Page 66 of Bound to a Warrior
Neither Mercy nor Duncan replied, and Trey took note.
Duncan kept a sleeping Mercy cradled in his arms as the horse plodded along.
“It is good that her wounds are minor,” Trey said walking alongside the horse.
“I thought the head wound worse at first, but was relieved it wasn’t. The arm, I’m afraid, will be sore for a while longer.”
“Mother will be there to help,” Trey said. “Now I have waited long enough, tell me how it is that you are chained together.”
Duncan would have much preferred to inquire about the mission, but he couldn’t take the chance to speak about it in front of Mercy even if she was asleep. No one must know or even suspect. Therefore, he would need to wait until he was home and free of Mercy to speak with Trey and the others.
“Soldiers arrived at a croft that I had just come upon and was gratefully partaking of the water offered me.”
Trey nodded. “You didn’t want to jeopardize the farmer’s life by opposing them.”
“Or his wife and two children. They chained me before we left the farm and then a short time later we met up with a large group of prisoners and it wasn’t long before I found myself chained to Mercy.”
Trey stopped him when he got to the part where the soldiers were ready to kill them. “Wait a minute. It seems that you both were chained together with the express reason of being killed. Now the king may be going crazy killing off men of a certain age that could be a threat to his throne, but why her?”
“I figured that perhaps it was her misfortune to simply be chained to me, or perhaps she haddispleaseda nobleman.”
“She’s a kept woman?”
Duncan smiled and shook his head, glancing down at Mercy sleeping peacefully in his arms. “No, I discovered she’s not.”
Trey grinned. “And how did you discover that?”
“With a kiss.”
“Just a kiss?” Trey scratched his head.
“Her first kiss,” Duncan said with a huge smile.
Trey shook his head. “How is it that a woman as beautiful as she has never been kissed?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“What do you know about her?” Trey asked.
“She’s courageous, adventurous, determined and”—he grinned—“we fit nicely together.”
Trey stopped so abruptly he almost tripped over himself. “You’ve fallen in love with her.”
Duncan wasn’t about to admit it to him before he spoke the words to Mercy.
Trey laughed. “You have! Damn, Reeve, Bryce and I are going to have a good time with this.”
“I’ll kill you if you breathe a word to them.”
“About all of it, or just the falling in love part?” Trey chuckled.
“I’m warning you, Trey. I beat your ass once and I can do it again.”
“You were eight and I was seven. I think this time it would prove more difficult.”
“You’re tempting me to prove you wrong,” Duncan warned with a snarl.
Trey continued chuckling as he resumed walking. “And the wee woman will be helping you to fight?”
