“Back to whom? Your father?” Vladamir asked with a growl. He shook her violently when she didn’t answer. His eyes bore piercingly into her, demanding to know everything. Her hand fell from her mouth at his rough handling.
“Nay, ‘tis no one.” Eden looked at his tunic where she knew his knife lay hidden. Tears brimmed in her eyes. She wanted to plead with him but knew it would do no good. “Please, free me. Let me go to the nunnery to take my orders. I’ll tell no one you tried to keep me here. In fact, I’ll be most grateful to you for your kindness in the deed. I shall remember you every eve in my prayers until I die, if ‘tis your wish.”
“You don’t appear to be of such a temperament. Somehow I cannot conceive you kneeling piously in prayer every day of your life, m’lady captive,” Vladamir observed coolly. “How is it you’re off to a nunnery? Does your father so readily give away his only daughter to such a higher purpose? Methinks not. I have met your father. He isn’t so generous a man.”
“I haven’t told him I’m going,” she admitted with a nervous look. “He doesn’t know where I am.”
“Ah, then he has other plans for you. Is that why you’re here?”
“Promise me that you’ll kill me instead of sending me back. ‘Tis your plan anyway, is it not? I saw how the servants whispered. ‘Tis why you didn’t want me speaking to Ulric. He was going to warn me, wasn’t he?” Eden swallowed as she licked her lips. With a muffled sound of despair, she sniffed back her tears, feeling the sting of defeat. Pain rolled over her body. “Please, not by the knife. I don’t wish to die that way. Give me that. Mayhap, give me a draught of poison so that I may drink it—but not the knife.”
She tried to be nonchalant, but her eyes strayed to the knife at his waist. Her stomach knotted and her limbs grew numb as she continued her entreaty.
“I don’t know what my father has done to offend you. But, if ‘tis revenge you wish to have with my death, then take it gently. For ‘twas my father, not I, who committed the offense.” Tears streamed down her face and her lips trembled as she begged for an easy death. His heart tightened and squeezed. “Please, m’lord.”
“Why should you care how you die?” Vladamir asked sharply. “‘Tis all the same in the end.”
Eden forced down a sob, trying her best to appear brave. “Please, if ‘tis the same to you in the end, why not give me what I want. It would be less for the servants to clean after.”
“Why do you not beg for your life?” Vladamir scowled with a violent shake of her arm. He leaned into her and his voice had lowered to a hoarse whisper, but she didn’t shrink away from his anger. Then, glancing at his tight hold on her arm, he instantly loosened his grip. “Why do you just give up without a fight? What happened to the insolent woman who tries to defy me?”
“I know well that the life of a woman is of little worth to you. I have seen how you look at me. You don’t like me. I’m worth nothing to you but revenge.” The sun had fallen completely out of sight and now the sky turned a royal blue in the twilight. Eden turned her gaze to the chamomile in the garden. She took a deep breath before continuing. “Would you hear my entreaty with an open ear? Would it affect your decision after ‘twas made?”
“You’re right,” he conceded easily. “After a decision has been made I’d be hard-pressed to change my mind. It would contradict the reason for the making in the first place. A man cannot be counted upon if he questions his own resolve.”
“Then you have made your judgment. I’m to die.” Eden shivered and again looked to the chamomile. Her breath became shallow and she stopped shivering. Her arm became limp in his hand. A tear fell from her wide silent eyes.
He placed a tentative hand under her chin to bring her face around so he could study her gaze and gently swiped the tears from her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs, grimacing even as he did so. “I’ve made no decision as of yet.”
Eden nodded as sweet relief flooded her. She had a chance. She’d known that to beg for her life would be pointless with a man like Vladamir. If he’d made up his mind, there would be no changing it. If she were to try and run, he would catch her. She would be no match against his strength. But if he hadn’t decided she still had a chance. “Then you’re considering sending me on to the nunnery?”
“Nay.”
“Then to my father?”
“Let us begin again,” Vladamir stated, ignoring her question. He dropped his hand back to her shoulder and she shook under the steady weight of it. “Why are you here?”
