Chapter Twenty
Juliandra stood in the doorway between the entry hall and the great hall with a big, iron rod in her hand.
Upon closer inspection, it was a heavy pike from Gethin’s armory, which was next to the front door.
Having spent quite some time out in the garden, lamenting the situation she found herself in, Juliandra finally summoned the energy to enter the house and immediately heard the voices in the hall.
She recognized one of them without question.
Aeron.
She was in no mood for whatever he was perpetrating here.
In fact, she wanted to kill him.
Exhausted and on-edge, she could see Aeron rising out of his seat at the big feasting table that filled up much of The Neath’s hall.
A glance around the chamber also showed her that there were many broken and smashed things, and she had no doubt that Aeron was responsible.
The fearful look on Megsy’s face told her that, as well.
In that instant, she knew exactly what had happened.
Humiliated from his run-in with Kevin at Wybren, Aeron had come straight to The Neath to take his frustrations out on her house and her servants.
A snarl flickered on her lips.
“What are you doing here, Aeron?” she asked in a decidedly unfriendly tone. “You are not welcome in my home.”
But Aeron wasn’t hearing the tone or the words. He was only seeing Juliandra, and nothing more, and his features lit up with joy.
“You have come back,” he said. “I knew you would. I knew the Saesneg bastards were keeping you from me and telling you to say such horrible things.”
Juliandra was unable to stomach his foolery. In fact, she wasn’t able to stomach anything at the moment. There was nothing left inside of her; she was a gutless shell, her insides having been ripped out by Kevin’s deception and her father’s death.
She honestly didn’t know which one was worse.
Her father was dead and the pain she felt was immeasurable.
But Kevin’s deceit was agonizing in an entirely different way – his words were rolling around in her head until she could hear or think of nothing else.
He’d deliberately lied to her about her father, who had died on the very day he’d refused to pay the toll.
Kevin could have told her that, but he didn’t because he wanted to strike a bargain with her – information on the locals in exchange for her father.
Without, of course, mentioning that her father was only a corpse.
She’d entered into the bargain in good faith.
But from the beginning, Kevin hadn’t been truthful with her.
Even until this very day, when she’d asked him to send word to her father about their marriage, he had continued the deception because he had agreed to do it.
The lie went on, even after he’d married her and they’d shared a night together that surely angels only dreamed of.
Perhaps it was that betrayal that hurt most of all. She loved him and although he told her that he loved her, too, he really didn’t. Perhaps he’d only told her that out of desperation because, clearly, he had betrayed that love.
He had betrayed her.
Therefore, she was in no mood to deal with Aeron. The man was taking his very life in his hands being at The Neath after the idiocy he’d displayed at Wybren. As he looked at her with hope and glee, she took the heavy pike in both hands and raised it.
“Get out of here,” she growled. “I thought I made it very clear that I did not want to see you again.”
Aeron still wasn’t listening. He came away from the table, heading in her direction.
“You needn’t continue the farce,” he said. “You do not mean those words. I forgive you, Juliandra.”
He came too close and she swung at him with the pike, hitting him broadside and sending him toppling. As he stumbled, she went after him, hitting him again and again with the pole until he scampered under the table to avoid being hit again.
“I told you to go away and leave me alone!” Juliandra screamed. “You are a stupid, hateful man!”
Aeron was on the defensive, trying very hard not to get brained by Juliandra’s swinging pole.
“Cease, you foolish wench!” he cried. “Put that pike away before you kill me!”
Juliandra wasn’t listening. In fact, her violence was gaining steam. She began to weep, slamming the pike at the table, the chairs, and anything else she could aim for. Pieces of wood began to fly as she beat down the furniture in her attempt to get to Aeron under the table.
“I told you to leave me alone,” she cried.
“I told you to go away, and you would not listen. What makes you want a woman who hates you, Aeron? Would anything ever be pleasant between us? Would we ever know affection? Of course we would not and our entire life would be fighting and hatred. There is nothing about you that I want or like, and you will leave my home and never come back. Do you understand me? Get out!”
She punctuated the last two words by slamming the pike so hard that the wood splintered. She ended up with half of a pole in her hand, but it was enough of a break that Aeron darted out from underneath the table.
