"Not yet," he replied.
"Why not?"
"Because I like riding fast and we have far to travel. Hold on tight."
4
"Where are you from?"
Lennox looked at Rose, trying to work her out. Usually, he could establish what kind of person he was dealing with in a couple of seconds. She was a contradiction.
She spoke like an English woman but she was talking Gaelic. She looked like she might throw up when the guard ended up down in the oubliette but she had been quick to kick him when he first grabbed her.
She was laid on her back rubbing her calves, her bare legs sticking out from under her dress. Who was so willing to show their legs to a man who was not her husband? "What did you say?" she asked, continuing to massage her legs.
"Where are you from?"
"Helmsley."
"In Yorkshire?"
"You know it?"
He nodded. "That’s near where I was going before I was captured." His hand went to the letter folded up inside a hidden pocket in his plaid. It was still there.
He thought about the decision he’d made. His father had sent him to deliver the letter to Rievaulx. Otherwise Robert de Ros was going to try and storm MacGregor Castle. But he had no idea how long he’d been held in captivity.
For all he knew the rat was already in Scotland. If that was the case, Ross would come out of the castle to discuss paying a ransom for Lennox. The English would kill the Laird and then take the castle.
He had to tell his father he was free. Let the letter wait.
He looked at the river, realizing he’d been staring at Rose’s legs. "What are you doing next?" he asked.
"Going home," she replied. "Once I work out how to get there. And once I get this cramp out of my legs."
"Let me," he said, kneeling beside her and taking her left leg into his lap. He kneaded his knuckles into her calf muscle, putting his weight into it, helping to loosen the knots of tension he found there. "You are not used to riding?" he asked.
"Never done it in my life."
"So you plan to walk all the way to Helmsley from here?"
"Unless I can catch a lift."
"You must come north with me. Once I have spoken to my father, I shall escort you home. Consider it payment for saving me from the oubliette."
"I don’t need your company. I can make my own way in the world, thanks very much."
He took her other leg and continued to work at her muscles as she winced. "It is too dangerous for you to travel alone while an army is on the move. You must come with me."
"Must I? And what if I just start walking that way?"
"I would bind you to my horse’s saddle. If you are so foolish as to walk to your own death, I must protect you from it."
"Listen, I don’t know what year you think this is but you can’t just tie up random women when the fancy takes you. You’ll get arrested."
"I will not let you hurt yourself."
He stood up up and looking at her closely. She looked back up at him, as if searching for something in his face.
