Two hours later I cursed myself for not having the sense to excuse myself from the ride.
After our meeting in the forest and the long walk up the rise, David had circled around, letting his Stallion run the long route through the trees to rejoin the group from the side, declaring longly and loudly that he'd been off having an adventure.
Ash smiled with his teeth while David spoke, and some of the other Select fluttered about how happy they were to see him. But he never met my eyes, or invited me to ride near him. And I never quite convinced myself that I was fine with that.
But after a couple more hours in the saddle, I tried to tell myself I couldn't have cared less if David was intentionally ignoring me—which I suspected he was. It made a little curl of sadness in my chest. But what could I do? I couldn't push my mount faster to try and catch him up, and even if I did, he was guarded by a ring of women three deep.
