Sin sheathed his sword, then pulled out his dagger to cut away the gag.
“It isn’t what you were thinking,” Simon said, “but now it is.”
“What the devil happened?” Sin set about cutting him free of the lump and bed.
Simon’s face flushed with anger. “She told me she had woman troubles, then when I came to check on her to see if I needed to fetch a physician, she blew some witch’s brew into my eyes.”
“Why are you wet?”
“After they tied me down, the wench tried to drown me.”
Sin would have laughed had he not been trying to decide who to strangle first, Caledonia or Simon.
“I should leave you tied up here.”
“If it’ll keep me safe from that she-witch, then please do so.”
Sin cut the last rope. “Any idea where she was bound for?”
“None whatsoever.”
“How long since she fled?”
“At least an hour.”
Sin cursed. With that amount of time, she could be anywhere in London.
Caledonia paused as she glanced around the city streets. The afternoon crowd that bustled in between the large buildings was fairly thick. None of them should recognize her or Jamie.
With her brother’s hand held tightly in hers, she wended her way north toward an inn where she remembered stopping on her way into London. The keeper had owned a stable with horses to be bought. If she could get to those horses, she intended buy one for each of them with the little bit of coin she had managed to hide from Henry. He’d had no idea when he’d taken her that she’d possessed a small fortune in her bodice.
Once they were safely away from the inn, they would don the robes of a leper and no one, not even thieves, would dare stop them then.
They would be home in no time.
“Are we to walk all the way to Scotland?” Jamie asked.
Callie smiled. “Just a little farther, sweeting.”
“But my legs are so tired, Callie. Can we not stop for a rest? Just a little one? A minute or two before my legs fall off and then I’ll never be able to run again.”
She didn’t dare stop. Not when they were so close to finally leaving this place behind.
Lifting Jamie up in her arms, she held him to her side and continued on. “Och, lad, you’ve gotten heavy.” She skirted women carrying baskets of market goods. “Why I remember when you scarce weighed as much as a loaf of bread.”
“Did Da sing to me then?”
Callie’s heart clenched at his question. Poor Jamie barely remembered their father, who had died almost three years ago. “Aye,” she said, squeezing him. “He sang to you every night when your mother would put you to bed.”
“Was he a big man like Dermot?”
Callie smiled at the mention of their brother. At ten-and-six, Dermot stood a good three inches taller than she. “Bigger than Dermot.” Indeed, her father was closer to Lord Sin’s height.
“Do you think he’ll be happy to see my mother while he’s in heaven with yours?”
Callie arched a brow at the odd question. “Mercy, imp, wherever do you think up these questions?”
“Well, I was just wondering. One of the king’s knights told me that poor servants can’t go to heaven, only noble people can. I was thinking then that God wouldn’t want my mother there with yours.”
