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Vadya stared at Tashka, sitting on her grey horse Jewel. Her hand was still clutched on his sleeve, her face was softened out, staring at the shaking branches the bear had brushed past. Around their horses' hooves, ten hounds crept and crawled, whining with puzzlement.
They had chosen to follow an off-shoot of the pack, riding together at the front, so far ahead that the others did not see them take a diversion through the trees. They had not said or looked anything to each other about it. They simply rode after the hounds as if they had only one mind, fixed on riding side by side through the trees and the falling leaves, fixed on the animal they were hunting down.
Tashka had looked fiercely happy, cantering after the baying pack on the scent. They had found the bear backed against a bank of earth, growling and clawing out at the ring of hounds around it. Suddenly she put a strong hand on Vadya's arm and cried: "Call them off!" so urgently that he lowered his spear and did it without question.
Tashka let go of Vadya's arm, slid off Jewel and sat down under a tree, putting her head in her hands. Vadya caught Jewel's reins and watched her, waiting to see if she would become fierce and hard again and insist they ride off after fresh game.
Tashka lifted her head, her slanted blue eyes had a soft warm glow in them. "He blessed me," she said. "He said: 'Angels bless, el Maien'." Her face twitched. Vadya got off Loyalty and looped the two horses' reins over a branch. He knelt down by Tashka, took her in his arms and held her close.
She pressed her face into his neck and sniffed at the lightly scented oil Batren used for his hair. Her lean tanned fingers threaded through his curling hair. Vadya took her head in his hands and looked deep into her eyes. She smiled at him, letting her head lie heavy in his hands. She said softly: "Vadya, how beautiful you are."
Vadya pulled her head close to him, bent to kiss her, her long lashes fluttered shut as she lifted her mouth to his. He had missed the wet caress of her rose-petal mouth; his lips lingered in their kiss. He lifted his mouth from hers and began to kiss her closed eyes.
"I am beautiful," he repeated in a trembling voice as he kissed the delicate skin of her eyelids. "My darling! I cannot say how lovely you are."
He sat down beside her on the ground under the tree, she snuggled her head into his shoulder. There was no one else to consider, they could hold each other and caress each other's faces and whisper a silly quarrel about who was the most beautiful -- and kiss.
As they were riding back, it began to rain in long hard sweeping curtains. Tashka laughed and tipped her face to feel the kiss of the rain on it but Vadya frowned. They were a long way from the farmhouse and not wearing cloaks.
"We have a cabin near here," he said. "Let us shelter there until the rain passes."
Tashka reined up Jewel to stand by Loyalty and turned her face down from the rain to look into his eyes. Her eyes were very clear and such a soft dark blue. He felt as if she could read his dreams in his eyes, even the ones he had not yet dreamt. She smiled and said: "It is good."
The simple log cabin was in a clearing. It had one window, a cupboard of dried food, a heap of blankets in one corner and the luxury of a wooden floor. There was a bothy on the edge of the clearing where a forester lived.
They lit a big fire in the fireplace. Vadya made some feeble excuse and went out to the porch to get out of his wet clothes. Tashka did not even look at him as he went. She was carelessly pulling the buttons of her jacket undone, so carelessly that Vadya felt how silly he was to be shy of his body with his junior officer who had seen him swimming and bathing. Even so he spent as long as he dared outside, checking that the dogs and horses were comfortably settled in a lean-to full of straw.
They wrapped themselves in the blankets and sat in front of the fire, drinking brandy and remembering funny things that had happened in the troop as if they were just a Commander and a Captain. They had been sitting quietly for a while, staring into the flickering heat of the fire, when Tashka said: "It is still raining and there is food in the cupboard. Why do we not stay the night here?"
Vadya looked quickly up at her, suddenly conscious that she was a woman who had slung her blanket up over her chest and one shoulder rather than just wrap it around her hips. She was staring meditatively into the fire, her cheeks ruddy with heat and her rose-petal mouth curved in a sleepy smile. Her hair was cropped short but the poise of her head had a feminine grace to it.
"The dogs have to be fed," he said.
"Maybe the forester will feed them," she suggested. "Shall I go and ask?"
"I will go," he said, getting up. He awkwardly pulled his riding boots on, trying to keep his blanket tucked in around his lean waist. She turned her head to watch him and her face was suddenly lit up by her wickedest grin. Vadya blushed.
