Free An Oath Sworn by Diana Cosby

did they find us?”
    He made a quick survey of the knights, irritated by her avoidance of his question. After their kiss, he’d . . . What? Believed it would change their relationship to something deeper? If so, he was a fool. After Elizabet had married another, he’d understood too well how a kiss, nay matter the heat, guaranteed little.
    â€œIt has been raining too hard for them to have trailed us.” Colyne shrugged. “I doubt they know we are here.”
    Above the ledge, a knight cantered past, then several more.
    A fall of rocks clattered near the entrance. Through the curtain of rain spilling over the stone above, Colyne watched as the legs of a knight’s mount flashed by.
    Alesia gasped.
    â€œSteady now.” Mail scraped stone as Colyne reached for his dagger.
    More rocks thunked down the muddied slope near the cave’s entrance. Through the blur of rain, another knight came into view. Mud sucked at his mount’s hooves as he rode toward the group of men a short distance away who had also started to descend the embankment.
    Alesia inched closer. “What are we going to do?”
    He counted twenty riders. Too many to take on alone, especially injured. “Hopefully they will leave in search of shelter.”
    Several men cantering across the upper rim of the slope joined the main group.
    With a sigh, Colyne relaxed his grip on his dagger. The rain streaming over the cave’s narrow opening had concealed their presence. In an effort to ease his throbbing shoulder, he shifted. As he turned, another sharp rock dug into his wound. He muttered a foul curse.
    â€œWhat is wrong?”
    â€œNaught.” They had more important things to worry about than his injuries.
    A burly man, who appeared to be in charge of the horsemen, rode to the stream’s edge. “Wherever they are,” he shouted above the roll of thunder, “they could not have traveled past here.”
    â€œThey?” Alesia whispered. “How do they know we are traveling together?”
    â€œPerhaps they stumbled upon the cave where you tended me,” he replied. “Or discovered the burials or other signs of us being together.”
    â€œ ’Tis too dangerous to cross,” the lead man shouted back.
    Alesia’s hand tightened on Colyne’s shoulder. “Look at the stream!”
    The knight in charge scanned the angry torrent of churning water rushing past. Massive tree limbs bobbed in the current as if they were fallen twigs. “They must find another place to cross.”
    â€œSo must we,” Colyne whispered as he faced her.
    A frown wedged across her brow. “What direction will we take?”
    With a grimace, he surveyed their surroundings. A wall of rock on their left removed the decision to travel north. With the steep banks slick and treacherous, retracing their steps wasna possible.
    One choice remained.
    â€œAfter the riders leave, we will head downstream.”
    The burly leader scowled at the blackened sky and then faced his horsemen. “We will set up camp here. Guards will be posted. If they try to pass this way, we will catch them.”
    Her eyes widened. “They are staying?”
    A muscle worked in Colyne’s jaw. “ ’Twould seem so.”
    â€œOver there,” the leader called. One hand shielded his face from the driving rain as the other motioned toward a stand of trees crowded on the top of the embankment, a short distance down the burn.
    An outlook allowed them a fair view of their surroundings and, unknowingly, the ability to see any move he and Alesia would make.
    The knights secured their horses in the nearby trees and hurried to construct a makeshift shelter.
    â€œWhat are we going to do?” she whispered. “We cannot stay here.”
    As if he didna realize that. He curbed his temper. Circumstance, nay her, instigated their plight. The small cave offered them protection from the weather, but with their