‘Perhaps you have not been paying close enough attention or you would know His Lordship decides who the lady befriends.’ She hung the ladle on the hook dangling from the pot. ‘I really must get back to work.’

He did not want to get her into any trouble. ‘Thanks for the soup,’ he said, then left.

He was thirty yards from the tents when he heard Hodge shouting at someone. Concerned the someone was Isabel, he dropped the bowl of soup and broke into a jog, slowing when he spotted the earl standing face to face with Webb. Alveye, Tatum, and Hadewaye now stood outside their tent, watching. Blackmane looked around for Isabel, but she was nowhere in sight. A bad feeling enclosed him as he headed for the other defenders.

‘I will have your head for this,’ Hodge was saying. ‘Then I will display it on a pike in the middle of the camp so that every crow in a twenty-mile radius can feast upon your eyes.’

‘What happened?’ Blackmane asked Tatum when he reached him.

‘Lady Isabel left.’

Blackmane lowered his brows. ‘What do you mean “left”?’

‘The camp,’ Alveye said.

Hadewaye leaned in, voice low. ‘Webb let her go for a ride, and she hasn’t come back.’

If Hodge did not kill Webb, then Blackmane likely would. ‘How long ago?’

‘A couple hours,’ Tatum said.

‘He let her leave in the middle of the night?’

‘Clearly he’s paying for it now.’

‘If anything happens to her, I am holding you personally responsible,’ Hodge was saying. ‘Now get out there and find her. I want as many men searching as we can spare.’

Blackmane looked back in the direction of the kitchen, then took off at a run.

‘Where are you going?’ Alveye called to his back.

He ignored the question and headed straight for the woman who had given him the soup, approaching so fast she scurried back from him.

‘Where did she go?’ The question came out as a growl.

‘Who?’

‘You know exactly who. She’s gone, and I want to know where.’

She swallowed. ‘She left the camp?’

He leaned in, prompting her to back up even more. ‘I’m not playing this game with you. Tell me where she is right now, or I’ll drag you before Hodge and you can tell him instead.’

She pressed a hand to her chest. ‘You do not understand what you are threatening. He cannot know we are alive.’

‘We?’

She hesitated. ‘I have a daughter. Ita. She is the same age as Isabel.’

Blackmane searched her eyes. ‘Has she gone to your daughter?’

Silence.

‘Has she?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where?’ When he was met with silence again, he brought his face close to hers. ‘Where is she?’

‘I cannot tell you.’

‘You cannot, or you will not?’

Her eyes pleaded with him. ‘Isabel wanted to go. She knew the risks.’

He took hold of her arms. ‘Every second I waste on this conversation is a second I could be looking for her.’