What troubled her most was that her aunt had sent her hirelings after Bened. The woman had seen what a problem he would be and set out to be rid of him. This attack had been intended to kill him and that terrified her. Primrose began to try to think of ways to get him to leave but doubted any of them would work. She would do her best, however. There was no way she could allow her difficulties, her family’s battles, to cause him to lose his life.
By the time the men left, dragging their prisoner off to the magistrate, Primrose was feeling a bit weak. The fight and the fear caused by it had sapped all her strength. She allowed Bened to lead her to the inn where they had booked two rooms for the night. The solicitous way the maid treated her as she brought them some tea and food told Primrose that word of the attack was already spreading. She frowned at Bened who appeared to be finding it funny.
She glanced at the other couple in the private parlor, and said softly, “Such a smooth liar you are, Sir Bened. I was most impressed.”
“At times it is the only smart thing one can do. Did you want us to tangle them up with the truth?”
She sighed. “No, yet I feel a bit guilty for lying to men who had come to help us and accepting the sympathy of that maid when nothing happened.”
“Then think of it as sympathy handed out simply because you were in danger and you were. Maybe not the one I implied, but there was a real threat to your life.”
“It was mostly to your life. I but happened to stumble into it. She wants you gone.”
“Which tells us quite a lot.”
“What? That my aunt, whom I had long dismissed as a nasty, vain fool, is actually a cold-blooded killer?”
“Forewarned is forearmed.”
“Are you going to heed the warning?”
“I have or I would already be dead.”
“I cannot allow you to put your life at risk for me.”
“Ah, I wondered if that was where you were headed. It is not all for you. I cannot leave you to her mercies. It would shame me for life if I did so. I am a man who has always watched people’s backs. It is who I am. I find their enemies before their enemies can find them. Do you know how it came to be that I, the son of a farmer, got a knighthood, was named a baronet, and was gifted with a small piece of property?”
“I rather thought it was because you have relatives with much higher honors.”
“There is that and I am certain it helped the man who pushed for this honor for me, but I got it because I was protecting an earl’s son. Took a bullet for the idiot. And, believe me, it was not what I had planned when I moved to save him. Never expected more than my pay but he was the earl’s only heir. And we should all pity him for that,” he added, and took a drink of his ale. “Whenever my family has need of someone to help them track a person or go against their enemies, they come for me. That makes me a man whom you will never convince to leave just because things have become dangerous.”
She sighed and slumped in her chair. “So you will stay and if the worst happens to you, leave me to have that on my conscience forever.”
“Your conscience is clear or should be. None of this is your doing. You merely wanted to find your brother to tell him of your father’s death.”
“And to flee a marriage I did not want so there was some selfishness involved,” she reminded him.
“From what you told me of the man chosen for you, you would have been foolish not to try to get as far away from that risk as possible.”
“There is nothing I can say to make you change your mind, is there.”
“Nay, not a thing.” He studied her for a moment. “And you can just forget trying to lose me by running off.”
Startled that he had guessed what she had been thinking, she stared at him. “Those familial gifts you spoke about? One of them is not the ability to, well, read my thoughts, is it?”
“Nay, that curse settled on the head of the clan, the Duke of Elderwood.”
“Truly?” she whispered. “He can see inside a person’s mind?”
“Hear what is there, aye. And it is not the wondrous thing you appear to think it is. It is a curse. Modred is a young man but he hides in that castle of his because being amongst people can be a pure hell on earth for him. The few in my family who have been gifted that way often end up insane or kill themselves to end the noise. It is sad for he is a good man.”
“When you explain it that way, I can see what you mean.” She frowned. “His name is Modred?”
“I fear so.”
“That seems a bit like adding insult to injury.”
He laughed and nodded. “It does. But, as I said, he is a good man and, amongst the family are ones he can be around without discomfort. They do their best to visit with him as often as they can.”
“Can he be around you?”
“He can be around most of my family and he now has his aunt Dob there to train him in silencing the world. One day he might be able to make short visits to the world outside those walls.”
“Then I shall pray for him to gain that freedom.” She helped herself to one of the small sandwiches the maid had brought them.