“If you give me your word that I’ll die afore being sent back, I’ll tell you all that you wish to know.” She shook her arm free of his devilish grasp.
For anything is better than being under the yoke of my intended.
“You’d rely on the word of a monster?” The idea seemed to amuse him greatly.
“Nay, I’d rely on the word of a man.” She dared a glance at him. Her eyes strayed briefly to his smirking mouth. He had great lips, lips that felt so good kissing her. Would he kiss her again? Would he press his body to hers as he had in the hall? Each night she ached for him to do that and more. “I’ll take your word as one of honor for I have yet to find any reason to believe that it would be otherwise.”
The twisted smile faded from his lips and he nodded. “You have it. I’ll see you dead afore sending you back to your father.”
Eden consented to the morbid pact on her life with a nod. She moved to once more be seated in front of him on the bench. “What would you like to know?”
“Who battered you?” The shadows of the night hid his face.
“My fiancé.” Suddenly, she gasped and shook her head. “Nay, I’m afraid I must insist that you promise not to give me to him either. I know I said my father—”
Vladamir held up his hand to stop her flow of words. “I give you the same bargain. You’ll die afore going to either of them.”
“He is rich and might try to offer you money for me,” Eden persisted.
“I give you my word.”
Eden nodded in gloomy relief and looked at her hands as she spoke. “My father arranged for me to marry Lord Luther of Drakeshore. Lord Luther is very rich and my father is titled. To them it was a perfect arrangement. Foolish as I was I agreed, thinking that finally I’d have some freedom as a married lady.”
“Hmm.”
Eden ignored his interruption. “I was going to do my duty by my father and wed with Luther about two sennights hence, but Lord Luther wished for an alternate arrangement afore the marriage. He planned a rendezvous with me and some of his male friends, only he forgot to tell me about it aforehand.”
“I know Drakeshore,” Vladamir frowned. “He’s an old man.”
“Nay, not too old to beget his heirs for my father’s purposes,” Eden interjected bitterly. “Methought that he wanted to learn more about me, at least that is what I was led to believe. He took me riding outside the castle in the forest. ‘’Tis to be a hunt’, he said. ‘Your sire is waiting for us’, he said. The only thing waiting for us was a used, dirty coverlet thrown on the ground and a hunting party that didn’t hunt for meat, but for carnal pleasures with my body. He sought to fulfill his marital rights early and with ample witnesses. When I refused him and tried to run off to a nunnery, he followed me.”
“And his friends were to watch?” Vladamir asked in disgust.
“Nay, his friends were to join,” Eden put forth resentfully. She shivered in revulsion at the memory. Her stomach lurched as she pictured the lustful men avidly in her mind’s eye. Shaking her head, she tried not to cry anew.
“Continue.” His tone wasn’t as cold as before.
“Luther would have ravished me then if not for my handmaiden, Lynne. She didn’t trust Luther’s intentions and even tried to warn me against them. When I didn’t listen to her, she followed us. He killed her for her interference, ran her clean through her stomach with his sword. It took her a long time to die and her eyes kept pleading with me to help her. There was blood running from
her mouth over her chin and some of the men… they…” Eden moved her hand to brush a strand of her loose hair behind her. She touched her lips softly as she thought of her friend. Lynne’s screams echoed in her ears. The maidservant had been ravished repeatedly as she lay dying. “I couldn’t help her for I had yet to untie myself.”
“And once untied, you escaped” Vladamir stated logically.
“I don’t know. I remember Lynne being run through. I remember her death and I remember trying to run away from him—them.” A tear slipped from her eye and she dashed it nervously away. “Someone or mayhap something hit me over the head afore I got too far. When I awoke, ‘twas raining. I ran for the shelter of the forest. I don’t remember falling upon your castle gate, but that is where I ended up or so Ulric tells me.”
Vladamir turned from her and paced, clearly mulling over her words.
