Hall remounted his horse and set out, Jamesy’s words ringing in his ears. He, too, had been praying for that outcome since the moment he’d found Bridget missing from their camp.
Thirty-one
HOW HARD COULDit possibly be to find one secret entrance?
Brie crouched against the rock outcropping, studying what she could see of Tordenet’s long protective wall. Though she’d spent several days at the castle when she’d been here before, she’d never seen it from this angle.
Now she wished she’d taken the opportunity to walk back here. It would have made life so much easier. But wishing for the impossible only wasted time. Her challenge at hand was to figure out how she was going to get inside.
Between the rocky coast where she hid and the castle wall there lay a wide expanse of open ground. She could hardly expect to make her way across that area unseen if Torquil had posted guards on the wall walk. And surely, he had. It was the first thing she would have done if she were walled inside that fortress.
Squinting up into the sunlight, she tried to catch sight of any movement along the top of the wall walk, but it was useless. Either no one was there or the outer wall was simply too high for her to see movement beyond.
For the second time since she’d started her surveillance, water lapped up onto her feet and she scrambled to higher ground, cursing the icy cold that clung to her.
There were a few crevices large enough for her to wedge herself into, but the tide was on the rise and she had no idea how high the water might end up. Having wet feet in this weather was bad enough. The thought of a full-body dunk in those waters was enough to send her inching farther up the rocky ledge.
She could see no other course but to wait for night to fall before she crossed to the wall. How she would locate the hidden entrance without light, she didn’t know, but she had no other reasonable choice. Any attempt to cross now would make her an easy target and end her quest before she’d even begun.
The last thing she could afford was to be captured with the Sword of the Ancients in her possession. What a gift that would be to Torquil.
It would be better now to work her way back through the rocks along the shore and into the trees beyond, where she’d left her horse. Remaining here with the wind and the frozen spray beating at her body was hardly the sensible thing to do.
With her boots freezing over, thanks to the dousing they’d taken, the trip back to her horse was slow going. She lost her footing more than once before she traded the rocky cover for the protection of shrubs and brush and, finally, the trees.
She had a long, cold wait ahead of her this day, with little means of warming herself. She would gladly have given all she owned for even a small fire.
An involuntary snort of laughter escaped her, startling her horse. She glanced over to where her animal waited for her, his ears pricked up in alert apprehension.
“Easy,” she said under her breath. She doubted the sound had carried to the castle walls, but she had no desire to test her theory.
She needed to use more caution in the noise she made. Turning back, she leaned against one of the trees, peering out to study the castle wall and wait.
In spite of her discomfort, the idea of giving all she owned for anything, let alone a fire, still amused her. She owned so few items that if she bundled them all together in one place and set fire to the lot of them, she’d likely still be cold out here.
Possessions had never had any importance to her. She’d never cared one bit for the things that others coveted. Her bow and her horse were all that had ever mattered.
She suspected the idea of owning things was only on her mind now because of Hall. Because of the time she’d spent in wondering if her life might have turned out differently if she had wealth. If she ownedthings,perhaps then he would have wanted her enough to—
No! She balled up a fist and pounded it against the cold bark of the tree. Wandering down this path accomplished nothing. He had proven himself her friend, and that was all she could expect from him. He’d been honest with her from the first about what he would do.
Wishing and wanting only made her weak.
Her mind could be put to much better use trying to discover a way to find the hidden opening once she reached the castle wall.
What would Hall do if he were here? If she couldn’t stop thinkingabouthim, maybe she could try thinkinglikehim. If he were here, he might—
A big hand slipped over her mouth and tightened, forcing her back against an equally big body.
HE’D FOUND HER!
An overwhelming emotion that Hall refused to name filled his chest. It washed over him in a great wave, leaving his legs weak and trembling. Torn between a desire to crush Bridget in his arms and the urge to yell at her for her stupidity in having run off without him, he chose to resist both temptations.
He couldn’t afford to startle her and risk a scream that might alert the whole castle, so he opted for the only action that seemed reasonable.
Her horse sensed his presence before she did, and he stilled when she turned to murmur comfort to the animal. Nothing to be gained in giving her a fright if she mistook him for one of Fenrir’s men.
Moving stealthily forward, he made his way through the trees to a point where he was close enough to reach out and slip his hand over her mouth to prevent the scream he feared. Or at the very least, stifle one should it come.
