Shea was frozen in place. Horror gripped her by the throat as she numbly turned back to him.
“Why?” she whispered. “They had nothing to do with this.”
His face was a mask of stone and his eyes darkened dangerously as he said, “You know the answer to that.” She swallowed hard. “Eamon figured out you were a woman on your first mission. Buck took longer, but he’s known for a while too. Neither one came forward. That would be reason enough to have them punished.”
They had known? Shea’s world tilted. They had known this entire time and hadn’t said anything.
“I am sparing them because they saved my life and because they make a good incentive for you not to disappear again. You obviously care for them, or you wouldn’t have stayed so long.”
She looked at him from beneath lowered eyelashes. He was right, damn him. She wouldn’t be going anywhere with that threat over her head. They probably wouldn’t escape with her either. For them, these people were home.
All of her barely formed plans crumpled around her. There would be no waiting for the right moment. No great escape. She was well and truly caught.
Her mouth firmed into a tight, thin line. Icily, she asked, “If that is all?”
His lips quirked in an acknowledgment of having won this battle, and he raised one hand to flick his fingers at her in dismissal. “For now.”
She ground her teeth in annoyance and batted the door flap out of her way. Vexing bastard. He may have won this round, but she’d find some way out of this. Eventually.
Chapter Nineteen
Shea stormed out of the tent into the sunshine. Though it was bright and nearly blinding, she didn’t squint or shield her eyes until they adjusted, as she would have normally. She was too mad for that.
“Guardsman.”
The encampment that had seemed so huge suddenly felt stifling. She wanted out. To walk into the great beyond until there was not another soul for hundreds of miles. Maybe then she wouldn’t feel as if her skin was too tight for her body.
People. God, people. Men especially.
“Guardsman Shea.”
Stupid, stupid man. She had saved him when he was helpless in a spinner’s web. If she had left him there, he would have been sucked down like a man sized drink of water. But did he thank her? Nooo. He threatened her, tried to fit her inside a little box.
“Shea,” a voice yelled right next to her ear.
“What?” she snapped back, thinking better of it when she met Caden’s irate gaze.
She gulped and quickly rearranged her scowl into some semblance of a pleasant expression. Judging by the way his mouth turned down, she didn’t think he appreciated her effort.
Shea took a deep breath and then released it slowly. This man could make her very miserable for the foreseeable future. It paid to get on his good side.
“I apologize, sir. I didn’t hear you calling.”
Caden grunted and snapped, “Follow.”
Caden didn’t stop to look behind him, simply assuming she would follow. Though it rubbed her already raw nerves, Shea didn’t disappoint and trailed behind as he led her back to Fallon’s tent and then past it to a smaller one at the end of the lane.
Shea looked around curiously once inside, noting the sacks of clothing threatening to overtake the small space. She had never seen so many shirts and pants in one place.
“Meynard,” Caden said loudly.
He took up a position next to the screen divider on the far side of the room where he could watch Shea and the exit.
“Meynard,” Caden called loudly. “Get your ass out here, man. I don’t have all day.”
“Must you yell every time you’re here,” a voice said crabbily from the divider. A weathered hand pushed the screen aside, and a white haired man with sagging jowls and a slightly crooked back stepped into the room. “You’re the most impatient Daisy I’ve ever met.”
Daisy wasn’t exactly a term she would assign to the scarily capable Caden.
The old man looked up, his slightly cloudy blue eyes, coming to rest on Shea. His head tilted and he shuffled forward a few steps.
“This her, then?”
Caden grunted.
“Hm,” the old man said.
He stuck his face close to hers and craned his neck like a giant, white feathered bird. Shea leaned away, disconcerted at the close scrutiny.
“Not very pretty.” The old man looked her up and down and then cocked his head. “Kind of scrawny too.”
Shea stared back at him with the blankest expression she could muster. He’d have to do better than that if he wanted to offend her. She’d never put much stock in her looks. They were always just there. Like the sun or the sky. Neither helping nor hindering. Her strength, speed and capability were infinitely more important.
She disagreed, however, with his assessment of scrawny. Scrawny implied she was just skin and bones. It implied weakness, and Shea wasn’t weak. Her body was lined with trim muscle.
“Not easy to bait, then.”
“Doesn’t seem so.” Caden’s lips twitched. Barely. The motion was so small Shea wasn’t entirely sure she hadn’t imagined it.
“Quiet.” The old man hadn’t taken his eyes off Shea since his first observation, but now he gave Caden a sidelong glance.
“Her squad said she prefers to keep her own council.”
The white haired man hacked deep in his lungs. Shea started when she realized it was his version of a laugh.
“That’s not good. The Clan Heads will run right over her.”
“Maybe.” Caden folded his arms and leaned back against one of the tables stacked high with clothes before crossing his legs at the ankles. “But not necessarily. Her squad leader said she won’t shut up if she thinks she’s in the right. Said he’s never seen someone do quiet insubordination so well.”
Meynard gave his hacking laugh again. “So there’s a little bit of fire behind those pretty eyes. That’s good. She’ll need it.”
“Fallon wants her outfitted in his colors.” There was a distinct pause. “She’s to be one of his personal guards.”
The old man’s bushy eyebrows rose in surprise. “Not his Tolroi?”
“She refused.”
The old man’s lips pursed as if he’d just tasted something sour.
Shea hadn’t expected anybody to know about that. Fallon was popular with his army and some might be insulted on his behalf that she had rejected his offer. Of course, the other half would have been enraged if she’d accepted.
“Did you now?” he asked her.
Her chin jerked once in affirmation.
“And why is that?”
One shoulder rose. “I’m a scout, not a bed mate.”
“Not anymore,” Caden informed her. “You’re a guard now.”
Shea’s composure cracked momentarily as a visceral denial fought to be released. The implacable expression on Caden’s face froze her. He let her know without ever speaking a word that he was willing to beat that fact into her body until she agreed.
She closed her mouth on what she had been about to say and looked away briefly as she brought her emotions under control.
“So? Why are you here?” Meynard asked.