When he knocked on the door of the bothy, the forester looked at him with wild light-coloured eyes and said: "I have fed them. And the horses," in a hesitant rusty voice as if he had almost forgotten how to speak. "Will you take some stew?"
'What shall I tell Tashka?' Vadya thought gloomily as he walked back in the beating rods of rain that still streamed down. The rough clay bowl of stew he carried with a plate balanced on top of it was hot in his hands. 'If I tell her the truth we will stay. If I lie about it we can go back to the farmhouse but it will be dark before we get there and we will be soaked through.'
When he came in she had got out some biscuits and some red wine she had found. She was cross-legged in front of the fire with her face so soft and warm in the firelight that his heart turned over.
"Are you cold?" she enquired in a gentle voice. "I have found some dry clothes." She fetched them from the cupboard: big shirts, too big even for him, that his father must have left there.
They ate the food together out of the one bowl, scooping the stew up with biscuits and their fingers. They drank the wine, passing the bottle to each other in a casual disregard for the occasional dreg that came up as they got towards the bottom of the bottle. They lay in front of the fire and argued about a new manoeuvre Tashka had thought up.
"What a butterfly-witted idea!" Vadya snorted. "Why, the enemy would break straight through the centre of your line."
"They would not!" she declared. "They would be distracted by the wings."
"They would!"
"Would not!"
Tashka sat up and pushed Vadya. He grinned at her and pushed her back. She jumped at him and grabbed the blanket he had wrapped around his hips. He squealed and tugged back on it, laughing up at her and grabbing at her hands if he got the chance to do so. Her strong tanned hands came darting at the fold of his blanket round his slim hips, she grinned and he laughed. He suddenly managed to catch both her hands, gave them a sharp tug and Tashka fell into his arms and pressed her mouth to his.
Vadya caught her close to him, drawing kisses from her lips into his eager mouth. Her hands were pressing his shoulders, her teeth bit guardedly at his upper lip. Vadya rolled her over onto her back and pulled at her shirt with trembling fingers till he could rub his hands over her ribs to her small breasts.
Tashka let out a gasp, half a laugh. Her nipples were hardening already under the rough gentle warmth of his hands. Her hands clutched on his back. He was kissing her throat, his fingers still eagerly exploring the extraordinary round rise of her breasts. He lifted his head from her throat, tugged at her shirt again to lift it away and stared at her muscular white body in his arms, the beautiful small round breasts she had, the flat stomach going down to the bush of dark hair between her legs. He bent his head to one of her breasts and began to mouth at it, licking the hardening nipple and suckling at her soft flesh.
"Sweet Heaven!" Tashka gasped. Her fingers tucked into the curls of his hair, she pressed his head hard into her breast. She reached down and began pulling on his shirt, he let her pull it off, lifting his head away from her body for her to do so. He could not think, his head was dizzy with passion. The firelight was warm on his brown skin. Tashka saw it ruddy on his bare ribs and drew in her breath, sharply, then pressed close to him, kissing the scars on his ribs and pushing her hand slowly, slowly across his waist and down to his belly. Her fingers brushed over his penis. Vadya hissed and squirmed suddenly. He pressed her down with his weight. She put one light firm hand on the back of his neck. He turned his head to one side.
"Tashka," he whispered hoarsely, staring away from her at the darkening window. "Wait. Wait a minute!"
He had seen her risk her life in the hazard. He could not bear to refuse her favour if she were offering it with her whole heart. But if she hesitated, if she were the least bit unsure, he would stop. Somehow he would find the strength to drag his trembling body from hers.
Tashka was not interested in giving him even the chance to hesitate, she was licking at his ear. She chewed gently on his earlobe, trailed her warm wet tongue round the curves of his ear and into his ear. Vadya's mouth opened in a smile. He took a firmer hold on her waist and brought his head round to stare into her eyes.
Tashka smiled softly into his eyes. She pushed gently at his shoulder so she could reach beyond him for her breeches lying out to dry by the fire.
He was an el Gaiel van H'las and had made a commitment to a chaste respect for the honour of his betrothed, but Vadya was not so foolish as not to carry some protection in case his will was not sufficient to keep him from her body. She knew, however, that he only carried the one condom. She had carried three or four ever since she was nearly caught out with the sweetheart Captain from Thiel. Ever since she had admitted to a passion for the body of el Gaiel van H'las, she had carried larger sized ones.
