His face paled. He looked ill.
Braya stopped in her tracks. “What?” Oh, she didn’t want to think it, to hear it! “You murdered them in cold blood?”
“No!” Mr. Adams exclaimed, lest guilt fall on him, too. “That is not what happened! They attacked me and the others!”
But Torin said nothing, and it was more damning than any false defense he could have come up with. She was glad he didn’t try. She would have lifted one of those knives the commander had shoved under his belt a few moments earlier and stabbed Torin with it.
“I am leaving, Torin,” she said coolly and with false calm. Beneath the surface, a labyrinth of writhing emotion threatened to erupt. “Allow me to dress and prepare for the journey with Mr. Adams. Do not follow me or ’twill become a battle between us and one of us will die. I will return home, even if it means I must marry the warden. For he would be better than you.”
She squared her shoulders and waited for him to move out of her way. When he did, she returned to her room alone and locked the door.
She dressed while her belly twisted with an ache she’d never known before. He was not real. He was not real. Of course, he wanted her family to stay away from the Scots. He knew Carlisle would win with the reivers on its side. She had to tell her family.
Oh, her family. What would she tell them? How would they forgive her after she told them what she had once suspected but had been too horrible to believe, so she hadn’t? He’d killed her cousins to make himself appear the hero to the guards. Aye! To gain entrance into Carlisle for his deadly purpose!
Her father would never forgive her. He would tell her that she thought with her heart and that was why ’twas better to be a man. He was correct, at least about one thing. She had made her decisions with her heart and not her head. She had trusted him. She had seen him enjoy the sweet fragrance of a flower. He’d shown patience with his horse and mercy to a man who didn’t deserve it, and she thought he was a different kind of man.
But he wasn’t. He thirsted for blood. He hungered for battle.
And since he wanted one so bad, she would give it to him.
She had much to think on during her trip home with Mr. Adams. At first they didn’t speak much, taking solace in each other’s silence. But Torin’s betrayal cut them both.
“Perhaps he had agreed tofightuswithyour cousins and then turned on them,” Mr. Adams ventured. “But they did not seem to know him. Though ’twas dark and my eyes are not as good as they once were.”
Braya shook her head. “I do not know what he did or how he was involved, but he was. He lied about it. I could tell when I asked him. Nothing he said was the truth.”
“I do not know about that.”
She drew in a deep breath. If Mr. Adams tried to convince her that Torin’s feelings for her were real, she would tell him she didn’t care. It didn’t change anything.
“He told us the truth about his brothers.”
Her heart faltered a little and she cursed it. He’d found his brothers. Truly, it was a miracle. A joyous one. She wanted to be happy for him, but her heart was too broken and all she could see were the lies.
“The commander told me ’twas the English who killed their parents.”
Mr. Adams nodded. “I guessed as much once I knew the truth. He must have much hatred in him for the English.”
“He watched them kill his father,” Braya told him hollowly. “He has haunting memories.”
“Aye. He must be very torn about recent events.”
Aye, Braya silently agreed then slipped her glare to Adams. “Why are you giving him your pity? He is undeserving of it.”
“Pity or no,” Mr. Adams stated, “he found his brothers and lost you in the same day.”
“And if he follows me,” she told him, “he will lose his life today as well.
Mr. Adams remained silent but stared at her. “You love him.”
“I was a fool,” she cried and wiped her eyes. “I trusted him and fell in love with a shadow.”
“I trusted him, too, Braya. I refuse to believe that we were both so wrong about a man. There is good in him.”
Instead of answering—for she wasn’t sure she had anything to say that wasn’t a scathing oath—she flicked Archer’s reins and pushed onward, away from the deceit, away from Torin Gray…MacPherson.
