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“About what…?”
But before I could finish the sentence, he’d slipped the old tether over my wrists again and pulled it tight.
“At least you get to ride this time.”
I gaped in horror as the bottom seemed to drop out of my stomach. “You’re taking me back to Latran?”
“That would hardly be sensible. But your sister in Gaunt—Queen Sylvia is it?—she’s willing to pay even more for you. And a man has to eat. Now, you remember the rules right? Be a good girl and do as you’re told.”
Perhaps I would’ve fought back if I hadn’t been in a sort of a daze. I simply couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe that after everything, he’d betrayed me so easily, and, it seemed, had always intended to do so.Thiswas why he’d rescued us. So, he could get paid by both my sisters.
Yet, he freed you before,I thought to myself.Perhaps this is just another instance of him collecting the bounty for you both and then he’ll free you again?
Having secured me on Autumn’s back, Devon secured Uther too, who looked on with a sort of mild interest.
Devon looked back at me. “For what it’s worth, which I acknowledge is probably not much, Iamsorry.”
“I hate you,” I hissed back, even as that stupid voice in the back of my head still begged me to trust him—still made the case for him that he was a good man, just crippled by circumstances. But that he wouldn’t sell us—he’d protect us.
“That’s fair enough,” nodded Devon, and there was contrition on his face. Once again, it wasn’t that he particularly wanted to do this. It was just business.
Chapter Ten
The River Rapids
There were no words for the fury that boiled inside me as we traveled.
I was angry at Uther for needing to be rescued, I was angry at myself for falling for our captor, but above all, I was furious with that captor for betraying us.
Just as I’d thought Devon had true feelings for me, just as I was about to tell him how those feelings were reciprocated, then he betrayed me completely as if I didn’t matter to him at all. Was it all just lies? Had he ever meant any of his kind words to me? But then, there hadn’t been much to mean; it had all been in my head, my feelings for him reflecting back and making me hope. And the worst of it was that, even now, I caught myself making excuses for the bastard! Some little part of me still wanted to believe that he was a genuinely good person just caught in bad circumstances and that he’d never allow us to die at my sister’s hands.
How weak I was. How stupid.
I’d hoped that my stubborn silence would make him feel guilty, but even as I refused to speak to him or answer his questions, he just shrugged and allowed my rage to roll off him like water off a duck’s back. He had no morals, no conscience. There was no way to wound him when there was nothing there to wound.
Back at Martha’s croft, I’d let myself believe that this man might care for me, now I knew that he cared about nothing. Certainly not me.
“You know the rules.” Though he was a little more stretched than before, keeping an eye on two of us this time, Devon wasn’t about to start trusting me now, and still took precautions when I went to bathe. “Try anything and I’ll warm your seat so you’ll be begging me to walk just to keep your ass out of the saddle.”
I said nothing. I just glared at him. I hated him.
Devon smiled. “Bear in mind that if I wanted to hear your voice, I could simply put you across my knee and soon it would be echoing off the hilltops. You don’t have to smile, you don’t have to like me, but you could have worse captors.”
“Itrustedyou.”
It was hard to say if my words had any effect but he shrugged.
“Point taken.”
Then he walked away, still holding one end of my tether.
He might have intimidated the other mercenaries and been a great fighter, but Devon was still human, he had to sleep. That meant that if I could get free, then I could rescue Uther while Devon slept. All I had to do was get free, and that was proving to be more difficult than I hoped.
Devon had chosen this part of the river for me to bathe with good reason. Firstly, the land around presented nothing in the way of cover, so if I were to run, I would have nowhere to hide. Secondly, to either side of this relatively calm section, the river rushed over rocks, building into rapids. It was dangerous, and there was no guaranteed escape this way.
But I’d reached a point where the danger was worth the risk. I wouldn’t be his prisoner any longer and I certainly wasn’t going to end up in Sylvia’s dungeon. Perhaps my decisions were being made more by personal anger than common sense, but I was long past rational thinking.
“Tug the rope twice!” Devon called.
