He was also quite smart and able to read the situation for what it was. Devlin sensed that perhaps she was softening to him somewhat. It was in her manner, the way she looked at him. There were moments when she let her guard down and he could see that intelligent, warm woman that he wanted to see more of.
“At the moment, I am not your captor,” he said quietly. “I am a fellow prisoner. We are equals. We will enter de Cleveley’s settlement as equals and we will leave as equals. You want something from me, I want something from you, and we will combine our forces to ensure each of us gets what we want. That makes us equal.”
He was correct in a sense. But it was a technicality. “Then if I wanted to go home now, you would let me, as an equal, of course.”
“If you go home, you will never find out if your lover is in my vault.”
Stymied, Emllyn thought a moment before regrouping. “It has not occurred to me until now,” she said, “but you could be lying for all I know. I never actually saw any prisoners at all. Who is to say that you have any? This could be an overt fabrication.”
“If it is, then you fell for it,” Devlin said, cutting her down. “Who would be the bigger fool? Me for fabricating it or you for falling for it?”
He had her. Emllyn sighed heavily before averting her gaze. “I am the biggest fool of all for stowing away on my brother’s warships to begin with,” she muttered with regret. “But you and I have a bargain and I will not go back on my word. Before weenter de Cleveley’s settlement, mayhap you should tell me what it is I am supposed to say so that we have our stories straight.”
Feeling victorious in their battle of words, Devlin finished cinching up his satchel. “I touched on it before but to be clear, you will indeed tell them the truth– you are Kildare’s sister and you stowed away on your brother’s war fleet,” he said as he finished with his bag and moved for the hides that had constituted her bed. “You will tell them that Black Sword captured you and threw you in the vault, where you were stored with other prisoners, of which I was one. We were able to escape when I overpowered a guard and stole his keys, and we escaped in the middle of the night through a postern gate near the kitchens. I have accompanied you because I am a mute and have nowhere else to go. You will stress that I am to be kept with you because you feel safe with me; otherwise, they could throw me in the vault again.”
Emllyn watched him as he rolled up the hides and basically cleaned up their camp. All of it seemed like a very daunting task. “I will admit that I am apprehensive,” she said. “I have never done anything like this before. I am not sure if I can be convincing.”
“If you are not convincing, you will never see your lover again.”
“And they will kill you.”
“I would prefer that not happen.”
It was a wry statement, a bit of levity to break the tension. With a heavy sigh, Emllyn nodded. “Very well, then,” she said, pulling the cloak more tightly about her against the early morning dew. “Let us get started. Where is Eefha?”
She was looking around, trying to see through the mist. Devlin took the hides and his satchel and began heading up one of the small hills that surrounded the vale.
“I do not know,” he said. “She was gone this morning before my men pulled out.”
“Do you think she went back to Black Castle?”
“It is hard to say with her.”
Emllyn began looking around as if she could somehow spot the small old woman in all of this fog. She felt a strange sense of loss with Eefha gone because she had established something of an attachment to the woman who had saved her from the frightening Irish knight who had come pounding on her door. She was so involved in scanning the mist that it took her a moment to notice that Devlin had all but disappeared. Curious, she made her way towards the hill where she last saw him when she suddenly saw the tree on top of the mound rattle. Peering closer, she could see Devlin up in the branches of the big, old oak.
“What are you doing?” she called up to him.
The branches rattled and one of them, a rather large branch, crashed to the ground. “Hiding my possessions,” he said. “We may need them when we escape and head back to Black Castle. I want to try to keep them safe.”
“In a tree?”
“In a tree. No one ever thinks to look up in a tree.”
Emllyn watched the man fumble around in the branches before eventually lowering himself to the ground. For such a big man, he climbed rather agilely. He brushed the prickly oak leaves off of his ragged clothing as he approached.
“There, now,” he said. “All finished. How is your leg, by the way?”
Emllyn instinctively put her hand down to the painful, swollen spot. “It hurts.”
“We have quite a bit of walking to do. Can you make it?”
“I will have to.”
“If it becomes too painful, I will carry you.”
She looked at him as if disgusted by the suggestion. “You will do no such thing,” she said primly. “I will walk.”
She was being stubborn about it. As she tried to walk away from him, he grabbed her by the arm.
