by Nicole Locke
‘Do you worry for me?’
Rhain shook his head. ‘Beware, Teague. I will not always be at your back.’
* * *
His mind full of wine, rapier words and lush curves, Teague watched his brother’s retreating form. Rhain was right, there was danger creeping closer to him. It was a danger he could do nothing to stop and now he had added to his burden by bringing Anwen here.
She had stood weak before him, but her pride hadn’t faltered, not in the face of her imprisonment, her injuries, even him. And that was the most perplexing of all. It was not that he thought himself invincible, but he knew other people thought him that way. He knew why and it wasn’t solely based on his sword skills.
Devil’s blood.
Most of his life he’d been plagued with the rumours that Devil’s blood ran through his veins. But in truth it was his aunt who had suffered from the same rumours before him. It was her episodes that had started it.
Teague didn’t wish for Ffion to ever suffer, so when he could, he’d paid the Church well and his aunt had entered a convent. That stopped the rumours pointing to her, but they still existed. So he put them to use when he entered the battlefields and his enemies feared him even before he raised his sword. It was a simple solution.
The fact people saw him as tainted, whispered that he might have sold his soul, didn’t bother him. He was a man who could defend himself. So he took responsibility for the rumour, and as the years went by, he ignored the way his people crossed themselves when he walked by.
At least Rhain was not treated the same. Maybe it was the difference in looks or temperament, or because he had sent Rhain away when he was a child. Whatever the reason, his brother’s good nature and easy smiles were returned by his people and soldiers.
Teague frowned at the thought of those smiles. It seemed Anwen was not immune to Rhain’s nature either. Even on such short acquaintance, she had differentiated between them.
Although he could shrug off his own people avoiding him, although he could shoulder the fact his countrymen thought him a Traitor and hated him, there was something inside him that wanted things to be different with Anwen.
These were useless, dangerous, thoughts. He didn’t know her; she hid information when there was an enemy at Gwalchdu’s doors. She could, in fact, be the enemy. An enemy who threatened everything he fought to protect. He’d given his life, the respect of his people and family, for Gwalchdu. No threatening message would take away this land and stone.
No mere woman, who affected him like no other, would make him falter in his protecting his home and those who lived here.
He’d known betrayal all his life. This stone, this land, his home was all he had; all he was ever meant to have.
Still, he didn’t like that Anwen shared her smiles with his brother. Not when for him, her eyes were wary and shuttered. Except...when he bit into the apple. He’d seen something else. Something that echoed his own desires.
Crushing any feeling that thought brought, Teague refilled his cup. As Gwalchdu’s lord, he couldn’t afford his desire for Anwen.
So be it that Rhain was treated kindly. He was a good man, brave and second-born. He did not have the responsibility of this keep and its people. Teague would not change the circumstances for anything. Although he carried a great burden with the responsibilities of his keep, Teague also took great pride and pleasure in knowing its strength and efficiency. The people could keep fearing him. It had worked for him in the past and, once the mystery of Anwen was solved and the enemy killed, it would work again.
It did not go unnoticed in his own mind that he tried not linking Anwen with the threats against his life. She could be the enemy, could know the enemy, and yet the moment she had fallen into his arms he had been hit with emotions he hadn’t experienced since he was a child.
Hope, fear, pride, possession. He didn’t react to her as he had to any other woman in his life and even more puzzling was that she didn’t react to him as expected either.
Instead of fearing him, she had trusted him. Instead of turning her eyes away as his own people did, she had grasped his hand. She did not cross herself, but challenged him. If she was the enemy, she was a surprisingly honest one. Every emotion played across her face: anger, frustration...desire.
Teague smiled satisfactorily into his cup. It hadn’t been just when he bit into the apple when he saw her desire. It was there when she stood in the tub and her beauty wrenched his lust-filled words from him.
His words hit something within her and although she had been quick to hide it, he saw the flash of innocence and heat in her eyes. Oh, that he could afford to see where that heat would lead.
