Arran didn’t, the thought of what they would do to his wife sending him into a dangerous, silent rage. He was ready to kill them, but he had to keep one alive, until he got his answers. Unless he could get them to talk first, then he could kill them both quickly and be done with it.
Purity remained behind her husband, though not out of fright. After seeing how easily he had dealt with the other men who had happened upon them, she knew these two men posed no problem for him. She didn’t want them to notice how her glance wandered, wondering where King had gone since pouncing with a screech on Arran’s back, alerting him to danger. Knowing him, he was readying himself to attack.
“What brings you both here to this section of the woods?” Arran asked.
The one went to speak and the other was quick to remind, “We’re not supposed to say.”
The man grinned. “Dead men can’t talk.”
The other man grinned as well, then looked to Arran. “We’ve come for her.”
“How much is the bounty?” Arran asked, hoping they would confirm his suspicions.
“Don’t think we’ll split it with you for handing her over,” the one man said.
“Why would you think I’d split it with you?” Arran challenged, glad his suspicion was finally confirmed, though there was much more to learn.
“What? You’re here to get her for the bounty too?” the other man asked, spittle flying out of his mouth along with his anger.
Purity understood what her husband was doing, getting as much information from the two men as he could before—she didn’t want to think that Arran would again be forced to kill. She also didn’t want to think of what she would have done if Arran hadn’t shown up. She had thought herself safe here, as safe as Wren had been all the years she had lived here alone. But Wren was a witch, or so people believed, and they feared her retribution if she was harmed in any way. Besides many needed her skills so she’d been left alone.
Not so Purity, and now it looked as though someone wanted her bad enough to offer a bounty on her.
She hurried out from behind her husband to stand at his side and shouted at the two men, “Does my father offer a bounty on me?”
“Don’t know your da and don’t know who offers it,” the one man said.
“And we don’t care,” the other chimed in.
“Where are you take me to collect his bounty?” Purity demanded.
Arran was impressed that his wife knew what questions to ask so it wouldn’t appear as if he didn’t know anything, and that he was there to snatch her up for the bounty.
“Clan Macara,” the one man said and Purity could feel herself turn pale. Why now would her father offer a bounty on her? And where did he get the coin to do so?
“I’ll not be going with you,” Purity said calmly.
The one man laughed. “It’s not your choice.”
“No, it’s not. It’s my choice,” Arran said so frosty that the two men shivered.
Then we’ll just have to kill you,” the one said, gathering his courage before he stepped forward.
King came flying down out of the tree behind the man, landing on his shoulder and swiping his sharp claws across the man’s face, not once but twice before jumping off him to swipe at his ankles. King’s attack alerted Princess and she was on full charge toward the other man, but Arran reached him first. One swing took the man down and another finished the other man who swung wildly with his sword gripped in one hand while his other tried to wipe the blood from his eyes.
“Good work,” Arran said with a nod to King, then to Princess before returning to Purity. “Enough of this. There is no telling how many more will come. We leave tomorrow for home.” He took her arm to return to the cottage.
“The fish. We need to eat.”
Arran didn’t argue with her. She was right. It didn’t take him long to catch three fish and be on the way even with giving King the first fish. After all, he deserved it.
They ate outside, Arran refusing to eat inside the cottage. He wanted to keep watch to make sure he wasn’t caught unware again. He also ordered the animals to protect her while he went and set traps just inside the woods that bordered the approach to the cottage.
Rain drove them inside as night approached and it was only then that they talked of the day’s incident.
“I don’t understand why my father would place a bounty on me. He must know how dangerous that could be for me,” Purity said, the thought having troubled her since hearing it.
“You are to be delivered to the Clan Macara. Neither mentioned your father, the chieftain,” Arran said, having thought endlessly on it himself.