“We should rejoin the others,” he said, knowing those were probably not the first words she wanted to hear from him.
Her eyes dimmed, and Rhiannon pulled away, walking off. William followed. The smell of fresh oatcakes and gruel filtered through the damp morning air. Iron pots clanged.
“I need to speak with my men,” he said.
She took a breath as if to say something, then appeared to change her mind. “I will eat.” Rhiannon glanced at the fire, then her gaze flicked over William. “I brought Mora with me.”
“I saw.”
“I rode Jeremiah.”
“Good. He will watch out for you.” William tightened her cloak around her shoulders.
“And will you?”
He couldn’t meet her gaze. His eyes focused over her head. “Aye, lassie, of course I will.” He rubbed her arms out of habit.
Unsure of what else to say or do, he turned and walked away.
William sought out Graham and found him with his palomino mare. He was just settling the saddle over her back.
Graham rested his big, sword-nick scarred hands on the pommel of his saddle and sighed, his head bowed. The wind clicked the beads in his long hair together. “I would like to say they caught me off guard,” he said. “But seeing as this is not the first time I have done this, I realize that I have no excuse.”
William couldn’t be angry with Graham. For one, Graham didn’t work for him. He worked for Ronan. Second, Graham was his friend. Third, and most importantly, Graham was his own man. He chose to follow Ronan.
“I understand.” And he did, all too much. “I recognized my cousin’s handiwork all over this.”
Graham straightened, his hands falling away from the saddle.
“I should have known, anyway,” William said. “What did they do, gang up on you?”
“Aye.” He shook his head. “I didna have a chance against two pregnant women.”
William looked over his shoulder at Rhiannon. She was sitting with Mora now, a bowl in her hands, steam rising off it.
“Maybe I should have brought her in the first place.” William ran his hands through his hair. “I willna send her back.” Blast it, but he was going to cave and keep her with him. He still planned to kill Geoffrey though. “I need you to watch out for her. It is really important. For the remainder of this journey, I put her safety in your hands.”
“Aye, my laird.”
* * *
William spoke to her very little over the remainder of their journey. Rhiannon saw more of Graham than she did her husband. She found herself all the way to Richard and Margaret’s hall, still unsure whether she would ever win William’s heart.
“I thought I would never see you again.” Margaret sat down on a padded bench beside Rhiannon.
“I thought I would never set foot in England again.” Rhiannon looked into the flames that leapt about in the hearth. She didn’t like the smell. It lacked the earthy scent of peat.
Margaret took a sip of her wine. “I wonder how long the men will be about their planning.” She glanced over her shoulder across the dining hall, as if she expected her husband to enter at any moment.
“You seem happily married,” Rhiannon said. “I am glad. Richard is a good sort of man.”
“He is, and the things I heard about him before we met were completely wrong. People said he was fat and he had a lazy eye.” She laughed. “They said he let his retainers defend him, and that he never stood up for himself.” Margaret’s eyes lit, and she leaned closer to Rhiannon. “They say that love can make one blind. I remember when I first set eyes on him. And I will admit his hair in not as thick as perhaps it was ten years ago, and that he is not as trim as some men his age. But when he sparred in my mother’s garden with my cousin, I knew the charges against him were all wrong. He moves with perfect grace and is completely capable of protecting me, should it ever come to it. And more than that, he is kind to me.”
“Does he plan to aid Alec against Reginald?”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“Are you frightened?”
Margaret shook her head. “I have watched him train, and he does, every morning.”
“And do you watch him every morning?”
“Yes. I do.” Margaret grinned. “And what of you?” She looked Rhiannon over. “Did you ever get the food I sent to you last year?”
“What food?”
Margaret’s face fell. “I had a servant take food to your, well, to Hanover. I told him to go to the servant’s entrance and ask for Alice.”
“Someone must have taken it from Alice. I believe there are things she has not told me, in order to spare me any further grief.” Rhiannon took a breath. “’Tis over now.”
“Did you know anything about your husband before he married you?”
“It didn’t matter at the time. He was my only chance at a normal life.”
“When I was told that I would be marrying Richard, I thought my life was over. And Alec . . . I never meant to hurt your brother, but I believed it was my duty to my parents to marry Richard.”
“I will not say Alec is happy about it, but he knows why you made that decision.”
Margaret scooted forward. “Tell me what happened exactly. What made your Highlander come so gallantly to your rescue?”
Gallantly to her rescue. Yes, that was what he did. If only he could remember how much he had wanted her back then. “William was there at Geoffrey’s hall when I first arrived. He saw the way I was being treated, and challenged Geoffrey for my hand.”
“Just like that? How romantic. Did he even know your name?”
“That was all he knew.” Her heart ached. William, what has become of us?
“So. . . What is wrong?”
“This.” Rhiannon smoothed her hand over her stomach. She wore only light boning in order to give the child room.
Margaret smiled. “I had wondered when I first saw you, but I didn’t want to ask. That is wonderful news. What could possibly be wrong?”
“William. He lost his parents when he was young and now he fears he will lose me to childbirth.” Then there was Deborah, but that was William’s secret pain, and she would not divulge it.
