Painted Roses

Disaster in the Woods

"I win!"

"What?!"

Joshua stared at the hand of cards Rosalia turned towards him, then groaned, throwing his cards down and rubbing his hair in frustration.

"This isn't fair! You must have an ace up your sleeve! What lady gambles anyway?" he said, folding his arms and dropping back against his seat in a sulk.

"The type who grew up with three brothers who all know how the gamble," Rosalia said, giggling behind her fan of cards.

"I think that's improper."

"I think that's a sore-loser talking."

"I think that's irrelevant!"

Rosalia laughed and sets the cards down, leaning out of the window of the carriage she and her companion were riding in.

She had set out from her home some hours before and it was reaching late afternoon now. They were perhaps a half hour still from Rose Castle but they were already well into the forests that surrounded the castle.

Her companion was actually the carriage driver but the horses never seemed to need his guidance, always getting him and his passenger to their destination without any hitch. Joshua became her chaperone instead – not that Rosalia's eldest sister, Antoinette, would ever approve of a male chaperone – and her games opponent on the regular trips to Rose Castle.

"I saw Mr Trudy's carriage," Joshua said, looking at her and grinning, "Has he asked for your hand yet?"

"What a question for a servant to ask," Rosalia said, flicking open her real fan and holding it up, sticking her nose in the air, her fan hiding her smirk and Joshua's grin widened.

"Still hasn't asked then," he said, nodding, "Scared of the rejection that's to come."

"And how would you know I would reject him?"

"I know my lady far too well to be fooled by that," Joshua said and Rosalia snapped her fan closed.

"For all you know, I could be secretly infatuated with the man."

Joshua started laughing, throwing his head back and exaggerated the sounds. "Of course, that's it!" he said.

Rosalia opened her mouth and Joshua's laughter suddenly stopped.

The silence was so abrupt it startled her and when she opened her mouth, Joshua held up a hand, his smile vanishing, a frown replacing it, his brow lowering as he looked out of the window, leaning forwards and lowering the glass to look out.

"What is it?" she whispered, surprised by his behaviour. This wasn't the usual attitude of her companion.

"I'm not sure," Joshua muttered, his eyes scanning the shadowed snow-covered woods that raced past, trying to detect exactly what it was that lifted the hairs on the back of his neck.

How strange.

Something made him feel cold and yet he had no idea what. It wasn't the chill of the weather after all.

"I'm going up front," he said, closing the window then opening the trap door on the roof of the carriage, easily slipping out, closing and locking the door behind him, the rumbling and bouncing of the carriage not bothering him as he dropped back into his seat at the front of the carriage and gathered up the reins. "Alright boys," he muttered, watching the horses as they tore onwards, seemingly unbothered by whatever unnerved him.

Joshua's eyes narrowed.

Could it be the wolves? Were they close by? Was he sensing them? That didn't make sense; the wolves within the forest shouldn't have caused him any threat.