Free Renegade Heart by Kay Ellis Page B

men gathered around the camp fire and finally began to discuss plans for an attack on the castle, their mood darkening as they faced the unlikelihood of thirty eight men, at most, succeeding against hundreds of highly trained soldiers.
    Leaving Krisha to watch over a sleeping Hawk, Enola strolled through the camp, promising Magnosa she would not venture far. She had no doubt she was safe here. Word had spread quickly among the renegades that she was Wolf’s woman and her child was Wolf’s son. It surprised her how much respect it earned her from the men. Wolf, it seemed, was revered by his comrades. Assuming he could be freed from the castle, the men had already accepted he would be Tregaar’s natural successor despite his tender age.
    Enola wandered through the trees and soon came across a small clearing with a crystal clear stream running through it. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure she was still in sight of the camp she settled on the damp grass and slipped off her shoes and stockings before dipping her bare feet into the stream. A small gasp escaped her lips as the icy water flowed over her skin.
    “It’s colder than it appears,” a voice said and Enola looked up sharply.
    On the opposite bank a young man emerged from the bushes, a bow slung around his chest and a quiver of arrows on his back. He had dirty blond hair which reached untidily to his shoulders and grey-blue eyes, handsome in his own way. Enola had seen him around the camp during the day, fetching and carrying yet somehow always seeming to be outside of the group.
    “It’s Lark, isn’t it?” Enola said. “Shouldn’t you be sitting in the council meeting?”
    “No,” Lark replied, his tone neutral. “They wouldn’t listen to anything I have to say anyway.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I’m not Wolf.”
    He waded across the shallow stream and dropped onto the bank beside her. Enola glanced at him sideways and realised he was actually a good deal more attractive close up. His features were softer and less striking than Wolf’s which, Enola thought, was not a bad thing.
    “You don’t care much for Wolf, do you?”
    “More like he doesn’t care for me,” Lark countered. “None of them do. I’m not a good rider and I’m useless with a sword. Wolf thinks I’m stupid and the others agree with him.”
    “There must be something you’re good at,” Enola said kindly, feeling oddly guilty that Wolf should be the cause of the boy’s alienation from the renegades.
    “I’m okay with a bow and arrow,” Lark conceded with a shrug of his shoulders. “But Wolf says it’s the weapon of a coward and the others ….”
    “The others agree with him,” Enola finished for him and Lark nodded miserably. “Why does it matter so much what Wolf thinks of you?”
    “Because he’s everything I’m not. We’re the same age, but Wolf is seen as a man while I’m still treated as a child.”
    “You’re hardly a child,” Enola said. She reached out to touch his hand reassuringly, startled when he jerked away as though her very touch burned his skin.
    “Lark!” Fairac stepped from the trees behind them, his eyes flicking from one to the other in disapproval. “You need to collect more wood for the fire.”
    With a sigh, Lark got to his feet and headed towards the camp. Fairac grabbed his arm, fingers digging cruelly into the boy’s arm as he swung Lark around to face him.
    “If I catch you sniffing round Wolf’s woman again I’ll beat you within an inch of your pathetic life. And you’ll be grateful for it because it will be preferable to what Wolf will do to you when he returns.”
    Enola bristled with anger at Fairac’s words. How dare he threaten Lark when the boy had done nothing wrong? She watched Lark scurry off back to camp with his head bowed low. For the first time she felt relief that Wolf was not in camp. A great man among the renegades he may be, but to Enola it sounded as though he had become little more than a bully. She