Fallen in Love

Read Fallen in Love for Free Online

Book: Read Fallen in Love for Free Online
Authors: Lauren Kate
Shoreline, where you should be now. I want no arguments. Take my offer or leave it.”
    Shelby clenched her jaw to keep it from dropping open. He was going to help them.
    “No—no arguments,” Miles stammered. “That will be fine, Roland. Thank you.”
    Then came a slight dip of Roland’s helmet, which Shelby took to be a nod, but he said nothing else. He only nudged his white horse around to face the path that led back out of the city. Merchants scattered as theanimal trotted, then broke into a gallop, its white tail streaming behind it like a disappearing puff of smoke.
    Shelby noticed something strange: Instead of riding proudly out of town, Roland sat with head lowered, his shoulders a bit slumped. As if something inexplicable had changed his mood. Was it something she’d said?
    “That was intense,” Miles said, standing next to her.
    Shelby inched closer to him, so that their arms were touching, and it made her feel better.
    Roland was going to find Daniel. He was going to help them.
    Shelby found herself smiling a very un-Shelby-like smile. Somewhere under all that armor, maybe there was a heart that believed in the power of true love.
    For all her outward cynicism, Shelby had to admit that she too believed in love. And she could tell by the way Miles had consoled Lucinda this afternoon that he was a believer, too. Together they watched the glow of twilight’s sun on Roland’s armor and listened to the clatter of hooves on cobblestone tapering into silence.

FOUR

HAND IN GLOVE
    O ne thing about the Middle Ages: The stars were unbelievable.
    Unbothered by city lights, the sky was a glittering landscape of galaxies, the kind of sky that made Shelby want to lie awake a long time and stare. Just before dusk, the sun had finally burned through the gray winter clouds, and now the dark canvas above was awash with stars.
    “That’s the Big Dipper, isn’t it?” Miles asked, pointing up at a bright arc in the sky.
    “Beats me.” Shelby shrugged, though she leaned in to follow his finger with her eyes. She could smell his skin, familiar and a little citrusy. “I didn’t know you were into astronomy.”
    “I didn’t, either. Never have been. But there’s something about the stars tonight … or something about tonight in general. Everything feels kind of noteworthy. You know?”
    “Yeah,” Shelby breathed, lost in the heavens she’d never thought too much about. She felt close to them in a weird way. Close to Miles, too. “I know.”
    Once they’d agreed to stay on another night, scrappy Shelby had procured a blanket and some rope and—using skills learned during her days on Skid Row—fashioned them into an almost elegant tent. Like so many of the visiting revelers, she and Miles had set up camp on a high slope of the green outside the city walls. Miles had even found firewood, though neither one of them knew how to start a fire without a match.
    It was kinda nice here, actually. Yeah, there were crazy coyote noises coming from the woods, but Shelby reminded herself that sometimes nights at Shoreline carried the same shrill cries. She and Miles would just stick together—and hide behind some meaty medieval people if any wild creatures came poking out of the forest.
    A special holiday night market was setting up near the road, so after pitching the tent, they’d split up, with a plan for Miles to find some food and Shelby to huntfor Valentine’s Day gifts to give to Luce and Daniel the next day. Then they would meet back at camp to dine under the stars.
    In the hour before sunset, the vendors in the city had moved the party outside. The night market was different from the daytime market inside the walls, which had sold everyday items like cloth and grain. The night market, Shelby realized, was a special-occasion affair, just for the Valentine’s holiday when the city overflowed with far-traveling merchants and other visitors.
    The green was crowded with newly pitched tents, many of which doubled as

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