Elspet whirled, but he caught her arms as she tried to attack. Breath coming fast, she narrowed her gaze. “Let me go.”
“If you somehow procure the necessary coin and reach the guard, youwill be dead.”
“Dinna you realize that if I do not, my stepbrother will die!”
Cailin’s eyes bore into hers. “Had the earl wanted to kill your stepbrother, he would have slain him, not hauled himto the castle.”
Through the fragments of lucid thought, she focused to his words. “Then youwill help me?”
A muscle tightened inhis jaw. “Nay.”
Chapter 3
Grief tore through Elspet as Cailin held on to her as he rode. All her risks, her foolish belief he would aid her, for naught. She should have hidden Cailin’s sword and secured his agreement to help save Blar before giving it back. Foolishly, she’d convinced herself that with the earl destroying both their lives, and with her returning the sword, Cailinwould help her.
“Lass,” Cailin said, his voice laden with ire as she continued to struggle against him.
“You bastard, I was a fool to ever think you would help me!”
“Blast it, I—”
Elspet twisted free, raked her nailsdown his face.
With a roar of pain, he jerked back.
Pulse racing, she dove from the horse, hit the snow, then shoved up. Clenching her teeth against the pain in her ankle, she ran.
The thud of hooves sounded behind her.
She scrambled beneath a line of thick, snow-laden brush. Thankful the steep bank forced him to circle around, she climbed to her feet andtook off again.
“Kenzie!”
She ran faster.
The crusted ledge beneath her suddenly shifted. Tremors rippled in the frozen shelf.
No! She grabbed for a limb.
The outcrop crumbled with a loud whoosh, gave.
A scream ripped from her as she plunged within the hurl of snow, the blur of white broken by glimpses of blue that she managed to glimpse above. After a final tumble down the incline, Elspet rolled to a halt.
The soft clop of hooveshalted nearby.
Gasping for breath, the sky clear, as if mocking the way her entire body hurt, she glanced over.
Cailin jumped down, his expression fierce.
Another burst of pain shot through her as she tried to struggle to her feet. Her legs wobbled andshe collapsed.
He stepped toward her.
Blast it, she’d almost escaped. “Dinna touch me!”
“That answers whether you are alive,” he grumbled.
“As if you care? Leave! If I never see you again, 'twould benone too soon.”
