Page 9 of Highland Spy

Not only had Ariana agreed, but he’d also already delivered her into Sylvi’s capable hands.

He tried not to think of how frightened she’d looked despite her composure. Her chest had expanded and fallen with the barely contained rapid breath of a snared rabbit, and she’d twisted her hands into the fabric of her skirts. Doubtless so he wouldn’t see how they trembled.

But it was true. If he’d caught her, someone else would too, eventually.

At least the life he offered was better than most for a disgraced woman who cheated at cards.

That was what he told himself, to ease the tightness burning like hellfire in his chest.

Delilah appeared at his side from the shadows, exactly as planned.

She lifted her brows in silent question.

“Aye, she’s joining us,” he said.

“I’ve found another as well,” Delilah said. “She’s already with Sylvi. I discovered the woman by accident. She was threatening the life of a duke who tried to take more than she was willing to offer.”

Another girl.

They didn’t need any more. Hell, his soul was burdened by the ones he had already.

“She wouldn’t have had anywhere else to go if I didn’t encourage her to join us.” Delilah spoke quickly, as if reading his hesitation. She picked at her thumbnail.

“What else?” he probed.

“Sylvi and the new girls will have to go to Scotland ahead of us.” Her answer tugged his heart into his stomach.

There was only one reason he would be delayed from leaving. “The king wishes to see me.”

She nodded, her eyes wide, almost sorrowful in her rounded face. “I know sometimes that means you must stay in England longer.”

“Go on, then. Tell Sylvi to begin the journey to ensure the girl you found doesn’t get caught. We’ll travel faster than them on the return, and most likely arrive first.”

He’d never divulged what the king asked of him, but Delilah had worked with him long enough to notice the shift in his mood after such meetings.

And he did loathe his rare meetings with the king, when he received his next private task.

When he would report on his findings in Scotland and receive the slip of paper, a silent communication conveying the name of another he would be forced to kill.

Chapter 3

Exhaustion pulled Ariana forward in her saddle, making her sag against the hard, creaking leather. Snow-covered hills rose and fell over the course of their travels through an endless sea of white. A dull white when the night came, and a piercing white when the sun reflected off its pristine surface.

White. White. White.

And so cold it gnawed at her sanity and threatened to break her.

Still, she was far better off than poor Liv.

She glanced beside her, where a bit of copper hair showed from between the folds of a tightly wrapped plaid. A single hand extended from the rough wool, limp and white where the reins rested against delicate fingertips.

Ariana edged her horse closer and tensed her body to catch Liv should the other woman fall. It would not be the first time.

“Do you need to stop?” The warmth of Ariana’s breath passing over her lips was fleeting as she spoke, quickly replaced with the wet chill of late winter.

“So we can be spies now?” Liv slid her a bemused look.

It was a joke they’d shared. Neither one of them knew where in Scotland they were going, how they would be made into spies, or how any of it worked.