The second was more cautious, circling left with a blade in hand and watching for an opening.He feinted once, twice, then committed – and found nothing where Cormac had been.A sharp pivot, an elbow to the jaw, and the man sat down hard in the bracken with a dazed expression.
The third came from the side, which was the sensible approach and very nearly worked.Cormac felt the grab at his shoulder, dropped his weight low and fast, and came up behind the man with a forearm across his throat.A precise press of his fingers against the neck, and the man crumpled to the ground.
Three more came.
Cormac broke the nose of the first, disarmed the second and floored him with a knee to the groin, then used the third man's own charge to flip him onto his back and knock him senseless.All the while he kept Una constantly in his periphery.
Una was terrified, but she did as he had asked.She stayed close and kept her eyes moving.It dawned on her, with some mortification, that her earlier escape plan now seemed rather foolish because she had jumped clean from the frying pan into the fire.
What struck her was how adept Shadow was.He moved so quickly and with such speed that he had put six men down in a matter of minutes.No wasted motion.No raised voice.Just steady, focused calm.
The men had gone very quiet.
Their leader watched it all with flat pale eyes.His expression had changed.
"Stand down," he said at last."I've seen enough."
His men stood down.
The leader studied Cormac for a long moment.Then the corner of his mouth curved.
"I'm Drunstan," he said."And I think ye should join us."
***
CORMAC LET THE OFFERsit for a moment.Finally, he was one step closer to his mission.
"What's in it for me?"he asked.
Drunstan's eyes moved briefly to Una, still tucked behind Cormac's shoulder, then back."Ye put six of my best men on the ground without breaking a sweat.I'd rather have one of ye than a dozen of them.I'll pay ye well.But first" – his gaze sharpened – "tell me how ye came by the lass.And yer name, while ye're at it."
"Cormac," he said.Nothing more.
Drunstan waited, as if expecting a surname, a clan affiliation.Cormac offered neither, and Drunstan seemed to decide that a man who'd just put six of his fighters on the ground had earned the right to be sparing with his details.
Behind him, Una turned the name over quietly in her mind.Cormac.Not Shadow.She was not entirely sure why he would conceal it, but she was wise enough not to interfere.
Cormac gave Drunstan a brief account of the covered cart on the forest road and the two fools who had intended to ransom Lady Fenella for themselves.He made a point of mentioning that they had hurt the lass, gesturing toward her bruises and wrists.
At the repeated use of the name, Una felt the familiar small clutch of anxiety tighten beneath her ribs.Every time someone said it she heard a clock ticking.She thought of what would happen if any of these men discovered the truth – that Lady Fenella Lockhart was spending the summer in Edinburgh with her father, entirely unaware that her seamstress had spent the past day being kidnapped in her name.
What would Drunstan do with a woman worth nothing?
And worse – the thought she could not quite bring herself to examine directly – what would Cormac do?He had stood between her and danger twice now.He had put six men on the ground to keep her from being taken.But that protection extended only to Lady Fenella, daughter of a wealthy thane, a woman worth a great deal.Would it extend to Una Murray, who was worth precisely nothing?
She kept her face composed and her chin level, and concentrated very hard on looking like a woman of rank who found all of this deeply tiresome.
"I never trusted those fools to manage a task that required more than one working brain between them," Drunstan said.He looked at Cormac."And ye're what – a hired sword who happened across her?"
"Aye.And I'm willing to stay on and see the task through, for the right coin.I'll ensure she does nae receive so much as a scratch."
Drunstan considered him."I've seen enough to believe ye capable of that.Our patron's instructions were clear on the matter.She arrives unmarked, or the price drops."He turned his gaze to Una."Lady Fenella.My apologies for the unpleasantness.If ye'll come with my men—"
"She stays with me," Cormac said.
Drunstan stopped.
Una did not move so much as an inch.She stayed exactly where she was, one hand loosely holding the back of Cormac's plaid, and kept her expression composed.
