Page 44 of Peregrine's Call
Leaving the horse in the care of the boy, Tav strode over to the keep itself. Inside, he stomped his feet on the cold stone. Only a footman was present there.
“Where’s Lady Robin?” Tav asked him.
“She was with Lord Pierce earlier this evening, sir. I assume she must be abed now.” The footman had a sly smile. “Do you want someone to rouse her?”
“No. I just wanted to be sure that she’s still within the keep.”
He made his way to his chamber, meeting no one else along the way. The hallways were dark, all the candles extinguished. The moonlight filtered in through the few narrow windows, providing barely enough illumination to walk safely.
The chamber given to him was cold as well, but a fire had been laid. He pulled off his cloak and outer garments, draping them over a stool. Then he crossed the room and knelt to light the fire. Within a few moments, the kindling caught and a hint of warmth reached him.
Without warning, the door swung open and Robin flew in. As soon as she crossed the threshold, she turned and pushed the door shut again, leaning with her forehead against the wooden frame, a long sigh escaping her lips.
Tav stood up from where he’d been crouched by the fire. “Robin?”
She whirled around. “I didn’t know you were here!” she said. “I’ll go!”
Tav barely managed to reach her before she left the room. He caught her arm and pulled her to a stop. “Wait. What’s the matter?”
He opened the door, glancing into the hallway. All was silent.
“No one’s chasing me,” she said, waving a hand to indicate that the matter wasn’t very important. “I wasn’t running away from anything.”
Tav closed the door and turned to look at her more carefully in the increasing firelight. Her hair was loose and wild around her face, her gown half-unlaced, the undershift pulled askew. And her lips were unusually deep with color. “Then why were you running?”
“I just needed a place to…to think for a moment. I didn’t know you’d be back already. I’m sorry.”
“Did someone hurt you?”
She looked rather offended at the notion. “Hurt me? As if I’d let it get so far!”
“So far as what? Robin, whathappened?” From the state of her hair and clothes, the only possibility he could think of was that she had just come from a bed…and not from sleep.
She took a big breath, as if just realizing he wasn’t privy to her thoughts. “Oh. Yes. Well, I just left Lord Pierce’s chamber. He summoned me there long after supper.”
“He asked for you to come to his room, and you went,” Octavian said, trying to keep his voice calm as his worst suspicion was confirmed.
“I had my dagger,” she said quickly. “I could have won any fight he gave me.”
Octavian muttered a curse. “Tell me what happened.”
“He wanted to talk.”
“Talk,” he repeated incredulously. Robin didn’t look like a woman who’d just beentalkedto.
“Yes. He wanted to talk to me so I could pass another message to you.” Robin looked back at the door, then leaned closer to him. She said in a low, urgent voice, “He says there’s less than a week until escape from this place will be impossible—for all of us. He says an army of Welsh are marching here soon. Pierce claims he’s being watched by agents of the empress and the Welsh, and he fears that one of them will kill him for what he knows.”
“And why did Pierce have to unlace your gown to tell you that?” Octavian asked, indicating the state of her dress.
“It was his stupidtrick.” Robin glared at him, and then looked down, fussing with the lacing on the left side of her gown. She tugged angrily at the thin cord, only succeeding at tangling it. “He said it ought to look as though I’d only gone to his room for…you know…”
“Well done, then. That’s exactly what it looks like.”
“You think I enjoyed being alone in a room with him?” she snapped.
“Did you?”
Her eyes rounded with shock, and he knew he’d hurt her. “No! He’s a miserable, infuriating man and I wanted to slap him the whole time he was kissing me.”
