On a crusade? “Last night, you said that you had honed your skills protecting those on a journey. That was where you meant, was it not?”
“Aye.”
Stories of a massive castle built high upon a plateau overlooking the desert came to mind, along with tales of horselike animals with humps that men rode and could travel for days. “I have never met anyone who has traveled in the Holy Land, only heard tales of those who braved the brutal land and dangerous travel fortheir faith.”
Gaze intense, he watched her for a long moment, but when he spoke his voice seemed far away. “For many, ’tis worth the risk.”
“Is that why you were there?”
“One of the reasons.”
Excitement raced through her, as if she’d finally unlocked a piece of the mystery of his past. “Last night, after I lay down, before you slept, you whispered the Our Father several times, just as you did when we stayed in the cave.”
In the glow of firelight, his face hardened. “You wereeavesdropping?”
She shook her head. “Several hand-widths apart, even though you whispered, ’twas difficult not to hear.”
He rubbed his hand over his face, then exhaled. “Go back to sleep.”
At the sadness in his voice, she touched his arm. “You listened to me in the cave, an offerthat I return.”
“Elspe—”
“Though we didna start out on the best of terms—” To say the least, she’d deceived him and stolen his sword. “I would like to be your friend, one you can turn to.”
“Why?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it, realizing that without her intending it, he’d become important to her.
Very important.
And it wasn’t just a physical connection. Her mind and heart were as lured as her body. Astounded, she stared at him. How was this possible in suchshort a time?
She withdrew her hand, floundered to find an explanation that would satisfy him and bide her time to sort through what she was feeling. “Do you ask why because I am not of noble blood?”
He muttered a soft curse. “I dinna judge a person by their status. Nor,” he said, his voice softening, “do I make friends with ease.”
“After all we have been through, with my fealty given to King Robert, to you, and the risks I have taken, I would think you know by now that I am a woman to trust.”
“You are. There is naught simpleabout my past.”
“What you tell me, I swear I will never share.” She hesitated briefly, then blurted out, “I may be foolish to admit this, but you have become important to me in ways beyond the fealty I have sworn you.”
His face hardened in the wisps of distant firelight. “’Tis a mistake.”
“Andmine to make.”
“I seek naught more than to reclaim my heritage.”
“I know.”
As if coming to a decision, he scanned the encampment, then faced her. “What I am about to tell you, you can never share.”
Elspet nodded. “I swear it.”
“I am a Knight Templar.”
“A Templar?” Shock roared through her at the revelation, and she scrambled to discern the ramifications even as she sat back on her heels. “But they were charged with heresy and arrested over a year past.”
