By Possession by Madeline Hunter Page B

back, and he switched the donkey. “Where were you going?”
    “To a town.”
    “A free town? Far away? Where I could not find you for the year and a day it takes to break the bonds?” He could not keep the annoyance from his voice.
    She turned her head primly to the passing trees. Her hands rested on her bloodstained dress. Lovely hands, long-fingered and with delicate planes shaping the back of the palms. He could still feel their warm tips tracing the scar on his face.
    “What did you plan to do in this free town? Find a husband?”
    “Aye.” Her blue eyes glinted and the return of their bright clarity heartened him.
    “A particular man?”
    She shook her head.
    “What are your requirements? A proud woman like you probably has a whole list of them. Perhaps I will meet a man who fits your demands. I can reserve him for you. Assuming, of course, that he has one hundred pounds to spare.”
    She cocked her head. “A freemason, I've decided. Well established and highly skilled. Preferably on his way to becoming a master builder.”
    “Why a freemason?”
    “The ones I have met are intelligent. They make good wages, are respected, belong to major craftsmen companies, and are almost always employed.”
    “When employed they are away from home most of the year.”
    “Aye, there is that benefit too.”
    Well, well. So the virgin widow was not a virgin but had decided she didn't like bedding much. Her choice of a mason made excellent sense.
    She seemed back to normal. He had to know. “Back there, did they hurt you more than I saw, before I came?”
    “Nay.”
    The firm response relieved him more than he expected. He didn't know what he would have done if the answer had been otherwise. He'd already killed them, so he could hardly track them down and kill them again.
    They rode silently for some time. Moira twisted and grabbed a sack with some bread and cheese and offered him some. She forced herself to nibble, but had no appetite. Her stomach hurt and her buttocks still stung and the day's experiences had cast a pall over everything.
    Those men had sapped her courage. Soon she would be headed back to Darwendon. It might be a long while before she found a way to leave that didn't include this kind of danger.
    Maybe she would never find the heart to leave again at all. She certainly didn't feel strong enough to consider it now. In fact, the idea of living out her days at Darwendon, within shouting distance of Addis's sword, appealed to her. The size and strength of the man sitting close beside her offered a seductive comfort and his rescue and their shared danger had produced a raw intimacy.
    She looked to the bloodstains on her garment. They would never wash out. It didn't matter because she would never wear it again anyway. It smelled of that man. She smelled of him.
    “Were they from Simon?” she asked.
    “Aye. I recognized one. He must have sent them when he heard, to see what they could learn. Simon is shrewd. He will take his time to decide what to do.”
    “How would he know?”
    “Someone must have gone and told him. Many have seen me since I landed in Bristol. With this face, I cannot hide who I am.”
    His casual attitude toward his danger irked her. “He will try to kill you.”
    “Not necessarily. If he is secure in the king's favor, he may decide that I am a nuisance that can be ignored.”
    “He must know that you will move against him, king's favor or not.”
    “Why must he know that? I do not even know it myself.”
    “You cannot intend to accept this! Simon has taken what belongs to you, to your son. It would be a fine thing if I spent four years teaching Brian about the duty for which he must prepare only to have his father turn his back on their honor.”
    “Is that what you were doing? Raising the boy to be strong and true so that he could fight Simon when he was grown?”
    His tone fell somewhere between fascination and sarcasm. It did sound foolish when he put it like that. “He had a