Willow shivered against her husband as the three laughed heartily.

His arm tightened around her as he whispered, “Trust me, I won’t let them hurt you.”

She recalled the last time he had told her to trust him and he had kept his word, while it didn’t seem possible he could keep his word this time, something inside her told her he would.

“I trust you,” she murmured and watched as the large man rushed at them.

Chapter 10

One minute Slatter was beside her and the next he was gone. Willow stood frozen barely able to comprehend what was happening. She hadn’t even seen her husband reach for his dagger in a sheath tucked somewhere she hadn’t noticed at his waist. She only saw the hilt protruding from the one man’s throat, his eyes wide as he dropped to the ground dead. Slatter’s arm hooked the big man around the neck as he grabbed the fellow’s dagger sheathed at his waist and flung it, lodging it in the other slim man’s throat. His eyes turned wide and his hands rushed to his neck but never reached it. He toppled over dead.

“Your time has come,” Slatter said.

Willow thought it odd that the man’s eyes bulged from his head as if at that precise moment he somehow recognized Slatter.

“Mercy, Sla—”

Willow stared in disbelief as Slatter snapped the big man’s neck with ease and let him drop to the ground. She continued to stare at him as he went and retrieved his dagger from the one man’s throat and wiped it clean of the blood on the man’s garment before wiping it clean again on the grass. He retrieved the other dagger as well, cleaning the blade in the same fashion.

Willow was speechless when he stopped in front of her.

He reached his hand out, his arm resting against her chest as his hand closed gently at her throat, his fingers stroking the side of her neck. His hand was warm, his touch tender, and she couldn’t believe that only moments before that same hand killed three men with ease.

“I will never fail to protect you, leannan, not ever,” he said and kissed her, sealing his words as if they were a vow.

Willow latched onto to his arm, accepting his pledge, accepting that he would always be there for her, and it calmed her pounding heart and laid her fears to rest.

“Time to leave,” he said softly.

He had her up on the horse and they were a distance away before she realized he had kept his body positioned so that the dead men were blocked from her view after the altercation had ended.

“You are a skilled warrior,” she said, turning her glance on him.

He was glad his words held some truth as he responded, “I owe that to my da. He taught me well.”

She quieted briefly in thought before saying, “It appeared as if that the large man recognized you there at the end, your name almost slipping from his tongue. I wonder if he had mistaken you for the man you search for.” She shook her head. “But then he would have recognized you right away. So how would he know your name if he never met you? And why would he suddenly know your name.”