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She literally had nowhere to go. But if she married a certain Scottish earl who would protect her, from Arnaldo mostly, perhaps this is the best that she could hope for.

So why had she been trying to escape so badly from Maude for five straight months?

Because she didn’t want to be turned over to Arnaldo when he caught up to them.

And that was the truth.

“Ye dinna run.”

The voice came from the darkness behind her. Astria wasn’t startled by it. Somehow, she thought he might find her, eventually, because he seemed like the attentive type. Slowly, she turned to look at him, noticing that he seemed out of breath.

“You were running after me,” she observed.

He shook his head. “Not at all,” he said. “I knew I would find ye out here.”

“Then you must always breathe hard when you are calmly walking into a livery yard.”

“I do, in fact.”

“Why?”

“Because I find it exhilarating.”

Astria had to fight off a laugh at the man trying to pretend he wasn’t breathless because he had been preparing to chase her down. She turned away, returning her focus to the pirate encampment in the distance.

“Shall I tell you what just happened?” she said.

“With what?”

“You.”

“I told ye nothing happened.”

She shook her head. “I think you went to the chamber you left me in and when you saw that I was gone, you thought I’d escaped,” she said. “You came running out here to find a horse to go in pursuit.”

He snorted. “That shows how much ye dunna know.”

Astria shrugged. “That is probably true,” she said. “I do not know half as much as I probably think I know. But one thing is for certain.”

“What is that?”

She was still looking at the pirates, still focused on the distant fires. “If I had wanted to escape, I could have,” she said. “I would have been long gone by now. But I did not go. I could not.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “Why not?” he finally asked.

Astria tried to think of a clever reply, but she couldn’t.

She wasn’t even sure why she’d told him she couldn’t leave, but she had.

Of course he wondered why. Now, she had to explain herself.

Fed, bathed, and somewhat rested, she was feeling much more like herself, and she knew what a precarious position she was in.

With every second that passed, it weighed on her more and more.

And perhaps Payne’s declaration of being her ally was weighing on her most of all.

She wondered if he really meant it.

“Because you told me that your trust was only given once,” she said.

“You have been, more than anyone I’ve met since the start of my captivity, the kindest person I’ve come into contact with.

Even after I struck you, you still showed kindness when you did not have to.

I could not run because I knew that if you caught me, it would mean the end for me.

No more kindness, no more baths or food.

Your mother once threatened to bind my arms and legs and throw me overboard.

If she were to do it, there would be no one left to save me. ”

Payne considered that for a moment. Then he moved forward, finding another stump to sit on. Out in the livery yard, there were plenty of them by the wood pile.

“And ye want me tae save you from my mother?” he asked.

She looked at him. “You’ve no reason to,” she said honestly. “I have not been very gracious to you, but I want to thank you for the bath and the food and the clothing. I very much appreciate it.”

“Ye’re welcome.”

“What happens now?”

He shrugged, glancing off toward the pirate encampment because there was some shouting going on as men sat around a great bonfire and drank.

“I am not entirely certain,” he said. “My mother wishes for us tae marry, but I dunna know if she’s made plans beyond that.”

She watched his profile, the moonlight giving him a ghostly appearance. “I cannot imagine that you want a wife,” she said. “If you did, you would already have one at your age.”

He frowned and looked at her. “Just how old do ye think I am?”

“Old enough.”

He frowned a split second longer before breaking into a grin. “There’s not been time tae take a wife,” he said. “Being a Blackchurch trainer keeps me very busy and keeps me rooted tae Devon.”

“If you take me for a wife as your mother wishes, then what?” she said. “You are now the Earl of Lismore. Will you take me back to Scotland with you?”

He shook his head. “’Tis too soon tae speak of that,” he said. Then he eyed her. “But I told ye once that ye belonged tae me. Ye seem tae have accepted that.”

“And you said you might auction me off and buy a prize stallion.”

“I lied.”

She did let a smile break through, then, however small. “I am relieved.”

He chuckled. “I thought ye might be,” he said. “There’s nothing like an uncertain future tae make everything seem grim.”

“That is true.”

A silence settled between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

Simply a silence in the cold night air as the distant sounds of drunken men wafted upon the breeze.

