5. Rosalie
Chapter 5
Rosalie
R osalie walked in silence, her mind consumed with worry. Why didn’t Dimitri understand the seriousness of the situation? Why wouldn’t he listen? He had royal blood. If he wanted to discover his family history, he should go to the capital. Did he have to stay here and torment her?
Her feet were moving as fast as her mind, and she quickly outpaced Daphne. When she finally noticed, she stopped dead.
How fast had she been going? She peered behind her and located Daphne, only just rounding the previous bend. Guilt washed over her. This was the second time she’d dragged Daphne out to the castle in as many days, and now she was abandoning her.
Rosalie retraced her steps, hurrying back toward her friend. Daphne looked like a wilting flower as she shuffled along, her head and shoulders drooping as if she was slipping into sleep while walking.
Sound exploded around Rosalie as three men erupted from the nearby trees with loud shouts, racing onto the road and toward Daphne. Rosalie faltered, her steps slowed by shock. But the first man reached for Daphne’s arm, and Rosalie responded instinctively, flinging herself into a sprint.
She had never heard of bandits on this road, but the men were clearly after Daphne. She must have looked like an easy target walking alone. Rosalie shouldn’t have left her behind.
There was no way for Rosalie to reach Daphne before the men, but the moment the first man’s fingers closed around Daphne’s upper arm, Daphne launched into movement. Gone was any appearance of sleepiness as she spun, wrenching her arm from his grip and driving it backward. Her elbow connected with his midriff, and he doubled over with a desperate wheeze.
His companions swore, assuming a more wary stance as they approached Daphne from either side. She lashed out, the toes of her sturdy boot catching one of them in the shin. He swore, his legs buckling for a moment. As he staggered, she smashed both of her palms against the sides of his face, flattening them against his ears. When she pulled them back, he howled, collapsing to the ground entirely.
Whatever Daphne’s open-handed blows had done to his ears, the man was clearly in too much pain to continue his attack. But while dealing with him, the third man had come at Daphne from behind, seizing her around the middle and trapping both her arms at her sides.
She cried out in anger, kicking backward, but he lifted her off the ground, taking the power out of her flailing efforts. Rosalie screamed as she threw herself at Daphne’s captor. She lacked Daphne’s smooth, confident grace, but she threw everything she had into the effort, kicking and striking him in a whirlwind of fury.
The surprise attack threw him off balance enough that Daphne managed to squirm out of his grip. Instead of attempting to recapture her, the man spun and lunged for Rosalie instead.
She screamed again, this time more in alarm than fury. She tried to fend him off, but without the element of surprise, she was less effectual. With a threatening growl, he managed to grab her arms, twisting them up and holding her so tightly she could barely breathe.
Daphne took two steps toward her, clearly ready to do battle on her friend’s behalf. But behind her, the first man had recovered from the winding and was approaching again, this time with a knife.
Rosalie couldn’t get enough breath to yell a warning, but she managed a strangled grunt, her eyes widening and her head straining toward the new threat. Daphne paused as she took in Rosalie’s silent warning, glancing backward to see the new threat.
Rosalie gave a desperate wriggle, managing to pull in a full breath.
“Run!” she cried. “Get help!”
Daphne hesitated for half a second before she recognized the futility of fighting. Nodding, she took off running.
Rosalie expected the armed man to chase after Daphne, but instead he refocused on Rosalie. Apparently one prize was enough for them.
Fear seized Rosalie, squeezing her insides tighter than the arms of her captor. Until that moment, she had been driven more by instinct than conscious thought. But now the reality of her situation hit her. She was alone and at the mercy of bandits.
And Daphne—never the best when it came to a sense of direction—had run the wrong way.
“Where’s the other one?” the second man asked. He had made it up off the ground and was approaching Rosalie and the other two with an ugly expression on his face. Given the blood trailing out of both his ears, Rosalie was glad Daphne had fled beyond reach before he recovered. Had she burst both his eardrums?
“This one is as good as the other,” the first man grunted, surveying Rosalie with satisfaction. “He said to bring whoever’s been frequenting the castle, and this one has walked out there two days in a row. She’ll do.”
Daphne’s mouth dropped open. The men weren’t bandits? Who were they working for? And what interest did their unknown master have in the castle?
The man who was holding her relaxed a little, freeing her lungs enough for normal speech.
“I don’t have anything to do with the castle!” she said as fervently as possible. “You have the wrong person.” She wasn’t willing to go as far as naming Dimitri, but she had a strong desire not to meet this leader of theirs.
“I’m just a local,” she added. “I live nearby, that’s why you’ve seen me.” She drew another breath. “And I have three brothers. They’ll be looking for me.” It was a bit of a stretch but hopefully had enough ring of truth.
The men hesitated for a moment, exchanging looks. But the first man eventually shook his head. “We’ll let him work that out. If he wants to let you go, he’s free to do so. We did our part.” He chuckled as if he didn’t think it likely Rosalie would be freed.
Filled with fresh desperation, she kicked backward while simultaneously biting hard on the closest stretch of arm. Her captor grunted, giving her a vicious squeeze that once again robbed her of breath. While she was still trying to suck in enough air, he hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
By the time Rosalie’s head had stopped spinning, they were well into the trees. She watched the trunks and leaves flash past, queasy from the mode of travel.
If she waited for the right moment, she might be able to wiggle her way free. But she was as likely to fall on her head as her feet, and even if it worked perfectly, how far would she get with three men chasing her?
As much as she hated to give in, it seemed like her best chance was in waiting to speak to their leader. Perhaps she could find a way to reason with him. And in the meantime, the road was now clear for Daphne to turn around and head back toward Rosalie’s home and Thebarton. Her brothers might not be the threatening presence she had claimed, but they could gather a group to search for her.
