Page 16 of Ruthless, But for Her

“He'll learn what happened today regardless,” she said. “Won't he know to come here? Won't he know where to find The Einar?”

A reasonable question. A sharp one, too.

“I doubt Roland Heron would risk the political turmoil his entering this deep in the Borderlands would cause.”

“Not even to fetch his wife?”

He frowned, thoughtful. She would likely not appreciate his honest answer.

“What happened with the Warden?” she prompted eventually.

Ashton looked closely at her, curious.

“The riders on the headland,” she said. “Before we left. I heard.”

Of course she had. Lady Cassia was most astute.

“Mere's End sits outside both English and Scottish jurisdiction. The East March Warden has no authority here. He knows it. Which is why he uses men like your husband instead of coming himself.”

She was quiet for a moment.

“He can't reach you here?”

“Not directly.”

“But my husband can?”

“Your husband,” Ashton said, “is not my concern.”

That was not entirely true. But it was close enough.

The Einar's oars slowed as Leif called the order from the stern. The men backed water to bring her around, and the familiar sounds of the port folded over them—the cry of birds, the creak of moored hulls, the low noise of a place that rarely slept. Cassia stood at the rail and watched Mere's End come into view.

He watched her watch it.

She hadn't run when he left the door open. He hadn't been certain she wouldn't.

“Come,” he said. “There is someone here who will want to meet you straightaway.”

He didn't tell her who. Margot was too complicated to explain.

CHAPTER 10

Cassia

She didn't know where to look first.

It was unlike any town Cassia had ever seen. Even London itself, where she had once accompanied her father and been warned not to draw notice—a place that had indeed terrified her—held nothing to this place.

Mere's End.

Though she'd never heard of it, Cassia was well-versed in what life was like in the borderlands. Neither English nor Scottish, the land between belonged to whoever held it on a given day—which was to say, no one held it for long. It was a place men fled to and rarely fled from, where two crowns looked away by agreement and the law was whatever the strongest man in the room decided it was.

And then there was her husband's new position.

As they passed building after building, each more well-worn than the last, Cassia occupied her mind with anything but the ominous words her captor had spoken, about someone wanting to meet her.

How had she gotten into this mess? She thought back to Roland's excitement over his appointment. It had been the entire reason he had married her—that, and her dowry. Being newly titled meant the garnering of respect Roland had lacked before. As a third son, his prospects had been few, but being named Deputy East March Warden meant his name would no longer descend into the unknown.