Vero did not expect to wake the next morning feeling so wonderful, but the cider seemed to have no lingering effects on her. They intended to leave early, so Vero woke Jean at once with kisses and instructed him to mount her like a stallion again, as he had the previous night.
The sun was already beginning to rise, so she needed to keep insisting that he go faster. Finally, he pressed her face into the mattress too hard for her to issue anything but muffled commands.
When they were finished, they dressed hurriedly. Jean had a set of pants and a doublet tailored for her along with her dresses. Vero preferred to wear dresses, all other matters being equal, but it often became a hinderance in her line of work. It certainly would be on a hunt out in the woods.
The pants were forest green and the doublet a deep brown. There was a badge of the argent stallion against a vert field over the left side of her chest. Her traveling boots were new and sturdy, another gift from Jean. Her hair was long enough that she tied it back in a band as he did.
She had no intention of trying to pass for a man. She still wore a breast cloth under her clothes, but she did not bind it tight.
“How do I look?”
Jean examined her with a bemused expression. “It’s common practice for a fellow to tell the woman he loves she’s beautiful no matter what she wears. But shall I tell you a secret?”
“Yes, please.”
He put his arms around her. “I find you most charming wearing nothing at all.”
“Well, my modesty assures me I look better with most of my faults obscured.”
“You speak of these faults frequently, but I have yet to discover one.”
“Stop it.” Vero turned away from him, but his arms stayed around her. “You’re being too charming. I almost believed you.”
“Good.” Jean massaged her over her clothes. “The fabric seems to be good quality. It’s wonderful how soft the material feels, don’t you think? Yes, I think it’s a fine outfit indeed. Well worth what I paid for it.”
She let herself go limp in his embrace and only moaned a little in response.
“Did you know that you’re the most sensitive woman I have ever met?”
“Those slayer concoctions I told you about. I’ve always heard that they… intensified… the libido. But I think my tampering may have increased that side effect. It’s possible I may not have noticed until now. No one has ever tested me this way before.”
“Do you suppose I could cause you to shiver just like this?”
Vero nodded against his chest with mounting excitement at the prospect. “Yes, probably- If you don’t stop…”
He halted abruptly. “Well, that shall be something for me to consider. Now, we need to get downstairs before the others begin to wonder where we are.”
Vero's mouth was dry and her breathing was heavy. “Where are you going?”
“We can’t dally here forever, we must be going. The others are waiting for us. The whole purpose for our early night was to have an early morning- As you kept reminding me, not so long ago.”
He dragged them out of the bedchamber and down into the main hall. Jean’s cousin, as well as Sers Henri and Mattias, looked aghast to see them. Ser Frederic smiled broadly.
Ser Henri spoke first. “My Lord, if you intend to bring the Lady Veronique further with us, I must advise against it. It will not be safe for a woman.”
Jean dismissed his worries with a casual finality. “I anticipated your concerns, but I don’t share them. Slayers hunt rabid animals and creatures turned into maneaters by capricious fae all the time. I’m certain Dame Veronique shall be more than qualified to join us for a late autumn pleasure hunt.”
The Duc de Emmoi had already learned the futility of objecting to her presence, so he only made his displeasure known with an exasperated sigh. Ser Mattias covered his initial surprise with an expression of careful neutrality.
“I think it’s a jolly idea!” Ser Frederic spoke up. “Unlike these fellows, I happen to enjoy female companionship.”
“I have no objection to female companionship…” Ser Mattias began, deliberately. “But when you said the Lady Veronique would be joining us, we presumed you meant that she would be with us here in the evenings.”
“So, you prefer female companionship only at night?” Ser Frederic observed with good humor. “Presumably to tuck you into bed as mother did?”
“Sers,” Vero interjected. “There’s nothing to prevent men and women from being companionable with one another at any time of the day or night.”
“Here, here!” Ser Frederic quipped back.
He did so loudly enough, that Vero could not quite be certain that she had heard Ser Henri mumble, ‘precisely what I’m afraid of.’
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Jean took control of the proceedings. “Yes, and we shall all be companionable with one another on this hunt! Now, let’s set out before we lose the entire morning.”
They went out to the stables and the Duc silently commiserated with Ser Henri. Vero ignored them in favor of gay chatter with Jean and Ser Frederic.
The stables alone were larger than some castles they had slept in along the way. Inside there were more than a hundred horses, kept in cleaner accommodations than some humans she knew lived in.
All the men had their own personal mounts. Jean told her to pick a horse for herself. She took her time in choosing, while Jean and Ser Frederic offered their half-serious opinions on the relative merit of each animal. Jean also availed himself of the opportunity to pinch her bottom every time they were out of sight from the others.
At last, Vero settled on a shaggy chestnut mare with a snow-white mane and fetlocks. She was very frisky and eager. Vero found that she fell into a rapport with the animal almost at once. Vero asked her name, and saw an image in her mind's eye of colorful butterfly wings fluttering in the sunlight. So, she called the horse Papillon.
Servants prepared Papillon for riding and they set out at last. The sun was well above the horizon.
The morning passed uneventfully, and they had found nothing by the time they stopped for dinner at mid-day. The Duc attributed their lack of game to the late start and made an unfriendly glance towards Vero.