“I am sure he will change his mind when the child comes. My parents depend on Richard and me to produce an heir. It is taking us so long. I worry it will never happen.”
“Come to Scotland. It must be in the air.”
The double doors at the far end of the great hall opened and Richard stepped through. He was of an average height and build, but there was something about the way his eyes sparkled when he looked at Margaret that made him handsome.
Rhiannon’s heart ached with longing.
She felt the baby move. She and William could have used a wee bit more time together before nature took is course, but this was their child, and she could not deny the warmth that spread through her every time she felt the baby quicken inside of her. She wished she could share that joy with William.
Alec entered, making a wide berth around Margaret and Richard, his eyes focused straight ahead. Rhiannon stood and moved forward, sharing a sympathetic look with Alec.
“When?” she asked.
“Tomorrow night. The sooner the better, otherwise Reginald may catch news of our actions.”
She nodded, then looked at the door in hopes of seeing William. “Where is he?”
“I am not sure. I thought he would join us. Perhaps he had to speak with Angus, or Graham.”
Rhiannon tried not to let the rejection show on her face. But it must have, because Alec touched her arm. “Why do you not retire, ’tis late. William will show himself eventually.”
She flexed her jaw. “Eventually.”
Rhiannon cast one more glance at the door, then accepted Alec’s arm and let him walk her above to the chamber she was sharing with William. Once within, she bolted the door. There was no reason to believe she wouldn’t be safe there, but the fear of being accosted in her own chamber was a h
abit she could not convince herself to break.
Rhiannon noted the cherry wardrobe with its matching writing desk, the canopy bed with dark green brocade bed curtains, and the parquet floor. She went to the window and opened the glass. The air was warm compared to what she had gotten used to in the north. Rhiannon peered at the sky. The moon was in its quarter. She remembered her father’s ring, the one with the moonstone. Gray with a blue, metallic sheen, it reminded her of William’s eyes. If it was at Hanover, she wanted to find it and give it to William.
Her eyes drifted across the lawn and toward the stables. She made out the outline of a kilted figure. It could have been Graham, Angus, Charlie, or any of the other dozen men William had brought with him. But she knew it was not any of them by the way he moved.
It was William, in the paddock brushing his young stallion. She loosened her hair and took up her silver hairbrush from the dressing table, working it through her waves. Then she sighed and propped her elbows on the windowsill, her chin in her hand, watching him.
William looked up, away, and then up again. Rhiannon straightened, heat flooding her face. He had caught her staring at him like some lovesick fool!
William turned his back on her. She swallowed her tears and stepped away from the window.
There was a knock at the door and her heart leapt in her throat. “Aye.”
“’Tis Susan, my lady. Lady Margaret sent me to aid you in your toilet.”
Her shoulders loosened. “Aye, of course.” Rhiannon went to the door and pulled back the bolt. She made to usher the maid in, then stopped. Looking at Susan’s pale face, she knew something was wrong.
“What is it?”
A man in a brown cloak shifted into view. He pressed a dagger to Susan’s side, and then forced her into the chamber. He shoved the girl at the bed and her cry was cut short as her head collided with the iron bedpost. She fell backward onto the floor. Still. Silent. Blood trickled from her forehead.
Rhiannon dropped her brush and moved toward the girl. She looked over her shoulder as she came to her knees. “Who are you?”
“Do you not know?” He pulled back his hood.
Her stomach roiled and her skin turned to ice. “Geoffrey?”
He smiled from between thin lips. “Back from the dead it would seem,” he said.
Rhiannon rose carefully to her feet. “How did you . . .” She was going to ask him how he got into the hall, and how he knew they were there in the first place, but conversation was ridiculous.
Rhiannon reached for her dagger instead. “Leave.” Fear tingled a path down her spine, but she pushed it aside. Do not give in to fear.
Geoffrey closed the door, his eyes on her the entire time. “Not just yet. I have something I want to show you first.”
She shook her head and backed away, her dagger between them. “You will show me nothing. Never again.”
“Och, now, I woulda be so sure.” He gestured with his own dagger. “But there is time for that later.” His eyes darkened as his gaze washed over her unbound hair. He went to the lantern on a side table near the bed and put it out. “Come to the window.”
She edged away from him, but there wasn’t anywhere else to go. Her back was pressed against the wall. He gestured again. “The window, if you will.”
Rhiannon shuffled along the wall toward the window, wondering if he planned to push her out. “William is here.”
His eyes flashed. She knew he was afraid of her husband.
“Aye, I know,” he said. “He is not as clever as he likes to think. I received word that he was on his way south and decided to visit my dearest friend.”
“Reginald? Last I knew he feared you would kill him.”
“All in the past, my dove. All in the past.”
Which meant he and Reginald were using each other for some common gain. Men like that did not have friends, only temporary alliances. Rhiannon knew who they were allied against.
William.
“Come now,” he said. “No more dallying. There is something I want you to see.”
She felt her way to the window ledge and looked out, keeping Geoffrey in her peripheral vision, her dagger between them.
“Now take a good look,” he said.
