“Roark, my lad.”His uncle pulled him in andclapped him on the back.“It’s glad I am to see you.”He peeredaround Roark.“Where’s your lady friend?”
Roark motioned for Alina to come out frombehind the tree.“I take it Roger’s men have been here, since youknow about her and came looking for us.”
“Four of them showed up at the keepyesterday.Said you and she were wanted for murdering the laird’sson.”
Alina stepped up to Roark’s side and he puthis arm around her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
“Uncle Bryce, this is Princess Alina,daughter of King Jerrik and Queen Alyssa of Sea Ridge in theNorthlands.Alina, this is my uncle, Bryce MacKay, my mother’scousin and laird of Yew Tree Keep.”
“It’s an honor to meet you, Laird Bryce,”Alina said as he looked her up and down.
“The honor’s mine, Princess,” Bryce said, andthen he grinned at Roark.“I ken why you chose her over that spoiltbrat your father sent you away for.Now, how about you tell me yourside of this story and I tell you what I know, and we figure outhow to get you two safely away to wherever it is you’re going.”
Roark was getting good at distilling his andAlina’s story down to the pertinent facts, which Bryce listened towithout comment.Then he told them what Roger’s men had told him,which was what they’d told Roark’s parents, with a new twist.They’d said that Alina was a servant girl who’d lured Leif into thestables with the promise of a quick rut, where Roark was lying inwait and had slain Leif.
“Even if that were anywhere near to thetruth,” Roark said, “how would Roger know?Leif couldn’t have toldhim if he was already dead.”
“Roger’s manservant, Craig, swears he heardAlina invite Leif into the stables.Says he saw them go intogether, but only you and she came out.”
“Craig, whose daughter, Jenny, is carryingLeif’s bastard.”Roark met Alina’s gaze.“I think we know who stuckthe scythe into Leif’s chest.”
“It could verra well be this Craig,” Brycesaid.“But unless you somehow get him to confess, you two are onthe hook for this.Roger’s hired extra men searching for you andoffering a reward to whoever brings you back to him, alive.Thefour who came here said they were splitting up.Two’ll be headingwest and the other two’ll be taking the inland road bordering theMounths.”
Roark rubbed his jaw and spit.“Damnation.Wewere planning on taking the inland road around the Mounths.”
“What do we do now?”Alina asked.“Is thereanother way around?”
“Not around,” Roark told Alina.“Over.We cutdue north, across the Mounths.”
“The Mounths are a wild, tough crossing,”Bryce said.“Not for the timid or the frail.”
“Good thing I’m neither then,” Alina said.“I’m a Northland woman born and bred.What you call mountains wecall hills.”
Bryce raised his bushy red brows atRoark.
“I’ve seen the mountains of the Northlands,”Roark said.“Ours are trifling hills compared to theirs.”
“Well then.”Bryce knelt and opened the packhe’d brought.“Here’s some food and supplies for your leisurelytrek across our trifling hills.”He pulled out a loaf of bread, awheel of cheese, and a skin of wine.“Who else knows you came thisway?”
“My mother and Logan.My father’s takenRoger’s side on this.”
“I coulda guessed as much,” Bryce grumbled.He stood and clasped Roark’s arm.“Best keep your ears open andyour eyes peeled, lad.”He winked at Alina.“You’re in good hands,Princess,” he told her.“From what I’ve seen, so are you,” he toldRoark.He slapped Roark on the back and started to walk back intothe night’s shadows.“If anyone else comes looking for you, I’ll besure to send them in a westerly direction, unless of course it’ssome Northman king.”
“You look like your uncle,” Alina told Roarkas he packed away the new supplies.“You have his coloring and hiseyes.”
“Aye.My mother always said I took more aftermy Uncle Bryce than my father, in looks and temperament.”
“Would he protect you from Roger, after I’mgone?”
Roark hadn’t even considered this.“Hewould,” he said, and knew it to be true.“But I can’t ask that ofhim.”
“You could return to Sea Ridge with me,” shesaid.
Roark held her gaze, soft and pleading.“Evenif your father didn’t kill me for my part in abducting you, I haveto return to my family to try to make things right between them andRoger’s.”Her gaze dropped, and Roark cupped her chin and gentlyraised it.“If it were my choice alone, I would sail with you in aheartbeat, Ali girl.But here in this world, there are consequencesand repercussions for what we do, what we’ve done.I have to stayhere and deal with mine.”
“I understand,” she said, blinking backtears.“I do.Your sense of honor is one of the things I respectand lo— regard about you.”
***
