The Blood of a Baron - K.J. Jackson Page 0,42
And you’re demanding I blindly trust you. When any trust—any loyalty I once had for you is now down to the tiniest shred. I’ve been doing just fine on my own for the last seven years and I don’t need you in my life now.”
She snatched the key from the table and spun from him, stalking her way across the room and up the stairs.
Leave the ass to his own dinner.
She had lost all appetite.
{ Chapter 17 }
A low whistle reached his ears.
Wes ignored it, not bothering to look up at Rune as he approached with three plates full of mutton pies next to heaping lumps of green that he couldn’t quite identify. Rune set the plates onto the table and sat across from Wes.
“I didn’t see anyone go up the stairs before or after—you?” Wes grumbled into his tankard.
Rune shook his head and picked up his fork as he scanned the room. Constantly on guard. There wasn’t a better man for seeing things before they came to be than Rune.
Wes scratched his brow, his head shaking, then picked up his fork, jabbing at the food on his plate but not taking a bite of anything.
The blasted woman had a knack for driving him mad. He’d forgotten that about her—how she liked to challenge him at every turn. After he grew into his height at fourteen, his size and his position had meant that few challenged him. His father. Laney. That was it.
She had been too damn entitled to it then. Too damn entitled to it now.
After the low whistle as he’d approached, Rune ate in silence across from him. Pointed silence.
Wes’s stare locked onto Rune. “What?”
One more forkful of mushy beans into his mouth and Rune lifted his look to Wes. “Who is she?”
“You know exactly who she is.”
Rune shook his head. “She’s not just Morton’s sister. Who is she?”
His bottom jaw shifting back and forth, Wes exhaled a long sigh. “She’s the one I was to marry. We obviously didn’t.”
Rune stared at him for a long second, then looked to his plate, stabbing a chunk of meat. Silent bugger.
“What?”
His old friend shrugged, picking up his silver tankard and sipping his ale.
“Say it, Rune.” Wes slammed his fork onto the table. “You’ve never been shy about telling me exactly what you think.”
Rune sighed and set his mug down onto the table with a thunk. “I only heard the last of what she said to you, so I can only imagine what preceded it.”
“She wants to know where we’re going.”
“Seems a reasonable request.”
“It would require explanation.”
“She’s carrying the damn box and she doesn’t know what it is?” Rune’s jaw went slack as his hand clutching his fork clunked onto the table. “You haven’t told her? Haven’t told her anything, have you?”
“Tell her what I’ve been doing for the last seven months with her brother? Tell her what I’m doing with her?” His head shook. “No. No, I haven’t told her.”
Another low whistle slipped through Rune’s teeth. “Only you could get yourself in this deep with no plan for escape.”
“Because you always have a plan of escape?” Wes’s eyebrows lifted high. “Your opinions on the matter aren’t welcome, Rune.”
Rune picked up his fork, spiking it through a morsel of meat. He took the bite, staring at Wes as he chewed. “You’ve always been a man looking at what he’s lost. Instead of a man looking at what he could have.”
“And?”
Rune’s head angled to the stairs in the far corner of the inn. “And it seems like what you could have might be worth forgetting about what you lost.” He forked another piece of meat. “I watched the lass watch you all day long. She didn’t bother giving me one undue glance and you know well which one of us is admired by the ladies.”
“Your point?”
“She only looks at you, Wes.” Rune pointed the tips of his fork at Wes. “Bizarre—I realize. No matter how irate she is with you, you are what she looks to. What she trusts, regardless of what she says on the matter. So you might just want to share with her a few details about what’s really going on.”
Wes shoved his chair back, standing up. “And you’ve always been an idiot, Sin. Pontificating where it’s not welcome.”
Rune’s palms flew up. “You asked.”
Wes turned from the table, storming toward the stairs.
Idiot.
What did Rune know? What did Rune understand about losing everything in one’s life?
A whole damn much, actually. Rune had lost just as much as him.
“Wes—before you escape