Love and Misadventure

“Honestly, Daddy. It’s just a river,” Juliette said as she dabbed at Henry’s forehead with a cool cloth.

“My stomach doesn’t appear to know the difference,” Henry muttered. Juliette bit her lip to keep from giggling.

“Do you need me to read the notes to you?” she asked.

“No, that’s quite all right, my dear. I’ll be able to read them in a few minutes.” He grimaced faintly and then studied her as she sat on the edge of the small narrow bed. “New book?” he asked.

“Oh.” Juliette flushed, feeling awkward. “Levi gave it to me.”

“Well, look at that. I’m glad you two get along. He’s a fine young man.”

Juliette didn’t say anything, feeling guilty that she and Levi didn’t really get along; with the exception of a couple of awkward recent encounters. She didn’t know if that counted as getting along, exactly; but a tiny part of her was starting to wish that they didn’t spend most of their time snapping at each other. Once Henry began to feel better, he started going over Levi’s notes and Juliette opened the book he’d given her. She was familiar with some of the myths, but many others were new to her. Some of the ones she knew were slightly different in their tellings in this book, and her gaze flicked to Levi’s notes scribbled in the margins.

As she scanned them, she was struck again with the thought that she could understand why Henry wanted to work with him. The notes were thoughtful and even funny. She had thought Levi was uptight and a little full of himself; the very first time she’d met him he’d seemed snappish when he said he was the Leylan expert that her father had asked for. She’d dismissed him as a pompous blowhard but then he’d offered her this book and his notes weren’t dry and boring.

Juliette startled when Henry nudged her and asked if she wanted dinner. She realized she’d been reading for hours and had lost track of the time.

“Enjoying the book?” Henry asked and Juliette didn’t know why she blushed.

“It’s very interesting,” she muttered. She ended up falling asleep still reading, but was jolted roughly awake and almost fell out of bed. Henry came stumbling over to make sure she was okay. The boat was pitching wildly and she almost went flying as she tried to stand up.

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“A storm seems to have picked up out of nowhere,” Henry explained. They climbed up to the deck to see what was happening and found the river had turned violently choppy. The small boat was having a hard time staying on course and was jerking side to side. Levi joined them on the deck.

“Ah, Levi,” Henry said. “I’m glad to see you. Stay here under the awning with Jewel, you two keep an eye on each other. I’m going to help Captain Fuller.”

“Daddy, no,” Juliette protested but Henry was already marching away through the rain. The boat gave another violent lurch and Juliette yelped as she lost her footing and fell into Levi. She felt her face get warm and struggled to push herself away from him. After a few more sharp jerks, there was a particularly violent lurch and the two of them went sprawling across the deck. The jerking and rocking had mostly subsided and she sat up, pushing her rain-drenched hair out of her face. A few minutes later the sudden storm began to dissipate, and they could see that the boat had become wedged between a rock and the bank of the river.

Fuller claimed the damage was minimal, but they’d need to hike on foot to the next town down the river to get what they needed to make the repairs. Juliette was fussing over Henry, who had managed to get himself a bit banged up in the storm.

“You and Levi go with Fuller,” he instructed. “I would go, but it’s best if a few people stay with the boat and I’m not in much condition to go for a hike in the woods at the moment.”

“Are you sure you’ll be all right with me gone?” Juliette asked.

“I’ll be fine.”

Juliette supposed it would be good to keep an eye on Fuller anyway, even if she loathed the idea of trekking through the forest with him. She quickly changed into some dry clothes and gathered her travel pack. She and Levi both trailed at the back of the party; Fuller and three of his six man crew were making the journey. One of them was the man who’d badgered Juliette at the pub, and she tried to keep her distance. She and Levi didn’t talk much as they walked, but she still felt better walking next to him than she would have walking up front with Fuller.

The woods were dim; the trees were packed so densely that only a little sunlight trickled down through the canopy. Juliette glanced around, taking note of the plant life around them and silently naming what she saw based on the book she’d read. She frowned when she began to notice clusters of a particular reddish-pink flower.

“Captain Fuller,” she called. “We’re going the wrong way.”

“No, we aren’t,” he replied. He didn’t even turn his head to look at her.

“These are shadebloom flowers,” Juliette insisted. “They only grow in dry soil, so you don’t find them near river banks. That means we’ve gone too far inland. We need to navigate back toward the river or we’re going to wander too far west.”

“I know where we’re going,” Fuller said.

“But we’re going to get lost and it’s birthing season for the bears that live in these woods,” Juliette said, getting annoyed. “This deep into the trees we’re bound to run across a mother bear and she’ll be extremely aggressive. We have to turn-“

“Miss Covington.” Fuller rounded on her, his tone going hard. “I am an experienced tracker. I know you’re used to batting your little eyelashes and getting your way. But you’d do well to remember that I am the one leading this little expedition and it’s your father who’s the renowned genius. You are just a silly girl play-acting at being an explorer. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re anything else.”

