Eve didn’t recognize the young man’s voice.
Adam did.“Just where are you going, Brand?”
“Bloody shite!”his cousin cried, recoiling so suddenly it startled the horse.“Adam?Is that you?What the hell are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same,” Adam said.
“Don’t you have a wedding to attend to?”he challenged, calming the horse.“Or are you hiding out from your bride?”
“I’m here,” Eve said, startling him again.
“Holy Mother of…!”
“Sorry,” Eve mumbled.
“God’s teeth, Adam,” Brand said in disgust.“Is this your idea of a wedding night?The stables?There’s a perfectly good goose-down pallet in the wedding bedchamber.”
“Not anymore,” Adam said.
Eve couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
Brand made a sound of exasperation.“You know, the laird has the whole clan searching for the two of you.”
“Is that why you’re saddling up in full armor and going on a long journey?”Adam asked.“To look for us?”
Brand’s hesitation was damning.
Adam realized Brand hadn’t come to the stables looking for his missing cousin.He had his own motives.
“All this chaos makes it rather convenient for you, doesn’t it?”Adam said.
“What do you mean?”
“’Tis much easier for you to leave Rivenloch and ride away in the dead of night if the clan is busy looking for me.”
Brand didn’t reply.
“So where are you going?”Adam asked.
“’Tisn’t your affair.”
“Of course, ’tis my affair.You’re my kin,” Adam said.“I’ve always looked after you.”
“Not this time,” he replied.
Adam suddenly heard his cousin with different ears.Brand might be two years younger than him, but somehow he’d become a man in his own right.
Still, Adam couldn’t let Brand just disappear.
“I don’t intend to let you wander off without letting anyone know where you’re going or when you’ll return.”
“You mean likeyoudo?”
That struck him as powerfully as the lance blow to the chest Brand had given him in the tournament.But he wasn’t wrong.
Adam sighed.“Well played, cousin.”
“So you’ll let me go?”
