"At what?" Shayn asked.
"Pardon?" Simone blinked at him. What did he mean? She had just apologized!
"You said you'll try to do better, but at what? At provoking me? At being ranked among the most irritating people I've ever met? Perhaps your goal is the top position on the list?" He asked with an eyebrow raised.
Anger bubbled underneath the surface. She'd offered an olive branch… well, technically, she'd tried to take the olive branch he had offered the day before, but he snatched it back!
"I suppose I could make that my goal. I must say I'm rather perplexed at currently being outranked." She tilted her head. "Most of all, I'm intensely intrigued at the idea of keeping such a list at all. Do you forget who annoys you and need to keep track of them? One cannot be that irritating if one is not also memorable. Isn't the ability to get into another's mind and exasperate them even in your absence the mark of a truly great nuisance?"
"Are you afraid of being forgettable?" He looked at her critically.
Shayn had touched a nerve, but she couldn't let him see it. She put on a smile.
"Not around you. You remembered me before I recognized you." She pointed out.
"I had shaved my beard and cut my hair," He wrinkled his nose. "I'm not sure I would recognize you if you underwent a similar transformation."
She frowned and tucked a stray curl behind her ear before the breeze could blow it into her eyes. His gaze followed her hand in a way that made her feel a little strange.
"Will you stop staring at me?" She asked.
He blinked. "I'm sorry, I was trying to imagine you with a beard."
"You were not!"
"Do you have any evidence to support that statement?" Shayn narrowed his eyes.
"Not a bit, but I'll offer you a deal. You stop staring at me, and I'll go back to being quiet. The day will go much faster with a civil silence between us."
"Are you even capable of civility?" He leaned forward.
"Quite, but it is easier if the other person doesn't insult me with every breath." Simone refused to back down from his bullying.
"Perhaps it will be good practice for you to try," He snapped.
"All you have to do is get through the rest of the morning without looking at me, and I will not say a single word to you. You can enjoy the scenery in peace, as will I. At midday, I'll switch with Victoria and we can salvage the remainder of the day." She took a deep breath to calm her voice. It had risen to a volume she wouldn't normally let it.
"Fine." Shayn glared at her.
She glared back with a significant expression. Didn't he realize he had just agreed not to look at her?
Simone glanced deliberately forward, and then brought her eyes back to Shayn's. They were fiery and full of a readiness to fight her over just about anything. She widened her eyes and tilted her head slightly. Was he a complete idiot?
He sat up straighter and blinked suddenly.
"Oh. Right," He shook his head. "Until midday."
She nodded, at least willing to honor her side of the agreement. Shayn turned his body forward, gluing his eye line to the horses pulling the wagon.
"I'm not entirely sure you'll be able to make it." He shrugged, "but we'll give it a go."
Simone glared. Technically he wasn't supposed to look and she wasn't supposed to talk, which meant he could talk as much as he wanted to and she could stare. Well, if that's the way he wanted it, she would burn holes in him with her eyes.
"Stop staring at me that way," He commanded, and she opened her mouth to protest. "No, I didn't look!" He stopped her before she could speak. "I can just feel your eyes trying to bore into me. It won't work. If it could, I'd be riddled with holes by now from my mother and sister."
She stuck out her tongue at him, and though he claimed he wasn't looking at her, he chuckled.
He either had great peripheral vision or a good sense of how much his monologue was getting to her.
Well, let him talk if he wanted. She could ignore him. Another harsh bump sent a jolt up her spine. Her body was displeased with the time in the wagon and ready for a change. The time passed slowly, very slowly, in the silence.
How long would this last?
Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, a turn in the rutted road crossed a shallow stream, and Kyler called back to Shayn.
"Get the steps, will you? It's long past when we should have stopped. The horses need water and a bit of rest."
Simone looked up. Indeed, the sun had passed its zenith.
"I guess silence doesn't pass the time faster after all," Shayn mumbled beside her before jumping down and walking around the wagon. It seemed he had found the ride monotonous as well.
Though she'd climbed up by herself, getting down seemed slightly more complicated. She was considering just gathering her skirts together and jumping off when Shayn cleared his throat.
He was standing beside the wagon on her side, his hand out in a polite gesture to help her down.
"Oh!" She was sincerely shocked by the mannerly display, much as she was gobsmacked to find out he was the one who left the meat pie for her. "Um, thank you."
She put her hand in his and he helped her descend without incident. His hand was rough, calloused, and warm. It felt strange to hold it, even for so brief and necessary a moment.
"If you fell and cracked your head, we'd have to turn back around and take you back to Klain to a doctor. It would waste a lot of time." He said, almost ruining the gesture in its entirety.
What was it with him? Despite her earlier barb, she had witnessed moments of his manners seeping in around his incredibly rude behavior. What would it take to get that full time, instead of the cranky, mean travel companion she'd gotten stuck with?
"Unless it was a very serious injury, I'm sure I could take care of it!" Victoria had dismounted and was stroking her horse's neck while it drank from the stream. "Papa's a doctor, you know! I learned a fair amount."
"I'm glad you're here, Victoria," Simone smiled. The girl's bright smile could cut through tension in a conversation as easily as a butcher's knife through butter.
"Me too! What pretty places we've seen so far, and it's only the first day!" The younger woman beamed.
"It will get harder. And uglier," Shayn warned. "Where the desert and mountains meet is a difficult and unforgiving terrain in places."
"I thought we were only going to the edge?" Victoria asked.
"It depends on what we find," Shayn told her. "If there is some massive error on either side, the rest of that surveyor's work will have to undergo an audit to check for other discrepancies with reality."
"Discrepancies with reality is a nice way of accusing me of being an incompetent hack!" Walter huffed.
"He didn't say it would be your error. Perhaps there is some third explanation, like an earthquake between the time you surveyed the area and the time we did that changed the terrain." Kyler said quietly, clearly trying to keep peace.
Simone opened her mouth to explain that an earthquake like that would have been felt all the way to Klain, and that no such event had been reported. She wouldn't go so far as to say it was absolutely impossible, but definitely unlikely in the extreme.
Before she could say so, Kyler cleared his throat and shook his head at her sharply. She pursed her lips, but reluctantly saw the wisdom in letting the argument diffuse instead of stirring it up.
Why couldn't he be a peacekeeper between her and Shayn? Kyler seemed to be able to keep his brother from arguing with just about anyone else.
The horses were tied on leads so they could graze and drink from the stream as they rested, and the humans settled on a blanket laid out by Victoria, the self-proclaimed chef of the adventure.
The midday meal was a simple one since they did not want to take the time to build a fire. A selection of fresh vegetables, fruits, and bread were distributed and enjoyed.
"Thank you, Victoria," Simone smiled.
"Of course! Dinner will be much better, since I'll be able to properly cook something." She replied.
"I look forward to it. In the dormitories, our meals are usually cooked by the military chef and sent over when we are done with the day's work. We only have a very small kitchen and no one really knows how to use it. I would love the opportunity to learn some recipes and techniques." Simone hated admitting such a significant shortcoming in front of Shayn, who might wield it against her later, but she wouldn't let embarrassment keep her from learning.
"I would love to teach you!" Victoria beamed with delight.