Page 126 of Outlaw Ever After

“Can ye ever forgive me?” God, his words so thick. He cleared his throat roughly.

“But can ye nay see,” she smiled, cupping his cheek, “all is forgiven already.”

“I’m going to be a da.” That sparkle, that smile splitting her mouth wide was bright enough to light up the world. “Ye’re going to be fine.”

She giggled and nodded. “I am going to be fine!”

He bounced up and whirled her in his arms again.

“No more carrying cauldrons up the stairs,” he chastened into her neck, though it was laden with lingering concern. “Ye should rest,” he said, not relinquishing her to rest as her feet continued to dangle over the floor.

“Nay, I should eat! Jossy’s already sent a maid to prepare me proper meals until this sickness passes…” Her face dropped.

“Are ye lightheaded again?” he fretted, setting her down and shuffling her back to bed amid her protest. “Are ye dizzy?”

“I’m fine, man.”

“Fine .” He harumphed his least favorite word.

“But we must elope. We must be quick.”

That alarm surged again. Conflicted, he knelt and cradled her cheek. What kind of man would he be to charge off into the night with her when she was so frail and yet, she was right, too.

“I nay want ye to suffer another moment like tonight.”

“But ye ken we must. Ye promised.”

Promise… He dare not break his promise. Nodding resolutely, he brought her hand to his lips. Kissed her ring finger fisted in his grip.

“Finish every bite Jossy brings ye, and then dress warm. We’ll leave after that for Duthil.”

Like hell he would see her on any other man’s arm. Like hell he’d allow another man to rear his bloodline as his own. He thought he heard Jossy murmur something about him playing with fire.

He always had.

Minutes later he roused Thomas in the stables, slipping a coin into his hand. “Ready Faunus for me, quietly, lad,” he murmured. Glancing over his shoulder at patrolling guardsmen, he gazed up at Peigi’s window, shuttered tight, and prayed he wasn’t making a mistake.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Secret passages? Awestruck, Peigi watched Alex…nay, Caleb , check once more to ensure the corridor was empty, then pull aside the tapestry and with a stiff jolt, ease the door open.

No wonder he had been able to appear in places it had seemed impossible for him to be. Peigi clung to his hand as he guided her, entombed in blackness, down a set of stairs.

No more teases in her ear or cocksure grins. His grip was tight and worried. She flexed her hand to ease his death grip pinching her fingers.

She patted him to feel where he was. He was hunched over, contorting himself sideways to make room for his shoulders. Her head skimmed the ceiling of this narrow staircase and their breathing was close and muted. It smelled musty and dank.

Finally, they stopped. He rested silent, an ear to a door. He eased it open. More blackness, but this was shadowed in light seeping beneath cracks above them, illuminating just enough to make out dark, shadowy shapes.

The buttery! Rows of casks.

He eased her up the stairs to the main level. Once more, he listened and then cracked open the door. No one. The hall was calmer, the hour late. He pulled her into the kitchen and down the stairs to the side exit. Pushed the door open, glancing out through the crack.

All was silent. He padded softly through the fallow garden rows and out the gate as she clenched him, her belly full and her heart hammering. They were really doing this. Usurping the entire tourney. Only one other time had she snuck about in the middle of night to do the wrong thing.

Sometimes wrong was right.

From shadow to shadow he hurried her, vigilant like the warrior he’d had to become, and when they arrived at the stables, Thomas was beaming proudly, his finger over his lips.