by Marie Hall
"Three of us in their camp?" Luther questioned.
"It is the very thing we could use to bring on a good, hard end," Xavier told them, for while they knew two of the highest targets, they still hadn't discovered who played their king. It was more satisfying to end the games with a capture rather than a forfeit.
"Well, he cannot go," Lucas said, jerking his head towards Cutler.
"The hell you say. I will be seeing to that woman before she is on her way home. She will do some hard thinking on not getting caught next time," Cutler announced, and again Xavier had to work not to smile.
"You will have your chance to attend Mistress Kate once we identify and grab a prize or two of our own," Lucas warned. The man everyone knew took the woman as a lover but he'd not yet committed to taking her as wife, and therefore his right, to chastise and discipline her was perhaps in question. She was a free woman, after all.
"It is a very bad move to bring us into camp, even just three of us," Luther again commented.
"It is not something I would expect from Andre, but I will take full advantage, and…" Xavier paused to look around. "We will be well prepared for ourselves."
With those words, everyone in Xavier's camp made the two hours they had count. No one would take advantage of this turn, and as Xavier, Lucas, and Ansell mounted and made their way toward the opponent's camp, the question as to why Deux Saunds would make such a grave mistake gave barely a moment of concern.
Xavier got his answer and nearly fell over laughing, a moment after entering camp, making everything that followed almost tolerable. Or at least, it prevented him from committing murder on the spot.
Chapter 12
Io held her breath as the voices approaching the tent grew louder. She'd tried everything she could think to convince these men to let her go before the fact she was missing was discovered. She'd demanded and even begged the man who'd held her on his horse as they rode away from the glen a few hours before dawn. She raged and spat at them when they pushed inside the first tent and did the same even as the whole camp rushed to douse the flames of the second tent she'd set on fire that morning. She'd told them they could let her go, or she'd burn everything to the ground. All that did was cause the four apparent leaders to bicker among themselves over how to handle her.
When she was told she was to be ransomed and it'd be the end to this game, Io knew they'd no idea how much of an end it would be. Xavier would without a doubt end her. Although listening now, she didn't hear the deadliness in his tone.
"…she would not say more than you hold her at your house," the man Io quickly understood to be most in charge at the moment, though as far as she knew, he wasn't the man Xavier spoke about being the leader, was saying as he pushed through the flap. "I hadn't heard you were keeping prisoners or even wards," he went on as he stepped aside to allow Xavier to step through as Io, herself, stood up to meet him. "As lovely as she is, I, too, might keep it a secret, but for her lack of charm." Io could hardly take it as an insult, being she'd stuck her teeth in this man's arm when he thought to handle her a bit too shoddily.
"Demetri," the man who'd actually kidnapped her chided as he, too, came to his feet.
There was a brief second when Io caught a hint of a smile on her husband's face right before his eyes adjusted to the darkness inside the tent and found her. Her captors, having twice now dealt with her skill with a torch, didn't leave any flame within the boundaries of the tent. Still with the heat of Xavier's rage rippling around her, she'd a moment to wonder that everything didn't simply explode.
"The lady should not be expected to be friendly; we did disrupt her and her friends in their merriment," the last man in the tent spoke up. He'd been trying the hardest to charm and perhaps comfort Io. If she'd not known it to be impossible, she'd have said his attempts at flattery were meant to entice her to give him favor.
"Shall we speak price now?" Demetri said, stepping between Io and Xavier but unable to dispel the anger Io felt coming at her.
"Name it, that we will be done," Xavier snapped, surprising everyone, none more than her captors. For he'd gone from jovial to deadly that fast.
"I think—" Demetri started.
"Pay nothing," Io shouted, interrupting and causing all eyes to fall on her. "Pay nothing, Lord Brice. Let them free me or find every tent and all supplies burned to ashes," Io finished, pulling her shoulders back and calling on everything she trusted to give her courage to stand here and make sure her husband didn't lose this match because of her.
