Chapter 11 - Suspicious Stint

"Are you still angry about that?" James slowed down his horse to talk to Harold.

"Why would I be angry?" Harold replied casually. He was surely angry.

"I think you are going to be angrier soon" James smiled.

They were riding out to Northlake to meet the man James wanted to see. Julia with some guards walked behind the horse on the path.

She overheard when James and Harold were arguing about taking her with them. Harold didn't want her to go with them while James disagreed.

"Come over here!" James stopped his horse and waved to Julia.

Julia hurriedly walked to his horse with Harold watching with displeasure. Julia bowed on getting to his side.

"Look up!" James said sternly. "Put your foot here" James pointed to a foothold on the horse. He grabbed her after she had put her foot where he directed and lifted her to sit in front of him.

"Hyah" James groaned to urge the horse. He stared at Harold who seemed to have a thing to say.

"This is only going to slow us down. North lake is far ahead" he complained and rode slowly behind them.

"Slow us down? She will get tired before we get halfway and this is the best way to make our journey fast" James turned to face him.

"Let us continue on the journey and see who is right" Harold rode ahead of them.

Julia was breathing heavily. She felt uncomfortable being very close to James, with his breath hitting the back of her head and the sounds of his heartbeat banging in her ears.

"What is wrong?" James asked calmly. He must have realized her awkwardness.

"I think I should just get down like your friend has said" she said forcibly, closing her eyes.

"No. I think you should hold the reins very tight. That way you won't fall when we start moving fast" he said.

Julia felt a soft blow of air on her neck. That was not the air from speaking. He was deliberately caressing her with soft air.

"Hmm!" Julia moaned, she put her hand on the place where she felt the air.

"Your hands in front, on the reins" James commanded. "Do you like that?" he asked softly like he wasn't the one that just sounded harsh.

"No, I don't think so" Janet blurted.

She thought what Michael said about her getting married to James was beginning to seem real.

"Okay,I understand" James blew her again.

She felt it like a tingle. She would have enjoyed that so much but the thought of her intimacy with Michael was giving her skepticisms.

"I might fall asleep if you keep doing that" she felt that should stop him. She thought he wouldn't want her falling asleep on a horse.

"Yeah, you are free to sleep. We will just stop around here and make a tent" he chuckled.

"Harold said we are already taking time" Julia said awkwardly. She just wanted all this to stop.

"I already told him he is going to get angrier. You can sleep if you want to. I think I want to sleep too" he pretended to be yawning.

"I don't want to sleep. You should stop blowing air behind my ear" she said it straight.

"Are you in love before he bought you?" James said after he had paused for some time.

Julia's heart skipped a beat. She wondered if there was a way James would have known she made love with Michael.

"I didn't know him before that day" she gasped.

"Him? You mean Michael?" James asked like he was confused.

Julia was sure she answered what he asked her correctly. She just didn't understand why he was twisting it.

"I wasn't talking about him. I mean have you ever been in love with anyone?" James clarified.

"No" she replied curtly. It would be better to reply him with short answers to avoid saying things that could implicate her.

"Really?" James asked again. It seemed he couldn't believe that.

"That's unbelievable" he finally exclaimed. "I was in love once and I think I will be in love soon. I will be getting married soon" he chuckled lightly.

"Yes" Julia responded, she was clueless on what to say to him.

"I would have told you I love you but you won't understand it as you have never being in love" he said and stopped talking.

Julia breathed in deep. That was the height of it. He had already told her stylishly that they would be married.

"What?!" James exclaimed.

Julia looked up and saw Harold waiting far ahead on his horse. James pulled the reins harder and the horse rushed to him.

****************

Gawel stood in front of the low mountain. He was very sure this was where he saw on the map when he snuck on James and his accompany.

The place was deserted. It seemed no one had treaded here for a long time. He regretted coming all the way here.

But before he would headed back. He made up his mind to walk round the mountain.

"The great Northlake!" he exclaimed as he discovered the entrance that made way into a cave. He remembered the history of Northlake how they used to hide in caves during war.

"But that is a hell of a name, a lake in the north" he shook himself as he walked in to the cave.

"But who am I to judge, my father has a bad choice of names, how could he name me Gawel, his own father even made the worse choice, Ganlin" he continued speaking to himself.

"And that makes me Gawel the son of Ganlin" he laughed as he continued walking. He quickly stopped and covered his mouth.

His presence must not be known and now that he had laughed, someone might have heard him. He disappeared into thin air and checked the cave for another exit.

Luckily there was none but that only made him reason no one was in the cave. Just like the outside. It had been deserted for a long time.

"I have just came here to meet a deserted cave?" he pondered. He remembered his mission. He was to spy on James.

"James will not be coming here to an empty cave" he said to himself.

The only thing that made sense to him was that he had fallen in a trap set by Michael and his brother James.

He had to act fast. James must not meet him here. He still had enough time. He rushed out of the cave.

He would go back home and tell his father about this. He didn't trust Michael. He always saw him as someone cunny and could do anything to achieve his aim.

This was obviously a trap set for him. That was why Michael was specific it should be him out there.

But he couldn't understand why he would have done this. He flew invisibly through the air and was back in the woods that was made their home.

His father must have sensed he was coming back. He was already waiting for him.

"An explanation for your early arrival, Gawel" Ganlin welcomed him with a stern face.

"Father!" Gawel panted. He had to be very convincing for his father to believe him.

"Michael set a trap for me. He wanted to kill me" he concluded with a heavy tone.

"And when did you become so wise to realize that? I am your father and I am certain about your level of reasoning. Since you have been born till this moment you always make stupid conclusions" Ganlin obviously didn't believe him.

"Stupid conclusions? Tell me why James is riding to Northlake to a deserted cave" he wanted his father to think like him and support his view.

"A deserted cave and James riding out? What do you have to do with that? Go there and listen to everything James will be told in that cave" Ganlin said strictly. It seemed he was never going to believe his son.

"What he will be told by an empty cave?" he shook his head. He felt his father was not thinking clearly.

"Or by a bird, or an empty sky or a scroll. That should not hold concern of your interest. Listen to what he gets and deliver to Michael before James make it back home, do you understand?" Ganlin pulled his own ear.

"I just don't want you to lose another son. There is something fishy here father" he grumbled.

"Go back there now before James will get there and if you feel the presence of fish, bring worms to lure it out and catch it with your hook and line and net and whatever you can fish with out there" he twisted his words and dismissed him.

Gawel felt bad. His reasoning was always logical. His father just didn't find it appealing all the time.

He was certain about this. James wouldn't headed to a deserted cave to get some piece of information.

This must be an agreement between him and Michael. They had surely made an unfavorable and awful plan.

Something was indeed fishy about it.