“What’s your name, laddie?”
The young man’s frightened eyes flicked between James and Tosia. “Simon,” he squeaked out.
James let his shoulders drop but kept the blade tip on the lad.
“Out of deference to my wife, and against my better judgment, I’ll send ye off into the wood and ye can try to find your way back. If ye bring your army here, I’ll cut it down in a thrice. If it comes back that ye said a word of this to anyone, ye’ll find yourself at the end of my sword again, your bloody gullet hanging from the tip like your kinsman over yonder. Aye?”
The lad straightened and nodded furiously.
James set his sword by his side and shifted his head to speak over his shoulder to Tosia.
“Dinna let it be known that James Douglas has a soft spot for his wife. I’ll no’ hear the end of it.”
“Douglas?” the boy squeaked. “Black James Douglas?”
James didn’t hesitate and lifted his sword to the boy’s neck again.
“My reputation precedes me. Consider yourself fortunate and thank God above for your good fortune. Few enemies cross my path and live. And ye never saw me, do ye understand my meaning?”
Again, the boy’s head nodded. James’s sword flicked toward the wood. “Go. Get ye gone. Find your own way through the wood and ye never saw us. A random group of Highlanders came upon your group, and ye managed to escape with your life. And ye canna recall where in the wood. Aye?”
More nodding. A surge of warmth flushed through Tosia, and her shoulders relaxed. The boy would live, for now. At least she wouldn’t have this lad’s death on her hands. Nor would James.
James waved his hand at the boy who scrambled to his feet and ran into the trees as if every demons of hell chased him. Perchance one did.
They stared after the lad as he disappeared into the forest.
“I fear I might regret this, wife. And we dinna tell the king. ‘Twere but two men, aye?”
Tosia smiled into her husband’s broad back. “Aye, husband.”
Now he’d have to hedgethe truth with his king, a feat James dreaded. He’d have to alert the king as to the English scouts and admit one got away. Would the Bruce believe such a tale? Mayhap he could use Tosia as his excuse, that he was focused on her safety and didn’t give chase . . .
They retrieved the rest of their belongings on the west side of the tree line, and James kept a protective arm around Tosia’s waist as they walked back to Auchinleck. They were silent for most of the walk.
James worried for his wife. She was too silent. Was she in shock? Had she seen a man die before? She certainly hadn’t seen her husband slay a man before — was she horrified at the true man that lived in the skin of the loving man she presumed her husband to be? He was a beast at his core, and today she saw the reckoning of that beast. Would she turn from him now that she witnessed him firsthand?
“Are ye well, lass?” James asked in a low voice. Christ knew he didn’t need to scare her more than he already had.
“Ye have my gratitude for no’ killing the boy,” she told him, keeping her face forward as they walked. James did the same, studying the horizon.
“Your gratitude?” he asked.
“Aye. Ye could have killed him. Ye probably should have. But ye didn’t. Ye stilled your sword. Thank ye for that.”
James cleared his throat. Whatever he expected her to say, it wasn’t that.
“Ye aren’t distressed over my slaying the other men?”
“The other men who would have slain ye and ravished me before killing me? I may have experienced little in my life, but my mam raised me to be smart enough to know danger when it presents itself. Nay, I know we are at war and what monsters the English can be.”
James tilted his head toward her and flexed his arm so her body pressed closer to his.
“But no’ your husband.”
Finally, her delicate face and those wide, amber eyes looked up at him. “No’ my husband? What do ye mean?”
James stopped walking and turned her to face him, her body tight against his. She curved into him, as though she were made for him, and he had yet to stop his wonder at that.
