Chapter Ten
“Kress?”
He heard his name in the darkness, muffled and faint. He twitched, felt a massive amount of pain to the back of his head, and then realized that he was lying on the floor. Startled, he struggled to sit upright, but hands were on him, easing him back down.
“Lay down,” Cadelyn said soothingly. “Lay back down and rest a moment.”
Kress had let her push him halfway down before he realized it was her. Reaching out, he grabbed her as if fearful she was going to try to run away again.
“Cadie?” he said, blinking his eyes at her as the world around him rocked. “Are you well?”
Cadelyn practically shoved him down, back onto the floor, as someone handed her a wet cloth. “I am well,” she said. “And you do not have my permission to call me Cadie.”
He was muddled. “Wh… what?”
She smiled faintly, but it was not one of humor. More of a stern gesture. “You will not allow me to call you Kress, so you may not call me Cadie.”
Kress was still quite confused, struggling to figure out what had happened. But through the cobwebs, he understood her inference. “My apologies,” he said hoarsely. “Where am I?”
“In my home.” An old woman in worn but clean clothing bent over Cadelyn’s shoulder. “You chased my dog and I thought you had come to hurt us.”
Kress looked at the old woman as if he had no idea what she was talking about.
He didn’t know who she was, or where he was, or anything else at the moment.
But he did know that the cold rag Cadelyn put to the back of his head hurt like hell.
But wisps of his memory returned and he suddenly remembered that damned dog he’d been chasing around.
“The dog,” he muttered. “It had Cadelyn’s purse.”
Cadelyn was leaning over him, both hands holding his head still as she held the compress to his scalp. “I know,” she said. “I have it back, though. His name is Goliath. He must have thought it was something to play with.”
Kress’ attention moved from the old lady to Cadelyn. “Why am I on the ground, my lady?”
He was back to being formal with her and she hated him for it.
She was teasing him when she said he could not call her Cadie, hoping he would relent and it would ease the mood between them given the immediate situation, but it didn’t.
He was just as stiff and formal as ever.
She felt disappointment and sorrow claw at her.
“You are on the ground because you charged into this home, uninvited, and the lady of the house clobbered you with a club,” she said. “As she said, she thought you had come to hurt us.”
Kress lay there, looking up at her. “I came looking for you.”
Cadelyn knew that and, in truth, she was very disappointed that the dog had led Kress right to her. With her coin purse, no less. It was a horrible bit of luck.
“And you found me,” she said. “But I am not going with you to Chester.”
He regarded her for a moment. “Is that why you ran away?”
She averted her gaze, looking to the lump behind his right ear that was the size of a walnut.
“I could have kept running while you lay here on the floor, unconscious,” she said.
“But I did not. I wanted to make sure you were not badly injured. Now, you will extend me the same courtesy and respect my wishes. I will not be pushed into this marriage, Knight. I have thought about it and this is not my obligation – it is William Marshal’s.
He can find another woman to marry to the Earl of Ellesmere if the man wants a wife so desperately, but it will not be me. ”
Kress could see a great deal of sorrow in her expression when she spoke.
In truth, he wasn’t surprised to hear her reasons for running away.
He’d suspected it all along. He didn’t want a kicking, screaming captive to take to The Paladin, but one way or the other, she was going with him.
He would try to reason with her before he manhandled her.
“My lady, we have been through this,” he said somewhat gently. “You do not have a choice. I do not have a choice. We both have duties to complete and I will ensure that we do as we are told.”
Cadelyn still wouldn’t look at him. As she bent over to carefully inspect the bump on his head, the big dog found Kress on the floor and began licking his face furiously.
Both Kress and Cadelyn pushed the dog away as the old woman dragged the animal outside and into the yard.
She stayed out there with the animal, yelling at him, and Kress took advantage of the privacy.
He pulled her hands away from his head and slowly sat up.
“I am sorry you are unhappy,” he said quietly, struggling against his aching, spinning head. “God knows, I do not want to make you miserable. But I have no choice but to take you to Chester. Do you understand that? Running away will not prevent it.”
