18

His voice was hard and Mare noted with a hint of disappointment that he was very angry too. She dipped into a curtsey.

Perci’s brows shot up against his will. He was immensely surprised at her servitude and was almost tempted to laugh but this wasn’t a time to laugh, especially not when he just risked his neck for a common Baryn. If he had been a second late the soldier might have beheaded him and he would have lost his life for nothing but foolishness.

To think that a soldier of the king's army had drawn a sword at him for rescuing a slave burned him deeply. But if he had not come riding through the village in disguise like he always did those men would have raped her and probably killed her and that would have served her right because the girl was dense in the head. Yet he couldn’t have left her at the mercies of those lecherous men starved for the drunkenness only a woman’s body could offer. He was next in line for the throne therefore hated though the Baryns may be, he still had a