Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
He set her on her feet, shaking his head again. She didn’t know him. If she did, she wouldn’t believe him honorable.
“Nay. They’re a ragtag crew with little skill.” He grabbed hold of her chin. “One day, Dru, you are going to get into a situation you can’t get yourself out of.”
“Nah, you’ll be there to rescue me.”
“Not always,” Knox said, and the thought frightened him, and fright was not something he had experienced in a long while.
“Come on,” Dru said, “or did you forget we’re here to talk to Dugan?” She fell in step beside him, bumping her arm against his, and grinned. “You know, I almost had him.”
Knox eyed her with a smirk. “In your dreams, Dru. Only in your dreams.”
CHAPTER 8
Thunder rumbled promising rain before nightfall that wasn’t far off.
“Take that narrow path to your right up ahead,” Dru said. “It will take us to the Wynn croft. They’re hard-working people with four bairns. If I’m nearby when it rains, they let me shelter in their barn. If you have a coin or two to spare, they could use it. They’re good people.”
Knox nodded and took the path. Dru claimed she had no friends, but with how easily Hennie and Birdie talked with her, and how freely Dugan and his wife Hannah spoke with them, and how glad the old blind man, Albert, had been to see her, she had more genuine friends than she realized.
He cast a glance at her and could tell that something troubled her. She gazed off, her brow scrunched, and her lips slightly pursed, as if she was deciding if she should pucker them for a kiss or not. They reminded him of a rosy, ripe berry ready to pluck.
Would they taste as warm and delicious as a fresh plucked berry?
Where had that thought come from? He wasn’t attracted to Dru, though she was entertaining. He fought a smile. Life had become far more interesting since meeting her.
He pushed the interfering thoughts away and asked, “What’s wrong, Dru?”
“Like I said, the Wynns are good people.”
“But?” he asked, hearing hesitation in her voice.
She sighed softly. “I don’t think they will let us shelter for the night unless they know we’re wed.”
“Then we tell them we’re wed,” he said and wondered why it didn’t seem to appease her. “You don’t agree.”
She looked directly at him and noticed the slight scar near the corner of his right eye and the sliver of a scar along a small section of his jawline. They weren’t noticeable unless up close, so close that he could hide nothing from her. Every detail of his face was revealed to her.
Then it struck her.
He could see the same about her. She shook her head, fearing what he might see.
“Why don’t you agree, Dru?” he asked.
It took a moment to think back to what he was referring to and she recalled it quickly. “Word will spread that we are wed.”
“That’s not an immediate worry. Right now, shelter is our priority. Besides, it is inevitable that people will find out.”
“I have made it clear to many I would never wed.”
“Cleric Freen probably is letting everyone know that he didn’t leave you much choice.”
Dru was appalled at her sudden thought. “Are you saying the cleric will tell everyone that we were caught naked together?”
It didn’t bother Knox. “A cleric’s duty is to save souls, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they enjoy boasting about the souls they save. It gives them more credence with the people.” He nodded toward the distance. “There it is up ahead. We need to hurry. Rain isn’t far off.”
Dru remained silent, worried over the tale Cleric Freen might be spreading. Her suspicions were confirmed with how they were greeted upon their arrival at the croft.
“But they’re wed, Argus. It’s all proper,” the slim woman pleaded.
“Proper? You heard Cleric Freen when he stopped here. She was caught naked in his arms. I’ll not have a fallen woman stay here, and I’ll hear no more about it, Coline,” Argus ordered. “Now both of you leave.”
No one saw it coming. Knox reached out and grabbed Argus by his shirt and swung him away from the cottage to land on the ground, his booted-foot coming to rest on Argus’s chest, keeping the man locked there.
“Tarnish my wife’s name like that again and I will see you dead,” Knox threatened with a deadly calm. “Dru did nothing wrong. She is a good woman and a good wife.”
“Aye. Aye, Dru is a good woman,” Coline said, turning pleading eyes on her husband. “Do you forget how she has brought us food when we had none? Or how she keeps herself sloven so men will avoid her?”
“Like it or not, we are staying in your barn for the night. We’ll be gone by sunrise,” Knox said and reached into the fold of his plaid and extracted two coins and removing his foot, dropped them on Argus’s chest. “For your generosity, and if I ever hear that you’ve spoken badly of my wife again, I will return and slit your throat.”