Page 44 of Ruthless, But for Her

She looked at him.

“I will go with you.”

CHAPTER 26

Cassia

It felt good to be once again in the saddle. If there was anything she loved more than her books, it was horses.

More than almost anything else Roland had done to her, being forced to leave her mare, Grisel, behind at Grantchester had soured her on her new husband before their marriage had even begun.

He had called the mare an extravagance, unfit for the wife of a man in his position, and by the time Cassia understood he meant it, Grisel had already been sold.

She ran a hand down her borrowed mare’s neck, feeling the muscle there. “Whoever taught you was patient,” she whispered to her. “You can always tell. A horse schooled with temper never quite forgets it.”

Then, to Ashton, she said, “You said the Wild Boar is west of Mere’s End, less than two days’ ride. Will we reach it tomorrow, then?”

If she was an able rider, Ashton was even more so. She had seen many skilled riders in the past. Her father had even taken her to the Tournament of the North on more than one occasion.

But as in everything, Ashton did it…differently. Though he was just as able as some of the finest knights in the land, there was no display in it. No flourish, no wasted motion.

“Since we’re off to a late start, we’ll likely not arrive until after dusk on the morrow. Some of the roads we take could be considered safe. Others hidden. But some are neither, and I would prefer to stay off them in the dark.”

As they rode, the salt smell of Mere’s End fell away behind them, and the ground rose into rough moor, all gorse and grey stone. The wind carried peat smoke from some croft they never saw.

“I would think most paths dangerous without daylight,” Cassia said. “My father would only have us travel when the mount’s footing was sure.”

Ashton smiled in a way that made Cassia wonder what she’d said, precisely, that amused him. She almost asked, but instead held her tongue.

She focused on the steady pounding of hooves and the road laid out ahead when his deep voice interrupted her.

“If we kept to the roads only by daylight, we would have starved to death.”

She peeked over at him.

Ashton still smiled. She wanted to do the same, but there was little to smile about.

“The Daisy struggled in those early days. It was nothing like you see it now. Located at the far end of the harbor lane, it had only five rooms. One for the three of us, one for Margot, and three others for her girls. It wasn’t until we met a man named Donal Maxwell and learned to ride these lands the way he could, that both we and the Daisy thrived. Knowing how to navigate them by night saved all of us.”

She tried to imagine the three men as they were now, crammed into such a small space. Of course, they would have been smaller then, just boys. It was hard to picture, all the same.

“How old were you and Ryker and Sorren?”

“Too young.”

It was all he said, and Cassia contented herself in the silence as they rode past a stand of pines. She had thoughts aplenty. Of Roland. Of that night. Of Ashton’s role. But most of all, of her new status as a widow.

That she was here, riding through the borderlands toward what Sorren had called the ‘most notorious inn along the border’… She could hardly believe she had made such a choice.

Or even, that she had been given the choice.

“Thank you,” Cassia said, remembering what Margot had told her just before they left.

Ashton glanced over at her. From this vantage, he appeared almost carved from stone, his skill in the saddle unlike anything she’d witnessed before. It was as if he and his mount were one.

“Margot told me that you sent word to my father this morning, letting him know Nell is safe in Grantchester.”

“You are most welcome.”