The brief pause and his response told her she'd conveyed the needed message. As well, that the reckoning would be more than unpleasant. "Hold your tongue, Lady Desmond," Xavier shouted and stepped threateningly toward her, causing all three of her captors to step between them. "I will deal with you well enough when this is settled."
"The price, then," Demetri tried again.
"Brother," the man who'd been trying to flatter her stepped closer and spoke quietly, "perhaps we reconsider. This is far more unpleasant than we anticipated." He cast a worried look at Io, who'd tried over the course of the last several hours, to warn them if she was caught away from the house by 'Lord Brice', he'd do her murder.
"I think eighty gold," Demetri said, and Io watched him puff up like a cock near the hens. It must have been a price he thought would make Xavier forfeit the game. If he couldn't pay it…
"You are mad. He would not pay so much for the king, himself, be well if he gives you but three gold for the likes of me," Io yelled and shoved the man from behind. She did know how to negotiate, and these beggars hardly had such skills.
"Be reasonable, brother," the other man said, fear clear in his voice as no one missed Xavier's expression growing darker. "Perhaps fifty gold, or—"
"You will get nothing," Io pushed. "I will stay here, and you might worry more if I will slit your throats while you sleep than on anything else. Five gold, no more than—"
"Shut your mouth," Xavier ground out, mere inches from her face. His hand was clamped down so hard on her arm, she knew she'd be left with bruises. "There will be no bargaining done today."
"Lord Brice, fifty gold?" Even Demetri now seemed a bit fearful at what they'd started when they took Io from the celebrations.
Xavier continued to glare at her for several long moments before spinning around and storming from the tent. Io was quick to cover her mouth and not sob out loud, but it didn't escape the men holding her, it'd be her and not them who faced the brunt of Xavier's wrath.
"My lady," the one started as Io tried to wipe away the tears before they could fall. "I did not think he wo—"
"No, you did not, and you did not listen when I tried to tell you," Io hissed back then fell silent as Xavier came back inside with a money sack and Sir Lucas, looking equally displeased, beside him.
Xavier threw the bag at Demetri, again took Io's arm in a crushing hold, pulling her from the small group and thrusting her into Lucas' arms. Lucas had her almost out of the tent when she heard Xavier announce, "Eighty gold." The gasp hadn't gotten fully past her lips before Xavier again took control of her person and dragged her to the waiting horses. She was tossed up without a word with him behind her, setting his heels before any words could be spoken, not that she thought anything she might say would save her.
Things only got worse when they arrived back in camp to find Roth waiting. Ann, Kate, and Jude must've felt the need to confess what they'd been about and that Io was taken. She could only guess at what such a recounting cost her friends.
"Should I take her back?" Roth was asking, and Io stepped toward him, hoping the time between when she left here and when Xavier returned to the house would see his temper cooled.
"No," Xavier snapped, grabbing her back to stand beside him. "We will not be long at this now and…" he turned his head to look at her. "I have need to deal with this sooner, not later."
There was no compassion from Roth who, mounting, stated, "Then she'll be fine company in her misery."
> "Let her be alone in it," Xavier commanded, to everyone's surprise and Io's relief.
"My lord?" Roth protested, and Io sent prayers for Ann's well-being.
"For now," Xavier added. "Anyone involved, separate and restrict. I will deal with them, myself, when we are home."
"My lord?" both Roth and Cutler cried out, even as Io's knees went weak. He wouldn't banish her friends. He wouldn't. He wasn't that kind of man. No, he was exactly that kind of man, and Io couldn't stand by and let such happen.
"My lord, Xavier, please, this was all my own doing. Please do not..." She stepped in front of him and took hold of his shirt. "Please, it was all my doing."
"And you will know the full measure of my dissatisfaction," he said over her head as he held Roth's eyes.
