A Soldier's Salvation (Highland Heartbeats Book 7)(46)

“I see no reason why not.” Brice stepped between them—likely a measure to keep them from brawling like a pair of drunken fools. “I’ve been in far less pleasant positions with lasses far less lovely than yourself.”

Rodric all but threw the rope at his friend, which told her Brice’s remarks had hit their target.

There was more than enough slack between them to allow for riding single-file if need be, but the road they started out on was wide enough to ride two abreast. Rodric and Quinn rode in front of them with Fergus bringing up the rear.

As they trotted further away from Fiona and Kent’s farm—or, rather, what little was left of it—Caitlin’s heart clenched. She wouldn’t have looked back even if she could, knowing there was no longer anything to see but ruins and two mounds of freshly dug-up earth beside what was once a home.

Quinn exchanged a look with Rodric before glancing back at Brice, then Fergus. Moments later he dug in his heels, flicked the reins and took off at a gallop.

“Where is he going?” she asked. He hadn’t even said a word.

“He’ll ride ahead of us,” Brice explained. “He’ll alert our friends to the goings on here. It might be best for them to send out a few riders to meet us along the way.”

Her heart clenched tighter than before. “You believe we’ll need extra escorts?” If four fierce men such as these she rode with believed they needed assistance, was she as safe as she’d believed up to that point? Likely not.

“It cannot hurt,” he replied, offering her a brash smile. She decided she liked him. He was rather rough, yes, but he had a sense of humor about him which she couldn’t help but enjoy.

Even if she was tied to him, and him to her.

She also enjoyed the way he made a point of throwing jests at Rodric whenever he could.

“Might I ask a question?”

Brice turned his attention to her. “Certainly.”

Watching Rodric from the corner of her eye, she asked, “What is it you do together? The four of you, I mean?”

Fergus, riding behind them, choked slightly.

Brice’s eyes twinkled, but it was difficult to judge whether he smiled thanks to the unkempt beard which covered part of his mouth.

Rodric did not react. Not that she could see, at any rate.

“For starters, it isn’t only the four of us,” Brice explained. “We are what you might call the central group. The four who always travel together. There are several others who move in and out of our circle depending on where we happen to ride and what our destination happens to be.”

“Why? And what determines your destination?”

He faced forward, his chest puffing out as he drew a deep breath. “Oftentimes, there are people who need protection. Yourself, for instance. You need protecting at the moment because there are those in the world who might wish harm to ye, or who would have ye do as they say—while they might not have your best interests at heart, so to speak.”

“I see…”

“It’s up to men such as ourselves to ensure you’re looked after. We provide protection, assistance, and the like.”

She was no clearer on the subject than she’d been minutes earlier. “You say it’s up to you to do this. Why? According to whom?”

He chuckled. “According to ourselves.”

“Why?”

“Simply because it’s what we want to do.”

Fergus spoke up from behind her. “None of us could see the virtue of returning to lives of boredom after what we’d been through in the army.”

“It would be the first thing on my mind,” she admitted with a shrug. “After all of that, I’d want nothing more than to settle into safe boredom.”

“And there are many who share your opinion,” Brice replied, tugging a bit on the rope which connected them when she veered slightly to the right while looking over her shoulder to where Fergus rode.

She turned her attention forward to prevent that from happening again. “You prefer living as you do, then?” she asked, the question directed at the back of Rodric’s head.

He remained still and silent.

“Prefer?” Brice asked, scratching his wild hair until it looked wilder than ever. “I don’t know that I’d use that word. But there’s no fitting in with the civilized world for the likes of us.”

She kept her gaze trained on Rodric. “You truly believe that?”

Brice grunted. “Aye. We do.”

Rodric gave no movement, not a single flinch. Nothing to show her whether he agreed with his friend or not.

For the moment, something else took precedence over the many questions going through her mind. “You earn a living, doing what you do?”

“Aye. A lot of good it would do us if we didn’t,” Brice chuckled, and Fergus joined him.

“Who is paying you to do this for me?”

Brice’s chuckles turned to coughs.

“I have no silver of my own, you understand,” she explained. Was that what they expected? That she would make it worth their while?

Rodric had to know better than to believe she could hope to compensate them for the time and trouble they’d taken.

“We’re aware of that,” Brice assured her.

“Then, why? Why go to this trouble when no one is compensating you for it?”