“Including you and those laddies.”
“Aye, including us. All I demanded of them was that, if they got the boys disinherited, that they gift them with the property held here and leave them with me. Then I left the problem of trying to sort out Claud’s deceptions to the Lucettes and brought the boys here. It was foolish of me to believe, even for a moment, that that would be enough to end the threat to them.”
“Your Claud was a coward.”
“Why do ye say that?”
“He didnae have the stomach to tell his kin the truth. He probably feared he would lose his place as the heir because he wed a woman he kenned his family wouldnae approve of. Instead of fighting for the marriage he wanted, fighting for his sons, he lied and dragged ye into his life of lies without a thought as to how it would affect you. And ye were right to bring those laddies here. They will get the protection they deserve now.”
That sounded very much like a vow but, before Arianna could respond to Sir Brian’s somewhat impassioned speech, he kicked his horse into a gallop. She hurried to get her own mount moving to keep up with him. It was not easy but she forced herself to ignore the exhaustion and pain battering at her body. She just prayed that it would not be too much longer before he claimed it safe enough to stop for a rest.
She fixed her mind on what he had said about her late husband, Claud, and had to agree. Claud had been a coward, too spineless to stand firm on what he wanted honestly and openly. He had also been selfish, thinking only of himself. It embarrassed her to think of how hard she had tried to make their marriage a good one before she had discovered Marie Anne, the woman she had thought was his mistress. Discovering that Marie Anne had actually been his true wife had made her feel, briefly, relieved that she had not indulged in many of her grand plans to seduce him away from his mistress.
Arianna just wished the sense of failure she still carried would ease. She had not failed for there had never been any chance for her to succeed. Claud was the one who had failed them all and was still failing them. Instead of being there to help protect his sons, it was the woman he had lied to and betrayed who was fighting to keep the boys alive. Arianna fixed her gaze on Sir Brian’s broad back and promised herself that she would win this fight. She also promised herself that she would never be so trusting and painfully naive again.
Chapter 3
“M’lady? M’lady! Wheesht, I didnae ken someone could sleep sitting up and with their eyes open.”
“G’way.” Arianna swatted weakly at the hands grasping her waist.
It was not until she was dangling in the air, those big warm hands at her waist all that kept her safe from falling, that Arianna became aware of where she was, who she was with, and that he was simply lifting her off the back of the horse. She breathed deeply, pushing away a sudden surge of fear. When he set her on her feet, gripping her shoulders when she swayed, she looked up at the sky. When had the sun sunk so low? she wondered.
“Are ye awake now?” Brian thought she looked so enchantingly befuddled despite the tangled hair and bruises, he had to fight down the urge to kiss her.
“I wasnae asleep,” she muttered.
“Nay? I had to stop your mount, unclench your hands from the reins, and call to ye near to a dozen times ere ye spoke. Appeared much akin to sleep to me.”
It certainly sounded so to her, too, but she was not about to admit to it. Arianna could recall a few embarrassing tales her family loved to tell about her doing such a thing when she was a child, exhausted yet unwilling to stop whatever she was doing. She had obviously not outgrown the strange habit. The fact that Sir Brian had had to do so much before she had even become aware of his presence was proof enough of that. Sir Brian MacFingal was not a man any woman could easily ignore.
“Where are we?” she asked, praying he would not press her on her strange behavior.
Brian grinned, doing nothing to hide his amusement even when she gave him a narrow-eyed glare of warning. “We are where we can safely rest for the night.”
She could not stop herself from glancing behind them. “Are ye certain?”
“As certain as one can be. Your enemy cannae ride in the dark any better or more safely than we can. The horses can be hidden by the trees and we can rest in a wee cave set behind those rocks.”
Arianna grabbed the reins of her mount and followed him as he moved toward a large collection of stones set between the side of a rocky hill and a thick growth of trees and brush. They moved off the narrow, rough, drover’s trail far enough that she suspected it would be very difficult for anyone on that trail to see the horses. The moon was on the wane so, even if the night remained clear, it would not shed enough light to make anything lurking in the trees visible unless someone rode very close or the horses made some noise that drew attention to them.
She inwardly shook her head. It did not matter. They needed to rest and so did the horses. Without sufficient rest the horses would falter and she and Sir Brian would be hard-pressed to elude her enemies on foot. Arianna began to change her mind about that, however, when Sir Brian ducked into a small opening in the side of the hill only to return to her side a moment later and gesture for her to go in.
“Ye first,” she said, hoping that she would soon gain enough courage to enter that hole in the earth.
“There are no animals in there,” Brian said.
“Ye were nay in there for verra long. Mayhap ye should look again.”
“’Tis but a wee shelter. There wasnae much looking I needed to do.”
“Oh.” It was not only a hole in the earth; it was a small hole, she thought with a shudder.
Brian studied her as she stared at the entrance to the small cave as if she expected some fierce, slavering beastie to leap out at any moment and go for her throat. He could sympathize with her reluctance to enter the shelter he had found for them. He was not too fond of such places, either. Unfortunately, she was not in any condition to travel any farther without some rest. He needed some rest, too, as did the horses. Then he studied her sad state in the fading daylight and nearly smiled. There was something he could tempt her inside with.
“There is water within, enough for ye to clean yourself,” he said, and hid his sense of victory at the interest she immediately revealed, even though that interest was tainted with doubt.
“Inside that wee cave?”
