Alan looked alert, as if scanning his surroundings. Annista, glancing up into his face, saw the red dawn light reflected in his eyes.
“This way,” he decided, and rode on.
Annista grew nervous. So determined had she been to accompany him so he should not go alone, she hadn’t given sufficient thought to the rest of it. What would happen if they did encounter Evan? Just the two of them and that madman, perhaps in some quiet place. Alan already injured. Could she defend him?
She had her knife, aye, but had she the courage?
Chapter Thirty-Five
A multitude of worries pummeled Alan’s mind as the morning grew stronger around them, the angry red that lit the bellies of the clouds fading to pink and then lurid-gray. Worry for his father and those others at home, should Evan return while he was gone. Regret that he had brought Annista with him, thereby exposing her to danger. Uncertainty over what might happen if he failed to find his brother. Or if he did.
Annista felt tense, cuddled against his body in the saddle, so close her back pressed into his chest. Should he have insisted she stay back at the manor? But surely she was as safe here with him as she would be there, should Evan slip into the building and perhaps up to her chamber.
Evan knew all the ways in, knew every corridor and stairway.
By any road, he wanted her with him, he did—for better or worse.
She spoke hesitantly as the sky began to clear above them, the stubborn rain clouds moving out at last.
“How far d’ye think Evan could get on foot?”
“Far,” he answered without thinking. “He has a prodigious strength, always did.”
“D’ye think once he tramps far and gets wet enough, hungry enough, he will turn for home?”
“I do no’ ken. He has his deeds at Duncan’s behind him now. On the other hand, he has always returned home before. Eventually.”
The true question was, what would happen if Evan did return home? Would it be like every other time in the past, when Father had welcomed him, if not with open arms but with an acknowledgement that yes, this was his son and heir?
Had anything changed?
Well, if he were honest, some things had. Father had introduced him to the earls. Granted, it had been in Evan’s absence, but still it held some significance.
And—he had Annista now.
His arms tightened around her involuntarily. Annista—well, she made up for quite a few things. The slights of the past, the repeated instances of disregard. Evan’s unstinting cruelties. He had Annista in his life and in his bed, which compensated for an untold number of things.
What if he had refused to wed her, and missed out on it all?
“Wha’ is it?” She turned her head to peer into his face, her eyes clear in the morning light. “Wha’ is amiss?”
“Naught.” Since her lips were right there and available to him, he kissed her quick and fierce.
She gasped. “Wha’ was that for?”
Just because ye are there. And because—well, I believe that I love ye.
But he did not say that. Afraid she might laugh or scoff or—
“Just for courage,” he said instead.
****
The hedgerows dripped with wet and the birds soared into the sky at their approach. The hilltops lay capped in mist even after the clouds pulled away, and the air remained chill.
Alan raked his mind for hiding places that might not have been searched yet, or should be checked again. When they arrived at the first of these, a ruined cottage, he halted Chieftain at the rusted gate and bade Annista wait with their mount.
“Nay,” she replied as he should have expected she would, and slid from the back of the tall, patient horse.
