“My mama taught me some,” she replied, “and Mara, a Summer Walker, taught me the rest.”
“Who taught ye to be a warrior?” she asked, wincing as she shifted positions.
“Ye should drink more of the wine to aid with the pain,” I said, because it was true, but also because I saw an opportunity to get her to loosen her tongue.
She nodded. “I will, but do nae make me drink alone.”
I tipped up my skin to oblige her, taking an extra-long draw. When I lowered it, I found her studying me with an intensity that surprised me.
“So, who taught ye?” she asked again.
“Laird Ross.” I shook my head. “The old laird, that is,” I clarified. “Munro is laird now.”
“Ye lived with the Rosses all yer life?”
“Aye. I was left in the woods as a bairn. Lady Ross found me and talked Laird Ross into taking me into their home. She insisted on raising me as one of her own.” My chest squeezed with the memory.
“But Laird Ross treated ye differently than Munro? Not as an equal?” Katreine asked, and I could see on her face and hear inher tone that she was trying to understand me. It touched me in a way I’d never felt before.
“Nay,” I told her. “Laird Ross and Lady Ross verra much treated me as one of their own, but other warriors in the clan questioned my worthiness. Every time I gained a position and moved up in the ranks, men whispered. I once heard another warrior say that I was nae a Ross and should nae be allowed to have command over them.”
She frowned. “Were ye better than the warrior who said this?”
I grinned. “I like to think so.”
“If ye were nae better than I doubt yer laird would have moved ye up in ranks. Lairds make decisions on need, nae feelings. The needs of the clan always come first. That warrior was simply jealous.”
I watched her carefully as I thought about what she’d said. I had considered it, but the feeling of not belonging still lingered. “Ye speak as if ye ken how a laird’s mind works.” She paled at my words but shook her head.
“Nae, really, but I can imagine.”
“Katreine, were ye born into a great house? Was yer da a laird?” I had asked a similar question before, and she’d denied it, but I was more certain than ever that this was fact.
The only reaction she showed was a subtle flare of her nostrils, but it was answer enough. I would wager all the coin in my leather pouch that Katreine was the daughter of a laird, far above a bastard like me.
“Would it matter to ye if my da was a laird?” she asked, scrutinizing me, likely searching for a clue as to whether I spoke the truth. And I didn’t, which sat heavily in my gut.
“It would nae matter to me,” I said slowly, because it was the truth. Whoever her da was, the king still required her services.“Ye said ye had been gone a long time and that yer family thought ye were dead. Why did ye leave?”
Her golden eyes danced with firelight as she locked eyes with me. “Are we exchanging truths now, James?” She stared at me unwaveringly. I could keep lying to her, but her probing gaze made it clear she no longer believed me. She would fight me and try to flee, but perhaps if I explained the king to her, assured her of her safety, and told her I would return her to the Summer Walkers myself once the king’s daughter was healed, I could persuade her. I was at a precipice I had only moments ago not wanted to be on, but I was here, and I nodded.
“Why did ye flee yer home?”
She looked down and traced her finger back and forth in the dirt for a moment before meeting my gaze again. Her face held such wariness that my chest ached for her. “I feared being named a witch,” she said so softly I almost didn’t hear her.
I frowned at her. “But ye said ye had been gone a long time.”
The wariness on her face grew, and her shoulders stiffened. After a long pause, she nodded.
“How long?” I asked. Something didn’t make sense. If she’d fled so long ago that her family likely thought her dead, she would have been a child.
“Five summers,” she said, her words almost hasty.
“Ye already had unusual healing skills five summers ago?”
She nodded, but her gaze was no longer quite as steady, and her hand had fluttered to her neck. So we were exchanging half-truths, apparently. I opened my mouth to question her further, but she spoke.
“Where are ye taking me? And do nae say it is the Dark Woods. The river is pulling to the East, and that is nae the direction we should be going.”
