Chapter 18 #2
The armory was empty except for Hew, who started when he saw them, knocking a targe from the wall.
“Gellir,” he said, picking up the targe. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the chapel?”
Merraid thought she could well ask Hew the same thing.
Gellir smirked. “I have to find my bride first.”
Hew blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I fear I’ve lost her.” There was so much deep meaning and pain in that phrase, Merraid felt her throat thicken.
“Lost her?” Hew awkwardly licked his lips, as if he didn’t know what to say. “I’m sure she’s around here somewhere. Have you checked the keep?”
“Aye,” Gellir said. “We’ve looked everywhere.”
“Ye haven’t seen her, have ye?” Merraid said to Hew. “I mean, since ye arrived?”
“Why would I have seen her?”
Merraid narrowed her eyes. That was a curious reply.
Gellir shook his head. “I’ll need to let her father know she’s missing. A wider search will have to be started.”
“Nay!” Hew blurted.
Merraid frowned.
“I mean,” Hew continued in a more casual tone, “I wouldn’t do that. Her father can be a bit short-tempered. We don’t have to let him know yet. Can we not ride out and look for her ourselves? Quietly? Just you and me, Gellir?”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Gellir said, lifting up the shackles for Hew to see.
“What the—”
“Don’t ask.”
“Very well. I’ll go alone then,” Hew offered. He shouldered the targe and started collecting a few smaller weapons from the wall. “If I’m not back in an hour, then you can tell her father.”
“Nay. Her father’s temper can’t be half as bad as yours,” Gellir said, earning a scowl from Hew. “We have to find her ere she gets herself into trouble. We need all the eyes we can get. I’ll send the whole clan.”
“Fine, but wait an hour,” Hew said, shoving more weapons into his belt. “Just give me that much time first.”
He seemed rather passionate about his intentions.
“I’m not letting you go alone,” Gellir said. “’Tis my fault she’s run away.”
Hew clasped Gellir’s free forearm. “Cousin, you’re in no shape to ride off across the countryside—in your wedding finery and shackled to a maidservant.”
“’Tis no matter,” Gellir insisted. “I’ll manage. I have to find her. I have to find my bride.”
“Can I not talk you out of it?” Hew asked.
Gellir shook his head once, nay.
Hew sighed. “Fine.”
In the blink of an eye and without warning, Hew clapped a shackle around Gellir’s wrist.
Gellir tried to grab the second cuff before Hew could attach it. But joined at the wrist to Merraid, he could only wrench her forward with his attempt. She staggered, and in the scuffle, Hew managed to fasten the other shackle around a bracket attached to the wall.
Merraid gasped. What had Hew done? And why?
She braced herself for Gellir’s anger.
The heat coming off of him was a deadly cauldron of seething, simmering molten steel. His steady, burning gaze only flickered once, when Hew tucked the key to the shackles into his belt for safekeeping.
Like a caged bear, Gellir jerked hard at the shackles, startling Hew into stepping away to a safe distance.
Gellir’s snarl was soft but lethal. “You’re making a mistake, cousin.”
“Nay,” Hew declared. “For once I know I’m not making a mistake.”
“Free me.”
“Nay.”
Gellir’s mouth worked with rage. “I demand you free me.”
Hew shook his head.
Gellir bit out, “Have you lost your mind?”
Hew lifted his chin, proud and fearless. “I don’t expect you to understand.”
“Enlighten me.”
“I cannot let you wed Lady Carenza.”
“’Tis not up to you.”
“Aye, ’tis,” he said, “as long as I have breath in my body.”
“That won’t be for long,” Gellir threatened, rattling the shackles again.
“In my time at Dunlop, I’ve come to know Lady Carenza. She’s kind. Gentle. Sweet. But she’s…” He paused, shaking his head. “Not for you.”
Gellir’s eyes glittered with harnessed rage. “The contract signed by her father says otherwise.”
Hew gulped. Breaking a marriage contract was a serious charge. Still he asserted, “Her heart belongs to another man.”
That painful truth dimmed Gellir’s gaze. Still, he managed to reply with a steady voice, strengthened by fact. “Her heart, her body, her clan, her holdings belong to the king and, by royal decree, to me. Would you challenge the king?”
Hew’s face was grave. He had gone pale. His brow was deeply furrowed. His mouth twisted with the torture of indecision.
“Aye,” he croaked at last. “If that’s what it takes.”
“Why?” Gellir asked, his tone incredulous. “Why would you risk the wrath of the king?”
Hew straightened then, like a noble champion about to die for his clan.
“Because some things are more important than political alliances. Because lasses are not pawns to be sacrificed at the whim of the king. Because true love is precious and rare. And no one should come between a man and a woman who have been lucky enough to find it. Amor vincit omnia. Love conquers all.”
Hew’s passionate declaration melted Merraid’s heart. Days ago, she might have uttered those very words to Gellir.
But now they only magnified Gellir’s aggravation. “’Tisn’t up to you to make that decision,” he growled. “Not for me.”
“I don’t make it for you, cousin,” he said. “I make it for her.”
Merraid sighed. The rumors were true. Softhearted Hew had a crippling weakness for women. He couldn’t resist playing hero. It was no wonder he’d had his heart broken so many times.
But Hew’s vulnerability proved to be Gellir’s frustration. Gellir was a man of honor and principle and loyalty. Love might conquer all. But it did not counter the will of king and country.
Merraid understood both sides.
She agreed with Hew about arranged marriages. She was even secretly grateful Hew had shackled Gellir. After all, it helped her accomplish her goal of stalling the wedding.
But she understood Gellir’s unbending principles. In the end, she was his friend. And since she owed her allegiance to him, she had to aid him however she could.
Hew was out of Gellir’s range.
But not hers.
And Hew likely assumed she was helpless, like the women he enjoyed rescuing. He’d never see the blow coming.
As he turned to go, Merraid stepped forward and swung out her leg, catching him in the belly with a hard kick.
He doubled over with an “oof.” A dagger clattered to the floor. But his reflexes were fast. Before she could reach it, he scraped it up and scrambled back out of reach.
She lunged forward as far as the chain would allow, inches away, snarling and clawing at him with her free hand.
He frowned and shook his head, muttering, “Another warrior lass.”
Then he grabbed one more axe from the wall and made his way toward the exit.
Before he left, he turned and spoke to Gellir. “If you care at all for Lady Carenza, do not follow me. ’Twas I who helped her escape. I told her where she could find safe haven. And I mean to reunite her with the one she loves.”
“This is mad, Hew,” Gellir hissed.
Hew gave him a curious smile. “Nay, ’tis the most sane thing I’ve done in a long time.”
As he slipped out of the armory, Gellir bellowed out his name. Hew ignored him.
When he was gone, Gellir bit out an oath and kicked the wall. He cursed in pain when he forgot he was wearing soft velvet slippers instead of his usual leather boots.
Merraid bit her lip.
How long should she wait before telling him her secret? That Hew’s dagger hadn’t been the only thing she’d kicked out of his belt? That under her boot was the key to the shackles?
Perhaps it was best to let his temper cool. The last thing she wanted was for Gellir to race off after his cousin with violence on his mind. She’d wait perhaps an hour. Until Gellir’s anger subsided and there was a good distance between him and the meddling cousin he wished to murder.