Chapter 5
Emma found herself warming to Trevor, despite the fact his intentions remained mysterious.
She wasn’t sure yet whether he intended her mother harm or if he might have come for some other matter.
There was a secretive, intriguing charm surrounding him, as though there were hidden depths.
Mischief twinkled in his eyes, and she got the sense that he was always alert, always watching for something.
She sipped the wine slowly to ensure that she did not lose her senses and made sure to speak with great care to ensure that she did not give anything away.
If she betrayed her mother’s confidence by a simple slip of the tongue, she would never have forgiven herself.
Then David came over, and she could sense her plans were going to unravel.
He was drunk, and it wouldn’t have surprised her if he had come out and said that Lyndsay was her mother.
So far he had managed to keep it to himself, although he clearly found the whole situation amusing… at least until he didn’t.
Emma cringed when she heard David tell Trevor that she was to be his wife.
She wasn’t entirely sure why, but she hated the idea of Trevor thinking that she belonged to another man.
She had never met anyone like him before and was quite happy sitting in an inn talking to him.
Of course, David had to come by and ruin that.
“David, ye should leave before ye say something ye regret. I hae business with this man,” Emma said.
“Ye should hae business with me. Dinnae think I’m blind, Emma.
I can see what’s happening here. Ye are making a fool of me.
Dae ye think I’m gaeing tae stand by and let ye ridicule me?
I’m the strongest man in the village. I should be the one ye want tae marry.
I cannae understand why ye keep rejecting me.
How many times does a man hae tae ask ye for yer hand in marriage?
” he said, the tone of his voice becoming desperate.
“Apparently more times than are welcome,” Emma said. “If ye are truly wondering why I hae no interest in marrying ye, then ye should think tae the past and what passed between us as children. But I’m nae making a fool of ye David. Ye seem tae be daeing a grand job of that yerself.”
She noticed that Trevor stifled a laugh at this remark, and she felt pleased that she had been able to make him laugh. However, whatever amusement existed in this situation quickly dissipated as David slammed his fist on the table.
“Ye should nae speak tae me like that!” he thundered. “If ye are tae be my wife, then ye hae tae respect me!”
He loomed above Emma and glared at her. She could see the rivers of blood in his eyes and could feel the passion seething from his body.
“I think Emma has made it clear to you that she’s not interested in marrying you. As she said, we have business together. I think you should leave us. If you wish to speak to me again then I suggest you do so when you’ve had a little less to drink,” Trevor said.
David turned his head slowly. Emma groaned inwardly, for she knew what was about to happen. There were some things in life that were inevitable, and one of them was that when tension began to rise between two men in a bar, it ended up in a brawl.
“And I suggest ye gae back tae yer own country. We dinnae need an Englishman poking around our business. Whatever ye are looking for is nae here, sae get on with ye and leave us in peace.”
David turned his back to Trevor and instead looked directly at Emma, who was tired of this silly display. “David, I can handle myself. I dinnae need ye tae dae this. I want him tae stay,” Emma said, which was the wrong thing to say entirely as it only served to enrage David even more.
“Him?!” he cried out, pointing to Trevor without looking at the man. “Ye are telling me that ye would rather hae a drink with him than with me?” He shook his head in disbelief. “I cannae understand ye, Emma. I cannae understand ye at all.”
“Then perhaps you should go off and spend some time thinking about why you might have gotten things wrong,” Trevor interjected. “I’m going to continue my evening with Emma now. There’s much I wish to speak to her about before we were so rudely interrupted.”
David glared at him and snarled. “Ye know that if ye want her, ye will hae tae fight me for her.”
Emma placed her head in her hands and tried to rub away the band of tension that wrapped around her skull. So far, Trevor had maintained his composure, but at the mention of a fight, he rose from his chair abruptly. There was a hushed gasp from the people in the inn.
“I’ve had about enough of the way you’re speaking to me. Your company is clearly not wanted here, David, so I suggest you leave.”
Both men were tall, and from Emma’s vantage point, she couldn’t see any difference between them.
David’s strength had been forged from a lifetime of working the fields, of hammering metal, of building houses.
She had no idea where Trevor’s strength came from, but she feared that chaos was going to ensue.
“I’ll leave if ye make me leave, but I think it’s more likely that I’ll throw ye out,” David said.
The men were toe to toe. There were calls from the people in the crowd for them to fight.
Emma cried out for them to stop and sit down, but it was already too late.
