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  “No!” yelled at least five people.

  Raine drew his sword, pointed it at them. “Get away, all of you. The boy is no thief. Now, who will be the first to lose his life over this lie?”

  “We’ll punish the boy,” someone yelled before the crowd began to disperse.

  Chapter Eleven

  IT WAS A very long while before Alyx could move away from the protection of Raine’s solid form. Her knees were trembling and she clung to his arm.

  “I didn’t steal the knife,” she finally managed to whisper.

  “Of course not,” Raine snapped, but she could tell from his expression that he wasn’t dismissing the incident.

  “What will happen now?”

  “They will work to get what they want.”

  “And what is that?”

  “A trial and your banishment. Before you came I promised them justice. I swore that all wrongdoers would be punished.”

  “But I have done no wrong,” she said, on the verge of crying.

  “Would you like to put that before a group of them? They would find you guilty even if you were the Holy Mother.”

  “Buy why, Raine? I have done nothing to them. Last night I even tried to sing for them, but they turned away.”

  He was serious when he looked down at her. “Has your music always been enough for people? Has no one ever asked more of you than to sing prettily?”

  She had no answer for him. For her there’d been no life except her music. To the people of her town all they’d expected of her was music, and it was enough for them as well as for herself.

  “Come,” Raine said. “We must make some plans.”

  Glumly, she followed him, her head down, not meeting an eye of anyone they passed. This anger directed toward her was something so new to her.

  Once they were in the tent, Raine spoke quietly. “Tomorrow we will leave the forest.”

  “Leave? We? I don’t understand.”

  “The people are poisoned against you, and it will no longer be safe for you to stay here. I cannot protect you every minute of the day and I cannot allow them to harm you. Tomorrow morning we’ll leave.”

  Alyx, so aware of the hate of the people just outside the thin walls, could barely listen to him. “You cannot leave,” she murmured. “The King will find you.”

  “Damn the King!” Raine said angrily. “I cannot stay here and worry that each day one of them will turn on you. You cannot sing your way out of this, Alyx. For all their look of it they are smarter than the horses you charm. They will do what they can to hurt you.”

  Alyx was beginning to listen to him. “You would go with me?”

  “Of course. I couldn’t very well let you leave alone. You wouldn’t last a day outside in the world.”

  Tears blurred her eyes. “Because other people would also find out what I am? That I am a vain, arrogant person who cares for no one but herself?”

  “Alyx, you are a sweet child and you care for me.”

  “Who could not love you?” she asked simply. “You have more kindness in your little finger than I have in all my body. And now you risk capture and imprisonment to save me.”

  “I will take you to my brother and—”

  “And Gavin will risk the King’s wrath because he harbors a woman wanted for witchcraft. Would you jeopardize all your family for me, Raine? Do you love me that much?”

  “Yes.”

  Alyx’s eyes flew to his, saw the love there, and instead of giving her pleasure it gave her pain. “I must be alone,” she whispered. “I must think.”

  He followed her to the tent flap and as she left, he called Jocelin to him.

  As Alyx made her way through the dark forest to the stream, her thoughts jumbled about in her mind. She sat on a rock, staring at the dark, sparkling water.

  “Come out, Joss,” she called. “You are a poor follower,” she said despondently when he sat beside her. “Did Raine order you to protect me?”

  Joss remained silent.

  “He has to protect me now,” she said. “He can’t leave me alone for even minutes for fear someone will punish me.”

  “You have done no wrong.”

  “I have not stolen, true, but what good have I done? Look at Raine. Now he could be in another country living in comfort, but he chooses to stay in this cold forest and help his countrymen. He protects them, sees that they are fed, works for them always. And yet there is a reward on his head and he must stay here while his family needs him. His sister is raped and commits suicide and in his grief he does not even stop work for an hour.”

  “Raine is a good man.”

  “He is a perfect man,” she said.

  “Alyx,” Jocelin whispered, his hand on her arm, “Raine will protect you from the people, and what time he can’t be near, I will be. Your love for him has helped him through his grief.”

  It came as no surprise to her that Joss knew she was a woman. “What good is my love? I am not worthy of him. Tomorrow he plans to leave this camp, to ride freely into the sunlight of a country where he is fair game for the King’s wrath. He will leave the safety of the forest and risk prison or even death to protect me.”

  Again Jocelin was silent.

  “Don’t you have anything to say? No soothing words telling me Raine’s life will be safe?”

  “He will be in great danger if he leaves the forest. Raine is well-known and easily recognized.”

  A great sigh escaped Alyx. “How can I let him risk so much for me?”

  “So what do you plan to do?” Joss asked sharply.

  “I will leave by myself. I cannot stay and cause Raine worry, and he cannot leave with me. Therefore I will go alone.”

  Joss’s laugh startled her. “I’m sure Raine Montgomery will be as obedient as a lap dog. You will inform him you plan to leave and he will meekly kiss you goodbye and wish you well.”

  “I am prepared for a fight.”

  “Alyx,” Jocelin laughed. “Raine will toss you across his horse and carry you out of the forest. You can yell all you want, but when it comes to the point, muscle will win over words.”

  “You are right,” Alyx gasped. “Oh, Joss, what can I do? He cannot risk his life for me.”

  “Love him,” Joss said. “That’s all he wants. Go with him, stay with him. See him through everything.”

  She jumped up from the rock, hands on hips, glaring at Jocelin. “What am I to do when he is killed because of me? Should I hold his cold hand and sing a sweet song to the Lord? No doubt I’ll make magnificent music, and everyone will say how I must have loved him. No! I don’t want cold hands. I want hot ones loving me—or loving anyone, for that matter. I’d rather give Raine back to Blanche than see him dead.”

  “Then how are you going to make him stay here?” Jocelin asked quietly.

  She sat down again. “I don’t know. Surely there must be something I could say. Perhaps if I insulted his family.”

  “Raine would laugh at you.”

  “True. Perhaps if I told him he were a . . .” She couldn’t think of a single thing she hadn’t already called him. Obviously names would not harm him. “Oh, Joss,” she said desperately, “what can I do? Raine must be protected from himself. If he were to leave the forest no doubt he’d pursue Chatworth, and then the King would become involved in the quarrel and—I can’t let it happen! What can I do?”

  It was a long moment before Jocelin spoke and when he did, she barely heard him. “Go to bed with me.”

  “What!” She whirled on him. “I am talking to you of a man’s safety, his possible death and you are trying to woo me to your bed? If you want a woman, get one of those hags who pant after you. Or take Rosamund to your bed. I’m sure she’d enjoy it more than I would.”

  “Alyx,” he chuckled, hand on her arm. “Before you launch into me more fully, listen to me. If you are serious about Raine’s staying here, there is nothing you can say to make him stay, but perhaps there is something you can do. He doesn’t really know you very wel