“I’m not going to ruin your run for the next month,” she told him. “I’ll keep coming, but you don’t need to walk me back.”
“That’s not optional.” His tone brooked no argument. “Not after last night.”
“Oran was after Emer, not me.”
He narrowed his grey-blue eyes at her as they walked back the way they’d come. His gaze strayed from her face, roaming slowly, deliberately, over every inch of her. The way he devoured her made her fight to breathe for entirely different reasons. “Right, that’s why he was attackingyou. Because he’s after Emer.”
“He keeps trying to catch her on her own,” Alannah explained, horrified at how much her lungs yet burned. No wonder she struggled to spar for any length of time. “She’s so delicate and gentle, she’d never be able to defend herself. He keeps attacking me because I keep getting in his way.”
“Why?”
“I told you, she can’t defend herself.”
He smiled. “No, I mean why is he going after her?”
“I think he realizes that without her there’d be no Hart’s Rest. I couldn’t do the things she does to run it, not without hiring help I can’t afford.”
“And he runs the other inn in Ath Luain?”
Alannah could as good as hear him trying to solve the problem, trying to work it out. “Aye. He opened it to try to run us out of business after I left him.”
Conan stopped dead. “After youwhat?”
Chapter Ten
Unbelievable, this woman.Could she truly not see the problem here?
“He courted me not long after we opened the inn, but I didn’t like him once we spent time together. He got angry over it and opened his inn across the river to steal customers from us before they got further into town.”
“And you somehow believe he’s motivated by your sister?” Conan couldn’t believe they were even having such a ridiculous conversation. For what felt the hundredth time that morn, he forced his gaze away from her heaving chest and the delicious imaginings that brought to mind. “If you were the one he wanted, I promise it’s not your sister he now desires.”
Alannah shrugged. “I think he started out trying to get back at me. But it’s turned into an attack on the inn, and Emer is the heart of the inn.”
“Or maybe he realizes the best way to hurt you is to hurt her.” Either way, Conan would end this nonsense. He couldn’t leave knowing a madman was after them. “Why does he keep accusing you of stealing his business?”
He wanted to kiss the smug grin that claimed her lips.
“When he opened his hostelry on the eastern shore, it was easy for him to stop travelers before they had to ford the river. And most folk don’t want to get soaked right before they tuck in for the night. Our business suffered for it until the bridge went up.
“Before, even when I paid Glasny to recommend folk to The Hart’s Rest, they often just stayed where they’d not need to cross at the ford that night. But now that there’s an easy way to cross, I’ve made a few friends around town who don’t mind telling people how great The Hart’s Rest is in exchange for a small cut of our profit.”
Conan’s chest tightened every time she mentioned the bridge. If it had saved their business, then burning it would hurt them. It would hurt her.
He didn’t like that thought one bit.
“Do a lot of people on the western shore feel that way as well?” he asked. “That the bridge has made things easier?”
She nodded emphatically. “Everyone I’ve spoken with, including folk who live in the farms on the west of town. It’s easier for them to head inland to markets.”
Damn. That was not what he wanted to hear at all. “Then it’s a good thing that bridge was built,” was all he could manage, and he felt like an arse for saying it even as he was plotting to burn it down.
He’d been planning to work with her on her fist fighting, but the knot forming in his gut told him that was a dangerous game to start playing. Already guilt threatened his resolve. He was here to burn down that bridge and then get out of town. He doubted he’d ever come back, either.
Illadan was right—he needed to stay away from Alannah.
*
Alannah lingered forjust a few moments. Not because she thought she should stay, but because she didn’t want to go. When Conan nodded and turned away, she took that as her sign to do the same. And the first order of business following that run was a wash. She hadn’t been covered in so much sweat since shebuilt the last guest cottage. Wandering into the common room of The Hart’s Rest, Alannah found Emer sweeping out the sleeping compartments along the outside of the room, her ochre skirts swishing in time with the broom.
