Chapter Thirteen #2
Infuriated, not to mention somewhat frightened that he’d grabbed her, she slapped his hand away and stood back, out of range, with the fallen cheese between them like a line in the sand. She balled up her fists, waiting for him to charge her again.
“Nay,” she fired back. “I will not listen to you. You lost that privilege years ago when you allowed the English king and William Marshal to take me away from my mother and put me in an English household for safekeeping.”
“You do not understand how the world works, but you will.”
“I understand that you are a feckless, irresponsible fool, and I am ashamed to be your daughter.”
He reached out to grab her again, and she slugged his hand, which caused him to rush at her.
Panicked, Andromeda stumbled backward, grabbing the first thing she could find, which happened to be a heavy wooden pitcher used for milk.
It was sitting empty outside the buttery along with a few others.
Getting a grip on it, she swung it at Carr’s outstretched hand, and he yelped in pain.
Terrified, she hit him three more times, beating him back.
Once, she even hit him in the face. He was finally forced to retreat because she’d clipped him well with the pitcher.
“You wicked bitch,” he said. “You’ll be sorry for that.”
“Leave me alone,” she shouted. “You have no right to touch me. Go away and leave me alone or I’ll bash you over the head!”
Carr rubbed his smarting cheek. “You’ll do as I say,” he said, jabbing a finger at her. “You’re coming with me. I’ll lock you in the vault until tomorrow if I have to.”
“I’ll kill you before I’ll let you do that!”
Carr started to come after her again, and Andromeda raised the pitcher, preparing to beat him back again, but she caught movement out of the corner of her eye.
A blur was coming in through the kitchen gate, and suddenly her father was on his face in the dirt.
Something had hit him in the head, very hard.
Shocked, Andromeda looked up to see Tristan standing there, a cocked fist at chest level.
He was as angry as she’d ever seen him.
The pitcher fell to the ground.
“Thank God,” she breathed, realizing how terrified she had been. “Thank God you came when you did. He wanted to throw me in the vault and send me back to Ireland.”
Addax had come in behind Tristan, and was now bent over a dazed Carr and rolling the man onto his back as Tristan lowered his fist and went to her.
“I was coming to the stables to show Addax my new horses when I heard your shouting,” he said. “Did he hurt you?”
He was grasping her hands, looking for blood, as she shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “But the man has gone mad, Pat.”
“Why? What did he say?”
Andromeda tried to catch her breath. “He told me that he brokered a betrothal with a cousin of Dermot,” she said. “He told me that he was sending me back to Ireland to marry him.”
Tristan’s eyebrows lifted as she mentioned Dermot. “I see,” he said, rage in his dark eyes. “Then Dermot is part of this, too.”
She shook her head. “I do not know,” she said. “Possibly. Probably. If my father has promised that I will marry one of his cousins, then clearly he is involved.”
Tristan still had her by the hands as he turned to Addax. “Find Dermot,” he said. “I want him and Carr placed in the vault immediately.”
Addax nodded swiftly, calling to some soldiers as he headed out of the kitchen yard. Meanwhile, Tristan could see how shaken Andromeda was, and he pulled her into his powerful embrace, kissing the top of her head as she rested against his chest.
“I fear the Irish knights have separated from the English,” he muttered. “I thought that might happen. I was going to ask your father permission to marry you, but obviously, that is not going to happen.”
“What will we do?”
He pulled back to look at her. “That is simple,” he said. “We shall marry today. Tonight. I will send for a priest immediately, and we will be married before the day is over. Then your father cannot send you back to Ireland because you will be my wife.”
She smiled weakly. “I am sorry you have been forced into this so quickly,” she said. “You can still refuse. I would not blame you.”
He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“Why would I do that?” he said. “Unless you are unclear about it. If that is the case, we will wait until you make a firm decision, but regardless, your father and Dermot go into the vault until I decide what is to be done with them. They cannot be a threat to you.”
She smiled at him, putting her fingers on his lips and watching him kiss them. “I am not unclear,” she said softly. “I’ve never been clearer about anything in my life. If you wish to marry today, then that is my wish as well.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
He was trying not to smile too much because he didn’t want to look like a giddy fool, but that was certainly what he felt like.
William suddenly appeared in the yard along with Kieran and a few soldiers, and they went straight to Carr, who was just starting to stir.
Kieran bent over and heaved the man over his enormous shoulder as if he weighed nothing at all, hauling him out of the kitchen yard with several soldiers as escort.
William went over to Tristan and Andromeda.
“Addax told me what happened,” he said, looking to Andromeda. “I hope he did not hurt you.”
Andromeda shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “But he tried.”
William conveyed his sympathies with his expression before looking to Tristan. “It’s as you suspected,” he said. “The Irish are banding together.”
“Where is Dermot?”
“He was on the wall, but Addax cornered him.”
“Is he going peacefully?”
“Addax threatened to throw him over the wall if he caused trouble.”
“That’s a relief,” Tristan said, looking to Andromeda. “You may now move about the castle freely without fear of your father or Dermot harassing you. It was either lock you in your chamber for your own safety or lock them in the vault, so I made the correct choice. They must be contained.”
Andromeda put her hand on his arm in thanks and possibly for comfort. He seemed almost as shaken as she was about the whole thing.
“Not to worry,” she said. “I am well. We are well.”
Tristan nodded, taking more comfort in her words than he realized he would. But his attention shifted to William.
“I need you to do something for me,” he said.
William nodded. “Anything.”
Tristan took Andromeda’s hand as he spoke.
“I would like you to go into the town and fetch a priest,” he said.
“I am going to marry the lady before the night is through. Carr and Dermot seemed to have made plans for her to marry someone in Ireland, but those plans will never know fruition. The lady is mine, and I am going to make it official in the eyes of God and the law.”
William smiled as he looked between the pair. “I would be honored to summon the priest,” he said. “May I take Paris with me? To start acclimating him to the town?”
Tristan nodded. “You may,” he said. “But do not linger. I’d like to get this settled quickly.”
William smiled, looking to Andromeda before turning on his heel and quickly heading from the kitchen yard. Tristan and Andromeda watched him go before looking to one another. Tristan lifted the hand he held and kissed it.
“Go about your business,” he told her. “As soon as the priest arrives, I will send for you. Be ready.”
She grinned. “I am ready now.”
Tristan laughed softly and bent over to kiss her tenderly on the lips. “So am I,” he whispered. “But we must wait for the priest.”
With a chuckle, Andromeda gave him a wink and turned back for the cheese she’d dropped on the ground, picking it up as Tristan came to help her.
He held it while she brushed it off, but all the while, he was simply looking at her, realizing his life was about to take a dramatic turn that very night.
And he was not the least bit sorry for it.