An Oath Broken by Diana Cosby Read Free Book Online Page A

shouted.
    She lowered her head. Thin branches whipped across her shoulders.
    Brush crunched, and then Sir Knight’s horse broke free. The depth of the snow deepened.
    She shifted to look back.
    “Blast it, keep your head down.”
    Another arrow whizzed past, jammed into an oak a hand’s breadth away.
    The horse stumbled, and then regained his footing.
    A scream built in her throat. Please, let them escape!
    His steed began climbing. Fir trees engulfed them, the rake of pine needles harsh against her body.
    Seconds passed.
    She glanced back.
    Naught.
    “The men have lost sight of us for the moment, but they willna give up,” Sir Knight said. “With us sharing a horse, they know we canna keep this pace up for long.”
    “Wh-what do they want with me?”
    He guided his steed beneath a rocky overhang. “I was hoping you could fill me in on that.”
    At the sarcasm in his voice, she glared at him. “You think I would deal with those men?”
    “Would you nae?”
    “I do not want to be traveling to Dunkirk Castle, much less riding with you!”
    “Lass, a desperate woman will go to many lengths to procure freedom.”
    “Desperate, is it?”
    He met her gaze square in the eye. “And would you be saying that you are wanting to be married?”
    “I—” Blast him. That much was the truth.
    They rode out of the shield of trees and into the sun. Sir Knight guided his steed around a rock. “Nae worry. I doubt you are foolish enough to hire anyone to aid in a plan to escape wedlock. Especially those men.”
    She wished he could understand her reasons for not wanting to wed. As if he would care? He’d made his position concerning her life more than clear. And for an unexplainable reason, that hurt.
    Now who was being foolish? “I assure you, if I did not want to be married, I would not have to go to such extremes as to hire ruffians to procure my freedom.”
    “If you say so, lass.”
    “Terrick,” came a shout from below, lost somewhere in the thick firs.
    She gasped.
    He urged his mount higher. “Do nae answer them.”
    As if she was a fool?
    “The lass is to marry Lord Bretane’s son who is a strong supporter of Balliol,” the man yelled up. “Is that what you would be wanting?”
    Sir Knight stiffened in the saddle, and her panic grew. What did her marriage have to do with the choice of Scotland’s new king? Regardless, by Sir Knight’s reaction, the subject had hit a nerve. Would he now hand her over to them? “Sir Knight, what does his claim mean to you?”
    A desperate second passed.
    “Give her over,” the voice called from below, “and we will let you go.”
    A shiver ripped through her. “You are not going to—”
    “I have given my word to protect you,” Sir Knight growled.
    But he didn’t look back, and her doubts grew. Would his vow matter? With their pursuers a short distance behind them, how long before they were caught?
    They reached the summit and the landscape below, blanketed in snow, spread out before them.
    Sir Knight halted, looked toward where the men below were closing on them, then back to her. “We will have to go over the edge.”
    Was he totally insane? “We will die!”
    Ice blue eyes narrowed. “If we stay here we will be dead. If we go over the cliff, we have a chance.”
    Flashes of the men on their mounts flickered through the breaks in the trees below.
    He was right. Sarra said a quick prayer, nodded.
    “Slide back on the horse’s haunches. If my horse begins to look like he is going to roll, jump.”
    She stared at him in disbelief. “Jump? Just like that?”
    A muscle worked in his jaw. “There is nay time to argue.”
    It seemed a fine time to speak her peace. Sarra opened her mouth.
    Sir Knight kicked his horse. With a snort, his mount plunged down the steep slope.
    Air, bitter and cold, battered her in a dizzying rush.
    The horse whinnied as he landed hard on the embankment, but kept his footing as he half-slid, half-stumbled along the sharp incline.
    A third