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Tristan rubbed his temples, the pain in his head from earlier returning. He sat in the room over the gate, his customary meeting place with his marshal. John, his new sergeant, was also present for the meeting. The man had come to Saxford after his old lord was killed in battle, and they were grateful for it. His horsemanship skills were celebrated on both sides of the border.

“I need to get back—”

“To your visitor?” Walter asked. He sounded genuinely concerned, and Tristan couldn’t decide if he was grateful or annoyed.

He’d hated lying to his most trusted advisors, but there had been no choice. Hannah’s version of the truth was not acceptable, and she’d rejected his story about The Swan. So he’d spun a story that clung to the truth without being true. Traveling alone was more acceptable for widows than unmarried ladies, so he’d claimed she was a widow. Her wits were addled, likely from a fall, and she remembered only that she’d been traveling with her sisters and had become separated from them at Leannan Falls.

“Aye,” he said. “To arrange her escort. Have either of you heard of the falls?”

The men exchanged glances.

“Nay,” Walter said.

“I have,” John said, “but you won’t be pleased to learn where it is.”

“Tell me.” Though he already suspected what the answer would be.

Walter and John exchanged glances.

“It’s located on the very edge of Sutherland’s property, just north of its southernmost border.”

Damn. That would not do.

“We can’t take her there,” Walter said. “Any provocation now—”

“Provocation?” His patience with the Scottish border lord had come to an end months ago. When Kenton granted him this property, the one closest to his most bitter enemy, he had promised to protect it. Even if that meant being more patient than was comfortable. “He has threatened to attack us the moment the treaty ends. If anyone is provoking—”

“Are you prepared for battle now? I despise Sutherland more than any man alive, as do you, but if he were to attack now—”

“We will be ready.”

They would need to be. Rumor had it the wardens did not intend to intervene, which meant there would be another bloody border war that would see men dead on both sides—all for a feud none of them had started. But he’d sworn to protect the people of Saxford, promised as much to his overlord and the man who pulled him from a stewhouse to a new life, and so he would.

“My lord,” Walter pressed, “if a contingent of men is caught anywhere near—”

“I will ensure it does not happen.”

“Also,” John said, his gruff voice filling the room, “there are strange rumors about those falls.”

He stood, wanting to get back to Hannah.

“I care little for rumors.”

With his hand on the iron door handle, Tristan was about to leave when John’s words stopped him.

“Aye, but the men must be careful.” The warning was rather vague and obvious, but something about John’s tone gave him pause.

He turned. “Aye, of Sutherland—”

“Nay, of the falls.”

Every hair on his arms stood on end.

“My sister says a faerie lives in the pool beneath the falls.”

“A faerie?” He laughed, chiding himself for having given the rumor even a moment’s consideration. Tristan did open the door then, bidding farewell to his men.