Page 49 of The Knight's Pledge
Gorman took his time chewing the mouthful of food, staring at the fire. He nodded, then swallowed. “Aye. It makes sense.”
“Nothing makes sense,”Effie grumbled.
“Nothing makes sense to you because you’re scared.” Gorman reached down and wrapped his warm, strong fingers around her thigh, squeezing briefly then rubbing the spot. “You’re afraid that if you let it make sense, and then you’re wrong, something bad might happen to George and it will somehowbe your fault.”
“Lucan Montague doesn’t care about our son, Gorman.”
“Eff,” he said softly. “Effie, look at me. It is so easy for us—all of us here”—he glanced around the fire—“to assume that everyone is evil. That they’re all out to harm us and each other; to steal from us, or hurt us. But we know that’s not true. And we can’t live the rest of our lives suspecting everyone we meet as having wicked intentions for us the first time we let down our guard. I don’t want George Thomas to think of the world that way.”
Effie looked away from him—she didn’t want to see the truth in his eyes, because Gorman was right: it was too frightening.
He squeezed her thigh again and then released her to attend once more to his dinner. “Go talk to him. Or argue with him. You won’t get any peaceuntil you do.”
Effie sighed and then stood up. Kit Katey was walking toward the pot over the fire and so Effie handed her bowl to her friend. “Here, take mine.” She wiped her hands on her trousers and then walked purposefully around the blaze to the colder shadows where Lucan Montague sat with his skin of drink and a hunk of Mari’s bread.
“How sure are you?” she demanded.
Lucan raised his eyes slowly, one eyebrow cocked. “Good evening. I’m quite well, thank you. Would you care to join me?”
Effie rolled her eyes and sat down on the log he’d pulled to the fringes of the group. “You can stop with the forced chivalry.”
“I’ve practiced long enough, I should hope it’s not forced now.”
“How sure are you?” shepressed again.
“I’m sure.”
“That tells me nothing.”
“No one can tell you anything, Effie, because you already have all the answers.”
Anger rose in her chest, covering over her anxiety, her worry, her uncertainty, and she embraced it. “If I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t have asked.”
“You wanted to come over here to argue with me after Gorman wouldn’t take the bait,” he replied easily. “He likely sent you to be rid of you so that he could eat his dinner in peace, with more amiable companions.” He gestured across the fire to where Gorman and Kit Katey and Dana were laughing over some bit of conversation.
The anger flashed to humiliation, but before she had a chance to lose her temper, Lucan continued.
“I’msure. Harriet Payne—pardon me, Cameron—Tavish Cameron’s mother, saved Tommy’s life the night he escaped from Darlyrede. She hid him, she nursed him—and he always intended for her to have a home at Roscraig. Your brothers are all in London, and Tommy surely must know that Padraig is making a bid for Darlyrede. He’ll be waiting with Harriet for Tavish to return, to hear what has happened. He’s safe there, and he knows it.”
Effie stared into the flames to avoid his eyes. “No matter what the king decides for Padraig, Thomas Annesley never has to go back to England.”
“I’m certain herealizes that.”
“But he doesn’t know about me.” She turned toward him again.
Lucan shook his head. “No. No one knew about you.” The way he said it, the way his eyes stopped when they met hers, caused her breath to catch in her throat.“Not even me.”
Effie swallowed, and thankfully it was Lucan who looked away this time while she spoke. “It will be worse somehow, if you’re right. If he’s there. He’s finally provided for his sons, and is safe. But once we arrive, he’ll have no choice.”
Lucan looked at her again with those icy eyes now rimmed with firelight. “Meaning you won’tgive him one?”
Effie felt her eyebrows draw together. “But…George Thomas…”
“If I’ve learned anything about Thomas Annesley in these many years of study of his family, it is that once he lays eyes upon you, he’ll”—Lucan broke off, his expression seeming to tentatively caress her skin as he looked at her. “He’ll be completely at your mercy. Family means everything to him. Perhaps that’s where you got it from.”
Gooseflesh raced over Effie’s arms. She felt strangely weak in her legs now and was glad she was sitting. She forced herself to speak. “You mean you…I…wewon’t force him back to London, as the king wishes.”
“I did that once,” Lucan allowed. “I was wrong. But, no, I don’t think either of us will need force him to do anything.”
