James paused, but kept his gaze fixed on the young man, whose own sword hung uselessly at his side.
“Tosia! What ails ye?”
She lifted her skirts as she climbed over the fallen log that, until moments ago, had been the English men’s picnic seat, and stopped an arm’s length from the panting James.
“Milord, please. Look at him. He’s little more than a boy.” Her pleading voice was low.
James’s visage altered a bit, his eyes narrowing at the Englishman.
“A boy,” he stated flatly. He wasn’t impressed with her statement.
“A boy. No older than Tavish.”
At this, James’s jaw ground his teeth together, yet his muscled arm didn’t move as it held the youth a breath from death.
“He is a soldier in the army that has cast its deathly shadow over the Scots for far too long. What will ye have me do with him?”
Tosia bit her lower lip and found her skirts suddenly interesting.
“Ye canna kill him. James, he’s just a boy,” she reasoned.
James inhaled, his broad chest expanding, and the lad quivered visibly, surely believing his young life to be cut short here in the Scottish wood.
“Ye canna mean for me to let him go. He’s a bloody English soldier!”
“He’s a lad,” Tosia pleaded.
James’s jaw worked even harder, and his stony eyes glanced to her then back at the lad.
His shoulders slumped and the tip of his blade lowered an inch. He flicked the tip of his blade to the fallen log and Tosia moved to stand behind James. In a moment of bravery that surprised herself, she rested her hand on his free arm. If James noticed, he didn’t show it.
The lad stumbled onto the log, sitting down hard. Every last bit of color drained from his face, and he was as pale as a day-old corpse as his frightened brown eyes fixated on James.
“My wife has a heart too large for this world. What’s to stop ye from scuttling back to your barracks and bringing the full weight of your contingent down upon us?”
The lad’s blond brow crinkled. “Contingent?”
James shook his head. “Ye dinna mean to have me believe ye dinna have a bloody army camped nearby?”
The lad’s head moved slowly back and forth, his eyes never leaving James’s threatening sword.
“I’m scouting, but we are just a few, living out of a tent near Locherbie.”
“And the king? He’s right behind ye?”
The boy’s brow crinkled more. “Edward the second? I don’t know the king’s whereabouts. In England I’d suppose?”
“Ye are lying.” He brought the sword tip to the boy’s chin where nary a whisker protruded.
So young!Tosia’s hand squeezed James’s arm where his muscle bulged under his sleeve.
The boy’s head whipped from side to side. “No! No! They don’t tell me anything! I’ve only just arrived here. I don’t know where I’m at, and I don’t know how I will even find my way back!”
His voice cracked as he protested, and James dropped the sword tip. Tosia was certain he tried to hide the tight smile that tugged at his cheek upon hearing the lad’s voice.
“See?” Tosia stood on her toes to whisper into his ear. “A lad.”
“Could be a lying lad,” James threw over his shoulder. His hard gaze landed on the boy again.
