And he didn’t want any role. Rafe could go anywhere once he was on the continent. He could offer his professional services to any lord or king who could pay. Or hell, he could journey to all the great cities of the known world. In a few weeks, he’d deliver Angelet to her home, and he’d be free forever.
Beside him, Angelet stirred and stretched, then opened her eyes. When she smiled at him, Rafe momentarily lost his highly rational line of thought.
“Good morning,” she said.
“Morning, my lady.” As he spoke, he brushed some hair from her face. She would age well. Angelet would be as lovely in thirty years as she was now, with a head of silvery hair and those same clear green eyes. Too bad he wouldn’t be around to see it.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, looking at him curiously.
“Nothing,” he said, with an easy smile. “Nothing important. We should get moving. The faster we’re away from here, the safer you’ll be.”
She nodded, and her playful, sunny expression faded. “Do you think someone is still following us?”
“If someone is, let’s make their task more difficult.”
Chapter 18
Leaving the village, Rafe andAngelet took the south road. They now had a destination, and Rafe said he wanted to make as much progress toward Dorset as they could. The weather favored them at first. It was a fine spring day, the air soft and warm, and the sky clear. Angelet delighted in the scene passing by. Even in the worst situations, it was difficult to be downcast on a spring day.
Rafe wasn’t quite as at ease. He kept looking over his shoulder, though he tried to conceal his concern from her for most of the morning.
“Perhaps they’ve given up altogether,” Angelet suggested at last. “You’ve seen no signs of pursuit.”
“No,” Rafe said, but he sounded uncertain.
“Haveyou seen any signs?” she asked. “You don’t have to shield me, you know. I won’t faint…not from hearing bad news, anyway.” Was Rafe keeping information from her in some sort of attempt to keep her affliction from recurring?
“I haven’t,” he said, more firmly. “Nothing definite. But there’s a feeling I can’t shake, and when you’ve been followed as much as I have, it’s wise to heed that feeling.”
“Excuse me, but who’s been following you?” she asked.
“Never mind.”
Angelet nudged her horse with an ankle to bring her closer to where he rode. “Rafe, what aren’t you telling me? Why would someone be followingyou?”
He weighed his next words. “I’ve annoyed a number of people in the past few years.”
“Annoyed?You annoyed them enough to warrant being physically pursued? What did you do? Does this involve a woman?” Lord, maybe Rafe made a practice of seducing all the ladies he escorted from place to place. Though he did once mention that he usually didn’t do this sort of work. Still, he could have seduced some lady, and now her family was chasing him down to seek retribution.
“There’s no woman,” Rafe said. “This is entirely different.”
“Does it have to do with your competing in all those tourneys? Did you kill the wrong opponent?”
“No.”
“Is it a mistake of some kind? A misunderstanding or…”
“No, they understood perfectly what I did,” Rafe said, with a bitter laugh. “And so did I. But I did it anyway. Which is why I started competing in tourneys in the first place. It pays me and it gives me a reason to keep moving.”
“Moving away from Shropshire?” she guessed. “That’s why you didn’t want to go this way. You’re worried you’ll meet someone you wish to avoid. Who?”
“It doesn’t matter who,” he said. “And I won’t be interrogated by you. Just because you’ve seen more of me than most people, it doesn’t grant you any special rights to my past.” He nudged his horse to advance a few lengths ahead of hers.
Angelet didn’t try to catch up. The last thing she wanted was to anger the one person she was traveling with. If Rafe decided she wasn’t worth the effort, he could leave her right on the road. Who would ever know?
And in a way, he was right. Angelet and Rafe’s new intimacy didn’t come with any promises—just the opposite. The reason she accepted his offer was that it came with no hitches. The less she learned about him, the better. For both of them.
After a little while, Rafe looked over his shoulder, in that same gesture he’d done all morning, scanning the road behind them. But this time, he wheeled his horse around, and rode back. Angelet turned too, thinking he’d seen something. But there was no hint of anyone.
