Page 97 of Bound to a Warrior
“You didn’t ask her why?”
She rolled her eyes. “I never dared question her authority. Repercussions could be swift and painful.”
“Do you know if she angered your father and worried over the consequences?”
“I know they had recently argued over me, and while I wasn’t privy to the heated discussion, my mother’s mumblings gave me a good indication as to why she was upset.”
“Why?” he asked, eager to know.
“I believe my father had made arrangements for me to become mistress to a nobleman of not very high status or wealth.”
“He intended to give you away to a man?” Duncan asked, slowly moving forward in his seat.
“I imagine it was a lucrative agreement for my father.”
“He intended to just give you to a man without thought or consideration?” he said, anger building with every word he spoke.
“I am his bastard daughter. He can do as he pleases with me. Ignore me if he wished. I’m sure he felt he was doing best for me.”
“You defend him?”
“No. Not at all. I didn’t want to be mistress to a man I never met. I never wanted to be a mistress at all. I saw what it had done to my mother and I did not want the same for myself. But truly what choice did I have? I had no money.”
“What of your mother? She sounded like a wise woman. Surely she had managed to tuck away extra coins.”
Mercy nodded. “She did, but spent most of it on her own plan for me.”
“And what plan was that?”
“She would not detail it for me, but I surmised that she searched for the true king with intentions of seeing that I became his mistress.”
“Did she find him?” Duncan asked anxiously, believing that the pieces of the puzzle were about to fall into place.
“From her excitement and fear I believe she discovered something, but what I don’t know.”
“Who did she fear?”
“Since she rushed me away from the house, I’d say she feared that she had learned that my father had discovered her betrayal and that soldiers were on the way.”
“How would she have known?”
“My mother had many spies in various places,” Mercy said. “There wasn’t much she couldn’t find out.”
“And she gave you no indication of what she may have discovered?”
Mercy thought a moment. “Come to think of it, just as I was leaving the cottage, she grabbed my arm and said something odd to me.”
Duncan felt every muscle grow taut, worried that somehow her mother had uncovered secret information concerning the true king.
“She said, ‘You will see it in his eyes and know.’”
Duncan rubbed his chin, trying to make sense of it, but unable to. “Know what?”
Mercy shrugged. “I have no idea what she was referring to. She traced a symbol in the palm of my hand and muttered something.”
“Show me,” Duncan said and held his hand out to her.
She cupped it in hers and faintly drew a cross in the palm of his hand, then pressed her thumb in the center. “I remember,” she said softly. “When two are one, it will be done.”
