A/n Thank you! for letting me know that I skipped a chapter. LOL I apologize. I've been quite sick these past weeks and must have confused about which chapters I have and haven't been working on. Anyways, here is the missing chapter.

Chapter 22.

Kaoru awoke from a deep sleep to find herself stiff, sore and one of the most clear-headed people in the camp. Everywhere she looked as she limped her way towards the latrine were red-rimmed eyes, pale faces and people ruefully rubbing their temples as they grimaced into the depths of herb-steeped potions.

Megumi, stirring porridge no one appeared to want, did at least seemed to be suffering from nothing worse than a very late night.

"Hello, my love." She smiled a welcome "How do you feel? Sore?"

"Very." Kaoru looked down at the marks on her wrists and wondered if Tomoe was waking up this morning in the knowledge that her marriage to Kenshin was settled. "Where is everyone?" Kaoru asked, lowering herself carefully onto a stool and accepting ale in a cup. "Sanjo's bed wasn't slept in last night unless she tidied up very quietly this morning."

"Sanjo is sulking down by the waterside in an effort to make herself seem aloof and interesting. Yahiko is sulking in the horse lines, pretending to helo Sano, and also trying to look aloof and interesting. They were both up all night, making themselves thoroughly miserable. Megumi poured some honey into the pot and stirred. "Do you want some of this?"

"Please." Kaoru cupped her hands around the warm bowl and blew on the surface. "Have they had a row?"

"As far as I can gather," Megumi said wearily, "They both had a rather lot to drink. She tried to seduce him, he repulsed her, she called him a prig, he called her wanton, she slapped his face, he stormed off. Honestly, it is ad enough having small children to look after without those two."

"How do you know all that, or were they yelling at each other? And are you sure Sanjo made the first move-after all, he's the male."

"They both came separately and told me their versions and marched off when I wasn't sympathetic enough. And as for who started it-girls are always more advanced than boys, in my experience." Megumi served herself some porridge and came to sit down. "Sanjo knows what she wants, and that is Yahiko. He is scared witless of the way he's feeling, would be my guess. He wants to have sex with her, but he wants to protect her. He wants her on a pedestal as a virgin goddess, but he wants to impress her with his lovemaking. And she's his first, so he's terrified of making a mull of it-and on top of all that, Kenshin's read him a lecture on respecting female purity."

"Kenshin has?"

"Quite." Megumi grinned. "Men are endlessly fascination, aren't they?"

"Where is Kenshin? Did anything happen at the feast?"

"Nothing more than you would expect. A lot of speech making, endless toasts. There were no incidents, thank the gods. She added. "Tomoe's father tried to get Kenshin alone, I assume to start the negotiations over Tomoe but he managed to avoid him."

"Why?" Kaoru found she was suddenly surprisingly happy and enormously hungry and delved into the pot for a second helping.

"Because he's got more sense than to get into discussions with that old fox when he's had as much to drink as he had last night." Megumi frowned into her porridge. "I've never seen him drink that much before. Reckless, almost."

"But not so reckless he would commit himself to Tomoe."

"No, Odd, that."

They were both still eating porridge and frowning in thought when Kenshin walked in. "You look awful," Kaoru said encouragingly. Although she wanted to hide her feelings behind a facade of teasing, he did look less than his usual healthy self, she realized. His face was grey under the tan, his eyes slightly bloodshot and there were shadows under them. "Have some porridge." She added helpfully, wishing she could cradle his head in her breast and soothe away his headache with cool fingers.

"Thank you. You, I assume, are quite revived." He did not wait for an answer, but took the food and leaned against the wagon, spooning it down with the determined air of a man taking unpleasant medicine. "Where's Yahiko?"

"In the horse lines, brooding on his hangover, his sore cheek and your lecture on female purity," Megumi said.

"What?" Kenshin looked startled.

"There was no need to make the poor boy any more anxious about girls than he already is." She chided. "Go and talk to him, he needs some masculine advice and I don't expect he'll confide in Sano."

With a muffled oath, Kenshin pushed himself upright, put down his bowl and turned to climb the hill. He turned back after two strides. "We leave tomorrow. Two days journey north is a place we camped at on our way down. It's a good site, and one that is easy to defend. We will stay there until the decision is made."

Kaoru watched his back as he walked away. "I suppose there is no need to ask what it is that will be decided." The kingship. The destiny of one man and of a people.

"No" Megumi agreed. She gave herself a little shake. "Now, do you want some witch hazel for those bruises?"

… . . …

There was a new tension about camp. Kaoru felt it like the warning of an approaching thunderstorm, prickling under her skin and making her edgy and aware. The watchers were back, she was sure of it, although the sweep riders and the scouts had failed to find them.

"It does not mean there is nobody there." She had heard Kenshin cautioning as he sent out the dawn riders to patrol the perimeter. "It means we haven't found them yet. They are good, that they are."

Nor was it just the presence of the unseen watchers, or the lingering physical and emotional effects of the funeral and feast. There was the knowledge amongst everyone in the camp that a decision was about to be made that would change their lives forever, for better or ill.

