“Myrna.”
Roark gently ran the backs of his knucklesdown her tender cheek.“I’m sorry,” he said.“Though not thatsurprised.Myrna’s disappointments in her life and marriage havesoured her.Her soul is as withered and dry as a raisin.”
“I can handle Myrna and Lynette and whatevervenom they spew at me,” Alina said.She glanced around, making surethere was no one close by listening.“What bothers me is somethingMyrna said and echoed Roger’s words last night.In Green Islestongue she said her only regret was that she wouldn’t be able tosee my parents’ faces when they found out what really happened tome.That it would be a poor trade, a daughter for two sons.”Sheheld Roark’s intent gaze.“Why would she want to see my parents’faces?Why did she say it in Green Isles tongue, thinking Iwouldn’t understand her?”
“I don’t know,” Roark said.“Yet.”
Alina shook her head.“Something’s wrong.Roger said plans change.What’s he up to?”
“Everything’s wrong,” Roark rumbled.Heclamped his jaw, rubbed his beard, and toed the ground with hisboot.“I know this is a big ask, especially after my part inbringing you here, but I want you to continue acting the good,submissive prisoner waiting to be ransomed, and I swear to you,I’ll find out what’s really going on.”
“And then what?”
“Then we’ll know what we’re dealing with andwhat to do about it.”
“Why?”
Roark grinned.“Why what, my lady owl?”
“Why are you helping me?”
Roark cocked his head at her, stepped in toher so their backs were facing Peg and the manor house, lifted herhand in his, and kissed the backs of her fingers.“Because.”
***
Roark tied off Artur in a copse of oak at theedge of the port town and focused his spyglass on the docks wherethe contents ofThe Rover’s hold were being loaded by thecrew onto a wagon bound for North Shore Keep under CaptainMurtaugh’s supervision.
Kerwin and Kerry had no great love or loyaltyto Roger.If anyone would tell Roark what he wanted to know, hefigured it’d be them.He’d simply have to keep his eyes and earsopen for a chance at finding them alone, away from Murtaugh orGall, or anyone else who could be Roger’s spy.The man was one ofthe most untrusting, suspicious people Roark had ever known, and hewas beginning to see why.It was looking more and more like his andhis family’s lives here were built on lies large and small.
Too many things had been said and done toerode what little trust Roark had put in Roger’s word to beginwith, and he was finding it harder and harder to believe anythingRoger said about the whole sordid mess.
Roark had seen, heard, and borne witness tohow the city of Sea Ridge thrived and prospered under King Jerrikand Queen Alyssa.After meeting Alina and her family, he was moreinclined to believe her version of how Roger and Donald had beenbanished.In truth, he was more inclined to believe her aboutanything, and not only because she filled his thoughts and dreamsday and night.
“Come on, Artur.”He untied the stallion,jumped onto his saddle, and urged the horse into an easy gallop.“You and I could both use a good run.”
He was settling Artur back in his stall whenhe heard the stable hands discussing what to do with a foal thathad been born to a first-time mother four days ago and wasn’tgetting the milk it needed from its skittish dam.
“I wish old Lloyd were here,” the newer,younger hand named Fergus said about the stablemaster who’d leftagainst Roger’s wishes to tend to his ailing mother right beforeThe Roverhad sailed for Sea Ridge.“He’d know what todo.”
“Aye, ’cept the laird’d have yer head if youwent to Lloyd about it,” Gare, the older hand, said.“I know someof what to do, but old Lloyd, he kept his potions to hisself andswore he’d take them to his grave afore he let the laird have useof them.”
Roark stepped out of Artur’s stall and overto the brooding pen where a long-legged, flaxen-maned, chestnutmare Roger had bought specifically as a broodmare, intending tosell her foals to other rich lairds and their ladies as saddlehorses, stood pressed against one wall.Her ash-grey foal, its ribsvisible beneath its dull coat, lay prone in the stall.
“I may be able to help you,” he told thefrowning men.
Walking from the stable to the manor house,considering how to phrase his request so that Roger would agreewith it, a flash of blue at the edge of the orchard caught Roark’seye.It was Gwyneth in a blue skirt holding hands with Munroe as hepulled her deeper into the cover of the trees.Roark snorted andshook his head.
Not that he cared one whit that his betrothedwas stepping off into the bushes and doing who knew what withanother man, but they were so obvious about it.It was as badlykept a secret as the fact that Leif was sleeping with Jenny.
He went to Roger’s private chambers andknocked on the closed door.
“Who is it?”Roger called out.
“Roark.I need to talk to you about Etain’sfoal.”
“Enter.”
Roark stepped into the room and stopped cold.He’d interrupted a meeting with Roger, Donald, and Leif.A meetinghe hadn’t been asked to attend.
