“If you do not remember your past, how do you know you were an investigator?”
“I remember my name,” he told her. “And Detective is part of it.”
She stared at him, looking for the truth in his eyes. He smiled just a little and nearly melted her heart all over her bones.
“Well, do you believe me?” he asked. Was that a hint of amusement flashing across his eyes?
“Why should I not?” she threw back.
“Because,” he replied as he grew serious. “Trusting people could get you killed.”
She didn’t know if it was true or not. The only person she ever trusted was Preston and it hadn’t cost her her life. “Will trusting you get me killed, Michael?”
“I hope not.”
She smiled and covered her mouth to yawn. “I’m sleepy. Take me home.”
He thought about it for a moment, then nodded and called out to Colin. “We’ll leave the interrogation until tomorrow. You and Liam can go home. William and what’s-his-name—”
“Gerald.”
“Gerald FitzSimmons is here?” Charlotte called out loudly around Michael’s arm.
Colin nodded with a smile.
Charlotte turned her most innocent smile on Michael. “May I ask him how his wife is?”
“Tomorrow,” the investigator said and turned back to Colin. “William and Gerald can guard him tonight.”
Colin nodded and promised to leave soon.
Charlotte followed the investigator out of the mill and to their horses. William and Gerald FitzSimmons would be guarding John tonight. Perfect. It was in Gerald’s hands now. Many of the men in the village and nearby towns worked for Preston and his band of Horsemen. Gerald knew she would tell Preston if he did nothing to help his brother-at-arms. Perhaps she’d return to the mill later, just to make sure John was free and William wasn’t dead. Hopefully, her father’s hound dog would not be sleeping in front of her door again tonight.
“How would your friend, Preston, get along without you tonight?”
“Another of his friends will attend to him. Amanda.”
“Ah.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
He glanced at her and leaped onto his horse. “What?”
“You said‘Ah’. What are you implying? Do you think that is the reason I left him? Because even if it is, why should you care, as long as I left, correct?” She mounted her horse and gave the reins a gentle flick.
“You say that as if to imply that I wanted you to leave him,” he muttered, passing her.
“Am I incorrect?” she called out.
He slowed and made a sour face, at which she smiled. “No. He’s bad news.”
“You have a strange way of saying you think he’s no good for me,” she told him, catching up and keeping pace with him.
“Well, I have been charged to keep my eyes on you.”
“To spy on me.”
“To keep you out of trouble. And he seems like he’ll get you into trouble.”
