Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online

angry and uncooperative, so I would say he’s doing well enough.”
    â€œWe can all be grateful for his reflexes. You handled it,” Blair added, looking back at Moira. “Kept your cool, kept control. Tough first day on the job, nearly getting assassinated and all that, but you did good.”
    â€œNot good enough to have anticipated a daylight attack. To remember that not all Lilith’s dogs require an invitation to come within these walls.” She thought of how Cian’s blood had run against her hand—warm and red. “I won’t make that mistake again.”
    â€œNone of us will. What we need is to get information out of this asshole Lilith sent. But there’s a problem. He either can’t or won’t speak English. Or Gaelic.”
    â€œHe’s mute?”
    â€œNo, no. He talks, it’s just none of us can understand him. Sounds Eastern European. Maybe Czech.”
    â€œI see.” Moira glanced back at Cian. He was stripped to the waist, with only the bandage against his skin. Annoyance more than pain darkened his face as he sipped from a goblet she assumed held blood. Though he didn’t look to be in the best of moods, she knew she was about to ask another favor.
    â€œGive me a moment,” she murmured to Blair. She approached Cian, ordering herself not to shrink under his hot blue stare. “Is there something more that can be done for you, to make you more comfortable?”
    â€œPeace, quiet, privacy.”
    Though each of his words had the lash of a whip, she kept her own calm and pleasant. “I’m sorry, but those items are in short supply right at the moment. I’ll order them up for you as soon as I can.”
    â€œSmart-ass,” he mumbled.
    â€œIndeed. The man whose arrow you intercepted speaks in a foreign tongue. Your brother told me once that you knew many languages.”
    He took a long, deep drink, with his eyes deliberately on hers. “It’s not enough that I intercepted the arrow? Now you want me to interrogate your assassin?”
    â€œI would be grateful if you would try, or at least interpret. If indeed, his tongue is one you know. There are likely a few things in the world you don’t know, so you may be of no use to me at all.”
    Amusement flickered briefly in his eyes. “Now you’re being nasty.”
    â€œTit for tat.”
    â€œAll right, all right. Glenna, my beauty, stop hovering.”
    â€œYou lost considerable blood,” she began, but he only lifted the goblet.
    â€œReplacing, even as we speak.” With a slight grimace, he got to his feet. “I need a goddamn shirt.”
    â€œBlair,” Moira said in even tones, “would you fetch Cian a goddamn shirt?”
    â€œOn that.”
    â€œYou’ve made a habit of saving my life,” Moira said to Cian.
    â€œApparently. I’m thinking of giving that up.”
    â€œI could hardly blame you.”
    â€œHere you go, champ.” Blair offered Cian a fresh white shirt. “I think the guy’s Czech, or possibly Bulgarian. Can you handle either of those?”
    â€œAs it happens.”
    They went into the great hall where the assassin sat, bruised, bleeding and chained, under heavy guard. That guard included both Larkin and Hoyt. When Cian entered, Hoyt stepped away from his post.
    â€œWell enough?” he asked Cian.
    â€œI’ll do. And it cheers me considerably that he looks a hell of a lot worse than I do. Pull your guards back,” he said to Moira. “He won’t be going anywhere.”
    â€œStand down. Sir Cian will be in charge here.”
    â€œSir Cian, my ass.” But he only muttered it as he approached the prisoner.
    Cian circled him, gauging ground. The man was slight of build and dressed in what would be the rough clothes of a farmer or shepherd. One eye was swollen shut, the other going black and blue. He’d lost a couple of teeth.
    Cian snapped out a command