Land's End by Lauren Dane

Author:Lauren Dane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lauren Dane

She’d been scanning the trail and saw movement. Verity leaned forward, peering carefully, noting the shiver of some bushes. Moments later the brigands emerged and marched in the open.

“Tobin, go. Run down to the garrison and tell them I’ve sighted the brigands near the big tree.”

He got up and scampered away without argument and she kept watch.

Moments later it wasn’t Tobin who returned, but Loyal. “Where?”

She handed the field glasses over and guided him to the spot, which wasn’t hard as a whole band of them had emerged from the treeline.

They were fearsome. A shiver worked through her at the sight. The night was chilly, but they wore little more than some animal skins about their waists. The light of the waning moon, giving way to early morning lit them with purple-blue light. Their faces had been painted, or maybe marked with inks and tattoos.

“Their teeth are filed so they can tear into people when they attack.”

She’d heard but had hoped it was rumor.

He turned to her and saw Tobin standing behind. “Go back to the garrison barracks. Tell them two score and five. They’ve got the usual weapons. I want full lights on that bridge and the sentry fires set immediately.”

Tobin raced off.

“What next?”

“The sentry fires will be set along the walls. That’ll let them know you see them.”

“Obviously we can because they’re standing out in the open!”

He turned, taking her hands. “I’m not going to let anything harm you.”

She swallowed her fear back. There were twenty-five of them and at least five hundred fighters, more if everyone took up arms who had them and could use them. She could use a weapon. She was all right. They’d be all right.

He caressed her face. “I’d never let anything happen to you. I swear it.”

Loyal Alsbaugh wasn’t the kind of man she expected sweet words from, though certainly he said lovely things to her from time to time. But he made her feel safe. In a world like theirs, it meant everything to feel that way.

“You’re not helpless. Even if I wasn’t here, you’d be safe.” He paused for several long beats. “But I’m grateful I am. If I’d been elsewhere and got the news, if I hadn’t been here knowing you were under siege?” He swallowed and she stood, held by his words, the breeze sending her skirts swaying around her legs, catching a stray curl and bouncing it from her cheek. She could smell his skin. Woodsmoke and gun oil.

The sun was up somewhere, not quite there yet. But the promise of it lightened the sky and she looked up, caught by the masculine lines of his features.

“I’m grateful you are too.”

He brushed his lips against hers. “I’m going to send someone up here to keep watch. I want you back inside. Please,” he added after she’d given him a look.

“Can I be of help anywhere else?”

He chewed his lip for a time and sighed, deciding to just be blunt. “If you’re safe in your house I’ll be able to work better.

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