“So you see,” she continued, “now I have no alternative but to take the vows of the church. I cannot wed a man who would share me with others for who knows what other unnatural games he has in mind for me. After the vows are spoken, there will be no one to naysay his right. As a nun I’ll be under the protection of the church. My father wouldn’t dare go against God, no matter how angry he is with me.”
Vladamir nodded.
Her tears echoed in her soft voice as she said in dejection, “I don’t even know if I’m pure. I don’t know what sport they have taken with me, if any. I cannot wed with another with such questions about me. No respectable nobleman would have me and I couldn’t blame him.”
“‘Tis the belief amongst my people that the maiden is never to blame in such an event. That the man is at fault when he ravishes a woman.” Vladamir stopped several paces from her and turned. The gentleness in his gaze was swiftly hidden away.
“‘Tis not the way of it here. It would be my fault for seducing him. At least that is what they would say of it. And that is if they even believed me.” Eden shook her head in firm denial. “Nay, I would that no one knew the truth of it. For how can I prove that which I cannot even remember?”
“I know of a nobleman named Blackwell. When his bride’s maidenhead had to be established he ordered her checked. You could do the same. I can order the checking and then you would know the truth. It would be private,” Vladamir offered quietly. His face held little compassion under the icy mask of disdain, but she had the feeling that his anger wasn’t directed at her.
“Nay, I know that ‘tis foolish, but I don’t wish to know.” Eden sighed as she peeked through her lashes. “I fear the worst. My stomach…it hurt when I awoke.”
Vladamir’s whole body was tense. “You do have another solution. You might not have to wish so readily for death or church.”
Eden observed the gentle savagery of his motions before turning once more to her hands. The movements of his body were untamed and barbarous. She felt the stealthy magnetism that radiated off of him like a wild beast. A tear rolled over her cheek. Lifting her gaze, she implored his understanding. She didn’t know why she trusted him with such intimate details, but she couldn’t seem to keep quiet. The truth had spilled forth from her with the force of a breaking dam.
“What? To live here as your prisoner so that you may seek your revenge?” Eden snorted in disgust. “What kind of life is that? I’m no better than a slave, only my future is more uncertain. Besides, being here, there is always the chance my father or Luther will come for me. What is to happen if your king calls you home or the peace is broken and you are off to war? I’ll be left at their mercy. I don’t wish to risk it.”
“Nay, not as my prisoner.” Vladamir’s low voice drifted on the wind. His piercing gaze bored into her and she shivered at the low tone of his words. “And most definitely not as a slave.”
“As a servant? Would you have me change my name and become your servant woman?” Eden fumed, growing angry with him. “Too many here know the truth of my identity and I could run away and become a servant. Oh, I see. You decided you liked your keep cleaned and your food prepared in a washed cauldron.”
“Yea, I find I like it very much,” he admitted without penitence. A smile curved his firm mouth, breaking the spell of doom that wove about them in the night air. Leisurely, he strolled over the garden and picked a stem of chamomile from the plant that had so held her attention before.
“Well, then direct the servants you have to do it. You don’t need me.” Eden once again stood up, only this time she was enraged by his persistence. She glared at his back. “They work well if the master is not lazy in the directing.”
“I don’t mean as a servant.” The duke’s words stopped her from leaving. He turned to her with a lowered chin and tilted his head to the side. His tongue flicked over the corner edge of his mouth and traced his lower lip. Sparks filled her at the motion, making her body all too aware of him. The coldness of his gaze softened. He slowly let his eyes roam over the lushness of her form.
“Concubine?” Eden shot incredulously, before laughing at the thought. She shook her head in dismissal.
“Nay.” Vladamir spun the stem in his large, strong fingers.
“Then what? A wife?” Eden laughed again and looked at him. Her chuckle ended when she saw the seriousness of his eyes. Her face paled. He wanted her to marry him. She stumbled back in breathless awe. Her legs weakened and she sat once more on the bench. Nearly out of breath, she asked, “But why?”
“I wish revenge and you’re in need of protection.” Vladamir held up the herb for her to take. It was a small gesture, which was belittled by the sharpness of his words. “Methinks ‘tis a perfect arrangement.”
