Aleksey's Kingdom (A Royal Affair #2)(30)

So, this savage, beautiful man, dressed in his buckskin and fur with his painted face and long braids could argue me into a cocked hat in four languages and had seen a great deal more of the world than I. For all that, he seemed to enjoy my company, and had it not been for Aleksey and the unique pull he had upon me, I would have spent a great deal more time with Etienne than I did. I might well be wearing face paint and braiding my hair too.

Etienne’s horses were tethered farther away in the trees, and we walked together to retrieve them. I don’t know if Xavier recognized the yearling in the small herd as his son, but I did. I was delighted to see this beautiful young horse once more, and Etienne and I chatted quite happily for some time as we rode side by side a little way off the track and out of sight of the rest of my companions.

Etienne was naturally very curious about my being there with such a group, but being the man he was, with his Jesuit and native reserve rendering him subtle and patient, he did not ask outright or show any outward sign of his interest. He merely commented on the snow. I took this to mean that he was surprised I was traveling in such weather. Living as we did in the raw, as it were, in the great forests of the New World, there was always much to do this time of year to prepare for the winter ahead, and thus his surprise that I was not back at the cabin doing just that. I nodded at his wisdom but did not alleviate his curiosity, commenting in return that it had been fine for some days previous and that traveling was easy in such favorable conditions.

Thwarted, he rejoined that the season was not the only factor in determining the ease of travel and that many things that had not been foreseen could hinder a journey. I frowned and thought about this for a while, then asked outright, which was considered rude, I knew, “What have you seen?”

He dropped his inscrutable act and chuckled. “You’re no fun, Nikolai. I have all day with nothing to do and was looking forward to spinning you along for many hours.”

“Unfortunately I do not have such luxury, friend. Enlighten me.”

“You first.”

I grunted and gave him a very brief summary of my reasons for being in the woods and our proposed destination. He listened carefully, weighing my words, then said simply, “I advise you all to turn around now.”

“Because…?”

He sighed. “There has—we are being followed.”

I laid a hand on his arm. “I know. It is only… one of my companions.”

We slowed, and as we waited, I pondered this rapidly approaching meeting. Aleksey and Etienne had never met. For one reason or another, I kept my life with the Mik’mac very separate from that with Aleksey. Just as, I suppose, he kept his activities in the colony separate from me—although, to be fair to him, he had invited me many times to join him on his visits, whereas I had never once extended that courtesy to him. But then I was the one who could live between the two ways of being. He was not.

He rode out of the softly falling snow and reined in Boudica. I could not help the stab of intense pleasure seeing him gave me. There had been a time, and not too long ago, when he had not been mine and seeing him thus would have sent my spirits plummeting into spirals of hopeless despair, both for being a man who thought such things about another man and because it seemed I would never do the very things I had been thinking of with this man. We had been all confusion, all heartache and repressed desire. Now we understood each other very well. I knew him so well that I could not foresee this meeting going happily at all.

I swiftly made introductions. I could see his expression, his surprise. Of course, I had spoken of Etienne. Perhaps he had pictured a Latin scholar… a saintly Jesuit… a man of the Bible, studying his Greek long into the night with weak, rheumy eyes. Perhaps I had given that impression… inadvertently, of course. Upon reflection, I do not believe I had mentioned the chiseled cheekbones natural to Etienne’s race. I don’t think I’d told Aleksey that Etienne was six feet of lean brown skin and muscle without imperfection. I had twisted a tale of dusty priest’s robes, and not skin in softest buckskin and feathers. This was bad. I had lied about Etienne just as Aleksey had misrepresented me.

What was slightly worse, however, was that I had also given the impression to Etienne that Aleksey was… well… somewhat older than he clearly was. I think I might have mentioned he had once been thought dead, only to have been unexpectedly revived. Etienne had then naturally assumed he had been very old—near death. I had not corrected this impression, nor disabused him of the idea that I was this old king’s doctor, and thus when he approved of my caring for this elderly, deposed monarch, I had almost been able to picture this act of charity in my mind.

I wrinkled my nose and waited for the explosion.

Etienne nodded pleasantly at Aleksey, a small grin repressed as he walked his horse closer. “I hope this cold is not affecting your joints, Your Majesty.”

Aleksey’s brows rose. I was very glad, for once, for his natural politeness, because he could not help then saying, although with a puzzled tone, “No, I thank you, I am quite well.”

“Ah, good. And your bowels? I hear they have been the very devil for some years.”

“Er… I’m sorry, you are the priest—Etienne Membertou?”

“I never took Holy Orders, I am sorry to say. Poverty I embrace, but chastity held no appeal whatsoever.” My friend was being disingenuous here. I knew the real reasons he had not taken Holy Orders, and they had little to do with chastity—his, anyway. He had been very unfortunate with the mission he had been placed in as a child and had seen very ungodly behavior from some of the priests. Indeed, upon the scandal reaching the ears of the Holy Father in Rome, the school and the mission had been closed and all the priests recalled. By that time, however, many had wives and children in the local tribes, and they had not heeded their summons. They had just disappeared….