A/N: No excuse really for the long wait on updating this one. I have simply been writing other stories which turned out to be a lot more popular than I anticipated and have been concentrating on those. I do still intend to finish this story though and am working on the next chapter already. Sorry to those who have been waiting on this one.

A Most Unusual Wood Nymph

Helga's reply to Rowena's letter arrived the following evening, and Rowena practically tore the parchment from the thoroughly confused owl's leg in her eagerness to see what the anticipated advice contained.

"Not what you were expecting?" Salazar asked as he took in her darkening expression with open curiosity.

Rowena snorted and tossed the letter onto his lap so that he could read it for himself.

"You bribed your maid to go home?" Salazar said as he read the contents.

Rowena swore under her breath; she'd forgotten about that part.

Salazar chuckled. "I don't see what's got you so annoyed though, unless it has something to do with the postscript at the end."

Rowena folded her arms across her chest, stuck out her lower lip and huffed to herself. Helga's advice was pretty much non-existent, and her response to Rowena's plea for help was nothing more than a reminder that Rowena had in fact claimed to have done 'the deed' with Salazar some time ago.

"I didn't exactly say that we'd done it," a blushing Rowena explained. "I just said that we'd done more than she and Wilbur had."

"Oh, well that's all right then," Salazar sarcastically replied. "Don't you care anything about your reputation?"

Rowena's response was immediate and firm. "No."

"Nor mine it seems." Salazar's smile took the edge off of his words.

"Helga wouldn't tell anybody," Rowena pointed out. "She's my best friend; we tell each other everything."

"I know," Salazar said, reaching out to pull Rowena down to sit on the bed beside him. Rowena wasn't foolish enough to think that he was making the first move towards seducing her into bed…even if he wasn't still recovering from the bout of food poisoning he had suffered following her attempt at cooking them a romantic dinner.

"Reputations are just society's way of making sure people always have someone to gossip about," Rowena muttered.

Salazar chuckled again and passed the letter back to her. "I'm sure you and Helga can think of some way between the two of you to break down my resistance," he assured her with another smile. "Though try not to carry out any more of your plans until after I've recovered from the last one."

Rowena leaned forward to kiss Salazar softly on the lips. "Aren't you mad now you know what I'm up to?" she asked.

Salazar laughed and shook his head. "Surely you didn't imagine that I hadn't noticed?" Rowena's face, which had reverted to its normal pallor, flushed fiery red once more. "When you're not trying to poison me, your attempts are really quite amusing. Godric thinks so too."

"Godric?" Rowena blurted. "What does he know about it?"

"I've been keeping him updated on your attempts," Salazar explained with a grin.

"You mean that you've been telling him everything, like I've been telling Helga?"

"Not quite everything," Salazar amended. "Some things I just can't put in a letter. But when we visit him, I'll be sure to fill him in completely."

"Have you heard back from him?" Rowena asked.

"He's in some forest somewhere up north, looking for wood nymphs or something."

Rowena screwed up her nose. "That's a bit of a vague description if we're going to visit him."

"That's because he's probably lost," Salazar reminded her. "You know what his sense of direction's like…he even got lost in your parents' apple orchard for Merlin's sake!"

"How are we going to find him then?"

"Shouldn't be too difficult," Salazar replied with a smirk. "We'll just follow the path of destruction he's left in his wake."

-o-xXx-o-

Two days later Salazar was fully recovered and was eager to leave the confines of the inn once more. The weather had improved and they decided to walk for the start of their journey north.

Rowena had her arm hooked through Salazar's and was casting hostile glares at everyone who passed them by.

"You don't have to keep scowling at everyone," Salazar told her after the fourth man to receive the Ravenclaw Glare had recoiled in mingled surprise and horror.

"I'm sure they're all judging us, or wanting you for themselves."

Salazar roared with laughter. "I don't think that bloke is really my type."

"You know what I mean," Rowena chided. "The women all want you."

"Surely not all of them," Salazar gasped. "That last woman you dragged me away from was pushing eighty at least."

"I'm sure I'll still want you at eighty," Rowena pointed out. "Ergo, she probably did too."

Salazar shook his head and steered them away from the road and into the nearby woods. "This better?" he asked, gesturing to the deserted woods as opposed to the rather busy road that connected several nearby villages with the nearby market town.

"Alone at last," Rowena purred.

"Yes, but only so that I don't end up breaking you out of gaol for doing anything stupid to my apparently numerous admirers."

"I'm sure there's a secluded glen around here somewhere," Rowena suggested, though the woods didn't look as romantic and welcome as her daydreams would have previously suggested. "Do you remember our first kiss? That was in a tree, so wouldn't it be fitting if we…?"

"Actually, you'll probably find that the only thing you'll find in these woods is the local werewolf pack," Salazar told her.

"You're avoiding my question."

"I remember our first kiss very well indeed," Salazar assured her. "You flung yourself at me while we were hiding up a tree."

"You make it sound like it was all one-sided."

Salazar smiled and walked over to a nearby tree that had been uprooted in the recent storm. "Come here," he said, patting the log beside him.

Rowena did as he bade her and sat down next to him.

