An Uncertain Choice(30)

I tried to struggle, but the man easily pinned my arms. I knew I ought to scream, to scratch, to kick, to do anything to free myself, but the fear pounding through me was paralyzing.

What was happening?

“So you’re safe, are you?” came a soft question near my ear.

The voice was familiar, and even before my captor’s fingers fell away from my mouth and released my arms, I knew who it was.

“Sir Derrick,” I said, spinning around to face him.

He reached for my arms and steadied me, but I wrenched free and scowled at him. “How dare you frighten me in such a manner?” My body shook as much from relief at seeing him as fear at what had almost happened.

“My lady.” His face was grave, and his gray eyes mirrored the stormy clouds overhead. “I saw that you left the castle without a chaperone and only thought to offer my services.”

“If that’s your idea of how to behave as a chaperone, then I must ask that you leave me to my own endeavors.”

“’Tis not safe for you to be out on your own.”

“It was safe — ?it still is —?”

“And what if I’d been someone more menacing, my lady?”

I couldn’t answer. Indeed, I could only stare at him.

Like the duke, he was dusty and worn from the travails of searching for Sir Collin’s attacker. But even with the grime of the past few days, his face was ruggedly appealing, the layer of scruff on his chin and cheeks darker than usual and his eyes more brooding.

“Even if your nursemaid were with you, I think it unwise for you to be wandering about town without the protection of several armed guards.”

I swallowed the lump of anxiety that rose again at the thought of what might have happened had he been the same culprit who wounded Sir Collin.

“My people wouldn’t think of hurting me.” I squeezed the words past suddenly dry lips.

“What if I’d been a man from a distant land who had no affection or respect for you?”

I couldn’t formulate a response.

Without waiting for my agreement, he parted my cloak, unhooked the basket from my arm, and took the heavy burden upon himself. Only then did the hard lines on his face soften. “I’m sorry for frightening you, Lady Rosemarie. But I wanted you to see how easily and quickly someone could accost you, and thus how important it is for you to have the proper protection when you venture outside the castle.”

I waited for him to rebuke me for coming to town following the outbreak of the illness. But his gaze held no censure this time. “I regret any distress I caused you . . .”

I got a faint impression from the glimmer in his eyes that somehow I’d gained his respect for my actions. “You only thought to teach me a lesson — ?one I apparently deserved and, in my stubbornness, likely wouldn’t have learned any other way.”

I glanced around the shadowed alley to the faces peeking through cracks in doors and the children who’d stopped their game to watch my interaction with the knight. None of them gave me the usual happy greetings or smiles of welcome. Instead, they watched Sir Derrick with mistrust.

“Then you’ll forgive me?” he asked.

His expression was sincere. He had not a trace of the mockery I’d glimpsed in him from time to time over the past days. And although I wanted to remain irritated at him for ignoring me too often, I couldn’t muster any anger. I was only relieved — ?relieved that he was speaking with me, that he’d apparently cared enough for my well-being to follow me.

In fact, I couldn’t resist teasing him in repayment for his scare. “I can’t begin to think about forgiving you . . .”

His brow shot up.

I resisted the urge to smile, doing my best to pretend solemnity. “I can’t forgive you . . . unless you agree to help me deliver the supplies.”

A smile twitched his lips, but he too did his best to hide it. “Very well, my lady. I shall bind myself to you as your slave the rest of the afternoon. I shall do whatever you wish.”

“Whatever I wish?” I couldn’t keep from smiling then.

“Absolutely anything.” He lowered himself to a knee in front of me, laid the basket aside, and reached for one of my hands. Much to my surprise, he lifted my fingers until the warmth of his breath brushed my knuckles. His gaze held mine as my heart began to stutter. Finally, he brushed my skin with an exquisitely soft kiss, the touch of which went straight to my knees.

“Whatever you wish shall always be my command.”





Chapter

11




My breath caught. The boldness of Derrick’s words taunted me.

“You’re the knight,” I said. He was the one who’d rescued the criminals that day in the marketplace.

He released my hand, stood, and retrieved the basket. “Yes, I am indeed a knight.” And when he finally turned his gaze on me, they were filled with innocence. Too much innocence.

“Then you won’t take credit for your rescue in the town square?”

With the basket in hand, he started out of the side street. “I have nothing for which to take any credit, my lady. Except for rescuing you just now from the most villainous and barbaric attack by the most hunted criminal in all of Christendom.”

I hurried to catch up with him. He was grinning.