Knight Protector (Knight Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF

porridge is brought; by then ’twill be too late to leave and return this night.”
    St. Andrew save him from interfering women. They were near as bothersome as a profligate, treasonous twin brother. “I dinna agree. Winter nights are long, and this one is moonless. We’ll nae have a better chance. We must try after whoever brings the porridge has come and gone.”
    “’Tis too risky. You may be seen at the stables, and that would spoil everything, since Brice is thought to be dying.”
    “None will see us if we take care to nae be seen. You can get your mount from the stables; I have mine hidden outside the stronghold near the abandoned woodcutter’s cottage. Join me there.”
    She glared at him. “’Tis foolishness, but I’ll lead you to that tree and the badge. However, I’ll nae be party to desecrating Brice’s body.”
    “We can hardly have him mourned and entombed in the chapel, if we are to claim I am he.”
    “I dinna care. ’Tis sacrilege, and I’ll take nae part in it.”
    “Saint’s blood, woman, we’ll have him shriven and his body moved once this crisis is past.”
    “Do you swear to God you will do this?” She eyed him with all the suspicion he harbored for her.
    “By Saint Andrew’s Cross, I’ll build an entire cathedral in Brice’s name if you’ll just help me wrap him in my cloak so I can get him to the stairs.”
    Colin stared at her, willing her to aid him.
    She dropped her arms and stuck out her chin. “I’ll nae stop you from doing as you will with Brice’s body, but I’ll nae help you.”
    Colin narrowed his gaze then shrugged and began wrapping his brother’s corpse in the cloak. “Have it your way. I can move him on my own, but when we deal with the porridge I’d prefer no to lay on bedclothes that stink of his death. ’Twill save time if you change them for me, please.”
     He hefted the shrouded body over one shoulder and headed for the tapestry-covered stairway. Whether she did as he asked or nae, Colin would take his brother’s place. But the idea of resting his body in the exact spot on the exact linens where his brother died was far from comforting.
    • • •
    Sorcha watched him go. ’Twould serve him right if she left him to his own devices. The Marrs had never suffered the kind of poverty Clan MacKai endured, and she doubted Colin knew where the bed linens were kept, let alone how to go about making a bed. In better days, chores and the backbreaking labor of running a noble household had been the last thing on her mind. She’d been much more concerned with making certain Raeb and the Marr twins included her in all their fun. For it had been fun, helping the twins trade roles to fool adults, playing at hide and seek, tramping the woods and glens with nae a care. As they’d grown older, she flirted with both twins, imagining what each might be like as a husband and lover. Colin had been comfortable. Brice was exciting. When the time came, falling in love with Brice had seemed the most natural thing in the world. At sixteen, she had been full of dreams.
    Then tempers and murder destroyed the peace between their clans and her hope of happiness, but she’d had nae time for self-pity. With her mother and father dead, Sorcha had been forced into the role of mother to her six younger sisters. Every night she’d fallen weary and sore into bed. Every day she had prayed for the patience and guidance to do the best for her family. She learned nae to hope for herself but for her sisters and her brother. They would marry and have babes, which would have to be enough to sustain her. Her love had fled with Brice and Colin Marr, and she buried the longing for it deep in the earth with her murdered parents.
    The swish of the heavy tapestry announced Colin’s return. He looked at the bed then at her and shook his head.
    “So you’ll nae aid me, even to change the bed. Well enough. Are the linens still kept in the cupboard opposite the garderobe?”
    So he did know.