His scowl darkened as he studied her. “And where will you go? Or are you willing to stake your life that a guard, one who demands coin to champion your cause, is a manyou can trust?”
Heat burned her cheeks. “As I explained before, Moireach and I have spoken a few times.”
“A few times?” Cailin muttered a curse. “Knowing his name doesna make him lessof a stranger.”
She angled her jaw. “Was trusting a man I had met but a few times a decision easily made? Nay. After my escape from Tiran Castle, terrified, betrayed by people I believed were friends, and frantic to save Blar’s life, I made the choice Ibelieved best.”
Though now, she realized the recklessness of her decision. However much she damned Cailin’s intervention, he was right. If she’d achieved her goal and given Moireach the coin, with the guard’s loyalty to the earl, odds were she would find herself lockedin the dungeon.
Or raped.
Or dead.
The futility of the situation threatened to overwhelm her, but she smothered her despair. She refused todo nothing.
She eyed Cailin, and an idea came to mind of how she might convince him to assist her. Though she far from trusted him, he’d proven himself an honorable man when he’d rescued her from harm and offered her shelter. Neither was he a brutal man, proven when he hadn’t beaten her after she’d stolen his blade and he’d caught up to her, but sought the reason for her less-than-honorable actions.
Nor, in the brief time they’d spend together, would she have to do more than keep a close watch on him. Once they helped Blar escape, she and her stepbrother would flee Dalkirk land and never see Cailin again.
* * * *
Snow smeared Kenzie’s face, hair, and her tattered gown as she stared up at Cailin. Arching a fierce brow, he folded his arms across his chest. “I shouldleaveyou. ’Twould be a lesson for yourstubbornness.”
She eyed him as if on a dare. “But you willna.”
God’s blade, the lass had bravado, that he would give her. Far from wanting another confrontation, he rubbed the back of his neck at the tension gathered there. He should abandon the willful lass to her fate. Yet, for some unexplainable reason, he couldn’t. “And why is that?”
“Because you need me to aid youin your quest.”
“Indeed?” he asked, his voice dry. How in Hades did she think shecould help him?
“You have been away for many years. Though you know names from your childhood, could perhaps recognize a few people, you dinna know who to trust, or the places we can hide until you seizeTiran Castle.”
The matter-of-factness in her tone had a smile tugging at his lips. A Knight Templar, he didn’t need a lass, more so one of the nobility,hindering him.
Nor was discovering those within Dalkirk who would be loyal to him a significant challenge. King Robert had bid him to find a trusted contact, Sir Angus McReynolds, a stalwart man Cailin had met on several occasions. One who had brought the Bruce secret missives from Father Lamond, and a person who would take Cailin to the priest without question.
“I will find my way about without your aid,” Cailin said, “along with discovering those who remain loyal to me.”
“Mayhap, but with your presence revealed to the earl, an exposure I sincerely regret, your travel within Dalkirk, as with every contact made, will beat great risk.”
He rubbed his jaw. A valid point. Once Gaufrid discovered the arrangements for Cailin’s death years before had failed, the blackguard, would do whatever was necessary to keep the earldom, including ensuring Cailin’s death this time.
No doubt his uncle would not only send his guard in search of him but keep a close watch on friends from Cailin’s past to see if he tried to approach them, or if their actions grew suspicious. Regardless, he refused to allow this complication to alter his intent.
Frowning, Cailin reached down to her.
She pushed his hand away. “Wait, whereare we going?”
Blast it, did she not realize the danger they were in? “You are staying with meonlyuntil I decide what to do with you.” He leaned a hand’s width from her face. “Try to fight me again and I will leave youto the wolves.”
“I—”
“You lied to me, stole from me. If I were you, I would count my blessings I am taking you along.”
Fire flared in her eyes, but Kenzie remained silent.
Though tempted to leave her, if she was indeed alone, which, considering her condition, he was beginning to believe, cold and injured,she would die.
