“I swear I didn’t have a key, I…”
Anger darkened his eyes like a storm, but his voice was deadly calm. “Youarea spy after all. And to think I was beginning to believe otherwise. What were you hoping to discover? Battle plans? Did you really think I’d have them all laid out in ink for someone to find?”
She shook her head in earnest denial. “No, as I’ve been saying all along, I just want to go home.”
“Home?” He stalked closer to her. “Home to your Saxon Lord? Did he tell you not to return until you had something to bring to him? What will happen, little lamb, if you gohomeempty handed?”
Nessa remained silent. She had no way of defending herself. At least no way that was believable.
He grabbed her roughly by the wrist, pulling her behind him as he stalked out of the room and down the stairs. Namet looked up from his seat by the fire, his eyes widening in alarm at the King’s furious demeanor. He stood, knocking the stool to the ground behind him with a clatter. “What’s happened?”
“Where is Ecgfrith?” Bridei demanded.
“He’s camped near Arbroath, with about fifty men, collecting tributes from the chieftains.”
Bridei nodded. “Good. We will bring the lass to him, then watch the reunion. I will know once and for all who she really is.”
Sten stood from his chair with a smirk. “I’ll go with you. I have been waiting too long for you to come to your senses on this matter.”
“What do you mean to do?” Namet asked.
Bridei’s eyes were cold, his stance aggressive. “I must know for certain that she has betrayed me before I kill her. I will not risk angering the gods with any mistakes. There is only one way to find out.”
A single sob of breath burst from Nessa’s throat.Betrayed him? She hadn’t betrayed him. Or at least she hadn’t meant to. Somehow she just couldn’t manage to stay out of trouble in this time. And to think that such a short while ago she was considering settling down and building a new life…
It was a brutal ten-hour ride by horseback to reach Arbroath, but Bridei needed to see this done. Now. They left that afternoon, and he made Nessa ride with him. Partly to be sure she wouldn’t escape, and partly to punish himself yet again for his own foolishness. She remained silent the entire way, but the rocking motion of the horse brought her bottom against his groin again and again, and her intoxicating scent filled his nostrils, so that by the time they reached the forest near Argyll, he found himself almost wishing that someone would strike him down dead and end his misery.
Despite her apparent treachery, his attraction to her had not lessened. He even found himself coming up with possible excuses for her behavior during the long hours of travel. What if she was under threat of death from Ecgfrith? What if she hadn’t had a choice?
It didn’t matter though. He had to serve and protect his people above all else, and that meant ignoring his personal feelings about the lass.
It was near midnight when the lights of the Saxon camp came into view, and soon after, they heard the shouts of the guards announcing their arrival. Bridei drew up his horse at the edge of the trees.
“Brun, Egat, take her to Ecgfrith. Make certain he knows you come in peace; only to return the lass. I will be watching from the forest to see it done.”
As she was led away, Nessa turned and glanced back at him over her shoulder. What he saw in her eyes nearly stopped his breath.Terror. Had he been wrong about her? No, more likely she feared punishment for failing at her task. But in that moment, every instinct he had screamed at him to protect her; to take her into his arms and ride away into the night. He held strong though, bolstered by his pride and his duty. He resolutely looked away from the woman who had made him so weak, but would no more.
Therewere perhaps twenty tents in the encampment, some quite large, and some that would only hold a few men at most. Nessa was led towards the largest one, at the very center, and it glowed from within with a flickering light. She had had a very long time to think on the seemingly endless ride through the afternoon and much of the night, but she hadn’t come up with any way to get herself out of the mess she’d gotten into. No amount of pleading on her part would convince Bridei that she was anything other than his enemy, and now it would be up to her to save herself in any way she could.
As Brun and Egat led her away, she had glanced back over her shoulder at Bridei. In the tree-filtered moonlight, he sat tall and fierce on his stallion, his aggressive posture telling her she would have no mercy this time. Her heart clenched, and not only because she was walking into the unknown. There was something about him that called to her, and even in that moment, a part of her wanted to run back to him. Not for safety, but for another, far more complicated reason that she couldn’t quite make sense of.
After a brief exchange of words with the guards at the edge of the camp, they were escorted to the large tent. The flap was tied open, and inside she could see a group of men sitting around a make-shift table. On the table were pieces of parchment and piles of coins and other shiny golden objects. Now Nessa stood before the men, trembling like a frightened rabbit, trying to gather her wits. If she was going to have any sort of a chance to get out of this alive, she was going to needwits. She knew they were speaking English, but she only understood a few words here and there. More than 1300 years could make a language virtually unrecognizable. Her English would be just as foreign to them, but the Pictish that she knew had been passed down intact, without a large group of people speaking it and changing it over the years. So she used it now, addressing the man at the head of the table, that she assumed must be King Ecgfrith himself.
“Hello—um—you don’t know me, but I seem to be here by mistake, and I…”
His beady eyes flashed at her and he frowned. He said something in his own language that she didn’t understand, and she shook her head.
“You speak Pictish?” he asked.
She nodded, trying to swallow the knot in her throat.
A slow, unkind smile curled his thin lips. “And Bridei has sent you as his tribute?” He laughed, addressing Brun and Egat: “Tell your master that the price is higher than one useless woman. He owes me twice her weight in gold, at least.”
“She’s not a tribute…” Brun began, but Ecgfrith cut him off. “Leave, and tell Bridei to bring his tithe by the end of the full moon or I will bring my army down on all of the Picts south of Fortriu. I will not be trifled with.”
Nessa was horrified when Brun and Egat actually turned and ducked through the flap of the tent, leaving her alone with the Saxons. She looked back to Ecgfrith with eyes that she knew were wide and frightened. Her whole body trembled and her heart felt as if it was firmly lodged in her throat. She wondered vaguely what being frightened for her life so many times in one month might be doing to her mental health. “Please…Bridei only brought me here because he thought I was your spy, but I’m not. You know I’m not, obviously.”
Ecgfrith gave a little laugh. “You lie. He would have killed any spy he discovered. He brought you here for another reason. If not as tribute, then perhaps to spy onme. Who knows?”
