Ranger's Apprentice: The Ranger's Paradise

Chapter 3

Will frowned again at the paper in his hand, glancing over the words once more.

"Darling, if you keep that expression on your face any longer, you'll age horribly," Alyss warned. Will chuckled half-heartedly.

"I will not," he argued. Then he turned to look at his wife, riding her own horse alongside him, and caught her serious expression.

"How old is Halt?" she wandered aloud. Will's eyes slid to the sky as he thought for a moment.

"Forty-seven, I believe," Will finally said. Then he frowned again. "Why?"

Alyss allowed a small smile on his lips.

"Don't you think he looks a few years older?"

Seeing where this conversation was now going, he sighed.

"Yes, at times he can," he conceded. Alyss nodded.

"And what, primarily, is Halt's general expression?"

Will turned a rueful glance on his wife.

"I'm only twenty-eight, Alyss," he pointed out. "I think I'll be fine. Besides, how else should I react to this letter aside from a frown?" Will pulled to paper out again to read it out loud. "'Arald has received a letter from Horace. Apparently, it required all of our presences. Meet us at the castle courtyards. Halt.' That's rather peculiar and you know it."

Alyss laughed softly.

"Peculiar, yes. But if it was anything serious, we would have been told in some other way. Likely, Halt would have met us at the cabin to give us the news."

Will mulled his wife's words over in his head, deciding that she was right. Of course, he wasn't going to say that out loud. She knew that already, and he needn't give her any more evidence against his own mental capacities. 

"But what could it mean?" he repeated.

"I'm sure Arald will tell us when we arrive," Alyss said quietly, and the words sounded so much like those Halt used to say when Will asked too many questions that the Ranger glanced suspiciously at his wife. Yes, he thought, that was definitely a smile on her face.

Finally, they arrived at the castle courtyard. Halt and Pauline were waiting for them at the door. In light of their previous conversation, Will couldn't help but notice a few new wrinkles on his former mentor's face. Halt caught the man looking and raised an eyebrow.

"Enjoying the view?"

Will blinked, turning to look at Alyss for help. She only ignored him, reaching between the two Rangers to embrace Pauline.

"I'm terribly sorry I wasn't in the office today," she said, pulling several papers from her bag and handing them to the older woman. "But I used the day to finish my notes on these reports. I have some ideas we can discuss tomorrow, and then I'll be ready for the trip by week's end."

Will's heart sank a bit at the words. Of course it was Alyss' job to go on missions quite often, and of course he trusted her to be safe. But none of that took away from the anxiety he felt when they were apart.

Unseen by Will, Halt cast a rare, empathetic grimace his way. The older Ranger had often felt the same way when Pauline was called away. Neither Halt nor Will were aware that Alyss and Pauline often discussed the protectiveness of their husbands. All, of course, in loving light. The men couldn't help their worry for their wives, and neither courtier wanted their husbands to change one bit.

Except, perhaps, their habit of putting their feet on the tables.

"So what is this summons about?" Will asked. Halt sighed, glancing behind them at the door.