“Ye did no’ have to pay me back,” she told him.
A slight smile played on his lips. “Perchance, but my mam would have my head if I had done anything less. Best of luck to you, milady.”
Then he turned and disappeared into the misty shadows of the woods.
Tosia stayed a moment, watching his lithe form melt into the trees, and once she was certain he was safely away, she lifted her skirts and raced for the stables.
She had no idea where Shabib or Tavish were, and someone needed to find the king and let him know.
If it needed to be her, then she’d ride as she’d never ridden a horse before.
She vowed to save James even if she had to sacrifice her own safety, her own life, to do it.
Tosia gripped her roughwoolen skirt as she rounded the side of the stables. She didn’t see Tavish standing inside the door on a scattering of hay. He dropped his pitchfork and caught her as she slammed into him. He was more muscled than she’d remembered, his body showing the results of his sparring and sword practice with James.
“Tosia! What has ye so distressed?” he asked as he steadied her.
She stared at his face and gripped his tunic.
“’Tis James! And the king! ‘Tis a trap!”
Tavish clicked his tongue at her. “O’ course ‘tis a trap. They know what they are walking into and will no’ be the first in manse. If the emissary is no’ there, they will no’ go in. If the English arrive with an army, they will fight. Sir James has crafted a fine plan.”
Tosia whipped her head from side to side, panic rising in a sour ball to her throat.
“Nay! The English have learned from James’s brilliant ways! The emissary will be there! Inside. They will draw the king and his men in under a guise, but another army awaits, will come behind, enclose them all and burn it down. With their own men inside, Tavish. They plan to sacrifice their own men!”
Tavish’s face paled as his brow creased. He stiffened under her grasp. “How have ye come to learn this, Tosia?”
The sour ball in her throat was choking her.
How can I tell him? Will he believe me?She and James had never mentioned the English lad they had sent off without a mark. Now that untimely cock had come home to roost.
“’Tis of no consequence,” she said, trying to push past him. Tavish gripped her upper arms.
“’Tis of consequence. I want to know how my sister came to know of these devious English plans. Plans that no’ even the king’s most staunch adviser knows.”
His eyes leveled against her, and his shoulders squared. He’d become the king’s man, James’s man, and was now ready to guard them with everything he had.
“Tell me,” his voice was inflexible. “How have ye come to know this?”
She swallowed, trying unsuccessfully to dislodge that sour ball.
“A while ago,” she began in a low voice, averting her eyes, “James and I came upon a scouting party of English soldiers in the woods. He slayed two of them right away, before I could blink. But the third . . .” She stopped and looked up at Tavish, cupping his face. “He was a lad, as young as you. He reminded me of ye so much, too much, and I begged James to give the lad mercy. James sent him off blindly into the woods.”
Tavish hissed out a deep breath, blowing the loose strands of her russet hair from her face.
“Whilst I can see ye doing so foolish an act, I canna bring myself to envision James permitting an English soldier to leave alive. No’ from what I have learned of him, what Iknowof him.”
She dropped her head, her hair hampering her view of her brother. What she had asked of James seemed much more innocent than how Tavish was making is sound. The lad was just that, a scared boy fighting in a battle that wasn’t his and was so much larger than himself.
At least, ‘twas how it appeared to Tosia.
Tavish’s tone, however, showed her something much larger was at stake, that she had asked much, perchance too much of James. Why had he done something so dangerous when she had asked?
A warm sensation of realization washed over her, dislodging the sour ball sticking in her throat.
He’d done itbecauseshe had asked.
