Winter

I took a deep breath and counted till ten before I turned around to see the knight I met earlier standing in front of me. His eyes were bright but there was something dark in them, something that made hairs in my neck stand up. I narrowed my eyes at the look of his hand around my arm, I refused to be afraid of him.

“Let go of me.” I snapped at him and this made him pull me even closer, so close I had to put a hand against his chest, He didn’t have his armour on, so I was actually touching his chest, which felt muscly and I could feel his heart beat under the wet shirt. “Why would I do that?” he had one eyebrow cocked up and I had to stop myself from hitting him because I was already in enough trouble. “Because it’s not polite to touch me without my permission.” This made him laugh and that’s when I knew I was really in deep trouble. “I don’t need permission Milady.”

“Why not?” I asked him angry and that’s when he showed me his other hand and on his ring finger blinked a golden ring, it’ a good thing I was already pale from the cold because otherwise he would see my distress. “Because love, I’m your husband.” He lifted me from the ground so I was at the same eye level and before I could protest he had pressed his mouth on mine. I was so shocked that at first I didn’t respond but when my brain worked again, I pushed him away and hit him hard.

“I’m not your wife, dumbass.” He growled at me, this shocked me because I never ever heard a man do that. He put me down but didn’t let go of my arms he started to drag me to his horse. “I’ve had enough of your games Winter.” He put me on the horse and jumped behind me and he immediately made to horse move. I had to hold on tight because he was riding as if the devil himself was after him. “We will stop for shelter because I need you out of those wet clothes.” I remained quiet and just focused on the road and I was trying to ignore the big dumbass behind me.

When we finally stopped in front of a cave, I was dreading what he would do to me. He put me down but of course my leg was still hurting, so when I touch the ground I groaned as the pain shot through my leg, the knight heard me and lifted me in his arms and carried me into the cave, he put m on a smooth looking rock and started to make a fire. I just stared at him and couldn’t help but think about those romantic novels, he would be a perfect example for books like that. He was handsome, I had to give him that and he had muscles that you couldn’t ignore and his hair had a dark colour= and to my surprise he didn’t have long hair.

When the fire was burning he turned back to me and as he approached I couldn’t help but move back. He stopped me by grabbing my leg, which hurt a lot. “We need to get you out of these wet clothes.” He immediately started started to pull my pants of and I tried to slap his hands away from me but he didn’t budge. “Stop moving woman.” He was actually friendly but you could tell his patience was running out. “I can pull it of myself.” Put my pants was already halfway my legs. I was thanking the lords for the fact that I was wearing my own underwear and a long underpants to keep me warm, not that it mattered much, as I was soaked.
“Why are you wearing these Winter? And when did you change into this outfit?” He was sounding really confused but how could I get him to understand that I wasn’t his wife. “It’s because I’m not your wife, I’m not your Winter Blaclwood.”

“Look I’m not sure why you keep telling me that your not my wife because that is just ridiculous and I really want you to stop this nonsense.” He was feeling up my leg and the moment he reached my knee I almost jumped because of the pain. “I think you bruised you knee really bad, what were you thinking running of like that.” He was not angry but actually really sweet and it just didn’t sum up why Lady Blackwood would run away from him. I mean James is great and all but why leave a man who loves you? It was beyond me and I sighed as he started to massage my leg, after he had put a robe around me so I could get warm. He had hung my pants near to the fire so that it could dry, he also did this with my other clothes. I was almost naked except for my bra and panties.

“I really need you to listen to me.” I waited until I had his attention “I’m not your Lady Blackwood, I swear, I’m not even from around here. I know this all sounds really strange because my name is Winter Blackwood as well, well okay it’s Winter Niall Horan, too be honest and I know I look exactly the same as your wife but I’m not her, ask me something personal, that only she can know.” He looked at me as if I had gone crazy.
“What is my favourite season?”

“I really don’t know.” I shrugged and he looked at me for a few seconds and as he came closer I didn’t move back. He traced the shape of my lips with his fingers and I already know what he saw, because I wasn’t pale and I had freckles, like a lot and as his Winter had blue eyes and not my green ones, he saw the difference and he immediately sat back.
“Who are you?” I smiled apologetic at him. “I’m Winter but as I was telling you, I’m not from around here but I do know where your wife is.”

“Where is she?” I told him about the cavern where we met, that she was talking to my husband, who had looked like her first love. He didn’t take well after that, he even looked murderous and I had to stop him from riding back to beat Niall up. You could see the love he had for his Lady Blackwood and I felt sorry for him because she had completely forgotten about him, the minute her eyes fell on Niall but to be fair Niall had forgotten about me as well.

“We will ride back tomorrow morning, I suggest you get some sleep.” He gestured to the spot next to the fire and I gladly took the spot even though it was on a hard ground, as long as there was a fire to keep me warm, I wouldn’t complain. I couldn’t sleep though because something wasn’t adding up. Why would Winter leave this man? I wouldn’t, that was for sure, I would never leave him. This was just weird and it was really messing things up because the look in his eyes when I spoke about James was downright frightening.

I must’ve fallen asleep at a certain point because I woke up by the smell of food and my stomach actually turned a bit because he was roasting a rabbit on a stick above the fire. “You’re awake, good, here this is for you, after breakfast were riding back to the tavern.” I nodded and started eating the rabbit he had offered me, it was rude to decline, so there I was eating a wild rabbit, it didn’t taste bad but it wasn’t something I wanted to eat ever again. After I was done, he left me so I could dress myself and when I was done, I walked out and stopped when I was next to the horse. He grabbed me by my waist and lifted me on it.

He jumped behind me, just like yesterday but at least I was feeling slightly better and I wasn’t afraid of him any more, I still didn’t know his name though. “You never told me your name.” I said after a while and he chuckled, which made me smile, at least he wasn’t angry anymore.
“My name is Duncan McLochlan, nice to meet you milady.” I was impressed by his friendly manner and I actually liked him. We weren’t far from the tavern and within two hours we arrived and I was a bit shocked to see Niall running towards me, he immediately lifted me from the horse and hugged me tightly.

“I thought I lost you.”

Notes