Before anyone could respond, a voice at the door said, “I should leave Estella in this disaster, for she is the one who created it.”
The three girls jumped at the sound of their father’s voice.
Bess, in an unguarded moment, narrowed her eyes at Lord Cedwick before closing her book with a thud. “This is an unexpected visit, my lord,” she said. “You rarely come to visit us in the solar.”
He stepped through the doors. Bess shrank back when he frowned at her. “I’ll not have you question where I go in my own home.” He faced Estella, and seemed to have forgotten the old woman. “Why did you agree to marry that bastard?”
Estella’s eyebrows shot up. “I was trying to save you from humiliation. The situation clearly was getting out of hand. Or did you not notice how everyone watched us from the lower tables?”
“She tried to save our family reputation,” Marguerite interrupted, trying to defend Estella. Then she shuddered. “Had she not spoken up, the knight would have chosen Alys instead.”
Lord Cedwick waved his hand impatiently, dismissing her words. “That would not have happened,” he said. “I was thinking of a solution on how to get rid of the knights.” His face flushed when he saw their faces. “Do not doubt me, daughters. I almost had something worked out. But now that Estella agreed to marry the bastard, things have become much more complicated.”
“So ‘tis true that you made the agreement with the knight,” Alys said.
“I didn’t agree to anything,” he said harshly, as if the forcefulness of his tone could sway them.
“Will you care to explain why the knight keeps referring to this vow you made with him?” Estella asked. “As Alys has said, these men would not be here if you did not strike a bargain with them.”
An angry red flush crept back onto his face, but even as he took in a deep breath, he didn’t deny her words.
Estella swallowed the lump that formed at the back of her throat. She allowed her gaze to settle on the tapestry that hung on the far wall. “How could you have done this to us, Father? How could you have pledged away one of your daughter as if she was one of your geese?”
“I never promised him one of you… “
“Then what did you promise?” Estella interrupted, her voice hardening. “Because Sir Gavin seems to think that he is entitled to one of us.”
“Well… I might have told him that he could have anything that he wanted,” he said, his voice trailing off. He pivoted and stared down at them. “But understand I made that vow in the heat of the moment — those savages killed Sir Lawrence, and was about to kill me for my valuables. I was desperate. And Sir Gavin showed up… But…” his voice trailed off once again. He looked up at the ceiling, staring thoughtfully at the smooth stones. “Aye, Sir Etienne is right,” he said finally. “My men were really the ones who scared the outlaws off. In fact the more I think on it, I know ‘tis what happened.”
He paced the room as if his feet could make him catch up with the memory of that day. Stopping abruptly, he looked at Estella. “Those two knights must have heard the horses before I did, and quickly conspired with the outlaws to take advantage of the situation. Aye, aye that makes sense now… they’re scheming and evil, and never had any intentions of helping me. These knights are the ones without honor. They’re in fact the real criminals!”
Lord Cedwick looked at his daughters with a triumphant gleam in his eyes. He then began to pace around the room again, his hands folded behind his back. “I shall have Sir Gavin and his friend arrested for robbery and trespassing. In the meantime, we shall allow him to think that a wedding is planned for tomorrow morning.” He let out a sudden laugh as if he had just discovered the perfect solution to their dilemma. “Sir Gavin will show up at the chapel, but instead of finding a priest there, the sheriff will be waiting in his place.”
CHAPTER 4
Estella woke up with a start, her scream muffled by a large hand that covered her mouth. “You’re coming with me, my lady.”
Her heart thumped as if it threatened to burst out from her chest. The silhouette of the man loomed above her, although even in the dim light, she knew who it was. But how did he get into her bed chamber? She understood that because of the incident downstairs, her father had increased the guards. On the way to her bed chamber, she had already counted two guards, guards that weren’t there the night before.
“I’ll let go of my hand,” Gavin said. “However if you scream, I’ll have no choice but to gag you. Do you understand?”
She nodded her head slowly. It didn’t appear that he intended to hurt her. Her heart slowed down. Still, she was aware of him and wished that he stood at the other end of the chamber. With him so near, she found it difficult to breathe.
“Good,” he said, releasing his hand. “We leave now.”
“Sir Gavin?” she asked, and even though she tried to squelch the fear, she could hear it in her voice.
Gavin stopped. An almost sympathetic look crossed his face. “You may call me Gavin,” he said.
“Sir Gavin,” she said, ignoring his request. The quaver in her voice diminished as she allowed her indignation to show. “Why are you here?” she demanded. “You have disturbed me from a restful sleep. Could you not wait until tomorrow when the priest comes to marry us?”
Gavin let out a grunt of disbelief. “After that display downstairs, do you still think I can trust your father to keep his word? I will carry you away with me, and marry you on my own terms.”
Estella’s entire body tensed. Did he know of her father’s plans? “I will need to change,” she said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind. She searched frantically for a way to avoid going with Gavin, but her mind was as silent as the bailey at nightfall. She closed her eyes briefly, willing for someone to hear her silent pleas for help.