It was an hour after resuming the hunt that Ser Mattias called for the rest of them. He had found boar tusk markings on the trees, fresh.
“It’s headed north,” Ser Mattias stood up from the nearby tracks and declared.
“Hmm.” Jean did not sound convinced.
Vero rejoined the others from where she had been investigating further marks nearby. “There are two of them, another’s moving north by northwest.”
Jean smiled at her, and the Duc made a sound of exasperation. Ser Mattias said nothing.
The Marquis took the lead and their group began to advance once more. They left the horses and domestic servants behind to move in greater stealth, accompanied only by the huntsmen and their dogs.
As they went, Ser Henri kept a hard expression on his face and walked very near to her.
“You are stepping on my shadow, Ser.”
“My Lord may be prepared to allow you to place yourself in danger, my Lady. I am not.”
“Your concern is very tender, Ser.”
Ser Henri made a darkly tempered grunt.
They had gone another quarter of an hour when Jean began to let the others draw ahead of him. When they were the last two in the order of march, he pulled her aside. She tried to question him, but he motioned for her to whisper.
“Have you seen one of them?” Even hunting easy game gave Vero a thrill.
“Not quite. There’s a bird’s nest I want to show you.”
“Oh? Where is it?”
“Just here.” He pushed her back against a tree and began to test the material quality of her attire once more, top and bottom.
“Not now!” She called in an urgent whisper. “Suppose one of the others were to find us like this?”
“Then what? Do you wish me to stop?”
“…No…” she confessed.
He explored the stitching on the badge over her chest. Over her clothes Jean could not be precise with his fingers, and she had to press herself against him to be touched exactly as she wanted.
“Well then. We shall simply need to risk the discovery. I suppose we would only be confirming Henri or Eamon’s worst suspicions if they found us.”
“Gods, don’t say that! I’d be horrified to hear the rumors they’d spread.”
“Freddie would probably ask to join us.”
His tone had been the same teasing jest as his previous prediction, but Vero did not feel quite the same dread. A third possibility crossed her mind.
“What about Ser Mattias?”
“Mattie has caught your eye?”
She hoped she had not given the wrong impression. “He’s- very handsome… But I don’t love him. Not as I love you.”
She checked his eyes for just a moment, and was relieved to see that they were smiling at her.
“Glad I am to hear it. Envy ill becomes a gentleman. Yes, he is rather well built. Excellent calves. Unfortunately, he’s currently engaged to be married, once his fiancée returns from her studies. They’re very devoted to one another.”
“He’s marrying a priestess?”
“No, lots of parents are sending their daughters to learn mathematics these days. Makes them more efficient managing the household staff and brings down the dowery. So, it saves money in the long run. I think she’s studying music as well…”
There was movement near them and Vero shoved him off at once.
Ser Frederic emerged from the greenery. “There you two are. You’ve put Henri in a panic. Keep up now, or we’ll lose our quarry.”
Jean took her by the hand. “Yes, come along now. We don’t want to be left behind.”
They caught up with the others. Moving more carefully than ever, they came very near to their prey, attempting to surround and entrap one of boars in the area.
A huntsman with a dog stopped them, and continued down the line.
“It’s just ahead,” he whispered to each of them. Before directing them into position.
Jean did as the man said, and Vero noticed that the mood had become much more serious.
The boar knew something was happening. It was agitated, but its aggression was undirected for the time being.
Ser Henri was the closest, but the animal had the wind of him, and he could get no closer. Ser Mattias and the Duc formed the second and third points of a triangle surrounding the wild pig.
Vero watched them alongside Jean and Ser Frederic. They were the western segment of a secondary ring, at a farther distance from their prey. More huntsmen and dogs completed the outer circle. She was disappointed not to be closer, but her blood was still ringing only watching the others.
Ser Mattias and the Duc stalked ahead carefully with their spears ready. Ser Mattias struck first, and pinned it down. He was followed instantly by the other two with shouts in triumph.
Once it had gone off, the whole thing was over very quickly.
The tense atmosphere dispersed at once and everyone converged to examine their catch. Vero was approaching Ser Mattias to congratulate him when she heard something approaching them.
It was large, and moving fast.
A second boar emerged from the greenery and raced to gore Ser Mattias, who was nearest. The sheriff’s spear was still stuck.
Vero had begun to move before consciously realizing what she was doing. She put herself between the boar and the knight, then braced the butt of her spear against the ground. The boar’s charge carried it directly onto her weapon to be impaled.
Everything appeared to be moving so slowly in the moment, but it was all over in an instant.
At once, Jean and Ser Frederic arrived to skewer the second boar through its side.
“Are you hurt, my Lady? Gods! You could have been killed!” Ser Henri shouted, as he made certain both animals were completely dead with his hunting sword.
Jean wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her. “Wonderfully done!”
Ser Henri watched them with a shake of the head. “That boar nearly ran her through.”
“Mattie would have been run through if she hadn’t done something. Our master slayer seemed to handle herself perfectly well to me.”
Ser Frederic put a hand on Ser Mattias’ shoulder. “Are you alright?”
“Yes. Of course,” he replied. Over Jean’s shoulder, Vero could see Mattias giving her a strange look. “All in a day’s work.”