Chapter 7 #2
The sweet, honeyed scent of the treat wafted up toward Drake. Surely the lad was tempted, yet Bean still didn’t accept it and instead turned away. “I’ll no’ eat something stolen.”
“I dinna steal it.” She turned and waved to the man who sold the pastries. He held up a hand back, his face set in a wide grin.
That was enough to convince Bean, who plucked the treasure from her hand. He paused only to murmur a quick thanks before sinking his teeth into the flaky sweet.
Greer’s green eyes boldly met Drake’s. “I’ll split mine with ye.” She set her fingers at the back while holding the sides with her thumb in preparation for halving it.
Drake shook his head. “Nay, ye bought it. Keep it for yerself but thank ye.”
“I dinna buy it.”
Bean stopped chewing, and his eyes went wide.
She laughed. “He gave them to me.”
“Why?” Bean asked.
“Because I asked.” She shrugged and took a bite.
“Because ye asked?” Drake narrowed his eyes, not understanding. “Did the lady also offer for ye to take her belt?”
Greer bit into her pastry again, as if she hadn’t heard him.
“Beathan, see to the horses,” Drake ordered, preferring the lad not to be around when having the necessary conversation with Greer.
Fortunately, Bean offered no protest as he returned to the horses, pastry in hand, still constrained to his role as the squire, even if Drake was not a knight. Yet.
“Ye asked, and he gave them to ye?” Drake pressed.
Greer tilted her head with exasperation. “I told him it was Bean’s natal day today, and I wanted a treat for him, but dinna have my purse on me. He offered me two.”
“So ye lied.” An ache was settling in Drake’s head, one he tried to ward off by pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Nay.” Greer blocked the sun with the flat of her hand as her mouth slid up into a crafty smile. “I dinna know when the actual date of his birth is. Indeed, it might have been today so far as I knew.”
“And the woman’s chain?” He tempered the rise of his anger. If it were known that he traveled with a thief, she could jeopardize his opportunity to become a knight. If she were caught and found in his care…
Greer pursed her lips. “Aye, I stole that.” She dropped her hand so the full light of the sun highlighted her brilliant eyes. “I’m assuming ye want me to return it.”
Drake gritted his back teeth, and Greer sighed. “Verra well.” She reached into her bag and withdrew a golden chain. It glinted against her raw palm, the fineness of the jewelry making the calluses and cracks of her worn hands all the more apparent.
With a resigned look up at him, she disappeared, blending into the crowd somehow.
Nay, not somehow—strategically. That much was evident in the way she hunched a little lower, ducked her head and rolled her shoulders forward. She was clever, he would give her that. But while she was skilled at thieving, she evidently did not shy from hard work, as was obvious by her hands.
But why had she stopped her hard work and resorted to stealing? What happened to bring her to Dunfermline?
In the distance, she approached the woman and offered a shy bow that appeared genuinely reticent.
Drake couldn’t help but smirk. Greer was never reticent.
But the woman did not appear put off. Rather, her face lit up in surprise as her hands went to her waist. She took the chain from Greer with a grateful incline of her head as her servant handed a coin to Greer, who readily pocketed the money.
Once the exchange was done, she strode back to him and tossed him a displeased look.
“Ye dinna tell her ye took it,” he surmised.
“At least I returned it,” she replied.
“And received payment for its return.”
She simply smiled at him.
“Greer,” he said in a quieter voice. “Ye canna steal while we’re traveling together.”
“We canna all afford to be as high and mighty as ye,” she shot back.
He pressed his lips together. She would never understand what he’d been through, not when she couldn’t see past his fine clothes and heavy purse. “Ye dinna have to steal.”
Her gaze drifted toward the market, distancing herself from their conversation. “Ye dinna know anything about my life.”
“I’d like to,” he answered earnestly. “I’d like to help, so ye dinna need to fall back on a life of thievery.”
“Ye want to help,” she repeated in a flat tone. “Fifty marks would do.”
He lifted his brows at the ridiculous sum. “Aye, I’m sure it would.”
Her mouth curled into a pretty smile. “There ye are, then.” With that, she strode back toward the horses, her shoulders still hunched forward. Though this time, he suspected it had little to do with blending in and more with the torrent of emotion behind her shielded expression.
She hesitated a moment in her path. Only then did he see a small child sitting against a wall of the alleyway, his palm upturned. Greer pulled the coin she had received from her pocket and placed it in his hand.
Drake knew exactly how precious that coin was to her and what a sacrifice it was for her to give it up.
The act was generous and one of the many reasons why Drake fought so hard to protect her. She was a good woman at her core. Surely, there were circumstances at work to make her do as she did.
And he would find out what they were.
He had hoped that her anger might cool in the time that he obtained provisions for a substantial lunch, but the flush to her cheeks when he returned indicated it had not. When they climbed onto the horse together, she did not lean back as she had before but remained stiffly in front of him.
He had liked that she had trusted him enough earlier in the day to have slept against him.
And though he’d tried not to watch her, nor admit it to himself, she was bonny as she slumbered.
She’d had her head resting on his chest, her auburn hair coming loose from its braid to whisper softly against her flushed cheeks.
Any defenses she had up were lowered, her face relaxed with ease.
That fragile trust had no doubt been broken by their exchange and was something he needed to address when they were alone.
To explain not only his ire but his life so that she would understand.
And to learn why she stole in the first place, for he suspected there was a reason for her deeds, and he had to know.