Teague inhaled deeply. His blood rushed through him and he no longer smiled. His thoughts when it came to Anwen were too complicated, too unsolvable. It was going to be a long night.
* * *
Anwen paced the confines of her room. His room, she corrected herself. His massive bed, his fine furnishings, his bath, his wine, his food and his care when she could have died.
Her debt to pay.
There was no logical reason for keeping her here. She was almost well and he knew where she lived. She wasn’t even asking him for an escort home. Yet, she sensed his antagonism from the beginning. At every moment, he tried to embarrass her.
She still did not know the purpose, but he was right. By saving her life, she owed him a debt.
Yet the Traitor of Gwalchdu did not save lives. The Devil did not save anything. And he was the Devil, of that she had no doubt.
She thought of escape, of open fields and the kind, gentle old falconer who needed her. She thought of Alinore, who couldn’t hide from her father’s rages. Who, even now, could have bruises from Lord Urien’s fists. All her life she’d protected Alinore and now she was failing her.
She would pay whatever debt Teague of Gwalchdu believed she owed, but at the first opportunity she would escape. It was all she could do. It didn’t matter how powerful he was. She had lives to worry about other than her own.
Chapter Eight
‘What do you think she is doing?’ Rhain gripped the horse’s bridle.
Teague inspected the destrier’s hoof for disease. The stable master, Henry, with a worried vein crossing his brow, stood beside him. The horses were not only expensive, but highly prized, and losing one would be costly.
Teague did not have to ask his brother who ‘she’ was. When Anwen entered the courtyard and disappeared behind a wall, awareness slid down his neck and, if he was honest, in other parts of his body, as well. He addressed Henry.
‘What has been done for them so far?’
The stable master shifted his feet. ‘Cleaning the hooves and stalls twice a day, sir. It was minor when it started and I thought to watch it a few days before coming to you.’
Teague patted the horse’s neck. ‘Your actions were sound, despite the worsening. Call in the blacksmith and seek Sister Ffion; they may have some suggestions.’
Henry bowed and left immediately.
Teague turned and sought sight of the woman trying to blend in with the castle yard.
‘She is trying to escape,’ he remarked. ‘It’s what she’s been trying to do for days now.’
‘I swear she grows more interesting by the minute,’ Rhain said. ‘If she was sent here to harm you, you’d think that either she, or whoever set her up, would have prepared her. Do you think I should tell her no one can enter or leave without your permission?’
Teague thought of Rhain talking and smiling with Anwen. ‘If you like,’ he said, keeping his voice as level as possible.
Rhain ignored his brother’s permission. ‘If that is what she is planning, you have to admire her bravery. The activity in the courtyard cannot be lost on her; every soldier is alert. What would she think to accomplish?’
‘With her hair? Impossible. Even plaited, she has enchanting curls framing her head like a halo. And the colour? It is like a ray of sunlight after a dark night.’
Teague barely stopped himself from growling. Why should he care that his brother noticed Anwen’s hair?
Rhain continued, seemingly unperturbed by Teague’s non-committal grunt. ‘Maybe she is not so honest. She agreed to fulfil her debt to you and now she’s trying to escape. I should be disappointed in such behaviour.’ Rhain crossed his arms and smiled. ‘But damn if I’m not proud of her.’
Teague’s mood darkened. ‘You laud her attributes too much.’
‘You do not like that I’ve noticed her beauty or cleverness.’
‘I said no such thing.’
‘Oh, I know you well enough. Funny, you’ve never been territorial before.’
‘I am not territorial. If I seem displeased it is simply because she is an unknown. There could be no good in bedding her. In fact, it may serve some purpose of hers.’
‘Yes, like lessening your foul mood of late.’ Rhain snorted. ‘You understand, she might not feel the need to escape if you showed her the missives that were sent.’
