“I am unsure if you are brave or stupid,” he charged, anger seeping through his words. “After your deceit and theft, do you honestly believe I will ever give your word any weight?”
Frustration flashed in her eyes. “I risked my life to warn you!”
A muscle worked in his jaw as he scanned their surroundings. Naught but tree branches rattled in the wind. Far from convinced, he glared at her. “Nay, you risked your life to help save your stepbrother.” He reined his horse back. “I canna help you.”
“I returned your sword!”
He refused to be swayed by the desperation in her emerald eyes. However beautiful, she’d proven herself a woman he couldn’t trust. “Fear guided your hand in returning my weapon,” he said with cold warning, “one you were foolish to have dared taken. Rest assured, had you not come before me, I would have found you.”
“You dinna understand; without your help, my stepbrother will die!”
A sliver of doubt wedged inside him. Damning he’d waste time to ask, he nodded. “Tell me, why shouldI believe you?”
* * * *
Elspet didn’t know why but thanked God he was giving her another chance. “A fair question. One I would ask in your stead. More so as I have given you little reason to do more than see me hang.” Her voice wavered despite her willing it to be strong. “But I swear what I tell you from this moment forwardis the truth.”
He arched a skeptical brow, then again scanned the area before his wary gaze cut back to her.
Merciful saints, she had to convince him to help her! The last thing she wished was to again steal his weapon for coin or, with him suspicious of her now, was thateven possible?
“Where is your stepbrother?”
She ignored the condemnation and focused on the fact that he hadn’t ridden away yet. “I believe Blar is locked in the dungeon atTiran Castle.”
“Believe?” he drawled.
“After the earl killed my mother and stepfather,” she rushed out, “they hauled my stepbrother to the stronghold.”
“And youknow this how?”
“Because after his butchery—” she fought past the bile in her throat—“the earl hauled me to his chamber, intent on making mehis mistress.”
Anger darkened the knight’s eyes, and a chill swept her at the cold fury within them. “Yet you escaped.”
“Aye,” she said, struggling against the horrific memories that would haunt her for the rest of her life. “When he tried to take me, I jammed my knee into his groin. While he lay screaming in agony, I fled. As I ran from the castle, I heard his shouts for his men to kill me.”
Blue eyes narrowed as Cailin studied her a long moment, as if weighing her words. “Why did you remain on Dalkirk lands? You must know that the earl isna a man to offerfalse threats.”
Emotion burned her throat. “I–I couldna leave Blar to die.”
“How was robbing the men, or me, providing you with a hope to save him?”
Elspet exhaled an unsteady breath. “I found a guard, Moireach, who, for a pound, agreed to free my stepbrother.”
Cailin arched a doubtful brow. “And with the earl calling for your death, you believed one of his guards would help you?”
“I have seen Moireach several times over the years. Though not a friend, neither is he a stranger. I thought…” A shudder ripped through her as she clung to her desperate hope. “Aye, Ibelieved him.”
“Then you are a fool,” Cailin stated, his words as frigid as the snow-covered ground. “Once you paid the guard, he would have hauled you before the earl. That is, once he’d slaked his lust andifhe’d allowed you to live.”
“You are wrong!” She staggered back, damning him, damning the sense of hopelessness engulfing her. “Go to the devil. I dinna need you. I will save Blar myself!”
Elspet whirled and half-hobbled, half-stumbled down the incline, refusing to focus on the panic rising in her chest. Cailin was wrong. Moireach would aid her; she only needed to acquire the coinhe’d demanded.
The thud of hooves was her only warning a second before Cailin’s strong arm swept her up and plopped her before him on his destrier. She tried to dive off.
His hold tightened.
