Loretta Chase by The Lion's Daughter

Author:The Lion's Daughter [Daughter, The Lion's]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-12-14T02:06:26+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

For once, luck was with Esme. Saranda’s tiny population had swelled to thrice its size for the festivities, and she’d managed to arrive a day before Donika’s wedding. She had spotted Donika’s brother Branko shortly after her arrival but waited until nightfall to reveal herself. By then, most of the men were in the early states of intoxication and the women in a frenzy of preparation. They wouldn’t have noticed an elephant stampede, let alone the bedraggled boy Esme appeared to be.

Branko wasn’t pleased to hear her story. Still, though he said she was a thousand times a fool and a hothead, he wasn’t entirely without sympathy. Besides, he owed her. She’d saved his life two years ago and taken a bullet in her leg in the process.

All she wanted, she told him, was a boat to take her north, beyond Ali’s territories, to Shkodra. There, Ali had no power, and she might stay safely with the old man who’d years before taught her healing.

“You needn’t tell anyone else I’m here,” she assured him. “Only help me find a hiding place for now. I won’t stir until you tell me so.”

Branko reflected. “I don’t know the town,” he said at last, in his slow, considering way. “The only safe place I know is with our family. Hush,” he chided when she began to protest about endangering them. “You say no one will think to come here looking for you. Maybe so. Maybe they won’t guess you’d hide so close to Corfu. Still, word may come any hour—and the officials will be looking for a small female in boy’s garb.”

“With green eyes,” she reminded him. “I must hide. There’s no way I can disguise the color of my eyes.”

“That won’t be necessary if we make you appear a foreigner. A gypsy, maybe. Donika will think of something,” he said. “But first I must get you to the house without arousing notice.”

He thought again for a long while. Esme tried to think, too, but her brain wouldn’t cooperate. It was as exhausted as her body.

“Yes, easy enough,” Branko said, eyeing her thoughtfully. “For now, you’ll be a weary boy I found. I’ll carry you over my shoulder to the house. Only keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them.”

He could not have devised a more appealing plan. She’d spent three days endlessly thinking, planning ahead, while trying to keep panic and misery from addling her reason. She’d sold the fancy rifle she’d stolen from the guard and bought a horse with the money. Thereafter, she’d made excellent progress, for the weather had held fair. Nonetheless, Esme was tired to the bone. For a few minutes, it would be so good to let someone else do the thinking for her. Branko’s manner might be slow, but his wits were not. Jason had always thought highly of Donika’s elder brother.

Esme handed over her weapons and travel bags. Branko hoisted these over one broad shoulder and Esme over the other. Her body immediately slumped in relief, and her heavy lids fell closed.

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