Page 98 of Marin’s Promise

Sir Richard clasped Bran’s forearm with his own. “You have my word as a knight that she will be safely recovered.”

“Care for Marin, aye?” Bran released the man’s arm and turned away to his one loyal friend. “They have a good offer here,” Bran said in a tight voice to Drake. In truth, he hated to turn away the one man willing to stand at his side, but nor could he allow the youth to lose the opportunity for greater things than Bran could offer.

“Aye, but ye have my loyalty.” Drake inclined his head respectfully.

Bran smirked to cover the tightness in his chest at the lad's impeccable honor. He didn't know what he'd done in his life to have earned such fealty, but he'd never been gladder for it.

Sir Richard strode ahead of them and called to the soldiers manning the gates. They groaned open and the portcullis began to raise.

“I believe that is our nudge to remove ourselves from this place.” Bran leapt onto his horse.

Drake did likewise and the two rode toward the open gates.

“Are ye sure ye want to do this?” Bran asked under his breath. “I dinna have a location in mind, I have no men but ye, and the Grahams will want my head and that of those around me.”

“I go where ye do,” Drake said stoically.

“Dinna say ye were no' forewarned,” Bran muttered.

Together they left the safety of the castle walls. Neither of them looked back. Bran wasn't sure why Drake didn't bother, but he knew for himself if he looked backward, he might never be able to take another step forward.

Outside, the fallen Graham soldiers had not yet been handled, due to the limited resources and exhausted men. The bodies had attracted swarms of flies that the buzzing was enough to set Bran's teeth rattling. The odor of death swelled up around him, forcing him to put his sleeve to his nose to avoid breathing any more of the purification than necessary to draw air.

Beside him, Drake gave a choked cough and they both picked up their pace–away from the dead soldiers, and out into the night, into the unknown, where Bran would never see Marin again.

* * *

Marin staredat yet another locked door. Her hands ached from the repeated strikes against the solid wood to her room. Still, it remained in place, a barrier between her and the man she loved.

Bran.

Spent tears rendered her exhausted and left her eyes swollen and gritty. At one point, she'd fallen asleep curled up before the door. As uncomfortable as it had been when she'd finally awoken with a stiff neck, her own unease paled in comparison to what Bran doubtless endured.

Her eyes filled with a fresh bout of tears.

Her father had taken him away and had her locked in her room, a prisoner in her own castle, in the home she had worked so hard to run. And not one soldier had come to her aid. Not even her sisters. Already the skies had grown dark and she had heard nothing of Bran's fate.

She howled her anguish and pummeled her heel into the door with all her might, summoning the energy from the depths of her wounded soul. Her heel slammed into the door, but it did not cause so much as a shudder.

Would her father kill him?

The breath choked out of her chest and refused to be caught again. He wouldn’t kill him, would he? Would he try to marry her off to some noble? Would he help rescue Ena?

Mayhap if she found out she was with child, then her father would relent. Marin put her hand to her flat stomach and scrunched her swollen eyes shut.

Her mind warred with the father she'd grown up loving and the hardened man who had returned from Berwick with only part of his troops, the man desperate for vengeance. She shuddered.

She did not know what this man was capable of.

A rattle came from the door and Marin sat upright. “Who's there?”

A shushing sounded on the opposite side followed by more muted clattering. Marin's pulse raced. Was she being let out? Was someone helping her at last?

The door creaked open and Leila's narrow face appeared.

“Leila,” Marin said in a whispered rush.

Her youngest sister gave her a small smile and rushed into her arms. They stood thus for a long moment, wrapped in each other's embrace, pulling and giving comfort all at once.