Page 115 of The Scot’s Secret

They climbed the stairs and Albri drew out a key from her pocket. “I’ve only got one room. Your merchant will have to sleep in the stable. I’ll go outside and tell him as much.”

So much for the ‘the best Keston has to offer.’ Albri handed her the key with a warning. “If yer worried about being caught, stay away from the window.”

Clara understood immediately when she opened the door. The room was front facing with a view of the entrance below. Not an ideal situation, but it would have to do.

“Leave the rest to me.”

With that, Albri closed the door behind her. Clara had just begun to undress when the older woman returned with a bowl of stew and two thick slices of bread.

“Eat. And don’t you worry about your Scot.”

Despite the warning, Clara peered out of a crack in the shuttered window. She watched as Albri, now accompanied by her husband, forced her companions to bring their cart around to the back of the stable. Of course! If Alex saw it, he would surely question them. A few moments later, they emerged once again, and Albri handed the man and his nephew two loaves of bread. She pushed the merchant’s hand away. She wouldn’t take his coin.

Clara smiled. She’d come to the right place. Now, if she could just remain hidden. . .

The room was much smaller than the one she’d occupied at Brockburg. And nothing like her chamber at Kenshire. But it was clean, and that was all she cared about at the moment. That, and keeping Alex and her friends at Kenshire safe.

She ate hungrily, listening to the sounds of the inn coming to life around her. A bang here and there. Voices outside her room.

After she finished her meal, Clara lay down, not even bothering to turn down the blanket. She was exhausted.

She’d just begun to drift off to sleep when she heard it. Nothing about the voices should have woken her, but nevertheless she knew.

He was here.

Springing up from the bed, she did the one thing she knew she should not do. Closing the shutters so that barely a slit remained, Clara looked out.

And immediately began to cry.

28

“How long ago was she here?”

Alex looked at Geoffrey, whose expression showed the same skepticism he was feeling.

“At daybreak, mi’lord.”

If Geoffrey’s descriptions of the innkeeper were true, she was more biddable than he would have thought.

He and the others stood in front of the infamous inn, having ridden through the night to get here. It had never occurred to him that he would miss her; he’d assumed she would at least stay long enough to rest. Alex had spent the last hours fueled by the thought of holding her in his arms again. Making love to her again. Telling her over and over that he loved her.

To be told she was not here. . .

“But she was here, and she was well,” Geoffrey said.

“Aye,” the innkeeper answered. Too quickly?

“Then it appears we move on,” Alex said to the men. “Shall we break our fast first?”

If Geoffrey and the reivers thought it odd he wanted to stop now after racing here like the most desperate of men, they didn’t show their surprise.

There should be no reason for him to doubt the woman’s word, and yet. . .

“Very well,” the innkeeper replied. “I am Albri,” she said.

“We’ve met,” Geoffrey nodded to Albri and her husband. “My uncle and I stopped here on our way to Kenshire.”

“To Kenshire?” Albri asked.