Free The Loyal Heart by Merry Farmer

retrieve his daggers.
    “And why are you here?” Geoffrey played along to help Aubrey break the tension. “I thought you were going to the castle today.”
    Ethan turned from Geoffrey to Aubrey with an incredulous frown. If Aubrey didn’t know better she would have thought he was jealous.
    “I was at the castle,” she announced. “And I bring news,” she added with an flicker of her eyebrow.
    “What news?” Ethan crossed his arms, bow still in one hand.
    Aubrey slid to the ground and landed in front of Ethan with a smile. His stark frown began to thaw as she left his question unanswered. When he dissolved into a flirtatious grin it was enough to make Aubrey tingle with expectation. “Getting a little practice in?”
    “You could say that,” he shrugged. “It’s just a bow.”
    “Just a bow? You’re breaking my heart!” She reached out and took the bow from him, then held out her other hand. He drew an arrow from the quiver on his back for her. “A bow is valuable weapon,” she lectured him as she turned to face the target at the far end of the field. Toby set aside his mending and came to watch. Jack had retrieved his daggers and now stood to the side in front of the target checking the blades. She still had a clear shot at the bull’s-eye. “It’s your first line of attack, your distance weapon.” She drew the string as she lifted the bow, aimed, and let the arrow fly in one smooth motion. It zipped across the clearing, ruffling Jack’s shirt as it passed within a hand of his chest, and sank home less than an inch beside Geoffrey’s arrow.
    “Oy!” Jack shouted, turning to them and throwing out his arms. “You got a thing for tryin’ to kill me?”
    Aubrey could see the twinkle in his eyes across the distance. “If I’d been trying to kill you, Jack, you’d be dead already!”
    She turned back to Ethan to find him and Geoffrey applauding while exchanging looks with each other. She smiled and bobbed a quick curtsy.
    “And now,” Ethan snatched the bow from her, “for that news.”
    For a moment there they had been having a genuinely good time. She sighed. “First of all, Buxton doesn’t have any plans to root you out and drag you to the castle for a hanging. At least not yet. I think he considers it too much trouble.”
    “I’ll just have to work harder then.” Ethan shot a wink to Geoffrey.
    “Ethan!”
    “What? If I’m not a wanted man then I’m not trying hard enough. I want my land back.”
    “So I’m told,” Aubrey huffed. His grin dropped from her eyes to her lips to her chest and a tingle raced down her spine.
    His eyes flickered to hers. “Anything else?”
    Aubrey cleared her throat. Jack closed the distance from the target and joined the conversation, ears perked. “Buxton is bringing a man in for a trial, or rather an execution.”
    “Yeah?” Jack asked, “And what did he supposedly do?”
    “Supposedly murdering his lord.”
    “Right.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Which probably means he bumped into some snooty noble in the marketplace who stubbed his bleedin’ toe.”
    Aubrey faced Ethan. “He’s from Derbyshire but he ran after he was accused and was caught a few days ago. I figure if you’re serious about this opposition and you want to set precedent for thwarting Buxton’s plans maybe you could do something about that. You know, a daring midnight rescue or something.”
    “Well I’m definitely in.” Jack nodded as if the matter were already decided.
    Tom echoed him with, “I’m with you, my lord.”
    “Here’s the thing,” Aubrey went on as Ethan tried to speak, Jack’s confidence fueling her own. “Crispin told me that aside from the guards that will be with the transport for the ‘murderer’ there are also some civilians, a couple of nuns and a merchant.”
    “Aw, I love nuns!” Jack exclaimed with a wicked grin that drew curious glances from everyone else. He defended himself with a shrug. “What?”
    “You love … nuns?” Ethan