Io didn't get the chance to see Roth's reaction to those words, and she only guessed by the way Cutler was looking at her, her fears for her friends were well founded. Xavier was again dragging her by the arm, this time toward a tent, and more than dread welled up.
"Xavier?" Lucas called, perhaps hoping, like her, Xavier would find some calm restored before he started removing Io's skin.
"Gather everyone," he snapped, shoving Io inside. "We end this the hard way."
Chapter 13
Xavier listened to the plan as the final details were explained to all. He'd been only half attentive in his anger toward Io while the larger plan was sorted out. Now, though, in his knowledge, he'd be able to vent at least a little of the bloodlust he'd felt when he found it was his wife who'd been kidnapped. He felt the calm readiness settle on him. The same as he felt in those moments before a battle when he knew victory would be theirs.
"My lord?" he looked up to see the men staring at him oddly. When he said nothing, Luther spoke, "Xavier, it is still only a game; you cannot kill anyone, and we still need to try not do them harm. It is only a game."
"It stopped being a game when they set hands on my wife," Xavier growled out, though the reminder was needed. Andre Deux Saunds was a respected friend. And Xavier was honor bound to stay within the bounds of the agreement. Had he known Andre fell ill several days ago, leaving his sons and nephew, Demetri Vargus, to finish out, Xavier would've finished this then. The three men together couldn't have managed to strategize a winning campaign, which was why they went for the money. Asking for the top amount that could be asked for any hostage, not the king, would place Xavier in a vulnerable position. That he didn't ask Xavier for outright surrender likely only happened because Io kept her head and didn't reveal who she was. They thought when they took her, she was just a woman from the house, someone who perhaps meant little to him. He was proud of her for that, and he would, in time, praise her for the good sense she used, even for the fight she put up, though he knew it to be an attempt to avoid what he'd do to her.
She tried apologizing profusely, and when that failed to explain, once they were alone, her little adventure from the house wasn't meant to be more than a harmless adventure, one she wouldn't tell him about, only saying she'd done it last year without incident. And one she insisted was completely her idea and responsibility. It was then, he'd accused her of both keeping the event, which he'd no clue about, from him as well as lying to him when he asked if she'd something she wanted to be at before he left her that night.
He'd seen it the very instant Io understood the punishment she faced; she made no protest against it, but it did little to ease the burden he felt. Though he'd already collected several of the long, stiff, willow sticks from the pile used to create the makeshift enclosure for the animals, he wasn't sure, even now, if he'd be able to apply them to his little disobedient scold. A caning, though, was what he promised her if she lied to him again. A caning was what he needed to deliver.
"Xavier?" Lucas' hand settled on his shoulder, causing Xavier to refocus on the task at hand.
With a sigh of dissatisfaction, he nodded. "Take them, but do not bloody them… much."
It was over before dawn, and as Xavier paced before the six men now tied to posts in his camp, he found satisfaction in the fear he could almost smell on them.
"Next time," he started, as this was a learning experience for them all, "you will consider more carefully what happens when you back the enemy against a wall."
"You took everyone, Lord Brice," Andre's younger son Gaston called, and Xavier moved down the line to stand before the man he'd seen looking at Io with not just lust but perhaps love. The love of a boy, though, not of a man. "Can you not accept an acknowledgement of defeat that we might go?"
"I already sent a messenger to your father," Xavier told him and watched a familiar look cross the young man's face. The look that said more than the loss, it was his father's disappointment which cut. "I expect him by noon to declare his surrender."
"You toyed with us," Demetri spat. "Like some damn cat with a mouse. The advantage was yours always." Defeat was bitter to swallow. Defeat so soundly, quickly and easily had would choke any man.
"You will remember now to always assume your opponent has more to them than he shows and that you cannot underestimate how hard he will fight to ensure his own victory." He watched the young knight sag. It was a lesson learned the hard way, and as he watched two men carrying over the large wine barrel he'd asked for more than an hour ago, he knew he'd be teaching someone else a very hard lesson.