Her eyes scanned the wooden walls. She made out only one guard. Then she realized it was an archer. He held a crossbow and it was aimed into the yard. Her gaze followed its sights, and she saw William with his stallion.
“Nay-” She tried to scream into the yard to warn him, but Geoffrey clamped his hand over her mouth. His other hand caught her wrist. He twisted her arm until she dropped the dagger. It landed with a clang at her feet.
He leaned close to her ear, reeking of ale and pipe smoke. “All I have to do is give the signal, and he dies.”
Rhiannon squirmed against him, but his tight, lean body held her in check.
“If you want him to live, then you will come with me. Obediently. Do you understand?”
Oh God. Anything but this. She couldn’t relinquish herself to Geoffrey. She couldn’t risk William either. Rhiannon nodded as best she could against his hand.
He slid his fingers away. Rhiannon didn’t make a sound. She didn’t dare.
“There’s a good lass.” His gaze swept over her. She glanced at her weapon useless on the floor. He took a step closer and grabbed a lock of her hair. She wanted to scream but he shook his head in warning. Rhiannon felt her cry catch in her throat. His hand shook as he leaned closer. “Last time, it was different. You were beautiful and innocent and mine for the taking. Now you are his. I like what is his.”
“What do you have against him that could make you do this?”
Geoffrey dropped her hair. “Come.” He grabbed her by her tender arm. While the bone was knit, it was still her weakness. She bit back a yelp of pain. She looked for her dagger but there was no hope of retrieving it.
Or was there?
Rhiannon twisted, despite the pain in her arm, and kneed Geoffrey, right where he’d been stabbed last fall with her knife. He doubled over and a coughing fit seized him. Rhiannon scrambled for her dagger. Her fingers closed around the handle and she turned just as he straightened. This time she didn’t back away like a coward. She leapt toward him instead.
Geoffrey caught her hand, holding the weapon away from his chest. She pushed with all her might but he was stronger. She tried to knee him again but he twisted and her knee hit his thigh. He backed her into the wall, the wind whooshing out of her lungs, then pressed his forearm against her windpipe. Stars filled her vision and Rhiannon’s fingers loosened around the dagger. He tossed it across the room.
She raked at his hands with her nails, growing weaker by the second. He pulled back and she fell to the floor, gasping and clutching her throat. Geoffrey took her by her sore arm and yanked her to her feet, giving her no time to recover.
“Now we leave,” he said.
Chapter Twenty-Five
William trudged up the stairs to their chamber. It was easier to avoid her on the road. There was nothing he could do tonight. She would take whatever she wanted from him, because he would be powerless to stop her. It had been that way since the moment she was first brought into Geoffrey’s hall.
It didn’t matter how many times he gave into her either. How many times he lost himself inside of her, falling asleep spent in her arms. The sun always rose and pulled them apart again.
He still wanted to posses her. And that bothered him. It made him feel like he was no different from the men who had once come sniffing around her father’s door. Made him no different than Geoffrey.
As William walked down the hall, he felt the same dread ache in his gut that he had the night he first saw her. He could see her gaunt face in his mind’s eye, see Geoffrey’s hands on her.
As he neared their chamber door the hair on the back on his neck prickled. Something . . . The door was open. She would never leave it like that. William raced into the room, then halted. A wee maid lay on the floor. She moaned an
d touched her forehead, then looked at her fingers. They were coated with blood. Her eyes lifted to his and fear shone in them.
“There was a man.” She swallowed. “He had a dagger. He shoved me.” Her eyes blurred.
“Easy lass.” William knelt before her. He scanned the room and saw Rhiannon’s dagger on the floor and the window still open. He scooped the girl up and carried her into the corridor. “Margaret, Richard, Alec!”
Alec was the first to respond, yanking on his boots as he came down the hallway. He saw the girl and his face darkened. “My sister?”
“Gone.” William’s throat felt gritty.
Richard was next, rapier in hand, Margaret behind him.
“Susan?” Margaret took the girl’s hand. “What happened?”
“Alec, you and Margaret see to Susan,” William said, placing the maid into Alec’s arms.
Richard grabbed his arm. “What is going on?”
“My wife. She’s gone.” William ran his hands through his hair, his fingers shaking. This was it. He was going to come apart at the seams.
He couldn’t help her like this. He needed to focus.
Richard sheathed his rapier. “Let us see to my guards and your men. There could be wounded among them. Perhaps they have seen something as well.”
“It was Geoffrey.”
Richard shook his head. “He is in Scotland.”
“No, he’s not.” William flexed his fingers. “I should have finished him while I had the chance.”
“I understand how you feel, but hate will not aid your lady. We must act with clear heads.”
Richard was right about the need to focus. “Aye. I will see to my men.” But William would never let go of the hate.
“And I will check on mine. We will meet in my study to discuss our next move.”
* * *
The wounded were gathered and being cared for. William met with Richard in his study. Alec was already there, pacing before the bookcase and looking as ready as William was to stop anyone who came between him and Rhiannon. Graham stood next to Richard, his hands clasped behind him, looking guilty for bringing Rhiannon in the first place.
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