Page 30 of The Stag & The Owl
“How long have you been stashing food foryour escape?”
Alina blinked her big green eyes, trying tolook innocent and failing.
“This is the first of it,” she admitted.“Iintended to keep my promise and wait for my father, but after whatMyrna said today…” She shook her head.
“What did she say?”
“She, in Green Isles tongue, she told me thatI had no idea what humiliations and abuses awaited me.”
“Damn them,” Roark ground out.“Damn them allfor lying cheats.”
The door creaked open and Gare let out a softwhistle.Roark snatched the bucket of milk away and Alina kneltbeside Ash and propped him up by his belly, as if feeling it.Gareentered the stables carrying a steaming kettle of water, followedby Lara, one of the kitchen maids.
“How’s the wee thing doing?”Lara asked asGare handed the kettle to Roark.
“Too soon to tell yet,” Gare told her.“We’vegot him standing, which is good.Now we need to steep the tea andget some into him.We’ll be walking him half the night through tohelp get things moving again.”
“Good,” Lara said, her cheeks dimpling.“I’msure with you taking care of him, he’ll be fit as a fiddle bymorn.”With a quick dip of her capped head, she turned and headedfor the door, leaving Gare staring gape-jawed after her.
“Go,” Roark told the moon-eyed man.“Go andtalk with her while you can before she has to return to thehouse.”
“Are they courting?”Alina asked as Garepractically ran after Lara.
“If they weren’t before,” Roark said, “I’dwager coin they will be from tonight on.”He sat down and leanedhis back against the wall, patting the straw beside him.“We needto talk.”
She sat next to him as Ash and Smokey nestledup against her.“Talk,” she said.
“You’re right about getting away from here,”he said, speaking softly so he could hear if the stable dooropened.“I’ll do everything I can to help you.I owe you that much,at the verra least.”She said nothing, nor did she look at him asshe leaned her head back against the wall, staring straight ahead.“I’m simply asking you to wait—”
“For what?”Now she was looking at him.“Why?”
“There’s a ship sailing in seven days fromthe southern shore of the firth,” he said.He pulled her pearlnecklace from his tunic pocket and held it in his open palm.“I’vespoken with the captain and he’s willing to take you to Sea Ridgefor the price of your pearl.”
She took her necklace.“Is this captaintrustworthy?”
“As trustworthy as I can find in so littletime.He owns his ship and isn’t beholden to any laird.As far as Ican tell, nobody outside of the keep andThe Rover’s crewknow you’re here or who you are.Roger’s managed to keep yourpresence a secret.”
“So that my father won’t hear any straygossip.”Alina took a deep breath in and let it out.She metRoark’s gaze, her own guarded.“If I agree to wait and sail on thisship…”
“The Sea Maid.”
“If I were to sail onThe Sea Maid,how do you propose I get to it?”
“That’ll be the tricky part,” Roark admitted.“They set sail with the morning tide, so you’d have to show up atdawn the day they leave.Any earlier, and Roger could find us andtake you again.It’s the closest port to North Shore, so it’s thefirst place Roger will look.Any later, and you’ll miss the ship,and then we’d have to make a run for another port and hope we findanother ship setting sail before Roger finds us.”
“You keep saying we.Do you plan on sailingwith me?”
“No.Once you’re safely away, I’ll come backand try to misdirect Roger.Besides,” he added with a rueful grin,“your father would kill me for my part in this, and rightlyso.”
“Not if I explain things to him,” Alinainsisted.“Not if I tell him how you helped me escape.Heunderstands making mistakes, big mistakes, and atoning forthem.”
Roark’s gut twisted.“My atonement to youwill be making sure you get safely away,” he told her.“Say you’lllet me do this for you.It eats at my insides I was a part ofbringing you here.I knew it was wrong even when I believed Rogeronly wanted to ransom you back to your family.I can’t bear tothink of you being sold by some slave trader to be kept as apleasure woman for some desert king.”He reached over and pushed astray lock of her hair behind her ear.“Please,” he said, cuppingher jaw and gently rubbing the apple of her cheek with the pad ofhis thumb.“Let me do this for you.Let me save us both.”
She leaned her cheek into his hand and heldhis gaze, her own sad yet determined.“I’ll wait.”
Roark blew the breath he’d been holding out.“Good,” he said.“Good.Thank you for trusting me, especially afterwhat I—”
“Stop.”She covered his mouth with her hand.“Stop beating yourself up over what’s been done.It’s in the pastnow.A past neither of us can change.”