She wasn’t sure if she was pleased or disappointed when the men turned into a hidden clearing among the trees. On the one hand, the further away she was, the harder it would be for the townsfolk to find her. On the other, it was too soon. She wasn’t sure if Daphne would even have reached her mother and brothers yet.
When her captor dumped her onto her feet, it took a moment for Rosalie’s head to stop spinning and her sense of balance to return. As soon as it had, she looked around, taking in the clearing in one glance. Her heart immediately dropped.
Five more men were gathered there, their attention on the new arrivals. She had been hoping it was only the first three and their absent leader. If a rescue party did set out from Thebarton, would they bring enough men? She didn’t want her brothers to end up in the same desperate situation she was already in.
She had barely absorbed the situation before one of the men approached her with a length of rope, clearly meaning to secure her hands. She considered struggling, but if escape had been a poor chance before, it was even more so now. Better to pretend compliance.
She passively allowed him to bind her wrists, even holding her arms steady. But while she attempted to look as relaxed as possible, she was actually straining her arms apart, creating a small amount of room between her hands to provide wriggle room later.
The strategy seemed to work since the man binding her paid little attention to the task, his attention on the man with the ruptured eardrums. Those in the clearing had been quick to notice the blood on the side of the injured man’s face, and they seemed to find it humorous that he had been hurt bringing in such a harmless-looking target. Rosalie could only be glad the man in front of her was more interested in jeering at his companion than tying her knots tight.
As soon as he’d finished, he moved away, and Rosalie straightened, taking a longer look at the clearing. She needed to work out which one was the leader so she could plead her case directly to him. Before she could identify him, however, one of the men pushed his way forward.
“Rosalie!” The man hurried to her side, his expression horrified.
Every word of her prepared speech fled her mind, replaced with empty shock.
“Jace?” She hated how small and tentative she sounded. Her thoughts had stalled, though. How could Jace be here with these men?
Jace’s eyes dropped to the rope around her wrists, and he grimaced. Throwing a dirty look over his shoulder at the gathered men, he reached out a hand to her.
“Are you all right?” His hand gently cupped her cheek before pushing back her hair. His voice dropped lower. “I missed you.”
Rosalie stiffened, finally finding her voice.
“How can you say that after what you did?” she hissed.
He pulled back slightly, looking pained. “I know the situation must have looked bad. But I thought you, at least, would trust me.”
Rosalie’s initial shock had given way to pain and anger, but even so, his final sentence made her pause. She wasn’t proud to admit it, but her traitorous heart had lurched at the initial sight of him. She wasn’t as impervious to him as she had thought. Was it possible she had misunderstood what happened the year before and misjudged him? Was he somehow a victim of these men just as she was?
She had claimed she loved him enough to plan a life with him. Had her love been so hollow that she had assumed the worst at the first opportunity without giving him the benefit of the doubt?
Jace must have read the hesitation in her voice because he stepped closer again, his hands dropping to hers as if he might undo her ties.
“You’re as beautiful as ever,” he murmured, and again her heart lurched.
But this time it continued dropping, reaching her stomach and setting off a wave of nausea. She was no longer the inexperienced, impressionable girl she had been when they first met. He was standing freely in her captor’s midst while she was trussed up like a fowl on its way to the oven. She hadn’t misunderstood anything.
His words might have been designed to make a girl’s heart flutter, but she could see now what she should have seen from the start—the warmth didn’t reach his eyes. There was a coldness to his features and expression that was more obvious after meeting Dimitri. They might look similar, but Jace’s eyes were a flat brown that offered no depth to his supposed concern. She had known Dimitri for two days, but she had already seen more true concern in his hazel gaze than she could see now from the man who had claimed to love her. If she could detect any emotion in Jace’s eyes, it was detached amusement.
She leaned forward, her gaze locked with his as she closed the already small distance between them. Holding herself in place, she waited to see if his hands were actually going to untie her. As expected, however, he merely continued to clasp her fingers. Everything was an act—just as it had been a year ago.
She spat in his face, leaning back with satisfaction as he reeled away, sputtering in shock. His mask immediately slipped, revealing the cold anger and calculation beneath.
“You’re going to regret that,” he said, regaining his cool. “We could have done this the nice way.”
“I’m done believing anything you say,” Rosalie ground out. Better to face the situation head-on than be taken in for a second time and lose all faith in herself.
Jace turned to one of the men who had abducted her. “Why did you bring her ?” he snapped. “I told you to find whoever is frequenting that castle after all these years.” His tone was commanding, and none of the men protested at his attitude, despite the gap in their ages. “I’ve already squeezed her for all she’s worth.”
Shock rocked Rosalie for the second time. She barely even heard his insult in the face of the bigger revelation. Jace wasn’t just here with these men—he was the leader she had been searching for. He had been the one to send them after her.
Except it was clear he hadn’t been targeting her specifically. His surprise at seeing her had been genuine, even if his words hadn’t been.
“Aye, and that she is,” the man replied, standing firm. “She was the one we saw hanging around the castle.”
Rosalie noted there was no mention of the girl who had escaped, and she was relieved for Daphne’s sake as well as her own. Perhaps, when Daphne managed to fetch help, her rescuers would take Jace by surprise.
A new man stepped into the clearing, cutting off Jace’s response to his underling.
“There’s someone coming,” the new arrival said tersely.
Rosalie frowned. Even by the most optimistic measuring, it was too soon for a rescue team to have arrived at Daphne’s fetching. But from the reaction of Jace and his men, they weren’t expecting any more allies.
Hope blossomed inside her. She didn’t know what distraction was approaching, but if she was prepared, she might be able to seize the chance to escape.
She squeezed her wrists together and started subtly working one of her hands out of the loose binding. When her opportunity came, she was going to be ready.