Page 19 of The Warrior's Innocent Captive

Linota was safe. He needed to focus on that. But for as long as he lived he would not forget the sound of her screaming his name as she was carried off. The sound had pierced his soul, almost cleaving him in two.

If he hadn’t been so distracted yesterday morning those paltry men wouldn’t have got away with something so brazen. But he’d been thinking only of what Jarin’s change in direction would mean to him and trying to think of anything to stop the Earl returning to his own fortress.

De Bevoir had given Erik a small task in return for his niece—keep Jarin away from his fortress for a week—but somehow, and Erik had absolutely no idea how, Jarin had found out there was some sort of plot against him. Erik had tried all the arguments he could think of to keep Jarin from returning home, but all of his reasoning had failed. Jarin was heading towards whatever de Bevoir was planning and there didn’t seem to be anything Erik could do to stop him.

The chances of Erik ever seeing his niece were rapidly diminishing.

He’d been frantically trying to come up with a new plan when Linota had been taken and then Erik no longer cared what Jarin was up to. De Bevoir could do what he wanted. The only thing of importance was getting Linota before those men could cause her harm in any way.

Jarin had yelled some instructions to him as Erik had thundered past on Cai, but for the first time in his life he hadn’t stopped to listen to what his liege had to say. His only thought was to get to Linota; nobody as beautiful and as pure as her should spend even a second with those vile individuals.

He’d lost track of them after the men had taken her into the woods and he was nearly crawling out of his skin with despair when Cai had thrown a shoe.

When Linota’s scream had sounded in the night air it had shot right through him, piercing him like an arrow to the heart. The sound would haunt his nightmares, but at least it had brought him to her side.

Everything inside him had stilled when he’d seen her lying lifeless on the ground, the ragtag band of men standing around her. He’d almost charged into the clearing and killed the bastards with his bare hands.

He’d managed to stop himself when he realised that Linota wasn’t dead. He’d still wanted to tear them all limb from limb, but he’d held himself in check, waiting for an opportunity to get her back that didn’t involve mass destruction. Then the group of men had parted, apparently relaxing after they realised Linota was only unconscious. As they’d done so, Erik had caught sight of Simon de Bevoir and his mind had buzzed with questions. Why had de Bevoir taken Linota? What was he hoping to achieve? Did he know how much Erik lusted over her? Was it another way to blackmail him into submission?

Erik hoped the reason had nothing to do with him because otherwise his feelings for Linota were far more obvious to those around him than he’d realised.

He rubbed his forehead. He needed to clear his mind and think, but there wasn’t much time. His first priority had to be getting Linota to safety. De Bevoir must have a plan involving her and Erik would be damned if the man got his vile hands on her again.

And he had to keep de Bevoir away from Borwyn. If Jarin found out that Erik was in league with his enemy’s right-hand man, then his friend would, quite rightly, never forgive him.

As for Linota, he’d heard what she’d had to say about traitors. She abhorred them. She had made it abundantly clear that there was never any justification for betraying your friends. There was no turning away from the fact that he had done just that to Borwyn, no matter how honourable his intentions. He was going to the devil far quicker than he’d imagined.

He inhaled deeply and tried to get his thoughts into some semblance of order. He pushed himself away from the tavern wall. He needed to get Cai back without alerting those men as to who he was. He hoped, rather than believed, that no bloodshed would be necessary.

He took a last look at the tavern, grateful that Linota had agreed to stay. He’d thought she would argue, but he’d managed to make sure she was installed in a private room which she’d locked from the inside. She was safe and she had food. He didn’t need to worry about her for now.

He followed the line of the building and found the boy’s information was correct. The stables were next to the tavern. The smell of unclean stalls was almost overpowering as he took a step towards them.

Some of the tension he was holding in his shoulders fled when he rounded the corner and saw Cai swishing his long, dark tail, seemingly unharmed.

Erik squared his shoulders. It was time to put on the persona he’d used around everyone since becoming a man. Pretending to be more confident than he felt usually produced the result he desired. If that didn’t work this time, then he would use his fists. Three against one was reasonable odds for him.

‘My good men,’ said Erik, striding into the stables. ‘There seems to be some misunderstanding. This horse is mine.’

Cai whinnied in welcome and stretched towards Erik as if to confirm his statement. Without giving the two men time to argue, Erik seized the reins and rubbed Cai’s nose.

‘Hang on, we found...’ began one of the men.

‘Him in the woods, I know,’ said Erik serenely, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. ‘Cai threw a shoe last night. I tied him up in order to come into town for assistance, but I got lost and spent a very uncomfortable night out in the cold. Thank you for bringing him into town for me. Here, for your troubles.’

Erik flicked a coin to each of the men. It was nothing to what they would have received if they’d managed to sell Cai, but as he wasn’t insisting the two men be punished for stealing his horse he hoped they would go quietly.

‘Sir,’ he said, addressing Murry as if the two men had agreed and were already going about their day, ‘I trust you will be able to provide a shoe for Cai. I have urgent business in... Middlesex and I need to be on my way as soon as possible.’

Murry made noises about being able to do just that, seemingly accepting that Cai was Erik’s horse. Although Erik’s clothes weren’t the finest silk, they were still a better quality than de Bevoir’s men and Cai was obviously a wealthy man’s stead. Murry probably recognised that he would get more from Erik than the two dirty men who had come trying to sell him a horse of dubious origin.

The two men shuffled around in the background for a few moments, but when it became obvious that neither Erik nor Murry were going to give them any more attention they sidled out into the mid-morning bustle of the main street.

Murry muttered something about bad blood, but Erik didn’t comment. He was just glad the whole thing had been resolved without a fight.

Now he needed time and space to think about what to do next and he knew exactly where he was going to go to get that.

Chapter Five

---