Her words were lost in the cacophony, and there was something that was transformed within Trevor.
She hadn’t known him for too long so she couldn’t say for sure what it was, but there was something in his eyes that seemed to shift.
It was David who struck the first blow. The men jostled and pushed each other, and then David, urged on by the crowd, cracked his knuckles across Trevor’s face.
He roared in triumph, and his friends bellowed out in support of him.
There were few men in the world who could have withstood such a blow, and it just so happened that Trevor was one of them.
An uneasy murmur swept through the inn as Trevor shook away the blow and stared down David.
It was a sight that few had seen before, and Emma could tell that David was shaken.
She was impressed too. It was clear that Trevor was more than an English gentleman, and she wondered what kind of life he had lived where he needed to fight like this.
David was enraged that one blow hadn’t been enough to finish off his opponent, so he attacked again, throwing his fists forward in a wild manner.
He wasn’t helped by the fact that his mind was addled by drink.
Emma had seen him move more swiftly before, but even so, he was still a formidable enemy.
Trevor dodged the blows and slapped David’s hands away.
His stance was that of someone who had done this before, and it was clear that he was not going to go down easy.
Emma wasn’t entirely sure what to think of the matter because all she really wanted was to get to the bottom of why Trevor was looking for her mother.
David had made it all about himself, though.
It was a miracle as to why the man couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to marry him.
David was getting more and more annoyed that he couldn’t land a blow on Trevor.
Trevor was backing further away with every step, but then he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around David’s body.
The impact was enough to send David toppling back.
He lost his footing and crashed through a table.
Beer poured over the ground and the two men, while bits of bread and cheese fell to the floor.
The men wrestled and punched each other.
Trevor landed a few good blows to David’s side but was eventually pushed off.
David quickly sprang to his feet and threw out a quick jab.
Trevor dodged it and fired back with one of his own, catching David in the mouth.
David’s head snapped back, and blood began to trickle from his nose.
He looked like a dragon that was breathing fire.
David shuffled forward and brought both hands around, swinging them like a hammer.
Trevor blocked the attack, but it was still strong enough to send him flying back.
A sea of people parted as he crashed into the wall, and the entire building shook.
David ran in quickly after and slammed the entire weight of his body into Trevor, knocking the wind out of him.
Trevor staggered away and supported himself on a nearby table.
David tried the same move again, launching himself at Trevor, who moved out of the way.
David went crashing through the table. The wood splintered underneath him with a huge crunching sound, and everyone winced.
The crowd was raucous and baying for blood.
They were all on David’s side, of course, but the Englishman had won their respect for having survived so long against their champion fighter, and the bout was not over yet.
Trevor had shaken off his daze and attacked David’s back, letting a flurry of blows fly.
They were moving toward the door. The innkeeper had come out from behind the bar and was berating them for causing so much damage, trying to herd them like sheep out of the doorway.
However, David reached back without looking and swung his long arm.
He almost caught the innkeeper, who dived behind the bar.
David’s arm slammed down on the bar and caused the mugs and bottles sitting on the bar to rattle and fall.
Trevor ducked another blow and backed away outside.
The rest of the crowd followed, and Emma was not going to be left behind.
She lost sight of the fight for a few moments as she twisted and turned through the crowd, sliding through the bodies like a fish would swim through rocks.
She emerged to find the men locked together, each of them trying to gain the advantage.
She had never seen David strain so much against any man, and it only made Trevor more impressive in her eyes.
She looked at the way he dug his heels into the ground and met the force of his younger opponent, gritting his teeth in the way a warrior would do.
His entire body was rigid with tension; there was something so uniquely manly about him.
She felt something twitch in the core of her body, something that she wasn’t sure she had ever felt before.
She didn’t have time to think about what the feeling might be, though, because Trevor had managed to gain some distance and punched through the opening, sending David reeling back.
David shook off the blow and came back in, running to land a heavy strike.
Trevor set himself and then used David’s own momentum against him, flipping him through the air.
David landed in a trough made for the horses.
Water sloshed out, and he was soaked, and Emma was certain that this would bring an end to the fight.
His limbs lolled over the side of the trough, and he looked dazed.
His friends rushed to tend to him while Trevor staggered to the inn and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
While most people ran to David, Emma was drawn to Trevor, but the chatter of the people was of mutual respect at the fight they had just witnessed.
None of them had expected Trevor to be able to fight against David.