"We move as though expecting battle," Kenshin said curtly as they began loading the wagons. "In groups with the remains of the royal household and Takada's sister in the center. We-" he swept one hand around the gatherings of his kin group who surrounded him. "-we take the rearguard. All men mounted. Everyone armed, children in the carts."

Megumi was packing the smaller children into the back of their wagon, making a game of joining them. Kyo, her middle son, was beside himself with delight at being allowed to side up beside his older brother, to help drive. Neither of them seemed to notice that their mother had laid their father's bundle of boar-hunting spears casually within arm's reach in the back.

Sanjo took the wagon Yahiko normally drove, managing not to look in his direction as he checked over the yoke and the oxen harness. He had Kenshin's second sword hanging from his belt, his own long knife, and a shield strapped to his back.

No longer a boy, not quite a man, Kaoru thought as she watched him, her heart aching for him...so young, so proud of riding out with a sword at his side, and so painfully conscious of Sanjo ignoring him. She walked across, and climbed up beside the girl.

"Stop it. Speak to Yahiko. Go to him, touch him, don't leave unsaid somethings you might regret later."

Sanjo turned her head away. "He doesn't want me, he thinks I am wanton, that all I want is...that. Prig. I am not going to humiliate myself by crawling to him. He can go off and get tonsured and be a monk after all this for all I care."

"I'm not suggesting that you crawl," Kaoru said tartly. "Just be civil."

"Not until he apologies to me."

"Oh, for goodness sake! Does it not occur to you that he isn't very experienced at this either?" Sanjo turned her shoulder. "Well...sit in your own misery then." Kaoru jumped down and stalked back to her own wagon, passing Yahiko leading his horse away as she did so.

"You look so fine." She smiled at him, then ran a hand over his shiny new chain mail. "Can I give you some advice? You do not have very much experience with women yet. Just remember they might be as frightened of you as you are of them. And sometimes, when you are frightened, it's easy to make mistakes, and be clumsy."

She walked away before he could answer her, but when she glanced back, he was looking at Sanjo's averted head, a slight smile on his lips.

"What are you doing?" Kenshin reined his horse beside her, his face unreadable beneath the iron and gilt of his helmet, the straight nose piece shadowing his eyes so it seemed he was regarding her from behind bars.

"Knocking heads together, or, at least, trying to."

"Oro?" He shot a glance at Yahiko's retreating back. "Make sure you keep up today." He handed her the iron-shod goad. "Keep this at hand at all times. There is a pass through the hills. That is where there will be trouble if it's going to come, that it will."

"Yes, I will keep up." She said as he turned the grey's head. Speak to him, touch him, don't leave unsaid something you might regret later. Her own words swam in her mind, burned on her tongue. "Kenshin-"

"Yes?" He swung the animal around on its haunches, his mail bright in the sun, his hair flying with the sudden movement, and her words died on her lips.

"Be careful." I love you. I love you, my magnificent king.

… . . …

They drove through the long hot day, riders always in movement on their flanks, cantering back and fourth down the length of the column. Gradually the slopes closed in; the oxen began to labor against the yoke as the way steepened.

"That must be the pass ahead," Kaoru called across to Megumi's sons and Sanjo. "See how narrow it is. We must not slow down."

The oxen lowered and shook their heads as she prodded them, but they were well-rested and kept up their speed.

"The head of the column must be through now," She said, pulling up alongside Sanjo and shading her eyes to stare ahead. "It is more a defile than a pass. It looks as though there has bee a rockfall, that is why everything is going so slowly." Then they came to a stop.

Yahiko rode back to them. "Rock and soil keep rolling down. There was a damn big fall after the last group of wagons. We are going to clear it, it should speed things up in the end."

There were perhaps thirty wagons left, twenty or so riders at their backs. Ahead men were dismounting, pulling mattocks from the backs of wagons and walking into the defile. Kaoru could see Kenshin as he rose back and forth, scanning the scene, urging haste.

The shout, when it came, echoed round the narrow valley so she could not tell at first where it was coming from. Then the men at the mouth of the defile scattered, she saw Kenshin's grey rearing as he fought to bring its head down, and another horseman burst through.

"A trap, a hundred or more armed men on the hillside-" It was Kaito, spurring his horse viciously, and behind him, as he burst through the men poured down the slopes on either side, the gleam of armor, the red of helmets. They were troops from the city! And the rearguard was in their trap.

"To me!" Kenshin yelled and the men ran or galloped to his side to form a line protecting the wagons as the soldiers crashed to a halt, regained their order and began to advance.

"Behind us!" Sanjo screamed and Kaoru stood and turned. Calvary was wheeling out from the trees.

"Form a line, protect the men's backs." Kaoru hauled on the reins, shouting at the oxen until they swung around, presenting the side of the wagon to the oncoming riders. The women and boys followed suit.

"Get the children underneath!" That was Megumi, herself already down despite her pregnant bulk, lifting her children, pushing them under the wagon. All along the line of other women were doing the same, then, instead of joining them, lifted the long boar spears and turning to confront the cavalry with a bristling wall of iron. It would give the horsemen pause if they had any sense. Kaoru thought grimly; the women were protecting their children and would be as vicious as cornered cats with kittens if the soldiers got close.

