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“Yes?”
“Yer to come with me—I was sent up to fetch ye.”
Or apparently Evan had other plans for her.
She motioned forward, palm up. “Lead the way, little sir.”
He gave her a wide smile and turned around, his little legs quick through the corridors. He was a runner and she was surely slowing him down, for the way he kept looking over his shoulder to make sure she was still behind him.
Through four twisting corridors, he then sped them down the tight walls of a spiral stone staircase, his hand dragging along the well-worn stones that supported the middle of the staircase.
They emerged from the staircase on what she guessed was the main level—it was hard to discern as the view out the only skinny window in the nook they were in merely peeked at the vast forest that surrounded Whetland.
“Here, Miss Thomson.” After a few steps to his left, the boy grabbed the black iron ring of a heavy oak plank door and yanked on it, the hinges screeching against the movement. “Master is inside.” He waved her inward.
She smiled brightly at him, his enthusiasm at his task in fetching her infectious. “Thank you for your speedy service. You are a champion at getting us through the castle quickly.”
He grinned, and the spots where his skin showed on his face through the dirt turned red with the compliment. “Thank ye, Miss Thomson.” He bowed his head to her and turned and ran, disappearing back up into the staircase before she could blink.
A chuckle on her lips, she pushed the door open a pinch farther and walked into what looked to be a very tall room from this angle. Three steps into the room and she realized this was the great hall, though it was void of any furniture, just an odd pile of hay piled up high along the wall by where she entered.
Just as she turned to take in the rest of the hall, a flash of silver flew by her, sending instant pain into her arm.
With a scream, she grasped at the agony on her upper arm, turning toward the hay, confused at what had just happened.
An arrow.
An arrow embedded in the hay. A blasted arrow.
She glanced down at her arm, blood already seeping through her fingers that held the wound.
Spinning around, her look frantic, she found Gilroy standing at the far end of the great hall, a bow in his hand.
Still. Staring at her. No apology at his lips. No rushing forth to see if she was hurt.
He just stared.
The door to his left swung open and Evan charged into the room. He looked at Gilroy and then turned, finding her.
“Juliet!” His face crumpled, and in the next instant he was running, flying across the hall to her. By the time he reached her, a ferocious rage had taken over his eyes.
“Juliet, what the hell happened—the blood?” His hand went over her bloody fingers, pulling her grip from the slice across her arm as he searched for the source of the blood. He looked from the wound across her upper arm to her face. “What happened?”
“I…I…” She blinked hard with a slight shake of her head, trying to make her mind catch up to what had just happened.
“Your betrothed walked into the room just as I let an arrow loose.” Gilroy’s voice echoed across the cavernous expanse of the great hall. “She could’ve gotten herself killed if she’d had a longer stride.”
“What the hell were you thinking—walking into the blasted practice area?” Evan’s hand clamped over the slash on her arm and he threw his other arm behind her, dragging her toward the door she’d come in and out into the corridor.
“I—I didn’t know what was in the there—I thought you were in there.”
His feet didn’t stop and he pulled her down a long corridor, took a left, and then ushered her into the library.
“What is it?” At his chair by the fireplace, Evan’s grandfather looked up from the book in his lap. “What is the matter with the lass?”
“I don’t know yet.” He plopped her down onto a wooden chair by one of the long tables and looked down at her. “Don’t move.”
Evan disappeared out the door of the library, only to reappear less than a minute later with a white linen shirt he was biting the edge of, tearing a strip from it. By then the earl had managed to gain his feet with a wheeze, and had grabbed his cane and started to shuffle across the room toward her.