When Estella didn’t immediately move from her spot, Gavin turned to look at her, his gaze dropping to the thin linen shift that she wore. His scorching gaze settled on her breasts as if he wanted to see past the material, to know what she looked like underneath. She suddenly felt hot, which was impossible because the flames that had burned in the fireplace had died long ago.
“Well change,” he said. His voice gentled when he saw the expression on her face. “Don’t look so frightened, my lady. I have not come to harm you.” He took her arm and steered her to the chest at the side of the chamber. “You will need something warm since we’ll be riding for several days.”
She stared at his back as he turned to give her privacy.
Run! her mind screamed. But even as she thought that, she knew that by the time she reached the door, his long strides would have already caught up with her. Then she would have to deal with his wrath.
“But my sisters…” she said. “They will think something happened to me if I disappeared into the night.”
“They’ll be informed of your whereabouts once we’re married.”
Estella bit at her bottom lip, trying to wrack her brain for some other thing to stall him with. She debated whether she should yell for help. The guards down below would no doubt hear her and rush to her rescue.
But she quickly staunched that idea from her mind. From Gavin’s massive size, he could easily take down the two guards stationed at the bottom of the spiral steps. Did she really want unnecessary bloodshed on her behalf? If she was honest with herself that was the last thing she wanted.
And of course her screams would awaken her sisters in the adjacent chambers. They would come running into her room and place themselves in unnecessary peril. She could do only one thing, and that was to leave willingly with this hulking brute. Her father’s men would surely track her down later and bring her home.
Trying to suppress a shiver that had little to do with the cold draft in the chamber, she bent over the chest. Estella rifled through it quickly, and found a simple woolen over tunic and heavy cloak. She tossed on the gown over her linen shift, and put on the cloak. Its warmth enveloped her almost immediately.<
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“I do not understand how you got into my bed chamber, sire.” She found her leather boots and slipped them on. “I know that there are guards below, and my father’s men are not lax when it comes to protecting our home.”
At the sound of the chest closing, Gavin turned to face her. “I scaled the tower,” he said. He watched her with a strange light in his eyes. And for some inexplicable reason, she felt naked even when she knew that she was fully clothed in heavy wool.
She folded her arms over her chest. “I did not know that could be done. The master stone mason and cutters my father hired are experts in what they do. They would not make our castle so easily scalable.”
“Even stone workers are mere mortals,” he said. “Come, we don’t have all night to speak. We must leave this place.”
Estella took a deep breath, and walked toward the door. But she didn’t make it very far when Gavin grabbed her arm and pulled her back. He steered her toward the small window at the far end of the room.
“You do not expect me to go out that way, do you?” she gasped, as she realized his plan. “‘Tis dangerous.”
“Nothing will happen to you,” he said, and stopped briefly near the bed. A ghost of a smile flitted across his lips when he saw the doubtful expression on her face. “I bribed your maid to hide this sack in your chamber.” Reaching under the four poster bed, he pulled out a sack. He opened it and removed a large, thick rope. “Ulric will be waiting as I lower you from the window.”
Estella shook her head in disbelief, vaguely noting that she needed to reprimand the maid who was so easily bribed. “How are you going to get me out of here without my falling into the moat and getting myself killed?”
“Easily,” he said. Estella watched with growing horror as he took out two thick iron stakes from the sack. At the base of the window, he wrapped one spike with the burlap sack, and pounded the other one into the floor. The burlap muffled any hammering sounds.
In a matter of minutes, he looped the rope through a circular hole attached to the top, and secured the rope onto the spike. He gave it a hard tug to test its strength. Then he nodded, satisfied that it would hold.
He walked over to her, and ignoring her protests, he tied the other end of the rope around her waist. He nudged her toward the small window. “You’ll go down first and I’ll follow.”
She looked at the widow ledge. “I will fall,” she said in a shaky voice.
“If you value your life, then don’t fall,” he said. “Take hold of the rope, and I’ll lower you to my man. Use your feet to walk backwards. This way you’ll prevent yourself from swinging and bashing against the stone tower. I’ll stay here to ensure that the rope is secure while you go down.”
Estella swallowed hard, unable to prevent the fear from creeping into her chest. “In all my years of instruction, scaling down walls was not part of my study.”
He grunted. “Just don’t look down,” he said.
All she could do was let out one long breath. What in heavens was she getting herself into?
She grabbed hold of the rope as Gavin directed, and scrambled onto the window’s edge. She glanced over her shoulders at the expanse below, aware of how high she was. The land beneath her stretched beyond the horizon, covered in winter’s white blanket. If she were to fall, it would be unlikely that anyone would find her body until the spring thaw.
Wrapping the rope around her hands, she prayed that she would be able to see the light of day. But even as she prayed for God’s deliverance, her fear rose higher and higher in her chest.
She glanced over at Gavin. However he had a focused, determined expression on his face, an expression that was unlikely to relent from this awful plan.
“Are you sure there is no other way out? We could go down the spiral staircase —”
He shook his head impatiently. “There are guards below as you mentioned. Climb down the rope,” he said, “and cease your chatter.”
