Page 48 of The Knight's Pledge
Kit shook her head. “No. Gorman had been gone for some time. He saw me from the forest one day, when I was permitted to walk in the sun. Hesaw my chains.”
Lucan didn’t know what to say, and so he let the silence grow between them until Kit Katey spoke again.
“He came back, day after day, for weeks, until he had made a plan. He took me to the White Swan, toMari and Gale.”
“Didn’t you wish to return toyour village?”
“There is no village to return to,” she answered quietly. “I could not stay in Scotland—those who live in the town of the White Swan thought me a devil. The Warren is my home now. Gorman and Effie and the othersare my family.”
“And so, what? You’ll simply live in a cave forever?” Lucan couldn’t help but ask.
“You say that as if I were still a prisoner. Gorman did not simply rescue me from Adolphus Paget—he freed me. I go where they go. I help when they need.” She watched him closely for a moment. “You wonder why I have come onthis journey.”
“Frankly, yes,”Lucan admitted.
Her smile was small, yet the intensity of it nearly took Lucan’s breath.
“There was a reason I was taken from my village alive, English knight. If I told you, you would not believe me. But perhaps before our journey is ended, you will see.” She looked ahead at the road rising beyond the party of bandits, her smooth face serene, and despite everything she had told Lucan her deepest secrets remained locked behind those mysterious dark eyes.
Lucan stewed. It seemed that the longer he was with this motley group of criminals and refugees, the more he learned, the less he knew. Not only about them, but about the very people who populated his own land. He was not so naïve as to misunderstand what Kit Katey’s true role to Adolphus Paget had been. And to think that this atrocity had been perpetuating long before Lucan had been exiled to France. Perhaps even before his parents had died.
Had they known?
His heart skipped a beat. No. No, not his father—honorable and fair. Not his mother, kind and generous.
Then why had they not brought attention to what everyone else in the land had seemed to already know? Why hadn’t they helped Thomas Annesley?
Whyhad they died?
He thought of the niggling splinter James Rose had left him with. Tommy wouldn’t dare venture among strangers for refuge—no one could be trusted. And those who would have helped him were perhaps dead or already royal guests in London. But still…We’re wasting our time…
He thought of Kit Katey’s proclamation—that Gorman had not only saved her,he’d freed her.
If word did somehow reach Tommy that Euphemia Hargrave, his child with his beloved Cordelia, was alive, how would he ever hope to find her in the vastness of Britain, without exposing himself to those seeking to apprehend him for bounty? He had no one to turn to, just as he’d had no one to turn to that night he’d escaped Darlyrede House with barely his life. If it hadn’t been for—
Oh, my God.
Lucan pulled up hard on Agrios’s reins, bringing the mount to a prancing halt on the road.
Gilboe, riding behind him, let out a rather unchaste string of curses.
“We’re going the wrong way,” Lucan announced loudly. He looked around the band, half turned to him, their horses stomping, their breaths clouding the morning air. His eyes met Effie Annesley’s, wide and pale in the bright sunlight, and it was to herthat he spoke.
“I know where ThomasAnnesley is.”
* * * *
Effie kept her distance from Lucan Montague while the band made camp in the rapidly descending night, and while they sat around the fire preparing the meal. She kept her distance, and yet she kept him in sight, closely watching his solemn, slender face, his quick, efficient movements as he ordered his own possessions.
If what he had said on the road that morning was true, it was possible that Effie would at last meet her father in only amatter of days.
A bowl of food was pressed into her hands and then Gorman was lowering to a seat at her side. “Just go talkto him, Effie.”
“I’ve no need to.” She picked up a piece of meat between her forefinger and thumb and blew on it. “We’ve decided.”
“But you’re notyet convinced.”
She turned to look at Gorman. “Are you?”
