Callie trembled as she ran pell-mell through the streets. Her sides ached as she struggled to breathe.
“I can’t keep up,” Jamie wailed.
“You have to, sweeting. If we stop now, they’ll have us for sure.”
She didn’t dare tell him that the mob would most likely tear them apart in an effort to claim the twenty silver marks. ‘Twas a fortune the knight had offered them.
Jamie stumbled.
Callie turned around to help him up, but it was too late. The frenzied mob surrounded them instantly.
“I have them, milord!” a grimy man shouted as he grabbed her arm.
“Nay, ye don’t, ye ugly bugger, I have her.”
The cry went up from every direction as a thousand hands pulled at her, ripped her clothes and hair. Callie cried out
in pain, but no one seemed to care.
“Jamie!” She could neither see nor hear her brother through the crowd.
Then, out of nowhere, a huge black stallion appeared. The crowd scattered as the horse reared, flashing hooves and driving them away from her.
Her heart pounding, Callie looked up to see Lord Sin.
He brought his horse under control with the ease of a seasoned warrior. And when he extended his hand to her, she didn’t hesitate to accept it.
He pulled her up to sit before him and she quickly looked to see Jamie being rescued by an auburn-haired knight on a light gray horse. Breathing in relief, she crossed herself and whispered a quick thank you to the Lord and his saints.
But her relief didn’t last long as she became acutely aware of the man holding her. The strength of him surrounded her, making her strangely hot. English he might be, there was something about Lord Sin that she found greatly unnerving and appealing.
At a score-and-six in age, Callie was a far cry from an uninformed, young maid who knew nothing of the relationships between men and women. Even though she’d never been touched by a man, her married friends had seen her well-schooled in the mechanics of wifely duties. She’d always found the idea of what they described a bit messy and undignified. At least, until she had seen Lord Sin’s bare chest.
In that moment, her thoughts had taken a sharp turnaround.
For some reason, the thought of being so intimate with him seemed anything but disgusting or crude.
“It appears, milady, that you are ever out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
She blinked at his deep baritone as she dragged her thoughts away from their course and focused them on what was happening to her. “My uncle claims ‘tis a special talent I possess.”
Lord Sin smiled at that, causing a strange weakness to sweep through her. He was simply gorgeous when he smiled.
He wheeled his horse about and started for the castle.
“I don’t suppose I could bribe you into setting us free?” she asked hopefully.
“You know better.”
Her throat tightened as she blinked back tears at the harsh insistence in his voice. “All I want is to go home. Can you not understand that?”
A strange emotion darkened his eyes as if her words had pricked at some sad memory. “Aye, milady,” he said quietly. “I can well understand your feelings.”
“Then why can’t you let me go?”
“Because Henry needs you here to see to it your people leave his alone.”
“You mean to leave your people alone.”
