He knew when her face went pale that he’d said too much. Living along the border, she wasn’t immune to the horrors of war.
“What age were you orphaned?” she asked him.
“Five.”
Instantly, her huge sapphire eyes filled with tears. “We do not have to speak of this,” she said.
He didn’t know why he had told her anything. He didn’t want to relive a single moment of his life. “What about you?” he asked. “What is life like for a reiver?”
“’Tis simple. We guard and protect everything we own, or we lose it. If we do not raid, we do not eat. The land is unsuitable for arable farming. Our livestock keep us alive and every other reiver who does not belong to our kin would try to take it. King Edward does not care about us, nor does the King of Scots, so we live outside the law. We have our own laws that are respected and even followed by some wardens. We owe no allegiance to anyone but ourselves.”
“And to the warden for offering his protection against the other reivers,” Torin reminded her.
She studied him for a moment with curious eyes. “You sound as if you are troubled by such an alliance.”
“Only because I have put it in jeopardy,” he answered, but it was more than that. His task was to take Carlisle from within. He couldn’t have outside forces getting involved.
He would likely need to betray Braya. He’d betrayed other people’s trusts a thousand times in the past. He planned on doing so to Bennett at some point in the future. It was how he’d become so successful. If he were called on to betray Miss Hetherington, he would.
“I should be getting back home,” she said, dragging him from his dark thoughts. She was up on her feet in one motion. He was up in two.
“Let me see you halfway home.” It wasn’t that he didn’t want to leave her, though if he thought about it for a moment too long, he might admit that she was compelling and amusing.
“I can take care of myself,” she assured him, flashing her dimple. She moved and her hips jiggled beneath her mantle.
He looked down at the food that was left and smiled. It was all gone. He picked up the pouch and handed it to her. “You will likely be needing this more than I.”
He knew what she had taken and that she was going to return on foot. The pouch would help her carry the food stuffed into God knows what beneath her mantle. “Will I see you again, Miss Hetherington?”
She turned to him and stopped. Her dimple faded and her eyes grew large and regretful. “You might.”
