After…you brutally murdered Dick.
He wasn’t proud of that.It had been an unavoidable sacrifice.But the fact that Aillenn had rewarded their robbers felt like a double condemnation of his actions.That was the last thing he needed.He’d already condemned himself enough.
Killing had always been difficult for Adam.Maybe that was why he’d never been a celebrated warrior like his cousins.He was more likely to defend rather than attack.To pull back at the last instant.To withhold the full measure of his strength in battle unless it was absolutely crucial to disable his opponent.
This time he’d had no choice.The man had threatened Aillenn’s life.
Still he was haunted by the sounds of the outlaw’s dying.By the dimming of the light in his eyes.By the horrible truth that he’d held the man’s life in his hands and willfully extinguished it.
As they rode along in silence, he tortured himself, wondering if there might have been a way to avoid slaying the robber.
As if she could read his thoughts, Aillenn said, “’Twas unavoidable, ye know.”
“What?”
“That outlaw.Dick.’Twasn’t your fault.Ye didn’t have a choice.”
Was that true?He wasn’t certain.
“If ye hadn’t done…what ye did…” She shook her head, unable to finish.“We had to resist them.I know that.If we hadn’t, they’d ne’er have been content with five pieces o’ silver.They’d have stolen our weapons, our clothin’, our food, the rest o’ my coin.And they might have…” She lowered her head and blushed.“Taken other liberties.”
He closed his eyes to slits and bit out, “I’d have killed them all ere I’d let them lay so much as a finger on ye.”
Her eyes filled with gratitude at his vehement chivalry.“I had a sense ye might.So ye see?’Twas all for the best.Instead o’ them sacrificin’ all their men or us sacrificin’ all our silver, they lost just one man, and we lost just five coins.”
He smirked.How did she always manage to shine a ray of sunlight into the darkest gloom?Five pounds was a fortune to some people.“Just how much silver do ye have in that satchel?”
She shrugged.“Enough.Why?”She narrowed her eyes.“How much doyehave inyours?”
“Me?”he said with a chuckle.
The truth was, despite his wealth as a member of the Rivenloch clan and the rumors about his bottomless satchel, he traveled light.He could easily earn coin by doing common labor or, when the situation demanded it, impressing his way into free food and lodging.After all, who wouldn’t offer Hildegard of Bingen a hot meal and a place to rest her revered head?
“Ye said it yourself,” he added.“I’m just a master o’ disguise, not a titled lady who can afford to lose five pounds in silver.”
“Oh.”She stopped her horse to address him.“Could ye not tell?The coins weren’trealsilver.”
“What?”He reined to a shocked halt beside her.“What were they?”
“Lead.”
“Lead?”
She nodded.“I always carry lead coins with the silver.’Tis the easiest way to appease outlaws.They don’t usually look too closely when they’re robbin’ ye.”
“So ye gave them worthless coins?”he marveled, simultaneously horrified and impressed.
“Aye.”
“But what about them bein’ ‘misguided men with bad parents’?”he said, quoting her.
“That they might be, but eight o’ them against two of us?”She shook her head.“The churls didn’t deserve a penny.”
He laughed.The woman was fascinating.He’d never met a lass so flexible in her morality.Was she saint or sinner?It was hard to tell.
He nudged his horse forward again.“Be careful where ye spend those coins.There are some who’d hang ye for counterfeitin’.”
“I’d ne’er use them on honest men,” Aillenn said.“But if ’tis our lodgin’ ye’re worried about, I have enough real silver to stay for some days.”
