Chapter Nineteen
Alec retired to his chamber well after midnight. The room was dark and he did not bother to light the taper. Silently removing his clothes, he eased himself into an empty bed.
“Peyton?” he reached for the flint and lit the candle. As the room came into view, he could see that he was quite alone.
Puzzled, he got out of bed and glanced about the room curiously, as if expecting Peyton to be huddled under a chair or in the wardrobe. Donning his hose and boots, he threw open the door.
The corridor was vacant, dimly lit by dying torches and smelling heavily of smoke. He stormed down the hall, turning the corner and coming to pause in front of the door to his mother’s bower. He rapped loudly on the door until a perturbed figure opened the panel.
“This had better be important, Alec,” she growled, smoothing at her mussed hair. Alec glanced over her head, seeing his father lying innocently in bed. Normally, he would have laughed himself ill. But at the moment, he was too preoccupied.
“You took Peyton to bed this eve,” he said shortly. “She is not in our chamber.”
Celine’s eyes widened and she seemed to falter terribly. “She is not in your chamber?” she repeated weakly.
Alec cocked an eyebrow. “I have no time for this. Where’s my wife, mother?”
Celine began to breathe rapidly and a white hand clutched her throat in confusion. “I…. I do not know,” suddenly, her eyes filled with tears. “That was well over three hours ago!”
“I realize that. Do you know where she might be?”
Celine was seized with a budding horror.
She had been reluctant to leave Peyton in Thia’s company simply for the fact that the last time the women had met, they had managed to injure each other substantially.
She had put her faith in Thia’s sincere manners, mayhap too much faith.
Mayhap she had believed only what she wished to believe, that Thia was intent on a reconciliation. Mayhap she had been wrong.
“I…. are you sure she is not in your chamber?” she asked feebly. Her hands were beginning to shake.
Alec cocked an eyebrow. “I am not an idiot, Mother. I think I would have seen my own wife within the confines of our bower.”
Celine suddenly sobbed, a hand flying to her mouth. “I do not know where she is. Oh, Alec, something must be wrong!”
Alec sighed heavily; he hadn’t meant to upset his mother with his harsh manner.
He had no idea that the tears in Celine’s eyes were the result of her guilt as his manner softened.
“Nothing is wrong, I am sure. Return to bed, mother. I shall see if Ivy knows where she is. Mayhap she couldn’t sleep and is simply walking about. ”
Celine watched her son turn down the hall. After the briefest hesitation, she called out to him.
“Alec?” she moved toward him timidly. “I lied to you, dear. I did not take your wife to bed as I said. I…. I left her with Thia.”
“You what?” Alec roared. Even as Brian bound from the bed and made haste to his wife’s side, Alec was descending on her with a fury neither parent had seen before. “How could you have left her with Thia when you know… oh, Christ.…”
He spun on his heel, racing the length of the corridor and disappearing around the corner.
Celine, her eyes spilling over with tears, yelled after him.
“Thia wanted to apologize to her, Alec! I saw no harm in…,” she suddenly clutched her husband.
“Go after him, Brian. Rouse Ali and Toby. If Thia has done something to Peyton, I fear…!”
Brian was already lumbering after his son as fast as he could go.
Thia wasn’t in her chamber, either. Alec turned the entire fortress inside-out in search of his wife, never thinking to search the Warrington rooms. Edward, Toby, Ali, and the rest of the household joined in the search for the two women and Alec’s panic was increasing by the moment.
When they searched the wine cellar and still found nothing, he began to border on hysteria.
Ali remained his rock. Alec was virtually incapable of forming a rational idea beyond his thoughts of Peyton and it was Ali who organized the soldiers and sent them on a search of the grounds.
Two hours before sunrise, several of Edward’s guard came jogging into the grand hall where most of the searchers had congregated before proceeding on to other areas.
“My lord!” the sergeant called to Alec. “We have found one of the women in the stable and she is badly injured.”
Alec nearly vomited from sheer nerves. “Which lady? What color is her hair?”
“Brown, my lord,” the soldier said, breathing heavily as a result of his run. “One of your men has sent for the castle surgeon.”
Alec thundered out of the room with the rest of the search party on his heels. Barreling across the bailey and into the stableyard, he did not slow his pace until he reached the indicated stable wing. The same stable where he had first made love to his wife.
At the end of the livery he could make out a few figures illuminated by an oil lamp. He stormed up on Pauly and several soldiers as they huddled over the still form of Thia.