Teague watched as Anwen disappeared behind the far tower’s corner. ‘We reply for her.’
‘Don’t you think she should have an opportunity to reply on her own? She doesn’t know Brynmor writes to her. It’s curious how you also keep her locked in her room like a prisoner.’
‘She’s my astringer, not a prisoner.’
‘An astringer?’ Rhain asked. ‘Have you even shown her the mews?’
‘No.’ Teague had, in fact, been trying to avoid just that, yet he would have to approach her again before too long. He hoped by then his desire for her would cool, or something that she hid would be revealed. ‘It matters not. She has a debt to pay.’
‘And just how is she to repay her debt?’
‘The only way I know.’ Teague walked away from his brother and towards the very person he knew he shouldn’t approach.
* * *
Anwen sagged with defeat against the inner wall. It was no use finding a weakness. The great stone of Gwalchdu was designed too differently than her own home of Brynmor and she loathed every centimetre of it.
Brynmor had flowers and vegetable gardens interspersed everywhere with comfortable benches under the shade of fruit trees. People worked at open trestle tables, while children toddled and ran with the livestock. It was chaotic.
Gwalchdu had a garden, but it was as if it wouldn’t dare seed itself wrongly. The rest of the grounds housed no grass, no trees, only hard-packed dirt and rock for working.
The only hope Anwen had of escaping Gwalchdu was in finding a human error, which was why she stood near the small East Gatehouse to observe the comings and goings. If there was any chance of escape, this gatehouse was her best opportunity. But as minutes went by, no opportunity presented itself. Gwalchdu’s human defences appeared as insurmountable as its stone.
‘There is no escape from here.’
Anwen jumped and turned around.
Trying to calm her racing heart, she said, ‘I wasn’t looking for escape.’
‘Then you disappoint me,’ Teague said.
If she only had a sword, or a dagger she could throw. ‘Perhaps we are even.’
‘You speak of disappointment in me?’ Teague peered at the wine barrels she had been standing behind. ‘Ah...you speak of the wars.’
‘I’ll not speak of that time with you.’
‘Because I am a traitor and a coward?’
It shouldn’t startle her that he admitted it, but it did. He was a warrior, a ruler, and arrogant right down to the tilt of his head. She wondered if he knew the other rumours surrounding him. That his blood was tainted. That he’d made a pact with the Devil. ‘Among other traits.’
‘So many judgements and yet we’ve only just met.’
‘Yet the first time we meet you kidnap and keep me prisoner. What else am I to think?’
‘So though you admit to being a prisoner, you are not trying to escape.’
Teague’s head tilted in that way of his before he clasped his hands behind his back. It was a casual pose, but something of his expression darkened before he looked away.
She shrugged. She owed him no answers and, as long as she was here, she would continue her surveillance. Perhaps if she ignored him, he would leave.
‘Did you know James of St George from Savoy, the architect, sent his designs for this castle?’ Teague said. ‘The concentric towers were his idea. No single area or tower is more important than the last. If an enemy struck, he would be spread too thin and easily held back.’
He wasn’t leaving, and neither would she, but this conversation needed to end. She didn’t need a lecture of the superiority of Gwalchdu.
‘Gwalchdu is too big, too dark and juts out like a wound among the castles here.’
Teague nodded. ‘Yet it is the future for castles. Were you able to appreciate how it is not solely protected by the outside wall, but also from the river on the west side and the wide water moat on the other sides?’
She took her eyes off the gate to give Teague a scathing look. ‘There has been no opportunity to walk outside Gwalchdu’s walls.’
He shrugged. ‘There is more to Gwalchdu’s defences than its rock. Most of the men you see were born within these very walls.’
Unwilling to talk of his soldiers either, she turned her gaze to the parapet where six soldiers overlapped on their duties as they walked the barbican. The doors were as thick as the flanking of two horses. They were swung wide to reveal two portcullises firmly staked into the ground. Who needed two at a small gate?
