Free Rise of a Legend (Guardian of Scotland Book 1) by Amy Jarecki Page B

worse.”
    He took in a breath and scrubbed his hands over face. “I’m so driven to fight. ’Tis as if Longshanks himself is calling me out. And now the bastard has struck my own kin.”
    Her heart twisting into a knot, Eva slid an arm around his shoulder. “I’m so sorry your father fell victim to this mess.”
    “Too many Scotsmen and women have lost their lives for naught.” He leaned away from her and glanced over his shoulder. “Ye should go back to your pallet.”
    “I will,” she whispered, resting her head against him and smoothing her hand over his back. The loneliness night brought was palpable. No one knew that better than Eva—and all too often there was nowhere to turn for comfort. “But not yet.”
    William didn’t respond—only bowed his head and coughed.
    She swirled her fingers into the muscular bands in his shoulder. “I know what you’re going through. It’s as if there’s a chasm spreading so wide in your chest, you feel like it’s about to burst. The pain hurts so badly, you want to score your palms to ease the burden on your heart.”
    William shook his head. “’Tis my burden to bear. I should have been with him.”
    At the campfire, Eva had learned from Robbie that Wallace and his men were on the borders defending villagers’ homes from an English raid. They couldn’t have known about his father’s meeting with knights loyal to the Earl of Carrick at Lochmaben. “You cannot blame yourself. You would have been with him had you received word sooner.”
    His head dropped a bit further. “Every time Scottish blood is spilled, I feel responsible, as if God put me on this earth to defend those who are too weak to fight for themselves.”
    Eva sidled behind William and sunk her fingers into muscles made tense by too much anguish. If nothing else, she could help relieve his burden with a massage. A man who wore a heavy hauberk, the sinews supporting his neck felt rock solid. Mercy, it would take a month at a spa in the Bahamas to relieve such tension.
    He stretched his head from side to side. “I ken in my soul I must carry the sword and face our oppressors, but how do I ken if I’m doing the right things?”
    A man like William Wallace had doubts? In awe, Eva plied his flesh with deep kneading fingers. “You are following your heart and you cannot walk away.”
    “I wouldna be able to live with myself if I turned my back on my people.” His muscles stiffened. “Edward Plantagenet humiliated King John and forced the nobles of this great kingdom to pledge fealty to him as suzerain.” He spat. “The Bastard. I refuse to sit idle and stomach the crimes he has committed against my countrymen.”
    “I know.” Eva rubbed in a circular pattern and his tension eased ever so slightly.
    “The nobles are afraid. One misstep and they can lose their lands and their titles, but I have no lands and no title to lose. I am a vassal of the people.”
    “You are and you must continue to be.” Eva moved to his outer shoulders, using the heels of her hands to loosen the taut sinews. “God gave you the mind of a great general—a man who can strategize and lead an army.”
    “I dunna ken about that.” William harrumphed. “If only I had the numbers.”
    “You will.”
    He drew his head up. “How can ye possibly ken what the future brings?”
    “I just do.” She used her thumbs to coax the muscles in his lower back to relax. “You are charismatic. Men are drawn to you. I am drawn to you. And by your size, let alone your skill with weapons, they will be in awe of you.”
    He chuckled. “Ye are whimsical. I only desire to see my country as she once was—to have the rightful king returned to the throne.”
    Eva’s nerves grated. If only she could tell William how wrong he was about John Balliol, but Walter Tennant’s voice rang in her head—she must do nothing that might change the past. And at this point in history, Balliol was still the King of Scotland.
    She mightn’t be able to