Page 92 of The Knight’s Reward

“The tailor?”

“Aye, my lord. The tailor.”

“What need did she have of a tailor?”

“I know not. But have you checked the stables?”

He turned to Aylmer, asking the silent question. Aylmer shrugged. “Let’s go.”

He left the inn so abruptly, Neill garnered looks from the other patrons, but their opinions little mattered. He was in a foul mood from the yard, from his ongoing predicament and his inability to solve it, and this was not what he’d expected.

He craved Kathryn’s touch. Her lips. Her warmth. Her conversation. Neill wanted nothing more than to have her with him now, unharmed.

“The stable master,” he asked a young boy who was just emerging from the stables as he and Aylmer approached. “Where is he?”

The boy, no older than ten and two, looked from him to Aylmer, his eyes wide and wary, and Neill immediately regretted his harsh tone. “I’m looking for my companion’s horse,” he said more gently. “And wish to speak to the stable master.”

Most inns had, at best, one stable boy, but this was larger and fancier than most. The boy squinted his eyes at him. “Yer the lord with my lady who left this morn?”

“Who left?”

Nodding, the boy swallowed hard, no doubt believing he was in trouble.

“I, she . . . she gave me extra coin and bade me to ready her horse. I thought it unusual,” he stammered.

Neill put up a hand to silence him. “You did nothing wrong, lad. Just tell me, when did she leave?”

“Earlier today, my lord.”

“Earlier today.” Neill clenched and unclenched his hands. “Did she say where she was going?”

He would gather the men. Look for her. Scour the city.

“Nay, my lord. Though she told me to tell anyone who came looking . . .” He frowned. “Mayhap she meant you, lord. She said to tell you she was safe.”

He waited, but the lad did not elaborate.

“Go on,” he prompted.

“That is all, my lord. And then she left. A good rider she be too.”

“Thank you, lad,” Neill said finally, realizing the boy had no further information to share.

“Gone. Where?” he asked Aylmer, turning to him in shock.

“Will we look for her?”

Aylmer shrugged at his stricken expression. “A fair question, Neill, as she appears to have left of her own will.”

“A woman. Alone. In London. Of course we look for her.”

Aylmer wisely remained silent and did not say what he himself was thinking. Kathryn was a resourceful woman. If she’d told the lad she was safe, he had no reason to believe otherwise. She might not want to be found.

But why?

As Aylmer had their horses readied, he thought of the night before. They had not discussed his answer to the king, the one he’d be forced to give in the morn. More fool him. He should have asked what she was thinking.

Neill had spent the day in contemplation, knowing he’d lost that morn for the same weakness Bryce had taken advantage of in Brockburg. He’d been too sure of his own victory. He’d allowed himself to become distracted.