But he didn’t leave.
In fact, his attitude had changed dramatically. He was no longer happy to see her, but angry and threatening.
“I do not care what you feel,” he growled. “You are mine and I will claim you.”
Although she only had half a weapon in her hands, Juliandra didn’t back down. Everything in her was screaming for release, to vent the emotions that were bubbling up.
“I am another man’s wife,” she said, holding the remaining pike like a club. “Body and soul, I belong to him, and you cannot change that.”
That brought him pause, but not for long. In fact, a lewd smile crossed his lips.
“So he has bedded you,” he said. “Good. That will make my task easier when I take you to my bed and fill you full of good Welsh sons.”
Juliandra was backing away because he was advancing on her as the tables slowly turned. “The only thing you fill me full of is hatred.”
Aeron was still grinning. “Brave words,” he said.
“But the truth is that you are damaged goods now. Your father knows of such things. Once goods are damaged, they are sold at a reduced rate or they are given away for free. Do you think any decent man will touch you now that you’ve been marked by a Saesneg knight? ”
“I do not want any other man.”
Aeron sneered at her. “You are a whore, girl,” he said. “A whore to a Saesneg.”
“I told you that I married him. I am his wife.”
“Then where is he?” Aeron asked. “Why are you here alone? I shall tell you why – because he took your innocence, decided you were not worth his time, and cast you aside. That is why you have come home – a soiled woman to hang your head in shame.”
He came too close again and she swung the broken pike, hitting him once in the face and once in the shoulder.
But by the third strike, he managed to grab it, and they wrestled over it violently.
Juliandra refused to let go, but Aeron was stronger than she was.
He ended up slamming her around the room as she held on for dear life.
Megsy, panicked by what she was witnessing, ran to summon Gethin’s paid guards, who came rushing into the house as Aeron fought with their mistress. They ran into the hall to break up the fight and subdue Aeron, but it was a bad mistake.
One that would cost Juliandra.
Catching sight of the guards, Aeron managed to yank Juliandra towards him. She tried to resist but he grabbed her by the hair with one hand and put his other hand on her throat.
“Come no closer!” he shouted at the guards, squeezing Juliandra’s throat as she fought against him. “I’ll kill her if you do!”
The guards came to an instant halt, confused and concerned.
There were only six of them, with the rest still in Pool at their master’s stall to protect the goods, but it would have been a simple thing to overwhelm Aeron with only six men if he didn’t have their master’s daughter in a precarious position.
They looked to Juliandra for direction and even though she was still fighting with Aeron, she knew that she had to clear the hall if there was any hope of getting out of this situation intact.
Aeron had her in a dangerous position because he felt threatened, so she had to remove the threat. Her father’s men had to go.
She would have to figure her own way out of this predicament.
“Go,” she hissed at everyone who was hovering in the chamber. “Get out of here. Everyone out!”
The guards backed away, as did the few servants who happened to be there. Only Megsy was left, weeping into her apron, but she, too, eventually backed out when a guard pulled on her.
When the hall was completely empty, Juliandra tried to pull away from Aeron.
“Let me go,” she demanded, trying to peel his hand from her neck. “Let me go and I will not fight you any longer, I promise.”
Aeron had used the moment to his advantage. He was closer to Juliandra than he’d ever been and was smelling her hair even as she tried to squirm away from him.
“Nay,” he said, his grip on her throat easing because he was so caught up in the smell of her hair. “Just a moment longer… just a moment…”
Juliandra gave one big thrust and ripped herself from his grasp, leaving a few strands of her hair in his fingers. She bolted, trying to put distance between them, as he stood there and looked wounded because she had left him.
“Why?” he finally asked. “Why should you hate me so? I have never done anything to you. I have only wanted to have you for my own.”
The spot on her scalp where he ripped hair out was stinging, but she didn’t give any indication. She was only focused on removing Aeron from The Neath any way she could without bloodshed. Violence hadn’t worked.
Perhaps reason would.
She had to try.
“But I do not want to be with you,” she said, more calmly. “Aeron, I have told you this for years. My father has even told you but, still, you will not listen. What will it take for you to understand me?”
“I can convince him.”