Chapter Seven
Christian led the way down the hillside, away from the chateau. He was following the tracks left by Marcus and Sage, but he kept glancing back toward the tunnel.
William de Burgh was working with those men chasing Willow. Anxiety churned his stomach. Traitor, he thought with a lift of his lip. He couldn’t get over it. He and de Burgh had been friends for a long time. Why would de Burgh betray him?
The book. It was apparent de Burgh was after the book. He must have tracked Christian to the chateau with whoever he was working with.
Christian shook his head, disgusted. First, the cursed men ambushed him at the inn. He had suspicions they were employed by the king or one of his lackeys. Perhaps even his father. Then, Marcus. And now, de Burgh. All of them after one book. How had he allowed it to be stolen from him?
“This way,” Willow called.
Christian gazed at her. She stood with her head down, studying the ground. Strands of blonde hair had come free of her braid and were gently blowing about her head like tiny golden threads. She was a distraction. The kiss and taking the book.
She headed off in a more treacherous direction, a steeper incline.
He shook his head. “There are footprints here.”
She raised those beautiful eyes to him. “If I knew I would be followed, I would make the easy way appear to be the way I went.”
Distraction, Christian reminded himself. It was a distraction. He returned to her and inspected the ground. “Are you sure?”
Willow held up a small piece of parchment. “I bet it killed Sage to tear a piece from the book.”
He lifted his eyebrows in surprise and nodded, grateful Sage had the sense to leave them a trail. They would find her. “Why were those men chasing you?”
“Men are always chasing me,” she answered nonchalantly, scanning the grassy ground.
“Why were those men, in particular, chasing you?”
“Brother Nicolas gave me a book, and they wanted it.”
Christian scowled and grabbed her wrist. “Did you steal it?”
She pulled away, offended. “No. He gave it to me.”
“You can’t read. Why would he give you a book?”
She shrugged. “He said it was a book of maps. I don’t know why he gave it to me. But the soldiers saw me with it and demanded I hand it over to them.” She dipped her head and stared at him with rebellious eyes. “You know how I don’t like to be ordered.”
Another book? Did de Burgh know more than he had told Christian? It couldn’t be the book Marcus and Sage had. Did the soldiers believe Willow hadthatbook?
A spear of white lightning forked through a wall of dark clouds. They had to hurry.
Willow headed down the hill, tracking the path to the edge of a forest. That was when she noticed horse prints in the dusty dirt. Marcus had a horse waiting for him.
Desperate, Willow stared at the road in the direction the tracks led.
Lightning flashed through the sky. They would lose their trail if it rained.
She looked desperately at Christian. His brow furrowed in concern, but his gaze was on the hill they had just came from. Was he expecting the black-armored knight chasing her to follow them?
Christian started down the road, his stride large and quick. Willow hurried after him.
They hadn’t gone far when they saw an elderly merchant standing next to a cart. He wore a brown cotton tunic and breeches with a hole in the knee. “Hail, good sir!” he greeted.
Willow stopped, as did Christian beside her.
“Storm’s a’comin’,” he said, indicating the dark clouds hovering over the town in the distance.
