Brian’s face didn’t lose any of its hardness. “I loved Mary and Roger killed her. Someday you’ll understand what that means.”
“I may love a hundred people but that will not make me stop loving Roger, who has done so much for me. Even now he searches for me.”
Brian looked at her in question. “You slipped away easily enough from your guard. If you’re held so loosely, why don’t you escape and go to Roger?”
Elizabeth moved away from him but Brian caught her arm. “Do the Montgomery men hold such attraction for you? Which is it? The married one or the boy?”
“Miles is far from being a boy!” she snorted. “Sometimes age is deceptive.” She ceased when she saw Brian’s expression.
“Do you forget that I was there at the Montgomery estate? So it’s Miles you’ve come to love. A good choice. He’s a man with enough fire to match your own.”
“What I feel for any Montgomery doesn’t change what I feel for Roger.”
“And that is? What keeps you from going to him? These Scots can’t be too difficult to escape. You deceived Edmund for years.”
She was silent for a moment. “It isn’t just Miles. There’s a peacefulness here that I’ve never known before. No one puts knives to my throat. There are no distant screams at Larenston. I can walk down a corridor and not have to slide from shadow to shadow.”
“I saw a glimpse of that once,” Brian whispered, “but Roger killed it and now I mean to kill him.”
“Brian! You must rest and think what you’re saying.”
He ignored her. “Do you know where Raine Montgomery is?”
“No,” she said, startled. “He’s in a forest somewhere. I met a singer who’d been with him.”
“Do you know where I can find her?”
“Why do you care where this Raine is? Has he done something to you?”
“I plan to beg him to teach me how to fight.”
“Not to fight Roger?” she gasped, then smiled. “Brian, Roger will never fight you, and look at you. You aren’t half the size of Roger and you look as if you’ve lost weight. Stay here and rest a few days and we’ll—”
“Don’t patronize me, Elizabeth. I know what I’m doing. Raine Montgomery is strong and knows how to train. He’ll teach me what I need to know.”
“Do you really expect me to help you?” she asked angrily. “Do you honestly think I’d tell you where this Montgomery was even if I knew? I’ll not aid you in your madness.”
“Elizabeth,” he said softly. “I came to say goodbye. I have waited in these woods for weeks, waiting for a time to see you, but you’re always heavily guarded. Now that I have seen you I can leave. I will fight Roger and one of us will die.”
“Brian, please, you have to reconsider.”
As if he were an old man, he kissed her forehead. “Live in peace, my little sister, and remember me kindly.”
Elizabeth was too stunned to reply, but as Brian turned away, Scotsmen began to drop from the trees. Stephen Montgomery, sword drawn, planted himself before Brian Chatworth.
Chapter 12
“DO NOT HURT HIM,” ELIZABETH SAID HEAVILY, WITHOUT the least fear that Stephen would harm her young brother.
Stephen caught her tone and resheathed his sword. “Go with my men and they’ll feed you,” he said to Brian.
With one last look at Elizabeth, Brian left the clearing, surrounded by MacArrans.
Elizabeth stood glaring at Stephen for a moment and in that time she understood a great deal.
Stephen had the courtesy to look somewhat embarrassed. With a sheepish grin, he leaned against a tree, took the dirk from the sheath on his calf and began to whittle on a stick. “Miles knows nothing about this,” he began.
“You used me as bait to capture my brother, didn’t you?” she blurted.