Chapter Three #3
“A word, Madam,” he said as he then reached down to pick up Teague, who was taken quickly by Janet. “You will come with me.”
With both children off of her, Kenton grasped Nicola by the arm and pulled her up from the chair, practically dragging her across the chamber and slamming the door.
Nicola, now being pulled down the steep stairs behind him, tried to catch herself from falling but it was difficult when he was tugging so forcefully.
“What on earth is the matter?” she demanded. “Stop pulling me!”
Kenton ignored her as he dragged her down to the third level. Nearing the bottom of the steps, she slipped in her struggles and plowed right into the back of him. Kenton had hold of her enough so that she didn’t fall, but when they reached the landing, she began to fight ferociously.
“Let go!” she demanded, smacking at his hand. “By what right do you treat me like this? You will release me immediately!”
Kenton didn’t say a word. He utterly ignored her demands and the hand that was hitting his wrist as he pulled her into the chamber that used to belong to her children.
Once inside the smaller chamber that was oddly vacant and quite dusty, he shut the chamber door and released her.
Nicola stumbled away from him, furious, and ended up on the opposite side of the chamber.
Torn between fear and outrage, she glared at him.
“Why did you do that?” she hissed.
Kenton faced Nicola with more patience than he felt.
He wasn’t entirely used to losing his temper, at least not with a woman, so he struggled to calm the rage that was burning in his chest. He would tell her why he had dragged her down to this chamber before he blistered her undoubtedly lovely backside.
But first, he had to try to explain his position without yelling at her. It was a difficult struggle.
“You,” he said, pointing a finger at her, “are very close to being put into the vault permanently. Did you think I would not be told of your actions?”
Nicola was now confused as well as furious. “What actions?” she asked. “What are you babbling about, le Bec?”
Kenton’s eyebrows lifted. “Babbling, am I?” he said, his jaw ticking as he came one step closer to losing his temper. He might even wring her lovely little neck if he was angry enough. “Did you truly believe your actions against Warwick would go untold?”
Her sense of confusion grew. “Warwick?” she repeated. “What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean. Did you think I would not find out what you did to him?”
“But I have never met the man!”
“You will not lie to me.”
Nicola threw up her hands, bewildered. “I am not lying,” she said. “I swear that I have not met the man!”
His eyes narrowed and he jabbed a big finger at her again. “You beat him with a fire poker,” he said hotly. “He has shown me his bruises and even though he could not tell me the name of the woman who did it, the physical description was enough. It was you.”
Suddenly, Nicola realized what he was talking about. The evil man in her chamber! The entire incident came flooding back and, now, things made a good deal of sense. Exasperated, she shook her head.
“I did not know that was Warwick,” she insisted. “I have never met the man. How could I know it was him?”
There was some logic to that statement but Kenton didn’t acknowledge it. He rested his big fists on his hips in a gesture that just preceded him running across the room, grabbing her, and spanking her until he had satisfaction. He was already figuring out how he could cut off her escape route.
“Then if you did not know it was him, why did you beat him?” he wanted to know. “You deliberately set out to thrash the man.”
“I did not!”
It was Kenton’s turn to throw his hands up in the air. “Your actions speak otherwise, Madam,” he said. “Know that I intend to punish you so it would be wise for you to tell me the truth.”
Nicola didn’t want to go to the vault again. She moved away from him, preparing for the mad dash that would undoubtedly follow when he began to chase her around the room.
“I swear to you that I did not know it was Warwick,” she insisted, now less angry and more frightened.
“I was in the chamber for a very good reason – after moving all of my possessions up to the fourth level, I realized I had left something very important behind. Upon entering the chamber, I saw that someone was asleep on the bed and assumed it was you, so I was very quiet as I made my way to the bed so I could look underneath it for the basket I had left behind. As I looked underneath, the man in the bed grabbed me and called me a whore. He wanted me to warm his bed. So… so I hit him. I will not be taken for a whore, le Bec, not by anyone. I am within my right to defend myself.”
Kenton was listening with some astonishment to the entire explanation.
It was nearly exactly what Warwick had told him and, as much as he hated to admit it, he believed her.
He was quite sure she would not know Warwick on sight and quite sure that the woman, although cunning and intelligent, would not lie to him.
