CHAPTER SIXTEEN #3
His eyes widened. “Ye ken I would refuse a trade! I said many times I wouldna trade ye for yer mother. But ye stand before me an’ claim ye dinna disobey?” His eyes blazed.
She inhaled. “Don’t do this.”
“We’re finished.” He turned and gestured furiously at Aidan. “Get her out o’ my sight.”
Aidan dragged her away.
WHEN ROYCE FINALLY returned to Blackwood Hall, it was close to dawn. Allie had sat in the hall, waiting for him, chilled by her fear. The moment he came in, she leapt to her feet. He didn’t look at her, striding from the hall and upstairs.
She hugged herself. She hadn’t meant to betray him—she had done what she thought right.
Yet she had known he would think her agreeing to a trade, behind his back, a betrayal.
But she hadn’t imagined this kind of reaction—as if, in one instant, he could cut her out of his heart and his life without ever looking back.
And then she heard thunder booming.
It was directly above her and she jumped up, crying out, the thunder reverberating again from directly above her. Just as she wondered if they were in the midst of an earthquake and the castle walls were coming down, she felt his rage explode, turning into pain.
Allie ran up the stairs, hearing that terrible sound again. As she came to the small passage leading up to the tower, she realized that there wasn’t a storm and there wasn’t an earthquake. Stone was crashing down.
Aidan seized her from behind. “Ye’ll nay go up unless ye wish to die!”
Allie turned and fought him. “He’s hurt! He needs me!”
“He’s in rage because o’ what ye did.”
Stone sheared off and crashed down. And she saw him vividly, as if she could see through the walls, breaking apart the window embrasures with his bare, bloody hands, heaving slabs of stone onto the floor. She leapt, facing Aidan, terrified for him. “Let me go to him! He’d never hurt me!”
Aidan’s grasp tightened, becoming cruel. “He hates ye now.”
Allie went still, staring at Aidan’s cold, hard face. She realized he was angry with her, too. She watched Royce destroying the stone tower with energy blasts and his bare hands. “I did what I had to do—what I thought was right. Aidan, you of all men should understand!”
“I understand ye broke yer word.”
She inhaled, trying to pull away from him.
In the end, he was as medieval as Royce—as ruthless, as uncompromising.
He let her go. Allie hesitated, because Royce remained in a furious fit, destroying the tower.
“Don’t leave him,” Allie whispered, afraid he might hurt himself.
She trembled, tears finally falling. “He will never forgive me, will he?”
“Ye crossed him,” Aidan said. “He’ll never forgive ye.”
ALLIE WENT DOWN to the hall for breakfast, exhausted from a sleepless night.
She hadn’t lain down even for a few hours—she had been on her knees, praying for Royce, asking the gods to heal him now.
All the while she had been acutely aware of his pain and rage.
She had tried to communicate with him telepathically, but he hadn’t tried to speak to her in return, not even once.
His power had finally quieted, to seethe softly in the tower above the hall.
She stumbled into the hall. Soon, he would come out of the prison he had chosen for himself, and they would be face-to-face. And then what? He was dead set against her.
She would never forget the way he’d looked at and spoken to her last night. Surely, sooner or later, he would begin to understand why she’d done what she had. Surely his love for her would allow him to reason—even though he was the least reasonable man she knew.
It couldn’t be over. He was the love of her life.
We’re finished.
Allie trembled with dread as Aidan stepped inside. He didn’t smile at her, and he looked tired. But then, he’d undoubtedly sat up for the rest of the night with Royce to make sure he didn’t hurt himself. Eyeing her expression, he said, unsmiling, “I willna ask how ye slept.”
She bowed her head, sitting stiffly on one of the benches at the table, her knees bruised from the hours spent kneeling on stone.
Aidan was against her now, too, when he had fast become a treasured friend.
“How could I sleep when Royce was so upset? I know you macho guys think if a woman does her own thing, if she acts independently, it means we don’t love you. But you are so wrong.”
Aidan gave her a long look. “I ken ye love him an’ ye always will.” He sat and poured mead into a cup and drained it before glancing at her. “Blackwood has gone to the town of Moffat. A spy has sent him word he wishes to meet. Mayhap there’s news o’ Elasaid.”
Allie started. “Any news would be great.”
A housemaid stepped into the hall. “My lord, my lady?”
Aidan glanced up, noted that she was young and blond, and sent her an automatic smile. “Aye?”
