‘How do I know what you say is true?’ she blurted out. ‘How can I trust what you say?’
‘You can’t.’ He shrugged his shoulders, his dry, clipped tone cutting across her emotional outburst.
‘So, if your soldiers let Waleran go, you’ll let me go as well, then,’ Katerina reasoned, clutching at her opportunity to escape, and scrambling, too quickly, on to her feet. Her head dipped and swayed, and she clutched at the back of her head, suddenly.
Lussac placed one hand on her shoulder, steadying her, watching the slight colour drain from her face. He cleared his throat, unsure what to say. Beneath her pewter gaze he felt strangely tongue-tied, awkward. ‘Go easy now, maid,’ he said gruffly. ‘You’ve had a nasty fall.’ Beneath his muscular fingers, her bones were bird-like, delicate.
‘No thanks to you,’ she retorted, rolling her shoulder back angrily to release his grip. ‘And take your hands off me; I have no need of your help.’ The silvery skin of his chainmail wavered and shimmered in front of her eyes. Narrowing her gaze, she focused on one of the gold fleur-de-lys emblazoned across his chest.
‘Let me take you home,’ he offered, ignoring her rudeness. ‘Do you live around here?’
‘No, there’s no need for that!’ Her words gabbled out in a rush of protest. The last thing she wanted was to spend any more time in this man’s company! She backed away from him, shaking her head. ‘It’s not far; you needn’t concern yourself.’
‘Oh, I’m not concerned,’ he replied mildly. ‘But I can’t leave you here, a maid alone, in the forest.’ He eyed her stumbling retreat with curiosity. Her look of horror. Did she not realise how vulnerable she was?
‘Believe me...’ she fixed the knight with what she hoped was a convincing expression ‘...I will be absolutely fine without your help. Dressed like this, no one will give me a second glance.’
He glanced at the tightly braided mass of bronze hair around her head, the delicate curve of her lips, her pale, luminous skin, and frowned. Even with her hood up, her fine features were exposed for all to see. And although her tunic was baggy and hid the true outline of her shape, the braies served only to highlight the slenderness of her calves. If Bomal or any of his soldiers had worked out she was a woman, then the outcome of this morning would have been very different for her.
‘I doubt that very much,’ he replied. ‘Come on. We’re wasting time here.’ He glanced up at the sun, striking a diagonal shaft through the whispering trees. The dappled light filtered down, casting shadows across the carved, sculptured planes of his face, firing the glossy strands of his dark-brown hair.
‘Don’t you have somewhere else you need to be?’ Katerina glared pointedly at his dark-blue tunic, the golden fleur-de-lys.
‘Yes,’ he said bluntly. ‘And you’re holding me up.’ He crossed his arms across the broad planes of his chest, head tipped slightly to one side, waiting.
Her heart lurched. She couldn’t go with him, wouldn’t go! She had no wish for this stranger, this foreign knight with his hard, flinty features, to know any more about her life than was necessary. It was enough that he had caught her red-handed, but to take her back to the camp, to see where she lived? Nay, that was inconceivable. Positioning her feet more firmly on the ground, Katerina wound her arms snugly across her chest, sticking her chin proudly in the air.
At her defiant gesture, Lussac laughed out loud, a rippling, throaty sound. His teeth were white against the tan of his face. ‘So, we have a stand-off,’ he declared. Would she stamp her feet, like his sister used to do when she couldn’t gain her own way? The laughter died within him at the sudden thought, then shrivelled up, like a burnt crisp of parchment rising from the fire. Sadness, a shard of glass, pierced his heart.
‘I haven’t got time for this,’ he said, stern now, long boots covering the ground with a fast powerful stride. ‘I am not going to hurt you. Even you, with your foolish ways, must surely know when you are beaten. Let’s go.’ Snaring her sleeve, he tugged her towards the place where his horse tore at the scant grass.
‘I don’t want to go with you,’ Katerina protested, her heels deliberately dragging through the fallen leaves. ‘I’ve told you, I will be fine.’
‘And I’ve told you that I will take you home, to a place where you will be safe.’ He rounded on her. Through the frayed sleeve of her tunic, the warmth from his fingers penetrated her cold forearm, scissoring erratically up to her chest, tumbling her heart with unexpected emotion.
A place where she would be safe. His words banged around the confines of her head. When was the last time she had felt safe? When her mother had been alive? The camp where she lived now provided a refuge, a hiding place, but it was not safe. Even now, she kept her wits about her, hugging her secrets tight to her chest, guarding her privacy. Who knew when or where her father’s hired spies would catch up with her?
‘All right, you can let go now, I’ll come with you.’ Katerina sighed reluctantly. She wasn’t a fool and this man was not about to be convinced of her safety. She suspected he would stand there all day like a statue, following her every move until she agreed to let him take her home.
His fingers fell from her arm as they reached his horse. She waited as he swept up his helmet and attached it to the back of the saddle, before gathering up the loose reins. He grinned suddenly; her expression was one of utter dismay.
‘Whoever would have thought it?’ he said. ‘A woman wanting to roam around alone, with no one to keep her safe. You must be seriously lacking up there...’ he tapped the side of his skull derisively ‘...if you think you’ll survive unscathed. A man would have you down on that ground with your undergarments off before you even had time to think, or scream.’ He turned abruptly, heading for the track that ran towards the outskirts of the forest.
Fuming, her pale face flushed with embarrassment at the rough, unsettling image he painted, Katerina stumbled after him. Tears threatened at the corners of her eyes and she dashed them away. Horrible, horrible man! Who was this stranger who had intruded so abruptly, so violently into her life? Who shot massive holes through her hard-won sense of security? Hating him, she trudged in his wake, eyes burning resentment.
He hadn’t even turned around to see if she were following. He knew he had won.
Chapter Four
Beneath a vast bowl of cerulean sky, Lussac marched along, covering the ground with quick, long-legged strides. On the outskirts of his peripheral vision, he could see the bright blaze of the maid’s hair as she followed him, the wisps of amber silk curling out from beneath her hood. He knew he was walking too fast for her, but refused to curb his pace—let the chit suffer a little, for wasting his time, for giving him the run-around in the forest. But despite his speed, she seemed to have little difficulty in keeping up with him, her steps light and dancing across the stiff, dry grass.
The back of Katerina’s head ached as she squinted grumpily at the man’s broad back, his shoulders silhouetted against the sky. They were clear of the trees now, tracking back towards the coast, working their way alongside an immense flat area of tidal creeks and rivulets, a grid of shining ribbons empty of water now, but covered at high tide. Against her better judgement, she had given him scant details of the camp’s location, based at the Earl of Norfolk’s castle where they were due to perform the following night. Anything to be rid of him!
Lussac stopped, surveying the horizon. The shore and river estuary were to the east, the forest at his back to the north. The strong breeze from the east riffled the straight hair across his forehead, tousling the strands. The strong noon light cast shadows beneath his high cheek-bones, giving him a devilish appearance.
An icy shudder seized Katerina’s bones.