By now two of the men had walked toward the group and from the look of them, they were the woman’s brothers. Elizabeth, angry at Miles’s flirting, even if it were for a good cause, looked up through her lashes at the men. “We have had a most unfortunate accident,” she said in French, not quite as good as Miles’s, but adequate. “We were hoping
to trade this unworthy cloak for a few garments, although perhaps your sister’s would be a bit small.” At that she casually let the cloak fall to her hips, revealing a skin-tight shirt and pants even tighter. Miles angrily pulled the cloak back to her shoulders but not before the young men gasped in appreciation.
“Will there be a trade?” Miles said through clenched teeth, not looking at Elizabeth.
The brothers agreed readily, the sister having been pushed into the background.
A few minutes later, Elizabeth stepped into a doorway and changed clothes under the cover of her cloak. The dress she wore was plain homespun, loose, comfortable, concealing.
When Miles and Roger were also dressed plainly but with tight hose displaying their muscular thighs, they filled packs with food and set off toward the south.
They were well out of town before Miles spoke to Elizabeth. “And did you learn that trick while at your brother’s house? You seem to have recovered quickly from your fear of men.”
“And what was I supposed to do? Stand by and let that slut maul you? No doubt you would have taken her against the wall if she’d asked that price.”
“Perhaps,” was all Miles said and lapsed into one of his infuriating silences.
“Why is it that you accuse me of all manner of bad doings? I have never done anything to deserve your mistrust. I stayed with you in Scotland and—”
“You ran away and nearly killed the MacGregor. You left with your brother,” Miles said flatly.
“But I had to!” Elizabeth insisted.
Roger had been walking on the other side of Elizabeth, silent until now. “I would have killed you, Montgomery, if she hadn’t gone with me. And I wouldn’t have believed whatever she said about wanting to stay with you.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Miles asked Roger after a pause.
“Because Elizabeth’s ranted at me for a long time about how…wrong I’ve been. Perhaps there’s some truth in her words.”
They walked in silence for some time, no one speaking his or her thoughts.
As the sun rose higher, they stopped and ate, drinking water from a roadside stream. Elizabeth caught Miles watching her several times and she wondered what he was thinking.
They passed many travelers on the road, rich merchants with donkeys laden with gold, many wandering peasants, musicians, blacksmiths and once a nobleman escorted by twenty armed knights. For an hour afterward Roger and Miles made derogatory remarks about the knights, ranging from their colors to their old-fashioned armor.
As the sun started its descent, the men looked about for a place to spend the night. Although they risked being arrested as poachers, Roger and Miles chose to stay in the king’s forest, away from the campers along the roadside.
As they ate, Miles and Roger talked about training, mentioned a few people they both knew and generally acted as if they were old friends. Elizabeth walked away into the shadows and neither man even noticed. Several minutes later she was near tears as she leaned against a tree and listened to the night sounds.
When Miles’s hand touched her shoulder, she jumped away.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“Wrong!” she hissed at him, her eyes filling with tears. “How could anything be wrong! You held me prisoner for months, made me fall in love with you, yet when I sacrificed everything to save your worthless life, you hated me. I have borne your child, I have conspired with your relatives and your own man to win you back, yet all I get from you is coolness. I’ve kissed you and you’ve responded but you’ve offered me nothing on your own. What must I do to make you understand that I didn’t betray you? That I didn’t choose my brother over you? You heard Roger say he would have killed you if I hadn’t gone with him.” She couldn’t continue as the tears were choking her.
Miles leaned against a tree, several feet away from her. The moonlight silvered his hair and eyes. “I thought only my brothers were subject to the old demon of pride. I thought Raine was a fool when he refused to forgive his wife for going to the king to beg for a pardon. I could have forgiven you a king but you chose one man over me, someone else’s home over mine. And when I heard the stories of all the men you’d bedded I knew I could have killed you.”
When she started to protest, he put up his hand. “Perhaps it’s because I’ve dealt with so many unfaithful wives, women who’ve risen from my bed and put on their wedding clothes. Maybe that distorted my view of all women. And finally, you were my prisoner but you came to me so easily.”
“I fought you!” she said hotly, insulted.
Miles merely smiled at her. “Raine said I was jealous, and the irony of it was that I was jealous of the same man as he was. Raine believed his wife Alyx had a great affection for Roger Chatworth.”
“Roger, I’m sure, knew nothing of this.”
“So I gathered when he told the story of Alyx saving his life. Alyx did it to save Raine because my brother is a hotheaded, stubborn man who never listens to reason.”
“Raine!” Elizabeth sputtered. “Did he rage so that he tore his stitches? Did he have to be drugged to make him sleep?”