“Kenneth from the village has come to the kitchens. His wife is very ill an’ he has heard Lady Allie is a Healer. I told him I heard no such thing, but he insisted I come to you an’ ask if she can attend his wife.” The blonde shifted nervously.
Allie stood, not having to think about it. “Of course I’ll help.”
Aidan stared thoughtfully. “An’ how would the villager ken that Blackwood’s guest heals?”
“I don’t know, my lord.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Allie said. “If someone is ill, I have to heal them. I took my own vows, Aidan.”
Aidan stood, but glanced upward in the direction of the tower room where Royce had spent the night. “He broke down an entire wall. Blackwood is furious.”
Allie hated the idea of leaving Royce alone, even though he was far calmer.
“You should stay with him. I can take an escort of knights to the village. I won’t be long.
” She didn’t think she needed much of an escort, as the village was about five minutes on foot from the moat.
On the other hand, it couldn’t hurt to play it safe.
Aidan appeared relieved. “I dinna think it wise to leave him. He’s quiet now, but I have never seen him so enraged. I wish to stay with him.”
Allie took a long glance at his handsome profile. He was a medieval playboy, with all the charm a man could possibly have, but he was as loyal as a man could be toward Royce. Last night had shown her that. “Thank you.”
He finally smiled as he walked with her to the front door. “I’m yer Knight of Swords, lass. I haven’t forgotten.”
He had forgiven her! Allie was relieved.
She did not want to lose his friendship, not now, not ever.
Impulsively she faced him so they halted.
“I wish I could undo what happened last night. I wish I had understood better that the standards I live by are not valid here, in this world, for men like you and Royce. I wish I hadn’t gone behind Royce’s back! ”
Aidan’s gaze was searching. “We live by our word, Lady Allie.”
There was no possible response to make to that.
He guided her outside. Allie found herself in the midst of six English knights. They were clad from head to toe in armor, and even with their visors up, they looked like mean fighting machines. She hadn’t expected a fully armored escort.
She had just mounted a small gray palfrey when she felt Royce’s power. She tensed and glanced up at the tower.
Instantly she saw Royce standing at the embrasure, staring toward her. Her heart turned over with so much love and fear, and real, clawing despair. Don’t do this, she thought silently, begging him now. Don’t turn away from me. I love you!
He vanished from the window.
She inhaled, because no answer could be more eloquent. She hadn’t felt any emotion at all—not anger, not pain, not even the flicker of male desire. He was closing himself off from her completely.
“Godspeed, until the afternoon, then,” Aidan said. He nodded at the foremost knight, and the small retinue moved out.
Shaken, Allie let her mare follow the chargers, glancing worriedly back at the tower. Royce remained gone from her sight.
A moment later, they were trotting over the drawbridge, the first wattle huts ahead. Children appeared, dancing about the edge of the road, calling out to the knights.
Allie couldn’t smile. If Royce remained set against her, she might never smile again.
They halted before one of the huts, a gray-haired man pacing before the doorway. Allie slid down from her mare, trying to focus on the task at hand. Instead all she could think of was Royce and how he was determined to blame her for a betrayal she had not committed.
“Lady, thank ye fer coming,” Kenneth cried, his face ashen with fear and worry.
Allie shoved all thoughts of Royce aside. “It’s my pleasure.” She touched him and this time smiled with warmth that she meant. “Don’t fear. Your wife will be fine.”
His color became even paler.
Allie glanced into the dark interior of the hut, but saw nothing but shadows. She became aware of a woman’s suffering. It was slight, and blended with a small pain. The woman was hardly ill at all.
“I’ll only be a moment,” she told her escort. She smiled and faced the husband. “Please wait outside.”
He nodded, ghostly white now, shaking.
“She will be fine,” Allie said, and she strode across the dirt yard and entered the hut.
It was dank and dark inside. Smoke made it difficult to breathe. It took her a moment to adjust her eyesight to the darkness. Then she saw the woman, lying on the floor, her hands and legs bound.
Evil began swiftly filling the hut.
Allie realized it was a trap. The woman wasn’t sick—she’d been hurt and tied, so Allie would feel her suffering. The woman was bait.
Kenneth wasn’t afraid for his wife—he was afraid of the lord of darkness.
Allie turned to flee.
Moffat materialized before her, smiling.
She tried to duck, too late.
He seized her—and as they were hurled through mud and wattle, past stars, she screamed for Royce.