"It wasn't one-sided," he said quietly, pushing her hair back from her face as he spoke. "I remember kissing you back." He ran a solitary finger along her cheek and jaw line. "I remember everything about that day. It was the day I met you, the day I fell in love with you, and the day I decided I was going to spend the rest of my life with you."

Rowena opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say a word she was being silenced with a kiss. Rowena wrapped her arms round Salazar's neck and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss as she climbed onto his lap. She could tell immediately that he wasn't immune to her charms, but when she tried to slip one of her hands into his robes it was met with the usual resistance.

Rowena whined in frustration. "But why not?" she asked. "We're both adults and I can tell you want this as much as I do."

"Not like this," Salazar replied. "Not here, not yet."

"I don't want to wait for your father to come around."

Salazar smiled, and for once Rowena couldn't quite interpret his thoughts behind it. "Me neither," he replied. "Come on, I've got an idea of where to start looking for Godric. I'll apparate us there."

Rowena knew that it wasn't at all necessary to wrap herself so completely round Salazar in order to be taken with him when he apparated them away. But she couldn't resist, and she held on tight as they disappeared with a pop.

-o-xXx-o-

It took two days to find Godric. Two days of tramping – aimlessly, in Rowena's opinion – around various woods, and discovering that camping out under the stars sounded far more romantic than it actually was.

It was too cold, too dirty and there were far too many bugs and wild animals lurking around for Rowena's liking.

Her nights were spent casting freezing charms on anything that moved in the bushes, while the mornings were spent undoing the spells and listening to Salazar laughing at her antics.

"So, what exactly did this poor squirrel do to alarm you?" he asked as Rowena sheepishly returned it to its former state. The animal cast her a baleful look before scampering off up a nearby tree.

"It was acting suspiciously," Rowena insisted before turning back to the campfire.

"Would it make you feel better if I set up more wards around the camp?" Salazar asked. "To keep the animals away as well as any people?"

"I'd feel better sleeping in your arms," Rowena suggested.

Salazar laughed and pulled her into the arms in question. "You are the most persistent witch I've ever met," he told her.

Rowena was about to reply when the sounds of a strangled scream came from somewhere in the west. "Did that sound like Godric to you?" she asked, but Salazar was already gathering their things together and rushing towards the sound.

Rowena hurried after him and it wasn't long before they stumbled upon their elusive friend. "That doesn't look like a wood nymph to me," Rowena commented with a laugh as she watched Godric feed a rather vicious looking animal that looked like a cross between a warthog and a porcupine.

"You're the only nymph around here," Godric teased as he pulled her into a hug and winked at Salazar. "So, how's the mission going?"

"She's still trying," Salazar interrupted, easing Rowena away from Godric with a rarely shown possessiveness that caused her heart to flutter even more. "Where are these wood nymphs then? And why did you scream?"

"I didn't scream," Godric insisted. "I was just overjoyed at finally getting one of these lovely creatures to eat from my hand."

"Lovely," Rowena muttered, giving the animal a wide berth.

"Where are you camped?" Salazar asked, gesturing to their own belongings.

"About quarter of a mile in that direction," Godric replied, though he didn't sound entirely sure about it and his gesture encompassed a direction that could have been anything between south and north west. "There's a nice little waterfall there, if you want to clean up a little. I think wizards have been there before because I've never seen anything like it in this part of the country before."

"Are you insinuating something about our hygiene?" Rowena teased.

Godric looked her over appraisingly. "Well, since you asked…"

-o-xXx-o-

Rowena and Salazar arrived at the camp fairly quickly, despite the poor directions. Salazar soon set about securing their things while Rowena declared her intention to make her way towards the waterfall that she could easily hear was close by.

"You coming?" she called back to Salazar.

"I'll bathe later," he replied, not looking up from where he was adding their provisions to Godric's.

Rowena nodded and left him to it.

She saw what Godric had meant as soon as she reached the waterfall; it looked far too perfect to have not been touched by magic. The leaves of the surrounding trees seemed greener and the water clearer. The sound of the falls was almost musical and Rowena couldn't wait to wash away the grime of her journey beneath it.

She was standing beneath the pouring water, washing her hair, when she felt the strangest sensation in her mind. Her hands stilled and she frowned slightly. Her wand was on the grass near her clothes and she wondered whether it had been wise to put it down.

She stepped back from the waters in order to listen more carefully to the sounds from the woods, but she could hear nothing that sounded unusual…not that she was particularly familiar with the sounds of nature, by any stretch of the imagination.

"Salazar!" she heard Godric call. "You here?"

Rowena drew in a sharp breath and stepped back under the waters to hide her grin. Once she was sure that her face was carefully schooled to mask her delight, she turned round to see if she could see where her would be lover was lurking. She spotted him almost immediately, and resisted the urge to let him know that she had seen him watching her bathe.

Godric too had found Salazar and was talking to him. Rowena wished she could hear what they were saying, but the noise of the waterfall masked their words entirely. She could see that Godric was standing with his back towards her, though whether that was out of his own respect for her privacy, or at Salazar's insistence, she could not tell. Salazar's face was flushed and Rowena felt a thrill of triumph in that fact.

Soon, Salazar, she promised herself. It was only a matter of time before she wore him down.