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In response, he watched her so carefully that Reina’s heartbeat quickened. He could not come through the bars, but he could reach out and grab her. Strangle her. Kill her.

Reina did not want to die. She made to move back when his hand did snake out to grab her wrist. She attempted to pull it away, cursing herself for a fool. But he did not let go.

“Be still,” he said. “And listen.”

He did not increase the pressure of his grip, which was already so tight she could not move. Tight, but not aggressive. As her breathing slowed, she realized it was more like the kind of grip someone might use out of concern.

I am such a fool. He is toying with me.

Yet, those eyes said otherwise. She found herself looking into them, waiting for his next words.

“I know Dennochbrook. Your true identity. And why your father would never allow you to speak with someone like me. Someone who knows what I am about to tell you. I’ll share the tale, but then you will let me out so that I might aid you in discovering the truth.”

“The truth? You said you would tell it to me. What games do you play, aside from attempting to get free from here?”

He ignored her last question. “The truth about your father. . . about whether or not he murdered your parents.”

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He let her go then, confident he’d held her attention long enough for her to at least hear his tale. She was becoming skittish, and Galien was afraid the lady would flee before hearing him out. He had no notion of how long it would be before the guard returned, before she was taken away, never to be seen again.

“There is a good reason your parents have kept you so sheltered, especially from my people.” He did not judge her for her judgements. Being the son of a Scots clan chief with an English mother, kin to an English family, had taught him to discover a man’s, or woman’s, character for himself, even when others did so without thought.

“No, no.”

She was not listening to him. Galien should not have been so blunt, perhaps. But that was the truth of it. It was just as likely her father was a murderer of innocents as he was not.

“Listen to me,” he said. “We’ve little time. You asked if I knew Dennochbrook, did you not?”

Her nostrils flared. “I was foolish to do so.”

“No,” he said earnestly, “you were not. When this,” he pointed to his heart, “tells you something, “’tis your duty to listen, lass. And listen well.”

“I cannot break you free in exchange for your story,” she said again.

“I give you the story for free. When you hear it and wish for me to guide you north to find the truth, I will gladly be of service,” he said, confident that if she’d made her way down here to speak to him, the lady could also find a way for them to escape.

“Go on then,” she prompted, showing the same fire as when she had first marched toward him, before he’d rattled her.

“I was a lad of five and have no memory of the actual event. But I know well that my father was called by his allies on a hue and cry across the border. The small village of Dennochbrook, under the protection of Clan Scott, had been razed, the livestock stolen.” Gripping the bars in front of him, his hands still bloodied, Galien continued. “None left alive.”

Her shoulders rose and fell as Lady Reina listened.

“There was but one witness, as all others were killed. A woman, a healer like your friend, who lived alone on the outskirts of the village. She claimed to have spied the raiding party thundering away from Dennochbrook as smoke rose over the hill from whence they came. Word of her tale spread, and after a time, many believed her most outrageous claim to be nothing more than legend.” He paused, watched her closely, and said, “The woman claimed after the riding party, and some time, had passed, two men followed dressed in the same unmarked garb. At first she could not discern why they fell so far behind the others, until she heard the baby cry. Looking more closely, she noticed one carried a wee babe in his arms.”

Lady Reina scoffed. “’Tis an unlikely tale, indeed. If the woman was close enough to the road to see these men, why did they not kill her too? And what English soldiers would bear no markings? How did she know, for that matter, they were English? Or that the men took that baby from the village?”

“I’ve no answer for the first, but your second question is easily answered. Even along the border, the murder of innocent woman and children is not tolerated. These Englishmen—for who else would commit such a crime?—would not want their identities known. And as to your last, I know not. Some agree with you that aye, Dennochbrook was destroyed, but the idea of English soldiers, or reivers, stealing a babe merits no mention. I tell it only because of your own tale. And your age, which would be the right one if you, indeed, were the missing babe of Dennochbrook.”

Galien was not sure what he expected, but certainly it was not for Lady Reina to glare at him, disbelief and anger simmering just below the surface, and then promptly turn away. He called to her as she stalked down the corridor, the light of her lantern swaying and growing dimmer and dimmer.

“Lady Reina?” he tried again, to no avail. Once again, he was alone. His slim glimmer of hope, dashed. He didn’t bother returning to his spot against the wall. Instead, Galien slumped again the cell bars, his chest constricting at a reality he needed to face.

There would be no escape from her. When Lord Anbarth returned, he would gloat with the prospect of delivering such a boon to his king. A prisoner that could lead Edward to his most coveted desire, if rumor were true. But Galien would not deliver Wallace. Instead, he would be precisely what his father warned him of: a man with “lofty ideals that serves no one,” because soon, he would be dead.

Like the other villagers at Dennochbrook, he’d always believed the babe to be real, his siblings teasing him for thinking it true. Any monster willing to kill an entire village of people, including women and children, would have no qualm to kidnap a babe. Maybe out of pity, or something more, he did not know. But for certain, Lady Reina was likely that babe. Though he did not blame the woman for her reluctance to admit it.

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