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“Tell us what?” Tomas asked.
Lachlan helped Tarley onto the horse, then climbed up behind her.
“We’re betrothed,” Tarley said.
“What?” Auri exclaimed.
“Wait!” Scarlett rushed forward and grabbed the bridle. “Look at me,” she demanded, her eyes assessing Tarley shrewdly.
“What is it?” Tarley asked, confusion shaking her voice.
Scarlett grabbed Tarley’s right hand and pushed up her sleeve. “This was here this morning—it’s done?” Scarlett’s gray eyes bounced between them.
“What is it?” Lachlan asked, confused by what was happening and even more disturbed he couldn’t seem to track it.
“Oh my stars,” Auri said. “Like mine.” She held up her wrist.
Tarley was still in front of him, the shock apparent in the tension of her shoulders. “Oh.” She grasped her wrist and looked around, then held it up for Lachlan to see, twisting in front of him. “My ribbon. It’s gone. I lost it.” She looked at her mother. “I refuse to stay in the cottage.”
“I’ll get you another one,” he said, taking hold of the reins.
“You don’t understand,” Scarlett cried, panic in her tone and written on her face.
“This should be interesting,” Nixus said from somewhere in the mix of people.
Scarlett turned to Tomas. “She’s exposed,” she said, clinging to the horse. “If she leaves here. He’ll come for her–”
“He?” Nixus’s voice captured Lachlan’s concern.
“What?” Tarley snapped. “Who?”
Auri grasped Scarlett’s shoulders. “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling us?”
But rather than answer Auri’s questions, Scarlett burst into tears and turned into Tomas’s embrace. “You need to tell them. You’ve done your best,” he murmured. “They’re grown, now.”
“But it will change everything–”
All the Fareview children exchanged glances, and Auri moved next to Nixus, who wrapped an arm around her. “You were right,” she said.
“I usually am, Auri,” he said.
Lachlan didn’t understand what was happening, but he couldn’t focus on it, not just then. “Would you like to stay, Tarley?” he asked. “I understand. I just can’t–” He paused, not wanting to leave her, but knowing that whatever this was with her family was important. “I need to go. I can–”
“I’m coming with you,” Tarley said.
“Please, Tarley,” her mother said, tears staining her face.
“You’ve had time to tell us the truth, Mother,” Tarley said. “How can I ever trust you to offer it now?” She turned her head to look at Lachlan over her shoulder. “I go where you go.”
“Tarley–” Lachlan started, wanted to temper her anger with reason. “Maybe–”
She shook her head. “Let’s go.”
He’d reason with Tarley and return after he got to the inn and understood what he was facing. So he said, “She’s safe with me. I’ll bring her back–” Then he pulled the reins and pressed his heels into the horse’s flank to urge the gelding forward until they were racing down the wooded lane, now pitch black.
By the time they careened into the courtyard, it was filled with horses—both Trevis and Horance working with soldiers to get them stabled—carriages, wagons, and people. He brought the gelding to a stop, tied him to the hitching post, and helped Tarley down.
With her hand in his, he dragged her toward the entrance of the inn, but she pulled him to a stop. “Lachlan!”
