Outlaw (Medieval Trilogy 3)

Wolf had never been a man of strong faith, but now he prayed to God and watched as the small trio moved to the next cell. Robin’s cage. Holy Christ, the boy would surely recognize her and blurt her name, and everything would be lost. Sweat ran down Wolf’s arms as he saw Robin meet the silent boy’s eyes and his mouth drop open, but before the guard noticed, he fell into a squatting position next to the pail, staring at its unappetizing contents as if starving. To the next cell, Tom’s, the guard and his helpers moved, and now Wolf could see her plainly, a few wayward strands of mahogany hair poking from her cowl, her small upturned nose. How much she appeared as she had at the camp when he’d tried to disguise her fema

le curves from his men. His throat went dry and love beat wildly in his heart.

Wolf’s mind screamed for her to be careful, to forget her plan, whatever it was, that ’twas not worth risking her life for his, but he held his tongue and as the cell door swung open, he was on the balls of his feet, every muscle in his body strung tight. As “Stanley” poured the slop into his pail, the guard watched him. “Be careful,” he said. “This one—Wolf, they call him—is truly a beast and would gladly rip out both yer throats, but he’s calmer now, in pain from the beatings he’s been given.”

“Is that so?” Ronald asked, and Megan, in her disguise, feigned tripping over the pail, sending slop everywhere.

“Oh, son, look at the mess ye’ve made! Bloody Christ!” the guard reprimanded.

Reacting by instinct, Wolf caught her and felt her body close. She clutched his hand but for an instant, leaving a small knife in his fingers.

“Come on, ever’body out!” the guard ordered. “Wolf, ’e won’t get to taste any of Cook’s fine—”

Wolf leaped onto the man’s back.

“Hey! Stop!” He whirled and Megan, grabbing a bucket from the floor, slammed it against the guard’s big head as Wolf plunged the knife into the man’s shoulder. They fell against the cell walls, rattling the bars, the guard starting to yell.

“Say a word and I’ll slit your throat!” Wolf promised, his blade at the sentry’s thick Adam’s apple as he still rode the burly man’s back.

“He—”

The blade pressed closer and blood oozed. The sentry’s voice suddenly failed him.

“That’s better,” Wolf said as Megan lifted the man’s keys from his belt.

Within seconds, the guard was bound and locked in Wolf’s cell, the other prisoners released. The weapons—two buckets, two knives, and a sword—were distributed as they headed for the stairs. “This was foolish,” Wolf reprimanded her in a low whisper.

“I could not let you die.”

God, how he loved her! “So you risked your neck and that of our babe?”

“How—how did you know?” she asked, and a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Was she not the most beautiful woman in the king’s lands?

He glanced at her abdomen covered in tattered clothes and placed his hand over her flat stomach. “Cadell—the magician—he told me.”

Her fingers folded over his and he melted inside. “The sorcerer is Lady Morgana’s lost brother?” she asked in wonder.

“Aye, but let us not tarry. I will tell you everything once I have killed Holt and we have fled Dwyrain.” Reluctantly, he turned to the task at hand. They were not yet free of the walls of the dungeon.

“Do not worry about Holt,” Megan said, and then crossed herself in the dim, flickering light. “He’s dead.”

“Dead?” Holt hardly dared believe his good luck.

“Aye,” she said and he felt her shake. Her golden gaze was troubled, her chin jutted out defiantly.

“You killed him?”

“ ’Twas either that or share his bed.”

Wolf’s heart warmed for this woman. He held her close for a second, then brushed his lips over hers. “ ’Twould have been all right,” he said, reassuring her. “Nothing is worth your life.”

She shook her head vigorously. “Nay, I could never—”

“Let’s go!” Jack growled.

Jagger, carrying a knife in one big hand, agreed. “Aye, there’s time for talk later. Now listen, Robin, Jack, and me—we’ll take care of the guards in the gatehouse. You, Wolf, and Megan and Tom, get the horses from the stables. We’ll open the gates as soon as we see you with the beasts.”

Wolf nodded. ’Twas as good as any plan they could conjure without more time. “We’ll meet in the shadow of this very tower.”