Juliette stood rigid, her fingers gripping the strap of her bag so tightly they cramped and her cheeks flaming. Fuller turned away and resumed his march. She felt like she’d been slapped. Fuller’s opinion wasn’t one she cared about and she’d known already that he thought she was some dumb girl. But she still felt humiliated, and a little taken aback that he’d berate her so blatantly. She forced her feet to move and keep walking.

“Captain,” Levi said. “It does appear that we’ve moved away from the river. You can’t even hear it anymore.”

Juliette frowned slightly, hardly believing that Levi might actually be taking her side. Fuller turned again, this time leveling his annoyed glance at Levi, who looked equally as annoyed.

“I’ll say it again,” Fuller snapped. “I am the one leading this-“

He was cut off as there was a loud growl and the snapping of branches. Juliette grabbed Levi’s sleeve in alarm.

“It’s a Loshian brown bear,” she said frantically. The bears weren’t especially large, but they made up for it by being vicious. She tugged on Levi’s arm, trying to steer them on a backtrack. They’d only run a small ways when the bear burst out of the trees and started snapping her jaws at anyone who was in reach. Fuller’s men scattered, trying to draw weapons to use on the bear. Juliette and Levi were forced in a different direction as one of the men tried to fire on the bear, missed, and attracted her wrath in their direction. They had to run into an even denser section of trees to avoid being mowed down by the bear. Juliette could barely see anything in front of her face as she batted branches out of her way.

She screamed as her feet abruptly fell into empty air. They’d come to a small drop that they hadn’t been able to see through the trees. She let out a yelp and Levi let out a pained “oomph” as they landed on solid ground again. It took Juliette a moment to catch her breath and be certain she hadn’t broken anything in the fall. Once the initial panic ebbed, she realized that Levi had broken her fall and she was literally sprawled on top of him.

She blushed for what felt like the hundredth time in the past two days, scrambling off of him. She had the thought that he’d broken her fall on purpose, but then remembered that he was her father’s partner. Of course he wouldn’t want her to get injured on his watch. She pushed aside the small twinge of disappointment she felt at that thought.

“Are you all right?” she asked. “Have you broken anything?”

“I think I broke everything,” Levi muttered. Juliette scooted closer to inspect the damage.

“Try sitting up,” she said. He winced as he did so but he was able to do it. Juliette made him move his extremities to see if anything was really broken.

“Your bones seem to be intact, but you’ve got a cut on your head.” She reached up and gently brushed some leaves and twigs from his hair and clothes. “I’ll clean it up for you.”

She rummaged in her pack and produced some first aid supplies, then set to work cleaning the gash.

“You’re not just slapping a bandage on it this time,” Levi noted.

“No,” Juliette agreed, feeling a little ashamed about the last time she’d been tending to an injury of his. She tried this time to be efficient but gentle. “You should really try to stop hitting your head on things though. Now hold still, I need to put a few stitches in before I bandage this.”

She stitched the cut and then carefully placed a bandage over it, trying not to think about how close to him she had to sit while she worked or notice the one freckle he had on his temple. Her ears felt hot as she finished up and put her supplies away.

They couldn’t go back up the way they’d come down because it was too steep. They had to trek slowly through ten dense trees, trying to find a place they could get their bearings. After an hour Juliette began to feel the stirrings of panic.

“My father is going to be worried, and that could be bad for his heart,” she fretted. “If something happens to him I won’t be there, because I got lost in the damn woods.”

“Hey, we’ll find our way back,” Levi assured her. “It’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Juliette said, irrationally angry all of a sudden.

“Do what?” Levi frowned.

“My father is already impressed with you, and he’s not even here. You don’t need to pretend to like me when we’re alone.”

“That’s not-“

“I know you think I’m an empty headed snob,” Juliette snapped.

“I don’t-“

“Just because you’re brilliant and make fascinating insights into Leylan mythology doesn’t mean that you’re the only one who cares about Daddy’s work,” she went on.

“I never said that-wait, you read my annotations in the mythology book?” Levi’s frustrated frown turned into confused surprise. “And you…thought they were fascinating?”

Juliette froze, her cheeks flushing as she realized what she’d just blurted out. “I…yes. I read all of them and I thought they were wonderful. But that’s not the point,” she added defensively. She always seemed to become flustered around him any more. “Fuller said I was a pampered, silly girl who just gets her way all the time and I’m sure you agree with him and I guess he was right because now we’re stuck out here.”

Juliette felt a sudden urge to cry and she turned slightly away from Levi while she tried to get herself under control. She was not going to break down and look pouty in a crisis. She did however hope that maybe Fuller had been eaten by the bear.