“You did not replace the gag. Are you not worried that I will scream?”she challenged.
“There is nay reason,” Sir David said with irritating calm. “The Bruce’s camp is over the ridge.”
Her heart sank, but she remained silent, refused to show fear.
Her captor kicked his mount forward. Moments later, they rode into theswath of pines.
At the scrape of limbs, she saw Aiden’s gaze lift and meet hers as Cailin secured his wound.
Emotions and exhaustion warred within, weighted beneath the dreams his betrayal had crushed. She had believed in him, worse, had allowed herself to hope, to fall into the delusion that one day he would come to love her.
The bastard.
Gwendolyn lunged toward him.
Sir David’s arm jerked her back.
She glared at Aiden. “I despise you!”
Grief darkened Aiden’s gaze, and he winced as he shook his head. “I never meant to hurt you.”
Hurt? Too trivial a word to describe the pain tearing through her heart, the devastation of every foolish dream she’d allowed herself to hold dear.
Muddy water plopped onto her sodden clothes as she gulped a breath of pine-rich air, then another, damning how her body had begun to shake. She’d trusted him, believed he’d cared for her, when every step of the way, with his every kiss, with his every intimate touch, he had lied.
She lifted her jaw. “Nay doubt ’twas a boon to watch your enemy’s fields’ burn. How you must have inwardly rejoiced that we made your mission so much easier.”
“Gwendolyn—”
“How dare you speak to me with such familiarity!” she attacked, the memories of his mouth upon hers, of how he had touched her, brought her pleasure, too vivid.
Aiden gave a frustrated sigh. “Once we reach camp,we will talk.”
“Save your words for someone who might believe you,” she growled. “You have earned naught but my contempt.”
A frown deepened Cailin’s brow as he finished securing another strip of cloth around Aiden’s wound. He glanced toward the man holding her in the saddle. “David, before we go, ensure Lady Gwendolyn has nay other weapons hidden.”
“I disarmed her when I caught her.” The knight’s gaze narrowed on her. “Nor will I underestimate her again.”
Pride flickered in Aiden’s eyes, faltered to sadness. “A warning I would have given you hadI been awake.”
“One,” Cailin said, “I should have passed to Sir David upon her capture.”
She scowled, far from impressed by either man’s praise. “A caution men rarely consider when dealing with women.”
With a grunt, Cailin mounted his horse.
Aiden clasped his friend’s hand and then swung up behind him. He glanced toward her.
Gwendolyn turned away.
Sir David guided his mount into the midstof the knights.
’Twas clear he wouldna risk allowing her any further chance to escape. As they rode over the moss and brush-tangled land, the churn of water grew. A shiver rattled through her as the worry she had fought to keep at baysurged inside.
What would King Robert do when he learned of her capture? Would he order her to a nunnery? Without a holding or coin, would Scotland’s monarch abandon her to fend for herself? Or, considering her loyalty to Comyn, would he have her killed?
Please God, let the Bruce think she was worthless to his cause and cast her out. Alone, she could make her way to her liege lord. Given her faithfulness to him over the years, and after her having married the noble he’d ordered…