‘My men are all well paid, but they fight for more than gold. They fight for their pride and their place in England’s history.’
‘Pride shouldn’t be an issue when it comes to a mere slip of a woman who doesn’t belong here.’
A small smile lit his eyes. ‘Ah, so you do plan to escape. But you see, pride does enter into it when I’ve ordered that you cannot leave.’
She’d had enough. ‘How can you be so cruel?’
‘Cruelty, cowardliness, treason. You judge so readily on my motivations.’
‘I care not for motivations when the result is the same.’ If she didn’t get back to Melun and let him know what had happened to her and to Gully, he might do something foolish, like taking the blame for her actions. ‘It has been a fortnight since you spoke of the debt, and of me becoming your astringer. Yet you have not collected. You toy with me and I have the right to know why.’
She was tired of the subterfuge and the secrets. She was tired of noticing the broadness of his back and the strength of his arms. And she was certainly tired of how he made her feel when she stood this close to him: restless and alive in a way she had never felt before.
‘I saved your life,’ he said. ‘Don’t I have a say in how and when you pay such a steep debt?’
‘If you are wanting an eye for an eye, I fear the only way to repay you would be to save your life. That is not a likely scenario given your legendary ability to avoid death.’
‘That is one outcome I cannot avoid for ever.’
If only she could be the one to wield the killing blow. ‘Why don’t you tell me what my payment is, so I can be set free?’
‘The truth. Why were you in the forest?’
Anwen raised her hands in exasperation. So they were back to the forest again. ‘I already told you, I was in the forest to capture my bird, then continue on my way to Brynmor. Nothing more.’
‘Continue on your way?’
‘I visited Bleddyn, the tanner, to purchase new jesses. On my retur
n—’
‘Ah! Bleddyn was from Brynmor.’ He nodded. ‘But what were you doing with the bird?’
‘Training it.’
‘No one trains a bird this late in the season. I am a reasonable man and you’d know this if you didn’t lie to me. You give me snippets, when I need your full cooperation.’
Lord Gwalchdu never asked, he ordered. ‘Cooperation I’ve already given you. I know it matters not because your reputation precedes you. I have no guarantee if I cooperate now that you won’t ask for more.’
He didn’t move and yet she felt him step away. ‘Ah, now you talk of my greed.’ He peered over her shoulder and if possible his frown darkened. When she turned and saw Rhain approaching, he continued, ‘Since you find my company so objectionable, I will take my leave.’
Anwen watched the silent exchange between brothers as Teague strode away. She could no more understand it than the strange and provoking conversation with Gwalchdu’s lord.
‘You talk to my brother,’ Rhain said, his voice light, almost chuckling.
‘A conversation is not what we share.’ She didn’t want to reflect on what they shared, but knew friendly banter was not it.
‘Come, it is not so bad,’ Rhain said. ‘It isn’t only you he frowns at. It would be better for all if you would but tell us more.’
Now he was demanding, just like his brother. ‘Better for you, but what of me? You and Gwalchdu’s lord expect me to tell you all, but you tell me nothing in return.’
‘Ah, trust.’ Rhain nodded. ‘We seem to lack that commodity here, but there is a way to remedy it.’
‘Oh?’
He gave her a look that turned his impossibly amber eyes to a bright gold that matched his hair. He was using his looks to his advantage, but it didn’t make her skin flush with heat the way Teague did just by biting an apple.
‘We will have to spend more time together so our friendship can blossom,’ Rhain said.
A friendship with the Traitor’s brother? Impossible. She had no friendships, and even if she did, she knew Teague didn’t like Rhain talking to her. It was why he ordered his brother away, why his frown deepened when Rhain approached. Teague didn’t like her talking to his brother, so for a moment she was tempted to let a friendship blossom between them. And then she remembered. To have a friendship, there would have to be trust. And she would neither trust the Traitor nor his brother.
