She looked at him, then, and he could see a steely coldness in her pale eyes. It was a surprising show of strength. “If I discover any useful information and return to you safely, I will not tell you what the information is until you allow me to see the captives,” she said. “If Trevor is among them, you must promise to let him go before I give you the information.”
He cocked a thoughtful eyebrow. “How do I know you will tell me the truth? You could say that you have valuable information and after I let your lover go, you could have nothing at all. It could be a lie simply to obtain his release.”
She shook her head. “I am honorable,” she insisted. “I would not lie to you.”
He didn’t want to insult her integrity by disagreeing with her. Something about the woman made him believe completely that she would never lie to him. If he was a good judge of character, and he was, he was inclined to believe that she wasn’t the type. His life often depended upon who he could and could not trust. He believed he could trust her word.
He hoped he wouldn’t live to regret it.
“What if you return from de Cleveley and have no valuable information to tell me?” he wanted to know. “What then?”
She sighed faintly. “If I have no valuable information upon my return, I ask that you let me see the captives regardless,” she said softly. “If Trevor is alive, then I ask that you allow me to be in captivity with him. It is a small thing to ask, I think. You would have us both remain captives.”
Devlin didn’t like that answer at all and immediately shook his head. “If you return to me with no valuable information, then you will not see the English captives and you will never know if your lover is among them. You will remain my prize and the English captives will be my slaves. There is no other recourse.”
Emllyn was going to argue with him but thought better of it. She could agree to the terms and perhaps in time, change his mind.Be compliant!Perhaps someday she would see the English captives; perhaps one day they would all be freed. She would not give up hope.
“As you say,” she murmured, lowering her gaze.
Devlin could hear defeat in her voice and he struggled not to react to it, one way or the other. She was very proud, he could tell. She was also stubborn. Then again, so was he. He realized he saw many of his own qualities in his captive. They were qualities to respect.
He moved to within a foot or so of her, lingering close and watching her instinctively flinch. He didn’t like it when she flinched from him but he knew why– he’d only shown her aggression and dominance since they had first met. Although the man had never known a strong sense of regret, he thought he might be coming to feel something close to it. Crouching his bulk down, he met her on her own level.
“Then we have a bargain?” he asked.
Emllyn looked at him, the man’s smooth skin and intelligent features. It suddenly occurred to her that he was a handsome man, although the thought just as quickly shocked her. The man was her captor, a barbarian and worse– he was an Irish rebel, the beating heart of the resistance that had kept her brother frustrated. But he was also ruggedly and beautifully handsome, like a wild horse that refused to be tamed. The way he was looking at her made her heartbeat quicken, just a little.
“We do,” she whispered. “But how will I get to de Cleveley’s encampment? I do not know where to go.”
Devlin was watching the way the firelight illuminated her face. “I will take you there myself,” he said. “I will watch over you to make sure you make it safely to their fortress. In fact, I may send one of my men with you as an escort. He will also help you return to Black Castle when the time is right.”
Emllyn’s gaze lingered on him a moment longer before she averted it and looked to her hands. There was an odd pull she was beginning to feel, something unexpected and unsettling. His eyes were a vortex with which to suck her in and she averted her gaze purely out of surprise more than anything. Her heart was beating faster now and her palms were sweating, and it had nothing to do with fear or intimidation.
It had everything to do with him, as a man.
Oh, God, she was going crazy!
“When do I go?” she asked softly.
Devlin felt the pull between them, too. He also felt a jolt when she tore her gaze away, a jolt that left him with a rapidly beating heart. He almost couldn’t catch his breath. He stood up and moved away from her in order to reclaim his composure.
“I am not certain,” he said. “In a day or two. I must make plans and then we shall move forward with them.”
Emllyn simply nodded her head, unwilling to look up at him again because she was fearful that the strange pull would start again and she might not be able to break away from it. She’d never known anything like it, not even with Trevor.Trevor!Her thoughts drifted to him once again.
“Until such time as you move forward with your plans, where am I to be kept?” she asked.
Devlin looked around the room. “This is the most comfortable chamber in the keep, and probably the entirecastle,” he said. “The floor is not dirt but stone and planking. It would be better for you here.”
Emllyn lifted her head, daring to look at him. “But where are the other English prisoners kept?”
His expression seemed to harden. “Deep in the ground.”
“What do you mean?”
That strange pull was starting again and he struggled to ignore it, but the longer he gazed into that lovely face, the stronger the pull became.
“Trust me when I say it is not a pleasant place,” he said.