They were sitting next to each other, very close, and he was still holding on to her hands that he’d removed from his head. But Cadelyn wouldn’t look at him; her gaze was averted, looking at the floor.
“I have money,” she said, her lower lip trembling. “I will give William Marshal all of the money in my purse and buy my way out of the betrothal.”
Kress found himself looking at her profile – that sweet, angelic profile.
She had such a delicious little face and this was the closest he’d ever been to her.
He could see the tiny pores of her skin, the fluttering of her thick lashes when she blinked her eyes.
He found himself look at the texture of her hair, wondering if it was as soft as it looked.
“You cannot,” he whispered. “You do not have enough money to buy your way out of the betrothal.”
She dared to look up at him, then, and he could see the tears pooling in her eyes. “I have thirty pounds,” she said. “It is a great deal of money.”
He nodded, sighing as he did so. “It is,” he agreed gently. “But you would need at least three times that before The Marshal would even consider such a thing. Your betrothal is very valuable to the security of England, my lady, and as far as William is concerned, that is priceless.”
Kress watched her cheeks turn red and the tears spill over but she turned her head quickly before he could see them fall. He only knew they did because he could see her wiping at her face.
“I do not believe you,” she finally said. “You have lied to me before. This is just another lie. Thirty pounds is a great deal of money and I shall send word to William Marshal myself to offer my money to buy out my contract.”
Kress watched her as she kept her head lowered, wiping at her face. “I have never lied to you,” he said. “I do not lie.”
“You did,” she insisted quickly. “You told me that you could have become quite smitten with a pretty lass with big dimples, but then you changed your mind and said you did not mean it. You lied.”
Kress drew in a long, slow breath and turned away, thinking on everything he’d told her since he’d met her.
It was true he’d told her that he could become smitten with her and it was true he’d told her that he would have returned for her had she not already been betrothed.
But when he realized he might very well feel something for her, he abruptly changed his tune.
But it was for self-protection only and not because he’d lied to her.
In truth, he hadn’t.
“What do you want from me?” he finally asked. “You know that there can never be anything between us, for obvious reasons, but still you persist. Are you trying to make me do something dishonorable simply to feed your pride?”
She looked at him in shock. “Pride?” she said. “Is that what you think? That I need a man to tell me I’m beautiful and have the satisfaction of knowing he is smitten with me? If that is what you think, then you are grossly mistaken.”
“Am I?” he said, meeting her gaze. “Ever since I came to Castle Rising to escort you to The Paladin, that is all you have tried to do – coerce me into saying something that would lead to dishonorable actions on both our parts. Is that truly what you wish of me? To prove myself so weak that I care nothing for something as honorable as a marital contract?”
Cadelyn was feeling shocked and scolded. “I never said…”
He cut her off. “You did not have to say it,” he said, his blue eyes blazing.
“Deny it to me, my lady. Deny that every conversation we have had from the beginning of our association has been designed to have me admit something you want me to admit, to coerce me into saying whatever it is you want to hear from me. What good will it do either of us if I tell you that you are all I can think of from morning to evening? What good can come of me telling you that I would have returned to Lynn when this escort mission was over to find that beautiful young woman who enchanted me with her smile and her dimples? My God… what good will it do for me to tell you that, aye, my intentions were more than likely permanent, or at the very least, explore the possibility of it. Is that what you wanted to hear? For it is true, every word of it.”
It was an impassioned speech and by the time he was finished, Cadelyn was looking at him with wide, astonished eyes. But more than her eyes, it was her expression – as if the sun had suddenly emerged from behind the clouds and all he could see was the bright, radiant glory of it.
“Then why did you tell me it was not true?” she breathed.
He rolled his eyes, hissing with exasperation. “Because nothing can come of it. I told you that. I did not want to give you… hope.”
She watched him as he looked to the ground, a hand going to the lump on the back of his head and feeling it gingerly.
The old woman had used the club mostly on his neck because of his helm, and the way she’d hit him had knocked the helm right off.
Cadelyn was sorry he had been hit, but not sorry it had forced them both into this moment of conversation.
To satisfy her soul, it was something she very much needed to hear.