"Xavier," Cutler called, stepping up and eyeing the barrel. "Is this necessary?"
The irony wasn't lost. This man, who, yesterday, was boasting how he'd skin his woman was now hoping to save a different one. Xavier, at least, found reassurance in knowing his men knew restraint was the better course when dealing with the women who held their hearts, and he knew, too, it was the example he tried to set in how he dealt with Io. How he dealt with her now would also set an example. Some things needed to be absolute. This was one of them.
"Every man by sunrise," Xavier told him as he collected four large pegs, a mallet and some rope then made his way to the barrel. He angled each, driving two pegs in the ground, one on either side of the thing to hold it in place, before pacing off the distance he'd need and driving the first peg that would hold Io in place. "Have them gather there." He pointed to the clearing, knowing that'd be the direction Io would face. He was far less inclined these days to let any other man look at her arse as he reddened it. Pacing off again, he drove in the last peg.
"My lord," Cutler nearly whined.
"Once it is begun, no one is obligated to stay. But they will be there," Xavier said, not explaining why he commanded everyone to witness Io's chastisement. If they didn't know already, then it hardly mattered. It was part of the punishment he intended for her. She hated more than anything to be publicly set down. He'd decided to do it this way to make an impression Io wouldn't forget. Standing, he tossed the rope over the barrel for easier access. If his wife didn't put up some struggle, he'd not go through with it. He wanted her punished not crushed, not defeated, just aware her actions this time were completely wrong. He expected her to resist because his wife was a fighter, even when she was aware and feeling guilt, she fought. But so far, she'd been utterly compliant. Even when he'd taken the three most suitable branches into the tent and leaned them against the canvas sides, she'd barely flinched. She'd not looked to Lucas who stood guard in the tent until the surrender was complete, and Xavier didn't have to worry a rescue might be attempted. Though he didn't really think it possible, with Io in camp, he wouldn't take the chance.
Looking now toward the east, he saw the purpling of the horizon. He'd have this done long before noon, as it was one thing to have his men given chance to witness Io's punishment, it was wholly another matter if strangers were given the same opportunity. His men would run as soon as it was allowed. Causing Io more distress wasn't something any of them would want, not even had she caused their defeat. A stranger, though, well seeing a beautiful woman bent for a thrashing was often public entertainment. And though she wasn't a criminal, such a display would be hard to resi
st.
The stirring in the camp roused him from his musings. The grumblings reached his ears quick enough as the men spotted the barrel and moved, some only with a shove toward the spot they were to stand. Steeling himself, Xavier made his way to the tent before he faltered in this.
Upon his entry, Lucas got to his feet, waking Io who'd been sleeping against his knee. She climbed to her feet as Lucas left them, and Xavier reached for the branches.
"Turn around, Io," he commanded and watched her drop her head and slowly turn her back to him. "Remove the gown; leave your shift," he said as he loosened the laces.
Her hands trembled as she worked the gown off, and when he swished the stick through the air, the sound made her gasp. The gown dropped to her feet and she stepped out and then positioned herself in front of the chair abandoned by Lucas. She was clearly prepared to bend for this, which was why he'd chosen to make the event more public.
"Come," he ordered, and when she looked over her shoulder at him, he used the cane to point outside the tent. Io paled. Her eyes questioned as she slowly turned. He could almost hear her thoughts; she was telling herself he meant to move them into the woods, like the last time he took the cane to her. He was completely ready when she stepped outside and saw what waited. He caught her as she tried to scramble backward.
"No, Xavier, my lord, no. Please. Please no," Io begged, tears springing to her eyes and spilling out.
"You will not lie to me, my lady; you will not be deceptive and keep things from me." He took her arm and started them forward over her protests. He had to drag her to the barrel as she tried to dig in her heels and stop the forward process.
"No, my lord," Io wailed, startling birds from their nests in the bushes and trees. Her struggles became more acute.
