“Sir?”
For a moment, he stared expectantly. She couldn’t imagine what he wanted from her. But he was pleasant enough to look at all the same.
He forced himself to smile and finally spoke. “We are pleased to have you under our protection, and you will be allowed to recover anon, but first, you must tell us how you have been harmed so we may tend to you properly.”
Harmed? Next will he ask who she has harmed in return?
“I have a wound, sir. Here.”
He demanded to see it. Perhaps he was a healer. He seemed genuinely surprised at having recognized the pattern of a human’s teeth.
“What else?”
“Nothing more.”
“Did the bastard strike you?”
She thought back, then shook her head.
“Did he…?” He glanced around at her escort, exchanged a glance with Leland, then shook his head. “Anything more?”
He didn’t seem the sort to want to know about battered hearts and the like.
“Nothing more.”
He searched her eyes as if he might tell if she were truthful. Then he smiled again. “Your journey is nearly at an end. These good men will see you safe. God go with you.”
At the end of one of many piers, Leland placed her in a carriage along with two guards, but then he gave her a wink and a smile and closed the door.
The pretty blue seats were thick and velvety, and she felt like she was defiling them with her presence. Though she hadno literal blood on her hands, she kept them in her lap just the same.
The royal seal on the door had not escaped her notice, and she wondered first, how they knew she had killed Balloch, and second, if the king usually sent his carriage to escort murderers to prison?
She assumed the answer to her first query was Captain Mac. If he’d been watching off the stern, he might have seen Balloch or heard his scream. Hopefully, he hadn’t rescued the monster. Could it be Balloch himself who had reported her?
A chill wracked through her, but the guards didn’t notice her shiver.
When the conveyance turned a corner, Kenna was forced to put her hand down on the seat to stay upright. There was no helping it. She had been in the carriage long enough now that her sins had already permeated the air and the fabric. Leland was at least clever enough not to get too close.
In the commotion she had lost track of Peter, but when the carriage stopped, Leland was there again. It was more painful, seeing the face of someone you have disappointed, than meeting the eyes of strangers. To avoid his tense smile Kenna looked up at the long stone walls of a prison. The knight led her toward the entrance where she was surprised by the colorful clothes of the sentries, who seemed even more surprised at the sight of her.
They could hardly look away. And no wonder. Although she had given up the need for the hat and her hair fell freely down her back, she still wore the men’s garments that made her resemble a rather fat bird.
Once inside, she stopped abruptly. This was no prison, but a castle. She looked at Leland in question, but the way he cocked his head and shook it admonished her not to speak.
“Please, sir. Just one question?”
He finally gave her his full attention, and she saw in his eyes just what she had expected. Pity and disappointment swirled in their blue depths. If she weren’t so numb, she would have been hurt when he looked away.
“Very well. One question, but I may not be at liberty to answer.”
“I understand.” She swallowed with difficulty. “Are you to be my executioner?”
Leland’s lower jaw fell open and it bobbed up and down a few times, like a fish gasping for water. He struggled with a decision for a moment, then said, “My lady, I will tell ye that yer nightmare is over. Worry no more. Ye’re safe, do ye hear?” He then stared down the others in her escort, daring them to blame him for speaking to her.
Finally, he offered his arm. She would not taint him by taking it, but she followed obediently.
She was taken to a lady’s chamber that was so spacious and elaborately decorated it hurt her eyes to take it all in. Before she could protest, she was led to an adjoining bathing chamber where she was surrounded by women who silently helped her shed her manly garb before settling her into a steaming bath.
