Page 34 of Seven Ways to Kill a King
Miri rinsed her hands in the stream and shook the cool water free before patting her palms on her cloak. She stood, spinning the gold band on her finger while she waited, and Cass hastily splashed water over his face and arms.
They returned to the campsite to find Hugh and Ginger setting up a second tent. Hugh smiled, too broad for any good to come of it, and Ginger elbowed him hard in the ribs.
“Privacy,” she said proudly. “I told Hugh we’d not be having you feeling uncomfortable at our expense, and we had an old one in the pack we’ve been planning to trade at Stormhold. I am nothing if not a good host.” Ginger brushed her palms together, as if the matter were entirely settled, and pointed Miri and Cass toward the fire.
Cass wondered if the couple had heard the bells at Kirkwall. Surely, they’d not been far enough away by then to be out of earshot. But if they’d been troubled by the idea of kingsmen on the hunt, they did not appear concerned enough to forgo a fire and risk drawing them in.
Miri settled onto the small rug on the ground, leaving room for Cass at her side. Had he thought their constant nearness could be no more difficult than being alone with Miri had, he was wrong. It seemed Hugh and Ginger would be forcing them even closer than before, newly wed as they were. Cass and Miri would eat with the couple, at least, and spend a single night at most. Then by dawn, they would ride from the trail and into the deeper forest.
Cass had sworn a vow. He would uphold it, even if it cost him everything.
Chapter 19
Miri woke in the hours before dawn to the warm darkness of a small, tattered tent. She’d laughed with Hugh and Ginger, eaten far too much salted fish, and had a bit of a headache from the smoke of a damp wood fire. She was tangled inside two thin blankets, unsure where one ended and the other began. Once Ginger had forced both Miri and Cass inside, her pretend husband had quietly situated himself lying opposite her and facing the fabric of the tent. Miri had removed her boots in the night, and as she lay very still, she felt the warmth of Cass’s palm against her bare ankle as he slept. He would be mortified, and she couldn’t make up her mind whether to attempt sliding her foot away and risk waking him or to leave it there and risk enjoying it. She had never had a man’s hand on her ankle. It was very unlike holding his hand.
She’d just decided to slip it away when she heard the sound of approaching hoofbeats. Cass’s hand tightened on her flesh, the pad of his thumb pressing into the back of her leg. There was a moment of stillness as they listened, then Cass’s hand slid from her skin before a rustle of fabric and the sound of steel indicated he’d readied his sword. It was more of a knife-fight situation, by her judgment, but only because she had every intention of forcing the kingsmen down from their horses. Because she was sure it was kingsmen who were coming. No one else would ride up on a camp in the night.
Miri didn’t bother with her boots. She would rather be caught barefooted than half-laced into either one.
The sound of the galloping horses drew nearer, then the tent was ripped from the ground. The night was dark, but the tent had been darker, and Miri’s eyes adjusted quickly. A shadowed form towered over them. It was the outline of a man on a giant beast. The man’s half helm glinted in the moonlight, and Miri had the realization at the sight of the emblem that she very much felt as if she were being pinned by the threat of a wild bear.
Cass was on his feet, his sword low and his movements disoriented.
“Drop it,” the kingsman said.
Cass tossed the short sword to the ground, and Miri’s mouth tightened as she fought a smile when she saw that it had been hers. The sword had never been his intended weapon at all—he’d held it only as a distraction. Miri stumbled to her feet, untangling her limbs from the warmth of her blankets.
Across the camp rose a shout and a grumble as Hugh shared words with another kingsman. Three sat on horseback near the fire, and two more waited near the trees.
“Aye,” Hugh muttered, stomping closer to Miri and Cass. “I heard ye the first time. We’re going.”
The kingsmen had them corralled in their group of four. Miri had a dagger in the sheath at her hip, and two more waited beneath the blankets at her feet.
“What do you want with us?” Hugh growled. Ginger gave him a swift elbow to the ribs, and he flinched. “Woman, they dragged us out of our beds before dawn. It’s my right to ask why.”
“Search them,” the kingsman ordered.
Another dropped from his horse and stuck a torch into the embers of the campfire. As it flared to life, each had their first glimpses of the others. The torch passed in front of Ginger. Her skin was too dark and her limbs too long for her to be the maid. Hugh’s broad, muscled torso was only covered by a thin shirt, and they were clearly not the pair they were after.
The guard slowed on Cass, but Miri could see the kingsman was not one of the three they’d fought in the alley—should those men have even awoken yet. But on her, small and thin, the kingsman held his light. “Down to your shift.”
Ginger gasped, and Hugh threw his arm out as if to prevent her from acting as Cass stepped between Miri and the torch.
“I don’t know what you’re about,” Cass said coolly, “but perhaps you should reconsider.”
The kingsman gave him a solid backhand to the jaw. Cass didn’t fall but made to stagger back, and Miri’s dagger was out of her sheath and in his hand behind his hip.
“She is my wife,” Cass said.
“She is on king’s land. She belongs first to the king.” The voice came from one of the kingsmen on horseback. He said the words as if they had been said countless times before. “Off with it,” he ordered Miri.
Miri had no idea what precisely they were looking for, but she was certain her ribs and legs were heavily bruised. She did not step from behind Cass.
“What are you after beneath her clothes?” Hugh’s voice sounded like a warning, and Miri suddenly regretted accepting hospitality from a man itching to call out treason.
“A criminal.”
The kingsman’s tone brooked no argument, but that didn’t deter Hugh. “You’ll nay find one here. We’ve been traveling together since Smithsport, up to see my cousin in Ironwood and trade for goods.”
