someone
was hiding behind it, possibly meaning to attack. But why wasn’t the person running from the wolf? And oddly enough, why wasn’t the wolf running from the hidden person, or even him for that matter?

Rae melded her body to the bark of the oak, feeling its power coursing through her. She realized now she never should have called Zev to her side, as someone had followed her wolf right to her home. She could see a horse in the distance, but the rider was nowhere in site. Then, she turned back and looked in the other direction, and gasped as she realized Lord Wolfe was standing not three paces away from her. She saw him look up, surveying the tree, then walk around the other side, scrutinizing and searching for something. He was right in front of her now, but because of her ability to blend in with her surroundings, he could not see her. Then, to her dismay, Zev jumped up onto her, trying to lick her face.

“Nay, down
boy,” she whispered, but obviously the duke heard.

He squinted,
walked closer, and squinted again. And when Zev scurried away, his hand shot out and he touched her on the breast. She screamed in surprise and moved forward slightly, giving herself away. He reached out quickly, and grabbed her by the arm, twirling her around and holding his sword to her throat.

“Don’t move or I’ll sever your head from your body.
”

Not the right thing to say to a
n elemental in her own surroundings. Her anger was fed by his harsh action, igniting her dormant power of being able to move objects with her mind. Without even trying, she disarmed him. The sword went flying out of his hand, embedding itself into the bark of the oak.

“Ow,” she said, feeling the stab as if she were the oak
herself. ’Twas then he realized it was her, and he turned her roughly toward him.

“You!” he spat
. “You are supposed to be back in the solar sleeping in my bed.”

“And you should be there as well.” She knew it sounded as if she’d meant in his bed with her. She didn’t mean that – or did she?

“What are you doing here, and why are you hiding?”

“This is my home,” she told him. “You are the trespasser, and I was not hiding. Not really. Zev told me there was a
n intruder and I didn’t know ’twas you.”

“Zev?
” He looked over to the wolf that now trotted to her side. She put out her hand to touch its head and it sat down next to her. “So Zev is your wolf. And the wolf is your pet.”

“Zev is no one’s pet. He is my traveling companion and my friend.”

“’Tis a big wolf,” he said, eyeing it up. He walked over to his sword and pulled it from the tree. Zev growled, meaning to protect her.