Although somewhere in Bree’s mind she recognized that face, she continued to wrestle the branch back, but he was too strong and pulled it out of her grasp and threw it to the ground. He grabbed each of Bree’s arms, clasping tightly, hoping human contact would bring her out of her mad rage.
“Be still,” the man grated.
That only made Bree struggle more.
He stepped forward and Bree gasped, trying to distance herself from him.
He gave her arms a gentle shake and cooed, “You are safe. I will not harm you.”
She struggled but the strength of his hold, the spicy scent of his person, the sound of gentle cooing intruding in her panicked mind had her losing all strength.
She stopped fighting. He was shushing her like she was a child. And realizing he’d loosened his hold on her, she stepped back and looked up at him.
It was the knight.
“You,” she gasped.
HE GAZED INTO HER SURPRISEDeyes and fought the laughter down in his throat. Her green eyes gawked at him as if he were a ghost. He rubbed his head and rolled his back to dislodge the lingering pain of being bashed by a crazedwoman. He couldn’t help but smile at that—she wasn’t hitting hard enough to kill a rabbit, let alone a fully formed man. An ache in his arm reminded him of his injury. He chuckled. Even an injured man.
She stepped out of the shadow into the dim light and narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s not funny. Why were you following us and why didn’t you let us know it was you? I could have killed you.”
“For one thing, I wasn’t following you, I was following a path. I didn’t know you were here and for another, I doubt you could have killed me. You’re not strong enough.”
“A few more strikes on your head and you would have been out cold.”
A voice told him to let her think what she liked. Now that he’d found the trail to the castle ruins, he had to keep going. “Perhaps.” He pierced her with his gaze, hoping his harsh look would make her tell the truth. “Why are you so deep in the forest?”
She looked about and shrugged. “I didn’t know we were. I just wanted to get us as far away from those brutes as I could.”
That explanation sounded plausible to Horland, although wariness filled his being. There was something wrong about the woman and if she wasn’t lying, he was certain she had a story that in another time and place, he might have been interested to hear.But not now. “Where is the little girl?”
Bree walked around the tree. “Here.”
Horland followed but there was nothing there.
The woman bent down and touched the tree as if the girl might have been invisible to the eye. “She must have run off.” She straightened her back and called out, “Little girl.” She walked into and out of the trees calling, “It’s okay. It’s the knight. Come out, he won’t hurt you.” She glared at Horland. “You won’t, will you?”
He shook his head.
The girl wearing a red coat emerged from the lush growth of a bush and stood staring at Horland.
“Greetings.” He bowed. “I am Sir Horland, and who might you be?”
The girl curtsied and gazed at Horland’s boots.
The woman’s eyes brightened as she smiled at the child then frowned at Horland. “I don’t think she can talk. She hasn’t said a word since we met, and that was two, maybe three days ago now.”
Horland pierced Bree with his gaze. She would have heard him introduce himself to the girl, she would have heard him say he was a knight, yet she didn’t show him the respect he was due. Why didn’t she curtsy and tell him her name?
“What?” She wiped her cheeks. “Have I got something on my face?”
“I am Sir Horland.”
“Yeah, I heard you. I’m Briana but my friends call me Bree. If you expect me to call you Sir Horland all the time, that’s not going to happen. You happy with that, huh, Horland?”
Horland stiffened. She spoke like no other and her eyes twinkled as she spoke, as if she were laughing at him.
She slapped him on his arm. “Oh, come on, don’t be such a stuffed shirt, okay?”
