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to keep her from suffering the consequences. At the moment it looked a herculean task. He was not even sure he was going to be able to save himself.
    “Ye dinna think that will help you?” she finally asked, disturbed by the way he scowled at her.
    “Oh, aye, ’twill help me—if I can get the information to the king or his men. The information ye have, however, isna going to help you at all.”
    “Nay. I ken that. ’Tis but another reason for him to try and kill me. Aye, and the Black Douglases will wish me silenced as well.”
    “I wondered if ye would understand that.”
    “It wasna hard. The very moment I realized I had discovered something that could hurt my uncle, I realized that he would ken it, too. Or he willna wish to chance that I saw something. What difference does it make? Dead is dead no matter what the reason. He may have two motives to kill me now, but he can only kill me once.”
    Tess wished she was as calm as she sounded. She walked back to the fire and sat down, staring into the flames. There had been a lot of danger in her short life from sickness to clan feuds and battles. They were dangers everyone faced, however, mostly impersonal dangers. This threat was aimed at her personally. It would not come and go in a winking but linger, pursuing her until her uncle was stopped. It terrified her, but she fought to subdue that. What she faced would require strength.
    Returning home became her goal. She wanted the comfort and safety of her father’s ever-increasing family. The Delgados and the Comyns would form a tight protective circle around her that her uncle would never dare to confront.
    Glancing up, she saw Revan moving toward her again. He crouched by the fire and met her gaze briefly before she returned to watching the flames. She was going to have to accustom herself to the fact that she was dependent upon him, upon his goodwill, protection, and skill. Since she did not really know the man, she could not be sure he was capable of any of that.
    “Now, Tess,” Revan began, then paused to sit down by her side. “There are two ways this could turn. Your uncle could end our threat to him, or we could end his to us and the king.”
    “Are ye afraid I am going to get into the midst of all that, try to stop it? Even try to help my uncle in some way?”
    “A wee bit—aye.”
    “Well, dinna fret. I regret that part of my family will be harmed—nay, will die—and that the name of Thurkettle will be tainted with the stain of treason. But ye dinna have to worry that I am going to let myself get killed just to save his hide, especially when it would be him doing the killing. Neither will I believe him if he tries to tell me I would be safe if I did what he wanted. Even before this tragedy came about, I kenned my uncle for a liar, not to trust his word for a minute.” She frowned as she remembered there was more than her uncle involved. “What about the queenly Brenda, the love of your life?”
    He opened his mouth to deny that last remark, then decided it would be better to ignore it. “If Brenda is involved—”
    “Oh, aye, she is. Sweet Brenda is involved right up to her big blue eyes. She could never resist being in the middle of a plot.”
    “Then she will meet her downfall alongside her father and the Black Douglases.”
    “Brenda willna suffer any downfall, and well ye ken it. She will use the same wiles on her judges as she used on you. Aye, and they will act just as lackwitted.” She shook her head, not really wanting Brenda to suffer badly but not wanting her to escape punishment for such a heinous crime. “That is, if ye catch her. She is no doubt busily arranging an escape with as much money as she can grab. I sometimes think she is far more clever than her father.”
    “May we forget her? That matter can be tended to later. She isna riding about trying to pierce us full of arrows.”
    “Well, what do ye plan to do about the ones who are? Are we to but sit here?”
    “For a