Leif unwound her hair and Alina backed awayfrom both of them.Behind him, Roark heard the scrape of Gare’sstool.
Leif stood at his full height and puffed hischest out.“How dare you tell me what to do,” he huffed.“I’m theson of a laird.”
“As am I,” Roark said, refusing to back down,not this time.Leif may have stood a head taller, but Roarkoutmuscled him by two stone at least.Still, he would try reasonbefore brute force.If they got into a fight over Alina, it couldspoil their plans in any number of ways.“Your father has commandedshe remain a virgin until her father has paid the ransom.I’m onlymaking sure his orders are followed.”
Leif snorted.“You’re only sore you can’ttake her maidenhead yourself.”
“True enough,” Roark admitted, surprisingLeif.“But not sore enough to go againstour,” he stressedthe word, “laird’s wishes.Besides,” he said, still speaking in theNorthern tongue so Gare wouldn’t understand what he said, “whatwould Jenny do if she found out?She’d stop warming your bed, nodoubt.”
“It would almost be worth it,” Leif grumbled,“to knock the Northern bitch down a notch or three.”He slappedRoark on the shoulder, their standoff forgotten.“No matter,” hesaid in the Green Isles tongue.“She’ll get her comeuppance soonenough.So, what shall I tell my father about the foal?”
“Tell him the foal is improving, but is notout of danger yet.We’ll likely be here, the three of us,” he said,indicating Gare, “the night through tending and walking him.”
***
Alina rode Etain at an easy trot around thepaddock under a horned moon.It felt good to be on a horse’s backagain, even if it was in a fenced area in the middle of the night.She patted the mare’s arched neck.“Good girl,” she told thehigh-stepping, smooth-seated mare.“Thank you for letting me saddleand ride you.I promise you we’ll be racing over the countrysidesoon.”
It had been Roark’s idea for Alina to rideEtain in the paddock after they’d settled Ash and Smokey in theirpen for the night.Roark intended for Alina and the mare to be usedto each other when they rode for the ship at the southern port.He’d spiked the guard’s ale with a few drops of White Milk he’dadmitted to buying to drug Alina, and hadn’t needed to use.He’dused a much more potent drug: himself.All he’d had to do was talkto her and smile at her, and mesmerize her with those rain eyes ofhis, and she’d fallen right into his trap.
“She’s really settled under your care,” Roarksaid as he rode Artur alongside them.“Too bad theSeaMaidenisn’t set up to transport horses or you could take herwith you.”
“My mother would fall in love with her.She’ssuch an elegant, high-spirited horse.Aren’t you, my faeriegirl?”
Etain nickered and Roark chuckled.“Keep thisup, and she’ll swim after you all the way to Sea Ridge.”
“I’ll be sorry to bid her farewell,” Alinasaid.She gave Roark a bittersweet smile.“And others.”She triedto read his expression, but there was no moon to aid her.“At leastshe’ll have you and Gare to look after her.”
Roark said nothing.
“What will happen to you and Gare when it’sdiscovered you helped me escape?”
“If it works out as planned, nobody except uswill know Gare was involved.After you’re safely away, I’ll go tomy family and seek their protection.Unfortunately for Etain,she’ll have to be returned to Roger as a peace offering.”
“You’ll seek your family’s protection,” Alinasaid.“Are they likely to give it?”
Roark shrugged.“As likely as not.”
“And your betrothal to Gwyneth?”
“If I’m lucky, our betrothal will bebroken.”
“Along with your family’s alliance withRoger?”
“Most likely.”
“Fucking Roger,” Alina spat.“I would’ve keptmy word and stayed for my family to ransom me.But now?I cannotand will not stay.I will not let myself be sold into slavery.”
“I know,” Roark said.“Nor would I ever letthat happen to you.”
“I only wish you and your family hadn’t beendragged into this.”
“My family put themselves into it when theymade an alliance with Roger,” he said, sounding more bitter thanshe’d ever heard him.“They put me into it when they sent me to aman of his ilk and betrothed me to his daughter for theirbenefit.”
Alina moved Etain alongside Artur and laidher hand on Roark’s arm.“I am sorry for you.You’re a good man, inspite of who raised you.You deserve better.”
He laid his hand over hers and gave it agentle squeeze.“I used to tell myself my feelings and happinessdidn’t matter.It was worth sacrificing for the good of my familyand Roger’s, and all the people whose livelihoods depended on ouralliance.”
“And now you’ll sacrifice it all for me.”Alina couldn’t let him do it.She couldn’t be the reason so manypeople’s lives were destroyed.She’d stick to her original plan andescape on her own, keeping him and Gare out of it.
