Page 15 of The Iron Earl
His palpable rage stunned her, freezing her in place.
“Stay on, Evalyn, and I just may beat you myself.”
That jarred her into action. She jolted, swinging her leg over the pommel of the saddle, and slid down the side of the horse. The impact of the hard ground on her cold heels jarred her bones up to her skull. She swayed for a long second, fighting for balance against the pain reverberating along her nerves.
“Now walk.” Lachlan nicked his horse forward.
What she wanted to do was collapse to the ground. Shrivel into herself for the night. Become nothing, if only so she could rebuild her spine and spirit in the process.
Three steps away from her and he looked back at her from high on his horse. “Move.”
His anger prodded her forward.
There wasn’t time to rest. To muster up energy. To steel her spine. Not when this man was her key to escape.
She forced her legs—both of them lead weights—to move.
He waited until she was next to his horse, her feet moving forward, before his low voice blasted into the night air.
“I don’t want you with us anymore than you want to be here, Evalyn, but that was the bargain we struck. And I abide by my word.”
Her head whipped up to him. “Then I am freeing you from your word, Lachlan. Leave me be.”
“I said I would give you safe journey and that is what I intend to do.” His gaze stayed forward, locked on the road ahead. “Those men that picked you up were not safe. Tell me you are not so daft as to believe otherwise.”
“They had done me no harm other than to offer me a ride.”
“A ride to where?”
She shrugged. “A ride.”
“And you thought it wise to just hop onto a random wagon with random men without any questions—why?”
“I…I…” Her cheeks started to burn. A modicum of distance from those ruffians and she realized how insane her actions had been. But it couldn’t be helped. The terror that had seized her when Colin hit her demanded she escape. Escape by any means necessary.
She shook her head. “I did not leave Wolfbridge to trade one brutal existence for another.”
“Brutal existence?” His head snapped back. “One day with us and it’s a brutal existence? You realize you almost welcomed with open arms a true brutal existence with those blackguards back there? What the damned hell were you thinking, getting into a wagon with those highwaymen, Evalyn?”
She started, craning her neck to look up at him. “Highwaymen? No, they said they were farmers.”
“Yes. I was just talking to the steward of Baron Rogerton’s lands and he warned me on two men of that very description that have been a scourge on these roads for months.”
Her head dropped, her look going to the rutted dirt of the road in front of her. “Oh.”
“Oh? That is how you defend yourself against idiocy?”
“I didn’t know they were highwaymen.”
“Did you not recognize they were two lecherous ruffians that could overpower you in a mere second?” His low voice pitched louder, almost to a boom. “Did you not see that? Did you not see that it is the middle of the night and no respectable gentleman would be out in a wagon at this time looking to pick up a stray woman?”
“I…I…”
He yanked on his reins to halt his horse. “I what, Evalyn? What?” His head shaking, a low breath seethed out. “How you’ve managed to stay alive this long with that lunacy in your brain is a blessed miracle.”
Her feet shuffled to a stop as her shoulders pulled back, her spine stiffening as her lips drew inward.
He glanced at her, looked forward, then his gaze fell back to her, his eyes piercing. “Now you are silent?”