Page 78 of The Stag & The Owl
By morning they could start a fire, and theyall sat around it drying off and warming up while the beans they’dsoaked overnight cooked.By Roark’s reckoning, they were only threeto four days away from North Shore Keep.It was time to quit mopingand figure some things out.
“Are Munroe and Gwyneth still sneaking offinto the woods together?”he asked.“I’m not jealous,” he addedwhen no one answered.“Only curious.I care for Gwyneth about asmuch as she cares for me.Which is not at all.”The men saidnothing, though the looks they exchanged spoke plenty.“What?”hesaid.“Tell me.”
“They were,” Ross said.“Until Gwyneth caughthim sneaking off with Jenny.”
“Leif’s Jenny?”
“Aye,” Ross said.“They’ve been keepingcompany almost since the day Leif was—”
“Killed,” Roark finished for him.He’d alwaysthought Jenny was mad for Leif, if not in love with him, so whywould she take to Munroe so quickly when the entire household knewMunroe and Gwyneth were sweet on each other?
Gwyneth wasn’t someone you wanted as anenemy, especially if you were a servant and she the daughter of thelaird.Unless… “Does Munroe know Jenny’s pregnant?”
All four men sat back.
“How’d you know?”Douglas, who was goodfriends with Munroe, asked.“She didn’t tell Munroe until afteryou’d run off with the princess.”
“Jenny’s pregnant with Leif’s child,” he toldthem.“Alina heard her and her parents arguing about it in thekitchens, right before she went to the stables and Leif tried torape her.”
The men exchanged another round of looks, andRoark found it interesting not one of them had questioned hisaccusations against Leif.
“Did Leif know?”Scott asked.
“He did,” Roark said.“That’s what theargument was about.Leif had told Jenny he’d claim a boy bairn, butif it was a girl, she was on her own.”
“Just like his ruttin’ uncle,” Scottspat.
“That’s why Jenny went after that fool Munroeso quick and sudden after Leif’s death,” Douglas exclaimed.“Sheneeded a father for her bairn.”
Roark let this sink in for a moment, thenasked, “Who found Leif’s body?”
“Craig did,” Scott answered.
“Jenny’s father,” Roark said, though they allknew who he was.“Interesting.”
The men chewed on this for a bit.
“Can you tell me something?”Scott askedRoark.“Will Alina keep her word?Will she keep her father fromwreaking vengeance on the North Shore?”
“Alina always keeps her word,” Roark assuredhim.
Scott shook his head.“She didn’t keep herword to stay and wait for her father to ransom her.”
“She meant to,” Roark told them, “and wouldhave, except we found out Roger had no intention of ransoming her,or of ever letting her parents know what had become of her.Hemeant for Murtaugh to sail her to the desert lands and sell her asa slave, a pleasure woman, to whatever desert king would pay hisprice in gold.”
“Why would Roger do that?”Ross asked.
“It would be his secret revenge against herparents,” Roark explained.“Against her whole family, sending herto suffer the same fate that had befallen her great-grandmother,Oona the Swan.”
“Alina’s the great-granddaughter of Oona theSwan?”all four men asked at once.
“Princess Alina is the daughter of QueenAlyssa, who’s the daughter of Queen Sahar, who was the daughter ofQueen Oona.Which is why Laird Owen MacLeod took us in and gave usshelter.She’s kin to him.”
“She does have the MacLeod eyes.”Todd spokefor the first time.
Roark grinned.“You should hear hersing.”
They finished their breakfast and werebreaking camp when the horses lifted their heads and pricked theirears forward.Roger’s men drew their weapons while Roark grabbed aheavy stick.
