Page 28 of Fragile Oath

To keep her safe? Or to keep her in?

“Of course.” She nodded, shooting me a nearly imperceptible sideways glance as Ewan approached the carriage door.

I nodded sharply in response to Alexei’s demand, not trusting myself to speak. Our guards would be stationed in the hallway as well, so I took the not-quite-win without further commentary, desperate to get out of the carriage.

Once I was sure they were both in their respective rooms and Hamish was standing guard in the hall, I made my way to the room I would share with Gallagher. He trailed behind me like a man marching to the gallows.

As soon as I heard the door click shut behind him, I spun around to confront my cousin.

“Would you like to tell me whatever it is you’re hiding?” I demanded.

He hesitated for a moment, clearly contemplating a lie. I could practically see the falsehood forming on his lips. At a warning glance from me, he snapped his mouth shut.

There went any lingering uncertainty I was harboring.

All he had to do was touch someone to see everywhere they were hurt. I had tried and failed to come up with another plausible explanation for him to step in the way he did. Even if he wanted to take the ire off Galina, it didn’t make sense to incense Alexei by insisting on taking her hand.

Unless he had a damned good reason.

He took a deep breath, letting it out as he took a step further into the room. “It’s not my place to—”

“Don’t you dare.” I bit out the words, cutting him off completely. He stopped moving, his auburn brows rising to his hairline as he clamped his mouth shut once again. “If you were so concerned with boundaries, you wouldn’t have touched her to begin with, so tell me why you felt the sudden and overwhelming need to check her for injuries.”

It wasn’t something he did out of habit. He specifically tried to avoid being intrusive unless he had to.

He looked away, his jaw working. “Don’t pretend you didn’t see the way he was with her.”

“Beyond typical Socairan arsehattery?” I wasn’t sure why I was asking when the answer was written all over his face. But I was still hoping I was wrong, that he would deny it, that he would tell me he found nothing.

That hope died with the cautious look he flashed at me. “Dav—”

I shook my head, my body vibrating with rage. “No, you don’t get toDavme right now. You had no problem invading her privacy for yourownknowledge.”

Gallagher raised his hands in surrender as he took a seat on one of the narrow beds.

“In fairness,” he sighed, sinking down into the plush mattress, “it was an accident the first time.”

“The first–” I started to ask, but then cut myself off when the answer dawned on me.

The first time, when he must have had to help her on and off of her horse on their way here, inadvertently touching her skin in the process. That was the reason she had been so desperate to leave, and still she had stood there with her stars-damned pride and risked the chance that I would tell her no.

Then what would she have done? Gone back to him, rather than tell me the truth?

Isn't that what she’s doing now?

“How bad?” I barely got the words out. “At least tell me that, since you’ve apparently known for months that my fiancée was escaping a man who laid his hands on her and didn’t damned well bother to tell me.”

Gal exhaled slowly, empathy softening his expression. “They’re minor contusions this time.”

“But last time?” I pressed.

Had she been seriously injured when she sat in my rooms at Rowan’s castle, her perfect features revealing none of the desperation she must have felt? When she slept on the freezing ground in the tunnels and rode for days on end to reach Lithlinglau?

When she insisted on taking every ounce of the blame for her departure from Socair, knowing the man who hurt her would surely find out?

“Last time, she was already safe in Lochlann,” he said evenly. “This time, we were both biding our time for more information. Don’t act like you’re refraining from arresting him — or murdering him — out of mercy. You know as well as I do that something is off about this entire situation. It would have changed nothing for you, and she obviously didn’t want anyone to know.”

I shook my head, pulling the flask from my cloak and taking a long swig.

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