Defiance blazed in her eyes. “I can make it without your help.”
Regardless of the pain, if he let her, no doubt she’d try. “Aye, but ’tis rest and a warm fire you would be needing, not climbing up the brae,” Cailin said with emphasis, “in pain.”
In a calmer setting he would have pondered her bold manner. But with her injury, the snow falling at an increasing rate, and the howl of the bitter wind, they needed tofind shelter.
Scraping her teeth over her lower lip, she scoured the surroundings, then stilled
He followed her gaze.
A step to his left, half-buried in snow, lay hersgian dubh, a smear of blood across the blade.
Before she could move, he retrieved the knife and wiped it clean. Handle facing her, he offeredher the dagger.
Wary eyes held his as she accepted her weapon. “Why are you helping me?”
“You were in danger.”
She sheathed her blade. “As simple as that?”
“Aye.” He held out his hand. “We must go before the weather makes travel impossible.”
After a brief hesitation, during which her gaze seemed to pierce his and evaluate his trustworthiness, she placed her hand uponhis open palm.
At the silkiness of her skin against his, Cailin smothered the flare of awareness. Irritated by the desire she stirred, he lifted her in his arms.
Snow crunched as he carried her up the steep, icy incline. He tried to ignore how good her body felt against him, failed. At the top of the cliff, more than ready to put distance between them, he gently set her on her feet.
Cheeks flushed, she moved back, clearly trying to shield that her ankle caused her pain. “I thank you, Sir Cailin. I owe you much. I—” Her face paled as she twisted around with a gasp. “My horse!”
Blast it, the thieves had circled back and taken her steed. “Do you know their names?”
She paused, then shook her head. “I have never seen thembefore today.”
No doubt the robbers had believed her a lady, and easy prey. “Why are you riding without aproper guard?”
* * * *
Dismayed by the turn of events, Elspet studied the handsome knight. Dark red hair framed blue eyes that no doubt had made many a woman desire. His muscle-hewn body and confident stance that of a man used totaking charge.
Was this warrior one of the Earl of Dalkirk’s men out searching for her? She struggled for an explanation that would satisfy the formidable knight so she could leave before herecognized her.
“I was en route to my aunt’s home in the Western Highlands when thieves attacked my guard. He was…” She drew in a ragged breath, allowing the terror, the fear that at any moment she’d be caught haunting her since she’d fled Tiran Castle to fill her words. “H—he died. I escaped, or believed I had. But the men caught up to me and…” Her breath hitched. “Thank God you arrived.”
“They willna touch you again,” he said, his voice somber.“That I swear.”
A sense of rightness flowed from this man, a strength, an integrity that left her feeling vulnerable and exposed. Shaken, Elspet dragged in a steadying breath. “How I wish you couldpromise such.”
Intense blue eyes held hers. “I mean what I say.”
However foolish, more so after her neighbor’s betrayal hours before and with him possibly one of the earl’s men, she believed him. “Never have I seen you before.”
The daunting knight’s eyes grew unreadable. “I am but traveling through.”
Tension in her body eased. Thank God, he was not in service to the noble. “You are a stranger to Dalkirk lands. What you witnessed today was but a pittance of the lawlessness the earl allows his men.”
Surprise flickered in Cailin’s eyes. “Your attackers are men within his guard?”
She hesitated. Regardless if he was an outsider and ignorant that the earl had ordered his knights to catch and kill her, ’twas wisest to take care with what she revealed. Another shiver swept her. “Ignore my ramblings, ’tis exhaustion feeding my words.”
