Chapter 9
Isabel climbed on Arthur's wagon finding there not only the king, but also Lancelot was also there. Both of the men turned to look the woman, who was still boiling of anger because of what Tristan had said. Both of the men noticed that she wasn't in good mood, when she sat down and glared at them.
"We should camp here for the night. I'm sure that Hibernians won't attack us again this night." Arthur stated and left the wagon leaving Isabel and Lancelot there.
"Hibernians?" Isabel asked turning to look the man, who was the closest of the knights to Arthur.
"Yes. The men which attacked us were Hibernians." He replied.
"I thought they were woads." Isabel said quietly.
"No. They didn't carry any tattoos, which had indicated that."
Isabel had noticed that the men didn't have any tattoos, which was the one difference to her dream, other being the fact that Sir Gareth didn't die, but she believed that it was because she had prevent it from happening.
"Why did Hibernias attack us?" She asked.
"I think they were on looting expedition and decided to surprise us, before we had the change to do that to them." Lancelot explained.
"Ah." Isabel didn't know what else to answer.
"I saw what you did. It was quite courageous." Lancelot said watching the blonde closely.
Isabel was still glaring to him and hoped that he didn't have same kind of thoughts as Tristan had.
"Maybe. But I had to do it." She snapped.
Lancelot had met some women on his journeys, which had had quite a temper and he guessed that this strange woman did belong to that category. He smiled a little and said calmly.
"Perhaps you did save Gareth, but you were in danger yourself. I won't criticize you though. You look like some one has done it already."
"Yes. Tristan said that my place is in by the stove." Isabel said anger in her voice, but Lancelot guessed that the anger was directed to Tristan, not to him. He smiled a little thinking that obviously that had been a wrong move from the scout.
"Did he really?"
"Well, he didn't say it directly, but he meant that."
"He doesn't always think what he says, specially to woman, who he likes." Lancelot said watching Isabel straight to her eyes.
The blonde stared the knight for a moment her eyes wide.
"He doesn't like me." She said then.
"Yes he does. I think he liked you from the very first sight. It is very unusual from him."
"But he doesn't even know me. It was only three days ago when I joined you." She said thinking that Lancelot was fooling her.
"I know it sounds strange, but I've known him for years and I know that I am right." Then Lancelot smiled a little. "And he is very jealous to Gareth, who seems to like you too. I think he didn't like the fact that it was Gareth, who you saved. That is why he said the things, which obviously made you so angry."
Isabel had noticed earlier that Gareth avoided approaching her when the scout was nearby, so this wasn't so much a surprise to her. But she still couldn't believe that Tristan really liked her. Well, he had given his wagon to her use and acted nicely towards her – not counting the occasion which happened just a moment ago – but Isabel thought that it was because he didn't actually have too many other choices. It did bothered her though, that he had known her name when he and Gawain had found her, and she hadn't asked about that yet.
When Gareth noticed that Lancelot and Isabel came out of Arthur's wagon – where he had seen her going a moment ago – he approached them slowly. When the blonde woman saw him coming towards her, she smiled a little.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, I am." Gareth hesitated few seconds, but then he hugged Isabel for her big surprise. "Thank you. You saved me."
Isabel watched the blonde knight in amaze thinking that, if it had been someone else than Gareth, she saved, he wouldn't have said those words. She was sure that if it had been Tristan, the speech would been much more serious and probably the scout wouldn't have even thanked her. Isabel sighed a little, no matter what the place or century was, men were always acting same.
"It was least I could do." Isabel replied thinking that she just returned the favor, after all these men had found and saved her. Without them she might have lied on the snow for hours and maybe frozen to death.
"You were in danger yourself too." Gareth watched the blonde closely, but he wasn't angry like Tristan had been and Isabel noticed it.
"I know. Maybe it was stupid but..."
"Don't worry, I'm not angry. But I heard that Tristan was..." Gareth smiled a little. He had heard about the little quarrel which Tristan and this peculiar woman had, he had also heard that she seemed to have quite a boiling temper.
"He indeed was." Isabel smiled also, but the smile died off her lips, when she saw the knight in question coming towards her and Gareth. Gareth turned his head and saw Tristan approaching, for his amusement the scout seemed to be a little cautious and hesitant. If Gareth had been in his shoes, he might have acted the same.
Isabel glared at the man, who stood by Gareth. She was still boiling, because she wasn't very forgiving person, specially not when she felt like she had been treated wrongly. Tristan tried to take her arm, because he wanted to talk to her. Poor Tristan didn't know that when someone made her angry, she didn't forgive easily and she could be angry for very long time.
"If you even try to touch me, I swear I'll slap you." Isabel snapped taking few steps backwards.
"I don't know what I said to make you angry. " Tristan said quietly.
"You are so clueless." Isabel snapped ignoring the questioning look on his eyes. Again he didn't know exactly what she meant, but he got the meaning pretty well by the tone of her voice.
"But you also misunderstood me. You shouldn't take unnecessary risks." Tristan explained.
Isabel got his meaning but she wasn't going to let him go with ease, she thought that Tristan had used to that women forgave him, when he smiled that cute smile of his, and after all he was a very handsome man, even for Isabel's opinnion.
Isabel just glared at him without a word. Gawain and Galahad had seen Tristan joining the woman and Gareth, and went towards them just to heard Isabel's sullen bark.
"What ever." Then she turned on her heels and marched away to help Bors, who had come to the camp with four rabbits, which he had killed for dinner.
"You really should learn how to treat women, Sir Tristan." Galahad grinned watching the scout who looked after Isabel in amaze.
"I don't understand her. What I said to get her so angry?" Tristan said thoughtfully.
"You are on this on your own, old friend." Galahad said tapping him on the shoulder.
The rest of the evening Isabel made sure that Tristan wasn't anywhere near her, which wasn't a hard task, considering Tristan was scouting nearby almost all the evening making sure that Arthur had been right, when he said that Hibernians won't attack them again on that same place.
Isabel was rather tired after an exiting and also rather scary day, so she yawned with passion after she had her stomach full. Gawain watched after her, when she was going towards Tristan's wagon knowing that she could still sleep there. The knight stood up and ran to catch her just when she was getting on the wagon. Isabel saw him and turned to look at him little smile on her lips.
"Did you forgot to say good night?"
Gawain ignored her and watched her deep in his thoughts. He knew that Tristan had liked this strange woman from the moment they found her, and he knew that it wasn't just a little crush, which had happened suddently. Tristan had told him about his dreams after they found Isabel, and he believed the scout, the changes of him being mistaken were small, considering how persistent he was when he had assured Gawain, that he had had dreams about this woman. And after all Tristan had known her name before she had said it herself. It wasn't scouts style to create that kind of stories, he always spoke the truth.
" There is something you should know about Tristan. He had dreams about you." Gawain said quietly.
Isabel stared at the knight for moment in total awe and the smile died off her lips.
"Tristan? Has he had dreams about me?"
"Yes. Before we found you."
"Oh my God." Isabel said so quietly, that even Gawain didn't hear her words. Then she thought in silence that she really would have to talk with Tristan and very soon. There was something going on, which wasn't in their control. Otherwise the possibility of her dreaming about him and him dreaming about her would been less than zero.
"I'll let you go to sleep now." Gawain said, when he saw that Isabel was troubled about the things which he had just said.
Isabel just nodded and climbed on the wagon knowing that she had to reveal her little secret very soon.