know nothin’ of love, or—”
She giggled and assured him in the darkness, “You are doing things right.”
His belly burned in the darkness. Did she like him?
“Tell me more,” she whispered.
He’d already told her more than he’d told anyone, but his mouth was already opening. Being here with her felt right, like mayhap, he could lower his weapon “I left my kins’ quiet home when I was aboot ten and five and was part of young King David’s exile to France. I became his protector and spied oot his enemies then killed them before they could cause him harm.”
“You were a spy?” she asked a bit breathlessly.
“When I had to be.” He brushed her hair away from her eyes and felt a surge of heat rush through him. It was desire, and more.
It was the more that scared him.
Chapter Five
Rose listened to Tristan tell her about his life. She loved hearing about the places he’d been—not so much about what he’d done in those places, but what towns were like in France, and how the sun set over the Highland mountains illuminating the jagged skyline in shades of crimson, gray, and indigo. She imagined it. She wanted to see it. The more he told her, the more she didn’t want to return home.
“Was yer childhood verra difficult?” he asked her.
She sighed and hesitated to give him a rash response. “I had a friend…” she began slowly. “He was a servant. He was older than me—more like a brother. He always promised to take me away from the walls.”
“Why did he not do it?”
She shook her head. “I do not know. He’d gone to Kirkhead on business for my father. After my mother was killed and the gates were locked, he never returned.”
“Did he try”
“No. I’m told he did not. I had no other friends, just my father’s guards. Fourteen of them. Some were tolerant of me, others were not. After the gates were locked, Captain Harper was kind to me and patient. He became my only friend.”
“Ye have gates around yer home and fourteen guards?” he asked, looking a little green. When he spoke, she could tell he was holding his breath. What was the matter with him. “How was yer mother killed, lass?”
She wanted to tell him, but not today. She wanted the day to stay bright and not dreary. “Let us not talk about that,” she insisted on a slight breath.
Tristan leaned into her and let his breath comfort her.
She thought about her life. After losing her mother and Neill just days apart, she thought she would go mad with loneliness and die of boredom.
She loved her father. She loved him more than anyone else in world. He overprotected her because he loved her. She understood why. But she was growing old and she had seen nothing, been nowhere. She wanted to live. To have adventure.
She wanted adventure with Tristan.
“Tristan?” she asked softly and played with a thread in her skirt.
“Aye, lass?”
“When might you be going back home?”
“I dinna know. Mayhap when I am done here.”
She nodded. Would he consider taking her—just for a month or two? Was she bold enough to ask?
“What do you miss the most about being there?” she asked instead.
He thought about it for a moment, then, “My Uncle Torin’s stories,” he answered with a soft laugh, as if he were surprised at his reply. “My father and his two brothers built our home. ’Tis more like a walled in village. My cousins and I all grew up together. Our families each had our own manor house but at night we would gather in the great hall to eat and, later, to listen to my uncle’s stories of a legendary king called Arthur and his restin’ place on the magical isle of Avalon. I was always last to bed.”
She smiled. So, the ruthless killer liked the fanciful.
“I read many things, but I have never heard of this king.”
“I will tell ye of him,” he promised softly.
Oh, why did he have to be a killer?
“Tristan.” She slipped her stockinged feet between his, “What if you did not kill Walters, the governor?”
“I’m goin’ to kill him, Rose. I have already been paid. My reputation would be ruined.”
“Is your reputation more important than your soul?”
“Are ye worried aboot my soul, lass?”
“Aye, I want you to go to heaven. I will be there and I hate the thought that you will not.”
Her eyes had adjusted to the dim light enough to see that he smiled indulgently at her. She