“I canna stand at your back,” he told Broc, his tone vehement.
“I willna ask ye to!” Broc countered, ready to barrel his way through the door if need be, but he wanted no quarrel with Colin.
“Know that if you leave here you put me and my brothers at risk,” he told Broc, and then, without another word, he stepped out of Broc’s way, eyeing his brothers in a warning not to interfere, making his position clear.
Elizabet was all that mattered at the moment.
Praying he wasn’t too late, he bolted at once out the door.
CHAPTER 26
Tomas was in a quandary.
He couldn’t allow Elizabet to return to Geoffrey, but it wasn’t going to be an easy task to be rid of her now.
Having her at his disposal was half the battle, and he was pleased the wench had mettle enough to stand up to Montgomerie—the arrogant bastard would never have let her leave else-wise.
Still, he couldn’t simply kill her. He had to do it so that it placed suspicion on his two companions. They were stupid, mayhap, but loyal to Geoffrey, so he hadn’t dared approach them. They rode ahead of him, Elizabet at his side, her mood somber and her eyes red-rimmed from her ceaseless weeping.
He’d be damned if he’d give up his purse. He deserved to keep it.
It was his now.
So was that damned crucifix she wore like a trophy around her waist. He eyed her malevolently, his gaze drawn to the girdle she wore. The object of his concern was pressed into her hand. She held it as though it were a talisman to ward away her grief.
The look upon Margaret’s face when she’d first spied the piece of jewelry had been lamentable. She’dknown at once that he’d stolen the trinket from her jewel box. Though she never asked him about it, he knew she knew. Still, the look in her eyes when she’d discovered it on Elizabet’s girdle and realized he’d used it to pay some whore for his pleasures had turned his gut.
He understood why it upset her so. It had been a gift to Margaret first... a lover’s gesture, not a brother’s.
Elizabet rode stoically at his side, saying naught, her gaze distant, and he knew she was thinking of that damned Scot.
Stupid wench.
She thought the worst was done.
Well, he was going to give her something better to weep over. She thought her life was over without him, did she now? Well he had news for her. She wasn’t going to need to waste her dowry on some abbess’s treasury after all.
Broc hadno choice but to appropriate one of Montgomerie’s horses from the field where he’d put them.
Piers was like to be angry when he discovered it gone, but Broc didn’t give a damn. Piers had broken his word. He’d looked Broc straight in the face and sworn to him that he would not leave Elizabet in Tomas’s hands. Then he’d let her go anyway, abandoning her to that bastard’s mercy.
He was afeared he was going to be too late.
He’d never forgive himself if anything should happen to her.
Elizabet was all that mattered to him.
CHAPTER 27
Elizabet’s heart felt as though it had been ripped from her breast. In its place was emptiness, sorrow and pain.
She had never dared to hope that she would find love and live happily ever after, but it was a cruel, cruel twist of fate that she should be taunted with a glimpse of it and then have every chance of happiness snatched from her.
She didn’t see how she could ever be happy again—not after Broc.
She had felt so cherished in his arms, so beautiful, so full of hope...
Now she felt only foolish.