She stood up and started to scramble back to find the spears Kenshin had laid in the wagon beside a shield. The thought that she would be threatening her own troops crossed her mind, only to be dismissed. It was an unprovoked attack.

Her hand was closing around the shaft of a spear when she saw Kenshin. He was standing back to back with Kaito, the pair of them using their swords to hold back a knot of infantry. Yahiko was beside him, the youth dwarfed by the broad-shouldered, chain mail-clad warriors towering over him.

The three shifted and turned as one, in what must be a long-practiced tactic, presenting a constantly changing front to the attackers. They all appeared to be unhurt, but the line was under serious pressure, outnumbered and with the cavalry at their back held at bay only by the line of carts and the determination of the women.

Kaoru looked back; the women's line was holding, the thirty or so cavalry riders were weaving back and forth, apparently unwilling to engage and assessing whether to try for the flanks. She picked up three spears, as many as she could hold one-handed, and started to climb back.

"Kenshin!" It was Yahiko's voice. Kaoru spun around and saw Kenshin down on one knee, sword point in the ground. As she watched, frozen with fear, he regained his feet and instead of using his sword, whipped a knife from his belt and hurled it at the attacker. It caught the soldier full in the chest, felling him.

Kaoru hefted a shield at her feet. It took all her strength to manage it, but she dragged it to the side of the wagon and jumped down, stumbling towards the fighting men. She dodged the individual battles all around her. A samurai staggered back, a spear in his chest, and crashed on his knees in front of her. She feinted around the fallen body and looked for a way through to Kenshin past the shifting wall of struggling fighters.

Then a gap opened, just as Kaito dodged to one side and Kenshin turned with him, his sword swinging up to drive back the soldier, lunging to Yahiko.

"Kenshin!" She pitched her voice loud and high above the shouting and the clash of swords and he heard her. "Here, catch!" She pushed the shield as though she were rolling a wheel and it ran true and fast, though the gap straight to his hand. She had not seen him use a shield, but he caught it, slid his arm through the straps and lifted it, bringing his sword up in a fleeting salute to her as he turned back to the fight.

Tell him now, you may never get another chance! "I love you!" She shouted and saw his face as her voice arrested him. Did he hear? His lips moved, just as a blast on the soldier's horn blared around the field. What did he say? Her lips moved, trying to recreate the glimpse she'd had seen. I love you? Or go back?

The thunder of hooves had her spinning around. The cavalry had outflanked the women's line and were attacking between the men and the front wagons. Kaoru scrambled backward towards her wagon, shifting one of the spears to her right hand as she went. She had never tried to throw a spear, now her hand was already shaking with the strain of holding the heavy hunting weapon as she tried to find a target in the shifting, chaotic melee.

The horses parted and there was a general in magnificent uniform and armor. He was scanning, not the fighting men, but the women. "There! That one!" He yelled, pointing straight at her. Two riders at his side spurred towards her. She began to run, dropping all but one spear, frantic to regain the wagons before the pounding hooves reached her.

One stride from the wheels, a hand fastened on her arm and she was dragged, kicking and screaming, up towards the saddle of the soldier who held her. She dangled, her feet a perilous hand's span from the thrashing hooves and tried to swing at him with her spear. With almost contemptuous ease, he knocked it from her grasp just as a dark furry body launched itself up.

The cavalry horse snorted and shied and the wolf fell back, then crouched to leap again, with a grunt of effort the rider swung his sword across and stabbed downwards as Saitou began to rise. Kaoru did the only thing she could, rolling her body across so she blocked the stroke.

For a heart-stopping moment, she thought the soldier could not pull the blow in time, then the blade whistled bast her and with the momentum of her own movement, he hurled her across the saddle-bow, the pommel knocking the breath out of her.

She choked, ducked her head and buried her teeth in the knee in front of her. The man cursed, cuffing her ear. She tried to roll free, and as she did, saw Kenshin.

He had seen her. As she twisted, frantic to keep him in sight, he broke away from the man he was fighting, threw down the shield and began to run toward her.

"Kaoru!" He cut through the battlefield like a hero from the pages of myths, she thought hazily, desperately dragging the air into her aching lungs. Too winded to do more than hang over the saddle. Lean, god-like in his speed, in gleaming mail, his hair flowing behind him as he ran. His teeth were bared in a snarl of primal fury, he fought his way towards her like a man possessed, sword in one hand, a dagger in the other and men fell before him in a blink.

"Look out!" She saw the spear, he did not. She doubted her scream even reached him before the weapon took him in the left shoulder. She saw him stagger and fall and then the cavalryman had whipped his horse around and was spurring off the field, away from the fight. His elbow hit Kaoru's temple as he dragged the reins around and she saw stars, hears a roaring sound and everything went black.

A/n Don't worry everyone, my health is well enough. This has just been a cold that has slowly built up for the past few weeks and hopefully I've gone over the worst of it. Decongestants just make me very loopy haha.