Page 41 of The Earl

As soon as the men were out of earshot, he shouted to the riders in front of them.

“Ride ahead and see if there are others.”

“Others?” Cait asked, puzzled. From what she’d seen, there was every indication the men were alone.

Conrad waited for the men to comply before turning to her.

“Thieves. I would be assured they are alone and do not plan to surround us.”

She and her brother had passed more than one group of border reivers on the journey from Bradon Moor, but they had been easily identifiable with their hobblers and padded gambesons. The men who’d passed them had looked nothing like that.

“How do you know they are thieves?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“Just an inclination.”

“Riders!” came the shout from ahead of them. Then all at once, chaos broke out.

“Over there,” Conrad yelled to her, his expression fierce. She complied immediately, spurring her mare off the road and closer to the tree line.

Instead of moving forward, as she’d expected, Conrad fell back. She could hear the scraping of his sword against its sheath and then shouts.

Cait tried not to think back. To remember. But she could not help but do so.

Moments later, Conrad reappeared with the two Licheford men who had ridden behind them. They ignored her, flying ahead and around the bend in front of them.

More shouts ripped through the air. But there were no sounds of battle.

And then silence fell.

With her mount dancing under her, Cait waited for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Conrad and all four of his men returned, all of them looking very nonplussed.

“’Twill be a long walk,” one of the men commented, Conrad muttering a curse under his breath.

“A long walk?” Cait realized, then found that her hands were shaking.

Moments later, Conrad rode up to her, grabbing the bridle of her horse and guiding her mount forward.

“She’s untrained for battle,” he said by way of explanation, nodding to her mare.

And then, as if nothing had happened, the others resumed their previous positions and their party rode ahead, Conrad speaking softly to her horse and then finally letting go as they trotted along.

“As are you,” he said, and it took a moment for her to understand. “Training. Experience. They teach us how to recognize thieves who are very likely attempting to surround and rob us.”

To surround and rob us.

“They’ll not attack anyone else this day,” he continued.

Her heart stuck in her throat. “Do you mean . . .”

But even as she spoke, Cait spotted them. Four men walking on the road ahead of them. No horses. And from what she could tell as they approached, no weapons either. Cait glanced at Conrad for clarification, and that was when she noticed it. A second sword hanging on his left side. Each of the Licheford knights had an extra one.

She could not help but look at the thieves on foot as they passed them on horseback, even though Conrad and his men did not pay them any mind. The murderous glares they gave her back forced a shudder from her.

“They do not appear very pleased,” she said finally to Conrad.

“They still live,” was all he said.

Cait looked back, wondering how long they’d continue to do so. With no inn nor village nearby, those men would just as likely starve as they would live to steal another day. But she remained silent as the woods become less dense, giving way to open moorland as far as she could see.