“Arrangement?” She trembled at the odd proposal. It wasn’t the enraptured admission of love that she would’ve wanted at such a moment. However, the thought of being protected by such a man did have its merits. And he did stir her blood with fiery sensations whenever he was near. Looking at his mouth, she sighed. Without taking the flower, she asked, “Just what kind of arrangement would this be?”
“I’d provide you with a home. I’ll feed you, clothe you, protect you and being thusly wed you won’t have to marry Lord Luther.” His tone lacked all emotions and he dropped the herb to the ground when she didn’t take the gift. Eden numbly watched it fall.
“But you don’t know me.” She searched his face for any sign of a tender sentiment. He was cold, blank. “Why would you bind yourself to me?”
“I know enough. I know that you’re the daughter of my most hated enemy. I know that I seek to revenge myself and others against him. What better way than to deprive him of Luther’s money? From what I understand you’re his only child and the blow will undoubtedly be devastating.” Vladamir’s eyes blazed as he stared at her, but he didn’t reach for her. Eden desperately wanted him to. “I know you have no wish to go back to your father.”
“How do I know you won’t harm me after we are wed?” she asked, staring down at the discarded chamomile. “How do I know you’ll treat me with kindness?”
“A reasonable question,” he admitted with an approving nod. “You don’t for sure. But what choice do you have? You were so recently begging me to use poison on you.”
“What would you expect of me in return?” Eden inquired, cautious. She shivered as she thought of his unusually cold proposal. Was being married to an emotionless monster better than death?
“You’ll care for my home, instruct the servants and keep the manor clean. You’ll sew our clothing or have them sewn by the servants. You’ll do any number of wifely duties. You’ll be a duchess,” he answered with a dismissive wave of his hand. It was as if he was bestowing on her a great gift. Eden stood to face him as he spoke. “And mayhap someday we will leave this land of Wessex and go back to the Danelaw to my castle there. That will bring you far from your father’s reach.”
“I don’t care about the title,” she stated numbly. Her face tightened with her words and she knew that he wouldn’t fully believe her. “There are more important considerations for me than t
itle.”
The duke smiled at that, crossing his arms over his chest as he grazed his lip thoughtfully with the tips of his fingers. “Fair enough.”
“What else?” Eden wrung her hands nervously in front of her. She was amazed that she even considered it. Yet she knew that if he were just to soften a bit and offer her his embrace, she would’ve flown readily into his arms with a rush of agreement. If he softened she would’ve done anything he asked, but he didn’t.
“You’ll help me care for my daughter. I wish to bring her here to be with me.” He watched her reaction closely.
“You really have a daughter? Where is her mother? Your first wife, I mean?” Eden turned her eyes to the night sky as if the brightening stars held untold answers. If they did, they didn’t give her their secrets.
“If you ask, you must know that she is dead. I won’t speak of it with you.” He growled, his eyes darkening for a brief moment. “Ever.”
“Fair enough,” she returned wryly. Turning her back to him, she didn’t want him to see the uncertainty in her movements, or the unexpected tingle inside her. Her mind ached for a tender sentiment from him, however untrue it might be. Gladly, she would’ve taken a kind lie to ease her nervousness. “Is that all?”
“‘Tis not enough?” He’d moved closer to her back.
“What I mean is,” she swallowed and blushed. Moving to face him, she was startled to find him so near. She sighed into his darkly clad chest and lifted her hand between them only to let it fall before touching. “I suppose what you’re saying is that this is to be a marriage of convenience only. That we won’t live as man and wife and that you don’t think to bed me.”
“Nay, I didn’t say that. I said that you’ll have to perform other wifely duties.” He boldly reached as if to touch her heated cheek. Then, when she didn’t move to accept his touch, he let his hand drop. “That condition was meant to include the marriage bed. All men have needs…a need of heirs. I should like a son.”
“Oh.” His latter statement was offered weakly. She took a step back from him and fell upon the bench. He said it so coldly, like it was to be a chore.
Maiden and the Monster Page 12
