Page 69 of The Warrior's Innocent Captive

‘I’ll walk you back to your chamber, then.’

‘I’m not going there either.’

He huffed out a breath. ‘I’ll take you to wherever you are going. You shouldn’t be alone, not even in the depths of Borwyn’s keep.’

‘I’m not staying in the keep.’ She pulled open the door and stepped into the corridor.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To look for your niece.’

Chapter Sixteen

Linota strode out into the corridor, not waiting to see Erik’s response to her statement.

She wasn’t even sure she was going to go through with searching for this mysterious Isabel, but she was determined to show Erik that she was eminently capable of helping him. How she was going to achieve that she wasn’t sure.

She had rounded one corner when heavy footsteps followed her.

‘What in God’s name are you thinking?’ thundered Erik as he caught up with her. ‘Do you honestly believe you’re going to walk into the town and find a girl I’ve spent months and months searching for?’

She swung round to face him and almost hit her head on his leather tunic. She glared up at him. ‘As you haven’t found her, you’re obviously not looking in the right places.’

A red flush washed across Erik’s face as his eyebrows came down in a deep frown. It was the first time Linota had ever seen his anger directed at her. She could see why he had a reputation for being a fierce warrior. Fire blazed in his blue eyes and the obvious rage pounding through him caused her body to tighten as she took a step backwards, not because she was scared of him—quite the opposite. She wanted to pull him to her, to finish what they had started in his chamber. But she would not give in to that temptation.

His eyes narrowed and she knew she should be scared—no sane person could look into that face and not see the restrained violence burning there—but for some reason she wasn’t. Perhaps she trusted him after all.

‘I have searched everywhere,’ he bit out, his voice tightly controlled.

‘Then show me.’

He stared down at her.

‘Fine,’ he growled. ‘I will take you around Borwyn and show you every building I have searched so you can see for yourself what a pointless endeavour it is.’

He turned on his heel and strode towards the entrance of the keep, not looking to see if she was following. She scurried after him.

The sky was a dusky pink as they stepped into Borwyn’s walled town.

She couldn’t quite believe her luck at getting this far. ‘Where do we start?’

‘We’ll start where I saw Isabel.’

Linota had to run slightly to keep up with his long strides. ‘Which was where exactly?’

‘In a building down a small side street.’

She recognised the path they were taking as the one that led to Emma’s bakery. ‘Is Emma all right after...?’

Erik grunted. ‘She is fine. Borwyn realised she was only doing what I asked. She and her husband were released from the dungeons that same day.’

Linota was glad. She didn’t like to think of the motherly Emma being locked up in that foul place.

Something that had played on her mind ever since Borwyn’s proposal to Katherine was how the brothers had reconciled. Linota was sure Borwyn would have told Katherine everything when he came to visit them in Swein, but if he had, Katherine had not repeated the information to Linota. It was frustrating that, even after everything, Katherine still thought Linota needed protecting.

Erik still lived at the fortress He still slept in the same quarters he had before. Borwyn must have forgiven Erik for what had happened between them, but until now Linota had not been able to bring herself to ask Katherine what had happened. Oh, she’d tried once. But Katherine had fixed her with such a sympathetic smile that Linota hadn’t been able to continue. She didn’t want anyone’s pity, even Katherine’s, or perhaps especially Katherine’s because she really wanted her sister to treat her as an equal and not a child to be cosseted.

‘How did you and Borwyn restore your relationship?’ she asked as they turned down another street.

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