A Dance of Blades (Shadowdance 2) by David Dalglish

Author:David Dalglish
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780316242493
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2013-11-05T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Matthew asked his wife as they cuddled in bed for the night.

“I don’t see any reason for him to lie.”

“I can think of plenty. He’s hurt, sick, and in a stranger’s home. Truth might be the furthest thing from his mind. What if he doesn’t know Lady Gemcroft, only hopes she’ll take him in if we show up at her doorstep?”

Evelyn put her arm across his chest and pressed her face against his neck.

“It would explain a lot though, wouldn’t it?” she asked, her voice quiet. “Why those men were searching for him. We both knew he was no ordinary boy to be hunted like he is.”

“But why would Arthur’s men be after him? The whole bloody north knows he’s been courting her.” An unspoken question hovered in the air between them, until at last Matthew gave it voice. “What if the men we killed were actually trying to rescue him?”

Matthew waited for his wife to speak, trusting her to better understand these complicated matters. He could list the price of every vegetable that grew in Dezrel, what the color of the soil meant and what could grow in it, but these things were beyond him. He liked living outside the city, where so long as you paid the taxman when he came, you could live unbothered by your lord and trust in your neighbors. Hard luck comes in strangers’ hands, his ma had always said.

“That man, Haern, might have kidnapped him,” Evelyn said. “If he was wounded and low on food, he’d need someone like us to help out, but why leave the boy here? Why tell us to take him back to his parents whenever he could talk? Everything he paid us for, he could have taken by force. Still, I won’t pretend to understand Arthur’s reasons, and neither does Tristan.”

“He says his name is Nathaniel.”

Evelyn kissed his neck.

“I told him his new name, and we’ll use it so long as he’s with us. No need to risk undue attention should we go out and about.”

Matthew grunted. Fair enough.

“It might be Arthur himself that came for him, though everything’s just a jumble when Tristan tells what happened,” he said. “But I think you’re right. Those men were up to no good. Could see it in their eyes.”

“So what do we do?”

Matthew sighed. He wished he knew. While he thought, he ran his rough fingers through her hair, enjoying its softness.

“We got to get him home, even if that means traveling all the way to Veldaren.”

“What if you stop in Felwood and deliver him to Lord Gandrem? He’s always been a close friend to the Gemcrofts.”

“So was Arthur.”

He was right, of course, and he could tell she knew it.

“Let us all go, then. I don’t want to be left here, and it won’t be safe for the kids, either.”

“Our livestock’ll die.”

“With how much Haern gave us, we could buy our farm back twice over.”

Matthew shook his head, thinking of all the work he’d put into raising his cattle and pigs.

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