“Ye saw me leave the silversmith shop,” she said, “and ye figured ye’d rob me o’ my fortune.”She blew out a disgusted breath.“At least the other two outlaws didn’t feign to be sent by the king for my protection.”
This was getting out of hand.He seized her forearm, hoping to silence her long enough to make her listen.
Her sharp intake of breath made him instantly regret grabbing her.But he needed to make his point.
“I don’t want your silver,” he said.“Oryour pearls.”
He thought that would placate her.
Instead, her eyes went round.“Then whatdoye want?”
Unbidden, a dangerous idea flashed across his brain.An idea involving his hungry mouth and those cherry-plump lips of hers.
But he was no rake.After a prolonged moment, he released her.
“I want only to keep ye safe,” he said.
“I don’t need ye to keep me safe.”Her voice came out on a rough whisper, and she absently rubbed her arm where he’d gripped it.“I can take care o’ myself.”
He rolled his eyes.She sounded like his sister.But Feiyan actuallycouldtake care of herself.She was a master of martial arts.“Ye mean the way ye took care o’ those thieves?”
She bristled.“I’ll have ye know they were almost convinced to come with me to the priory.To mend their ways.To seek redemption.If ye hadn’t interfered—”
“If I hadn’t interfered, m’lady,” he said, losing patience with her thankless stubbornness, “ye might well be lyin’ by the side o’ the road with a dagger through your heart.”
She blushed at that.She couldn’t deny the truth.Perhaps she finally realized the weight of the situation.
After an awkward silence, she mumbled, “I don’t mean to seem ungrateful.O’ course I appreciate your efforts.”
He straightened.Now she was showing the proper gratitude.
Until she added, “’Tis only that I would have preferred ye use more brain and less brawn.”
His jaw dropped.More brain?Did she not understand he was outnumbered two to one?Did she not know the intellect it had required to perfectly time his attack?The strategy it took to subdue them both?
Before he could sputter out a reply, she shouldered her satchel.That incriminating wool hood was peeping out of it again.Which reminded him…
“Ye still haven’t told me who ye—”
“Ye’ll have to forgive me,” she said with a disarming smile, “but I really should be goin’.’Tis nigh dark, and I’ve a wee bit farther to travel.”She turned and, with a dismissive wave of her hand, headed down the road.“Farewell.”
He watched her with narrowed eyes.She was a clever one.She’d managed to avoid his question.Again.
But Adam wasn’t about to give up.
Besides, those thieves were probably lying in wait ahead.They were desperate men.They would resort to desperate measures, no matter how confident their intended victim was in the power of redemption.Their brief altercation with Adam wasn’t enough to dissuade them from making another attempt at a lucrative haul.
It was a matter of common chivalry to follow her.
Eve was trembling.Hopefully not so much that the man who was still—unbelievably, stubbornly—following her could tell.
She wasn’t trembling from the fact he was following her.She couldn’t realistically expect him to turn around and go back into the woods when Scone Priory was so near.
She wasn’t trembling from her encounter with the thieves.She’d faced down outlaws before.
She wasn’t even trembling from the fact that Adam—or whoever he was—was prying into her identity.It happened so often when she was disguised as Lady Aillenn, she’d gotten very good at evading questions.
She was trembling because her arm was still warm where he’d enclosed it in his fist.