She’d proven that when she had shown him Gaylord’s tomb.
He didn’t want to believe her; for all of the frustration and embarrassment she had caused him, he truly wanted to punish her.
There was great satisfaction in that thought.
But the fact remained that he did, indeed, believe her.
An exasperated sigh escaped his lips and he hung his head, shaking it sorrowfully.
“God’s Blood,” he hissed. “Is it true? Did you truly go in there without the intent to beat him?”
Nicola nodded her head. “Why would I do such a thing?” she asked, hoping he believed her. “Why would I risk being put back in the vault again?”
Kenton shook his head. “I would not know this,” he said flatly. “You have challenged me from the moment I set foot in Babylon, so I cannot pretend to anticipate anything you do. You seem to take delight in pushing me.”
Nicola’s expression was guarded. “And you seem to take delight in pushing me.”
He looked at her, then. “I do not push, Madam,” he said. “I mean everything I say. My words are not meant as suggestions or hints. They are meant to be obeyed without question.”
Nicola didn’t know what to say to that. The fury of the situation had thankfully blown over but she was still very uncertain as to his motives or what he planned to do. When she didn’t reply, he lifted his eyebrows expectantly at her.
“Have you nothing to say to me?” he asked.
Nicola shook her head but she was feeling increasingly incensed by the way he was treating her. The man was big and powerful, and he used that size and power against her. She did, in fact, have something to say.
“You had no reason to drag me down here as you did before you knew all of the facts,” she said, sounding hurt and angry. “I was, in fact, Warwick’s victim, yet you treated me as if I had been the attacker. Your sense of justice is twisted, le Bec. Is this your idea of fairness?”
He cocked his head. “Who said anything about being fair?” he wanted to know. “Warwick supersedes you and me and everyone else at Babylon, so when the man tells me that a beautiful woman thrashed him, I believed him.”
Nicola’s eyes flashed. “I did thrash him,” she said. “God knows what would have happened had I not. I will not be taken into any man’s bed, le Bec, so you may as well know that now. If anyone tries, I will do to them what I did to Warwick.”
She was angrily marching towards the chamber door now, where he was standing.
The more furious she became, the more he cooled and regained his composure.
He supposed she had every right to be angry but he would not acknowledge the fact.
The woman had to know she could not soften him or change his mind.
She had to know she had no effect on him.
… or did she?
Startled to realize that, perhaps, her moods did have an effect on him, he grabbed her wrist as she reached out to unlatch the door.
“I will not tell you this again,” he said, gazing down into that lovely, angry face. “You will remain to your rooms for now. You will not come out for any reason until I personally release you.”
Her jaw ticked as she looked at his massive hand holding her wrist. His hand was so big that it covered half her forearm. Still, she couldn’t help but notice the heat of his flesh against hers. There was something in that heat that made her heart leap strangely.
“Take your hand from me,” she growled.
He very nearly smiled; the woman was, if nothing else, courageous. Perhaps it was foolish in the face of a man more than twice her size, but she was courageous nonetheless. He admired that in a strange way.
“Not until we are clear,” he said, matching her tone. “Do you understand you are not to leave your rooms?”
“Aye.”
“Swear this to me.”
She wouldn’t look at him. “I swear it, you bas… that is, I swear it, my lord.”
He ignored the slander that had nearly slipped from her lips. “You will obey me without hesitation from now on,” he said, watching the disgust ripple across her face. “Is that clear?”
“It is.”
“Swear it to me.”
“I swear.”
He didn’t believe her but he kept his opinion to himself; perhaps she truly believed her vow. Knowing what he did of the woman, however, he did not. He released her arm.
“I will summon you in time to prepare the nooning meal,” he told her as she yanked the door open. “I will expect a feast.”
Nicola didn’t say anything. She simply marched from the room and stomped up the stairs that led to the fourth floor.
Kenton stood in the doorway, watching her shapely backside until she disappeared from view.
He could only imagine what the woman was thinking of him and the situation in general.
She was proud and she was brave. As much as those qualities in a woman frustrated him, they were also admirable.
Therefore, he could fairly read her mind at the moment, the mind of a woman who wasn’t afraid to swing a fire poker to defend herself.
He was fairly certain she wanted to swing the fire poker at him.
The thought made him grin.