Page 42 of Legacy of Thorns
“Where, indeed!” Archie nodded. “You wouldn’t believe the number of situations I’ve had to rescue Fin from, Daphne.”
“No,” she said dryly. “I wouldn’t.”
“But,” Archie added, “now that I’ve had a better look at his face, I have to admit that man is a total stranger.” He turned a wheedling look on Fin. “Don’t you think we should just swing by Lord Castlerey’s manor before we head back? We’ve been watching the roads for nearly three hours! They might have arrived early this morning, before we got away from the cabin.”
Daphne threw Finley a pleading look of her own, clearly wanting to indulge Archer, and he was helpless to resist the plea in her eyes.
“Fine, then,” he said. “I was planning to walk back that way anyway. There shouldn’t be much harm in going early.”
“It’s a thin line between harm and gain,” Archie crowed, rubbing his hands together.
Finley eyed him. “Is it?” he muttered.
How had he never seen the similarities between his brother and their father? He had been trying to ignore it ever since Daphne first pointed it out, but he couldn’t pushing the thoughts away. Not if he wanted to be true to what he’d told Daphne the day before.
But it was one thing to speak easy words and another thing to follow them through. Could he really let go of his anger toward his father? Could he acknowledge how much of his father was lurking in Archie’s bright person and…possibly even in Finley himself? If only because of who Fin had chosen not to become.
He drew a deep breath. The middle of patrol was hardly the place to be asking himself those questions.
He let Archie take the lead, and he took them through the trees, passing behind the lord’s manor and close to the abandoned barn where Archie had slept.
Seeing it always made Finley shudder, remembering his fear the first time he saw Archie lying so still on the barn floor. But then he had found Daphne, and she had saved Archie. She had changed everything—forcing Finley to see a future beyond protecting Archie and dealing with his father’s mess. Finley didn’t intend to let her go easily, even if it meant finding a new way to see his father.
“Do you hear that?” Daphne hissed silently, grabbing Archie’s arm.
Archie responded instantly, falling silent and looking to Fin. Finley strained his ears, listening for anything out of place.
“Voices,” he whispered. “We need to get closer.”
He moved forward silently, using skills he had practiced so often that they came as easily as second nature. Daphne followed behind, not quite as silent but close. She had improved a lot in the weeks of their patrols. Archie brought up the rear, making as little noise as Fin. Everything Finley knew that might keep a person safe he had forced his younger brother to learn as well.
The voices grew louder, and Finley stopped, keeping himself out of sight of whoever was lurking at the back of Lord Castlerey’s property. Peering around a particularly broad tree trunk, he scanned the area. Three men stood huddled together behind the barn.
Archie appeared at his side, pulling urgently at his sleeve. But Finley didn’t need his brother’s warning to recognize the men. He still didn’t know any of their names, but he would recognize their faces anywhere. They were the three who had been pursuing the brothers the longest—the three who had first seized Fin and Archie, back when they were clueless and unprepared.
“Is that them?” Daphne breathed in his ear, her breath sending shivers across his skin.
He nodded.
“Now what?” Archie whispered.
Finley looked away from the men to find two faces trained on his, waiting for instructions.
“Now we wait. We need to see where they go and follow them if possible.”
“I told you this is where we should patrol,” Archie whispered. “If they were going to circle back to where they last found us, that meant this barn.”
“I’m surprised they’re lingering so near the lord’s house, though,” Daphne murmured.
“When they move, I’ll follow,” Finley said. “You two stay here.”
“What? No!” Archie’s protest remained soft, but his eyes shouted defiance.
“It’s not as easy to follow someone covertly as you seem to think,” Finley hissed. “Keeping them from noticing one person will be hard enough, let alone three.”
Archie opened his mouth to protest, and Fin played his trump card. “I could let you come with me, but what about Daphne? Do you want to leave her here on her own? Those three won’t be alone, and the others could be lurking anywhere in the area.”
Archie’s eyes darted to Daphne’s face, his expression changing to one of resignation. Daphne, on the other hand, was giving Finley an unimpressed look that said she knew exactly what he was doing. But she didn’t say anything, accepting the need for the two of them to stay behind. She was always good like that—quick to grasp the practicalities of a situation.