Payne listened for a few moments, wondering if those drunk pirates were going to stick to their encampment or wander through the village, but his thoughts soon returned to Astria.

He had a few things on his mind.

“I asked ye once where ye would go if ye escaped,” he said. “Ye told me back tae Tarragona. After we marry, do ye want me tae return ye home? Or back tae Lisbon instead?”

She looked at him. “I’ve not lived in Lisbon for many years,” she said. “I was born at Sintra Palace, but it belongs to my nephew now.”

“Then ye would return tae Tarragona?”

“You would not take me with you back to Lismore, to Achanduin Castle?”

“Ye’ve been there?”

She nodded. “Remember that your mother took me back to Lismore Island for quite some time after she first abducted me,” she said. “I met your father, in fact. You look like him.”

Payne smiled. “I know,” he said. “My da was a dear man. I miss him.”

Something in her expression changed. “You speak well of him.”

“Of course I do,” he said. “Do ye not speak well of yer own father?”

Astria shrugged. “I hardly knew him,” she said.

“I was the youngest of nine children. My father was focused on his heir, or my mother, or his mistresses, or his bastards. He did not have time for a young girl who was studious and would rather write poetry or paint pictures of flowers than tell witty stories for the nobles or sing most beautifully. Moreover, my mother died in childbirth with me. I do not think my father could bear to look at me. A worthless girl, he once called me. He loved my mother and clearly blamed me for her death.”

Payne was listening seriously. “I am sorry,” he said quietly. “It’s not right that he should do that.”

“Right or wrong, that is the way I grew up,” she said. “I did not have a sister nor a brother who treated me with any regard except Afonso. He did, a little, more than anyone else, but that stopped once he became king.”

It sounded like a lonely childhood to Payne. “What about friends or cousins?” he asked. “Surely ye had family and friends around ye.”

She shook her head. “Not really,” she said.

“As a princess, I lived a rather isolated life. I was barely fourteen years of age when I was betrothed to Armand and sixteen years when I married him. I told you that he was more of a father figure. He already had a son, but he wanted more. I never bore a child and he told everyone I was barren, but the truth is that he only touched me once, on our wedding night, and never again after that.”

“Yet ye accepted the blame of a childless marriage,” Payne said. “That was courageous of ye.”

She averted her gaze. “There was nothing else I could do,” she said. “I cannot honestly say I’ve ever had a close friend or relative, or anyone else who cared about my welfare.”

“That is a difficult way tae live.”

“It is simply the way of things.”

“And then a pirate queen abducted ye and ye found yerself in England.”

She smiled weakly. “That is true,” she said.

“And having a conversation with a man I do not know, but one who has shown me more regard in the few hours we’ve been acquainted than almost anyone in my life.

That is why I could not run. That would show ingratitude for what you’ve done, and I do not wish to be ungrateful. ”

He matched her smile. “Thank ye for not destroying my trust in ye,” he said. “I suspected that ye’re a woman of honor, and I see that I was right.”

Her smile vanished. “Is that what you think?” she said. “That I am honorable?”

“Ye just proved it by not running away when ye had the chance.”

Astria stared at him. Really stared at him.

For the first time in her life, she was building some sort of a relationship with someone she didn’t even know.

Really building one. That was the strangest thing about it, because she’d known plenty of people in her life.

But, as she had told him, she’d never really, truly had a friend or someone she could count on.

The fact that he had called her honorable made her feel sick to her stomach because she wasn’t honorable. She knew that.

She couldn’t let the man think she was something other than what she was.

“May I ask you something?” she finally said.

He nodded. “Go ahead.”

She took a deep breath. “If I asked you to swear upon your oath as a knight not to tell your mother something, would you do it?”

He grew serious. He didn’t reply right away, but he sat forward, elbows resting on his knees, rubbing his hands together in thought. He seemed pensive. Finally, his head came up and his eyes met hers.

“If I’m not betraying my family by swearing, I would,” he said quietly. “If I’m not betraying my Blackchurch brethren or anything I believe in, I would. Keep that in mind before ye ask me tae swear, but know I willna swear anything unless ye tell me first. Only then can I make that determination.”