“Logan won’t like it. Neither will Grandfather.”
Caine gave him a level stare. “She comes with us.”
Sighing, Raven looked back to me. “What’s your name?”
My throat felt as if it was closing, but I managed to answer. “Kara.”
He motioned to the two older men. “This is Tannen, and that’s Badger. You’re safe with us.” His following glance at Caine made me wonder about this assurance.
Then, I was forgotten.
“We need to get back to our own horses before making camp,” the man called Badger said. “And tomorrow, we’ll need to get to a road or this wagon isn’t going much farther.”
Casting around, I saw that we were deep in the forest, and these men had been driving the wagon around the trees and through the brush. Though their swords had long been sheathed, all the men but Badger still wore bows and quivers slung over their backs. Now, they took these off and tied them to their saddles.
I dreaded the thought of getting back on a horse.
Thankfully, instead of lifting me, Caine laced his hands.
“Up,” he said.
I’d never mounted a horse on my own, but I knew what he wanted. Stepping into his hand, I swung my over leg over and settled my skirt to ride astride. He came up behind me again, reached around, and took the reins.
There were eight saddled horses plus two harnessed to the wagon. Caine and I rode one horse. Raven rode another, and Tannen rode a third, but he had the other five connected on a long lead. Badger drove the wagon. Raven led the way, and within moments, I could hear Badger swearing as he tried to maneuver through the dense brush.
I felt numb and lost. I kept thinking of my lady and how alone she must be feeling.
Perhaps an hour later, we rode into a clearing where four other saddled horses walked about, eating grass and brush. They were on long ropes tied to stakes in the ground. But our arrival caused some excitement as the new horses entered. An abundance of sniffing and snorting sounded, and the space felt smaller with so many horses gathered inside.
Badger drove the wagon into the clearing, and it moved more easily over the open ground.
“Thank the gods,” he said in relief. “Raven, you’d better get us to a road tomorrow.”
Caine hopped down and lifted me off the horse, allowing me to become steady on my feet. Then all four men set to work tying off the horses to settle them for the night.
A few moments later, Raven walked to the wagon and jumped up into the back, opening trunks and rifling through burlap sacks. “There’s a pouch of silver,” he called. “But the rest is mainly men’s clothing. The tunics are silk, and there are a few cloaks worth selling.”
He hadn’t opened my trunk yet.
“Those trunks are worth keeping,” Tannen said.
Raven hopped back to the ground, holding up a burlap sack. “You hungry?” he asked me.
It was still hard for me to speak, but of the four men, he frightened me the least.
“Thirsty,” I whispered.
At my single word, his expression turned abashed, and he strode over to a saddle lying on the ground. After unlashing a canteen, he walked back, holding it out.
“Here.”
I drank the water gratefully as the four of them passed around apples and biscuits from the Capellos’ food stores. Caine offered me a biscuit, but I shook my head. I didn’t think I could swallow more than water.
Still eating an apple, Raven jumped back up onto the wagon’s bed. I wasn’t paying attention, but I could hear him moving things around.
“Kara,” he called. “Come up here.”
He’d used my name.
Without thinking, I crawled up onto the wagon’s bed and saw that he’d arranged several trunks with a space in the middle, where he’d laid down a cloak.
“We can’t risk a fire,” he said. “But this should shield you from the wind. It’s the best I can do tonight.” He paused and added, “The rest of us are fine on the ground.”
He’d gone to the trouble to make me a bed up here, and then he’d assured me it was a private space. His kindness left me undone, and everything that had happened to me from that morning to this moment came crashing down. I could feel my exhausted body begin to shake and unwanted tears sprang to my eyes.
This reaction was not lost on him. Startled, he reached out and drew me over. “Lie down and use your own cloak as a blanket.”
Like a child, I obeyed him and even let him arrange my cloak to cover me.
“Go to sleep,” he said.
My body and mind were so weary that I closed my eyes.
Chapter Three
The next morning, I woke up to male voices, but couldn’t remember where I was.
“That sounds like a waste to me,” someone said.
Sitting up, I realized I was in the back of a wagon, covered by my own cloak.
Four men stood nearby, on the ground. Everything from the day before came rushing back: that I’d been a captive of Royce Capello, and now I was a captive of these strangers. I hadn’t eaten more than a few bites of an apple since the day before that, and I was cold. All four of the men were dressed differently this morning, wearing thick, woolen shirts and canvas jackets more suited to the weather.
“We can put anything of value into sacks and tie them to the spare horses,” Raven said.
“And just abandon the wagon and those trunks?” Tannen asked.
“We’ll never get that wagon through these trees, and after…taking the girl, I don’t think we should risk traveling by road. Besides, if we ride straight east through the forest, we’ll make it home by nightfall.”
Tannen grimaced. “Still sounds like a waste.”
But Caine had already reached the wagon, motioning to me. “Come down.”
I climbed down quickly, and he began pulling trunks toward himself.
It was odd to stand there watching them go through Lord Trey and Royce’s possessions. They stuffed everything they could into burlap sacks until Raven opened the last trunk. This one was small, more of a chest than a trunk.
It was mine.
He didn’t touch anything inside.
After looking at the gowns of white and ice blue, he glanced to me first and then to Badger.
“This one’s not large,” he said. “Could we tie it to the back of a horse?”
“Shouldn’t be much trouble,” Badger answered.
In surprisingly short time, they had everything they wanted secured for a journey, with extra horses tied on long lines. The wagon and the trunks on the ground would remain behind.
“Do you want to ride on your own today?” Raven asked me.
I dropped my eyes. “I don’t know how.”
“What do you mean?”
“She can ride with me,” Caine said. But this time, he mounted first and reached down. “Swing up behind.”
Grasping his hand, I let him pull me up. Sitting behind him, the arrangement was more comfortable. But…where were we going? I didn’t want to go with these men. I didn’t want to go farther away from my lady.
I