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She belonged here, he thought again.

She belonged with him.

Chapter 25

“I’m going to London.”

Neill made the announcement at supper, waiting for his brother’s censure. Two days had passed since his return from Edinburgh. Two days of keeping himself from Kathryn, knowing they were a heartbeat away from the kind of encounter that could not be undone.

For as much as they belonged together, he would not take her virginity until he had freed himself from his obligation. His brother’s words continued to haunt him.

Kenshire. Bristol. Brockburg. Clave. We will all be affected by your choice.

Neill had been taught to be loyal, a king’s man, and yet it infuriated him that Edward had not removed Caxton long ago, without his intervention. As always, the north was treated as a distant concern when compared with the south. The monarch had more interest in France than he did in the top half of his country.

“To court?” Sara asked.

“Aye.”

He chanced a look at Kathryn, who sat beside Sara. He hadn’t protested at the revised seating arrangements, which bore his brother’s stamp—he, next to his brother and achingly far from Kathryn. Being close to her reminded Neill the discipline he’d worked for so long to cultivate was a mere illusion.

“For all that we’ve discussed the alternatives,” Neill said, “there is only one way to change course, one person who can stay this marriage but also remove Caxton.”

“What will you say to Edward?” Kathryn and Sara exchanged glances as Sara asked that question. The two women had become even closer in recent weeks, as she had with Neill’s young nephews, so much so that the idea of Kathryn leaving Kenshire had become absurd. He’d asked Geoffrey that very question the night before. Would he have Neill take her back to The Wild Boar on his way to court to marry a woman he’d never met?

Even Geoffrey had reluctantly agreed that Kenshire suited her—and that his wife and sons would likely murder him if he sent her away.

“I will ask him to reconsider the conditions of his reward.”

Geoffrey made a sound that could be interpreted only one way. And though Neill tended to agree—the king would hardly lend him a sympathetic ear—he had no other choice. He’d confronted one monarch, and now he must face the other.

“I will offer to compensate her family for their troubles.”

None spoke for some time.

The somber mood did not improve all night, each of them contemplating Edward’s response. They all knew the king was unlikely to grant his request.

And what would happen then?

He asked himself that question over and over again over the course of a mostly sleepless night. Neill hadn’t told his brother or Kathryn he planned to leave right away. He knew she would want to come, but it was much too dangerous. So when he strode into the hall, prepared to do just that, he was surprised to see Kathryn.

She stood with Faye at the hall’s entrance as those who had attended mass walked by them, ready to break their fast. “I am coming with you,” she said as he approached her.

“No.”

He pulled her to the side, not liking the resolve he saw on her face.

“Even if there is no murderer there, at court, it would serve only to instigate the king. And the traveling. Kathryn, you cannot. ’Tis not safe.”

Head held high, Kathryn stared him straight in the eyes but did not say a word. This was not the same maid who had served him at The Wild Boar, and Neill knew even as he spoke his argument was lost.

Even so, he tried.

“He could suspect you are the reason for my request. If we travel together—”

“I will not go to court but will stay in London, with an escort.”

“No.”