“Nay,” Erica said. “I would like to go back on me own.”
Leah searched her face, then gave a small nod. “As ye wish, me Lady.”
They turned, and Erica kept her eyes on the path. She felt the yard at her back, the hum of voices, and the sharp sound of wood on wood as men drilled.
Daenae turn around. Daenae look.
She looked anyway.
And their eyes met.
Alex had turned, as if the air itself had told him she was there. His gaze found her across the clipped green and the hard ground.
For the briefest breath, nothing moved.Only his eye on hers.
Erica tore her gaze away first. She stepped past the hedge and out of sight, the corner swallowing her like a door closing. She let the wall hide her and did not look back. She then kept walking until the yard noise thinned and the knot under her ribs loosened enough that she could breathe without counting. Only then did she let her shoulders drop a fraction and draw a steadier breath.
Leah did not speak, and Erica was grateful for that. They took the old stairs up and came into the silence of the passageway, where the light fell in narrow bands.
Leah shifted the basket and cleared her throat. “The east bed in the garden,” she said, as if nothing had happened. “I was wondering if ye will want a bit of peat worked in as well. If ye like, we can do it later.”
“Aye,” Erica said. “Later.”
They walked on.
CHAPTER 23
The packedearth held their footing while steel clashed against steel in short strikes. Men stood in a loose half circle, while two guards worked the central line. Alex moved among them without pause.
“Again,” he said. “Too slow.”
The pair reset, chests heaving. The taller man slid his right foot forward, the tell he never noticed.
Alex stopped beside him and pointed with the flat of his blade. “Ye lean before ye strike. An observant man will read ye like a page.”
“Aye, me Laird,” the guard said, flushing.
Alex circled once, then tapped the man’s knee, quick and sharp. “There. That is where ye fall if ye keep it.”
The guard shifted, jaw tight. Steel kissed steel again, cleaner this time. Alex watched the angle and the recovery. He still wasn’t satisfied. These men needed to do better.Much better.
“Close it,” he said. “Keep the bones stacked. Daenae give me gaps for free.”
Calum came up to his left, shadow neat on the ground.“They are weary, me Laird,” he murmured.
“Good,” Alex said, eyes still on the pair. “They must learn to fight tired. Fresh men are a gift ye willnae often get.”
A blade nicked knuckles. The younger guard hissed and shook his hand. Alex did not soften.
“Grip again,” he ordered. “Ye arenae bleeding. If ye were, ye would wrap it and continue.”
The line behind them shifted as their boots grated against the soil. A laugh rose and fell when Alex lifted his head.
“Silence,” he said flatly.
They fell quiet.
He stepped into the circle and took the taller man’s sword without asking.
