Join A Highlander by Rebecca Preston

Author:Rebecca Preston [Preston, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Troubling news began to drift in from the village over the next few days, and Sarah was able to distract herself from her ongoing grievance against Kieran and his refusal to let her help by getting across as much as the gossip as possible. It seemed that the work of the castle guards wasn't going unnoticed by the bandits that roamed the area. Without Kieran and his men, it seemed, their thieving and robberies would be going a great deal better – they were growing frustrated with having to leave the roads when the guards patrolled, with having their raids on farms interrupted by armed men.

"How do you know all this?" Sarah asked one of her sources, a groom in the stables with a pair of huge blue eyes and an over-excitable demeanor. The boy couldn't have been more than seventeen or eighteen, but he spoke wisely about the robbers as though he were one of them.

"There's a pub just outside of town," he said, his eyes gleaming. "Lots of the lads from the stables go there of an evening for a drink or two. Some of the bandit leaders meet there late in the night. The bartenders overhear them, and if you buy them a drink or two they're willing to share."

"Have you told Kieran this information?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders. "I tell him the more interesting bits and pieces, but he seems to always know. He's got his own sources."

Sarah smiled, thinking back to Kieran's last account of his patrols. She'd always wondered why he stopped in and visited with so many of the townsfolk – now she was beginning to suspect that it was more than just a social call. He had a network of informants, keeping him in the loop about what was going on in the countryside. No wonder he and his men were frustrating the bandits so much.

"It's said that one of the bandit leaders has put a bounty on Captain Kieran's head," the groom said softly, shaking his head. "Says anyone who can kill him will be handsomely rewarded."

She bit her lip. Kieran, of course, was no stranger to threats and danger – it was part of the job for any guard, and especially the Captain. But the thought of a bunch of murderous bandits having extra incentive for harming him… well, it made her worry. And it made her worry now a lot more than it would have a few weeks ago, she thought, a blush threatening to rise to her cheeks. A connection occurred to her, though, and she brought it up the next time she was sharing a hearty lunch with Kieran. He'd just come back from a patrol – she'd been so delighted to see him stomping wearily across the courtyard that it had been all she could do to stop herself from throwing herself into his arms. They were still keeping their relationship on the down-low… though she had a suspicion, from the subdued whispers she'd heard around the corridors, that their secrecy might not last much longer.

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