The Burning Bridge- Character Reaction

10

"Here, Alyss." The blonde Courier smiled at Pauline as she passed the book over. As Alyss scanned the first few words, a smirk crossed her features.

THE GIRL WAS SMILING AT HIM AGAIN. Halt sighed. HALT SENSED IT. IT was as if he could actually feel the smile radiating at him. He knew if he were to glance sideways at her, where she was riding just a few paces away from him, he would see it once more.

Will snickered. "Nice, Alyss." The Courier smiled at him, while Halt glared at him.

But he couldn't help himself. He looked and there it was. Wide, friendly and infectious. In spite of himself, it made him want to smile back in return and that would never do. Will and Gilan grinned at each other. Halt hadn't spent years cultivating a grim, unapproachable manner just to have it dispelled by this girl and her smile.

Will snorted. "How did that work out for you?" Halt grunted in reply.

He glared at her instead. Pauline raised an eyebrow. Alyss's smile widened.

"Why, Halt," she said cheerfully, "what a grim face that is to ride alongside."

"Oh trust me, he knows it," Will said.

They had left Castle Redmont the previous day for the short ride to Cobram Castle. He had agreed readily when Lady Pauline had asked him to escort Alyss on her first assignment—in point of fact, he would have agreed to most things suggested by the head of the Diplomatic Corps. Will smirked, and Halt glared at him once more. Of course, as a Diplomatic Courier, Alyss rated an official guard of two mounted men-at- arms, and they rode a few yards to the rear. But Pauline had suggested that Alyss might need advice or counsel in dealing with Sir Montague. Halt had agreed to provide it if necessary.

"Or perhaps it was to stop throwing people out of moats," Arald said. Halt shrugged.

What Lady Pauline hadn't mentioned was Alyss's innate friendliness and the fact that she was so eminently likable. And cheerful, he thought, and that reminded him of someone else. He had been missing Will's lively presence over the past week or so, he admitted. Halt blinked. After years of living by himself, attending to the secret and sometimes frightening business of the kingdom, he had enjoyed the light and laughter that Will brought to his life. Now Will was far away, on his way to the Celtic court, and Halt himself had sent him there.

Halt cleared his throat and shifted. "I'm beginning to not like this book," he said. Gilan grinned at him.

"Why? Because your cover's been broken?" Halt rolled his eyes.

He realized that the boy's absence left a void in his life. Reluctantly, he told himself that he must be growing old—and sentimental. "You've been old for some time," Will quipped.

Now here was this girl, barely sixteen but already poised and sure of herself, chiding him gently for his black mood and grim countenance and fixing him with that damned smile. Alyss chuckled.

"And such a silent face as well," she mused to herself. He realized that he had been ill-mannered and she didn't deserve that.

Will pouted. "And I did?"

"Yes," Halt replied smugly.

"My apologies, Lady Alyss," he said curtly. Traveling on official business, Alyss was entitled to be addressed as "Lady Alyss." She frowned at his formality.

Crowley snickered. "Oh, so now you're being formal, so you don't have to talk."

"Oh, come now, Halt. Is that any way for friends to speak to each other?"