Estella closed her eyes, desperately wanting to block out her terror. But that one action proved to be a terrible mistake. She didn’t see the patch of ice on the ledge just near her foot. And she slipped, releasing her grip on the rope in her moment of surprise.
But even before she had a chance to scream, Gavin’s strong hands reached over and grasped her wrist, hauling her back into the chamber.
“When I told you not to look down, I didn’t mean for you to close your eyes,” he growled. He untied the rope around her waist. “You’ll have to go down with me.”
She quirked an eyebrow at him. “How could that be possible?”
“I’ll carry you,” he said.
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Will the rope hold the two of us?”
He gestured to the stake that was fully imbedded in the stone floor. “The iron spike is secured into the stone. With the rope tied to it, it won’t unravel,” he continued. “Now you need to wrap your legs around my waist.”
Estella opened her mouth to refuse his ludicrous command. Her denial was cut off, however, when in one quick motion he lifted her, and placed her legs around his hips. Then as if he saw the fear behind her shock, he softened his tone. “I’ll tie this rope around us for safety.”
But his words didn’t make her feel any safer.
“Can we not wait until morning?” she asked in a last attempt to stop their descent.
She looked back longingly at her bedroom chamber. No one would burst into her room and stop this dark stranger from stealing her into the night.
“We don’t have all night,” he said impatiently.
Estella let out a quick breath, and held onto to him more securely with her arms and legs.
But it was after she tightened her grip around his hips that Gavin started to wonder about the wisdom of his plan. He tried to trample down the desire that was threatening to emerge.
Irritability surged into his chest, and he cursed himself for allowing a moment of weakness. He should already have had her out the window, and riding away from this place.
When Estella stood up to him earlier, he decided that she suited his purposes better than her sisters, even though she was not as attractive as they were. He needed a woman who was responsible and not vain and tempted to preen in front of the mirror like his own step–mother. He had no patience for that kind of woman. But she wasn’t supposed to be a distraction like this. She wasn’t supposed to have any affect on him.
Gavin tried to focus his mind on something else. But it was no use. He couldn’t think of anything or anyone else except for the woman clinging firmly to his front, her arms wrapped around his body, her hot breath at his neck.
He stifled a groan when Estella shifted and squeezed her legs around him. All he could think of was how perfectly her soft curves shaped to his hard planes. And even as he fought back the urges, his body responded to her nearness as if it had never been with a woman.
Even through the thick layers of wool, he could feel her soft breasts. He could only imagine how they would feel rubbing naked against his own skin. And the exact positioning of her sex so near his own nearly drove him insane with want. In any place but this, he would be thrusting into her hot body. God, he didn’t realize that it had been so long since he was with a woman. Either that or he had reverted back to being a randy page with nothing other than thoughts of fair maidens on his mind.
He gave himself a mental shake, and concentrated on placing one foot behind the other, moving back slowly down the rope. It felt good to feel the rope biting into his hands as he fought against gravity. Indeed if he didn’t focus, both of them would tumble into the empty moat beneath them. But at least with that end result, he thought wryly, the torture he endured now would be finished.
CHAPTER 5
Gavin climbed down the rope with confidence, as if he scaled down walls on a regular basis. Estella closed her eyes, somehow trusting this strange knight. She could feel the cold wind whipping through her hair. She pressed her body closer, her arms wrapping tightly around his neck, he
r legs gripping his waist. She refused to dwell on how inappropriate her position was. There was no choice, she told herself. Gavin was the only solid object that she could cling to, the only person that could prevent her from falling to her death…
When they finally touched firm ground, she was surprised that she was still alive. Ulric helped ease them down and began to untie them from the rope.
But Gavin wasn’t in a hurry to release her. “Ulrich, retrieve the two horses near the outer wall,” he said, not taking his eyes off of Estella. “I’ll take care of the rope.”
As Ulric moved away, Gavin held her closer. He pressed her more intimately against him while he reached behind her to release the rope.
She had once overheard the servants speaking about the act and the manly parts that came with it. But when she made her presence known, the servants became mum about the subject. She had seen animals mating in the barns and just assumed that there was nothing special about it.
But this — this feeling that she had when her body was pressed closely against his…it made her feel dizzy with wanting something that she couldn’t quite describe, something dark and exciting. And dangerous, a small part of her brain warned.
A sizzling heat zipped through her body and left a strange, fiery sensation curling, churning in her belly. And even as she wondered about this odd feeling, her body began to soften, to mold to his hardness as if it she was made to fit together with him.
Estella took a staggering breath in to calm her nerves. But then the smell of him filled her senses and made her light headed. And even though she knew she should let go, she remained still, wondering about how pleasurable it felt being in his arms. Yet she was wary of this enticing sensation.
What was it like to kiss a man who was as dark and as frightening as Gavin? Every nerve in her body told her to be on her guard. She was mad to be even thinking about kissing a scheming outlaw, one that was so ready to take advantage of people in dire straits… But all the same, her gaze fell to his sensual mouth.
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