Alec did not stop there; he shoved one of the soldiers aside and knelt beside his sister.
“Moppet,” he whispered. “What happened? Where’s Peyton?”
Thia twitched and moaned, rolling her eyes open. “Alec?”
In spite of his wildly surging nerves and shaking hands, he touched her head tenderly. “I am here, love. Where’s Peyton?”
Thia closed her eyes and swallowed hard. Her entire head was sticky with blood and Alec wondered horrifically if his wife had had a hand in her injury. He simply wasn’t thinking rationally.
“He…. he was going to kill her,” she whispered. “I couldn’t let him do it.”
Alec clenched his teeth so hard that he bit his cheek. “Who, love? Where is she?”
She opened her eyes again, her expression dazed and open. Pauly waved a hand in the midst of her line of sight; her eyes refused to focus. He did it once more and still received no reaction. Passing a glance at Alec’s ashen face, he moved toward his medicament bag.
“Answer me, Thia.”
Thia swallowed again. “Where are you, Alec?”
Consuming grief and anguish clutched at him, claws of pain ripping his soul to pieces. Brian, his massive body quivering with the agony of his child’s fate, knelt beside Alec and placed a hand on his daughter’s bloodied head.
“Alec is here, darling, as am I,” Brian murmured through his tears. “Where’s Peyton?”
She closed her eyes wearily. “C….Colin was going to kill her. I tried to warn her.”
Alec was visibly jolted. He rocked back on his heels and leapt to unsteady feet. Before he could issue commands, Ali was already in motion and within seconds, Toby and several soldiers were racing for the castle.
“Colin is under guard,” Alec mumbled, like a man losing his mind.
Ali’s gaze was full of concern. He’d never seen Alec come remotely close to an emotional breakdown and was deeply distressed. Thia was dying, Peyton was missing, and Alec was on the brink of collapse. Edward, exhausted and unkempt, put his hand on Alec’s shoulder.
“We will find her, Alec,” he mumbled. “Have faith.”
Alec did not have any faith left. Nor did he possess hope, or joy, or feeling of any kind. He was only able to feel a degree of grief he hadn’t felt since the very moment he realized that he had killed his brother. Deeper, even.
Colin was gone. The soldier on guard informed them that Thia had escorted her betrothed to the grand dining hall earlier in the evening and, considering the man wasn’t technically under house arrest, the soldier had no choice but to let him go.
Thia had assured the man that Edward had requested Colin’s company.
Alec was nearly overwhelmed with the growing clues that, mayhap, Thia had been a party in Peyton’s disappearance and not simply an innocent victim. But he couldn’t dwell on the growing evidence, not yet; he had a wife to find.
Before he could draw another breath, Alec was at Nigel’s door, into the room, putting his massive hands around the man’s neck as Edward and Ali attempted to pull him free. The grunting, the sounds of struggling emanating from the chamber, filled the castle.
Nigel was turning blue as Alec hovered over him, not the least bit concerned with the man’s discomfort. “Your son has abducted my wife. Tell me where he has taken her.”
Nigel could barely breathe much less speak. “I…. I do not know! I wasn’t aw…. aware of his p-plans!”
Alec squeezed harder and Nigel gurgled loudly. Ali had stopped trying to pry the man’s hands free; it was an impossible feat.
“If you kill him, you will never have your answers,” he murmured into Alec’s ear. “Bargain with him, man. Deal with his greed.”
Alec’s grip did not loosen. Then, slowly, he relaxed and Nigel spilled to the floor in a coughing heap. Alec loomed over him like the Angel of Death.
“I have no time for your games,” he growled. “You will tell me what I want to know and I, in turn, will ask Edward for leniency for your case.”
Nigel propped himself up on an elbow, rubbing at his throat. “I told you, I did not know of his plans,” he eyed Alec. “But if you wish for me to help you, a pledge for leniency will not be sufficient.”
Alec glanced at Edward. The king gazed emotionlessly at Nigel for a moment before turning away. “Grant him his freedom if he will help you find your wife, Alec.”
Nigel, wide-eyed, watched the king lumber for the door, the characteristics of a weary man.
When he should have been asleep, he was in the midst of a critical crisis.
Edward knew for a fact that if something had happened to Lady Summerlin, he could completely disregard Alec’s pledge of service.
He suspected, more than likely, that Alec Summerlin would cease to exist and he was willing to do everything in his power to prevent the probability.
“Tell me,” Alec diverted Nigel’s attention away from the king. “Where would Colin take her?”