Chapter 4
Four
“I beg your pardon?” Callie repeated, her heart stopping. “What did you say?”
Sin paid her no heed as the king’s eyes turned sly, devious.
“Have we been remiss?” Henry asked in a tone that feigned innocence. He knew she had no knowledge of what he spoke and it angered her for him to toy with her like this. “Caledonia of the MacNeelys, meet your soon-to-be husband, Sin.”
She saw the fury smoldering in Sin’s black eyes. Fury that sparked and built at the mention of her name. “What is her name?”
“Caledonia of the MacNeelys,” Henry repeated.
Sin cursed, though why her name should cause him such distress, she couldn’t imagine. Not that it mattered to her, she wasn’t about to be married to an Englishman.
“I will not marry him.”
Henry arched a brow in warning of her tone. “If you wish to return home, you will.”
“My people will kill him.”
Henry laughed. “They might try but we assure you, they won’t succeed.”
She turned her gaze to Sin. “You knew of this?”
“I have yet to consent.”
Henry scoffed. “You gave your word. Should we find a priest for the event, you would adhere to our agreement.”
Sin narrowed a suspicious glare on Henry and crossed his arms over his chest. If her future didn’t hinge on the victor of this confrontation, she might have found the two of them amusing as they fought each other. It wasn’t often a woman got to see two such powerful men clash.
“First,” Sin said slowly, “I want to meet this priest of yours and make sure he’s not some peasant dressed in monk’s robes.”
The king managed to look both offended and amused. “Think you we would do such?”
“I have no doubt.”
Henry laughed again. “Sin, my boy, you know us too well. But in this, there is no trickery. ‘Tis the will of Our Savior that we should find you a spouse.”
“‘Tis the will of Lucifer that you should torment me until the day he can take over.”
“Perhaps.”
Callie glared at both men in turn. She had no intention whatsoever of honoring any agreement forged by two Englishmen without her consent.
Especially since such an agreement would be to the extreme detriment of her clan.
“Whatever bargain the two of you hatched, it doesn’t concern me. I will not marry an Englishman.”
Henry looked thoughtful as he stroked the reddish beard on his chin. “Very well then, you leave us no choice. We shall march our army into your lands and put down every man and male child to ensure peace. We shall start on the morrow with the death of your little brother.”
Jamie gasped and stepped back, stumbling over Simon.
His face horrified, Simon scooped the lad up and held him close. He patted Jamie on the back, comfortingly.
Callie’s heart stopped as terror consumed her over Henry’s cold-blooded threat. “You wouldn’t dare such.”
Her words of defiance were over the line of acceptance and they all knew it.
Henry gave her a stare that made her tremble.
Still, she wouldn’t cower. Not over something this important, especially while he threatened Jamie.
If he even attempted to carry out that threat, she would see to it herself that he paid for his crime with his life.
“We would counsel you to watch your tongue,” Henry said, his voice thick with malice. “Of royal Scot’s lineage you might be, he most certainly is not. Now, do you honestly think you could stop us from doing what we must to ensure the prosperity of England?”
She locked gazes with Sin and saw the warning in his eyes. Aye, Henry could be that ruthless. They both knew it.
“This is preposterous!”
“Preposterous or not, come morning you two shall marry or our army marches into Scotland. The choice is entirely yours.”
Callie met Henry’s gaze as an equal. She wasn’t going to let him see her fear, or her shivering. If she were a man, he’d never dare this and it angered her that these Englishmen thought so little of their women.
How she wished this were a bluff. But she knew better.
The rebels in her clan, led by an unidentified man known simply as The Raider, had been unmerciful to the English who had dared settle in Scotland.
She was sure the only reason Henry had refrained thus far from marching on her clan was the rather large matter of her kinship with King Malcolm of Scotland.
It was also what had kept her safe in his hands.
She had spent much of her early life at court and knew much of the royal way of life and the way kings thought.
And she knew that if she dared take Sin into Scotland those rebels who had been attacking the English would no doubt attack him and his men as well. It would be open warfare in a matter of days.
This had all the trappings of a major disaster.
In her mind’s eye she could see it clearly. Sin’s army marching in and his soldiers wreaking havoc with the men of her clan who hated all things English. Neither side would back down nor be reasonable. Her clansmen would never stomach an English army on their lands.
Whatever was she to do?
“What size army will you lead into my home?” she asked Sin, terrified of his answer.
“None. I will go alone.”
Henry laughed out loud until he realized Lord Sin was in earnest. “You can’t be serious.”
Sin shrugged nonchalantly. “Even as few as ten English knights living among the Scots would invite the kind of conflict you’re trying to avoid. The only chance for peace is one man against them.”
Sin’s knowledge of her people surprised her. As did his courage. But it was beyond foolishness to walk alone into enemy territory and expect them to surrender and bow. The day would never come when the Scots would do such.
Henry’s face turned dark, his eyes angry as he regarded Sin. “They’ll kill you.”
“You said they couldn’t,” Sin reminded him.
Henry’s face darkened even more from the weight of his rage and the heads of the courtiers came together as they gossiped, reminding Callie that this entire discussion was being witnessed and noted.
Henry shook his head. “That was when we thought you’d have your men with you. What kind of fool-”
“I’ll go with him.”
Callie turned to see Simon still holding onto Jamie. Jamie’s eyes were larger than saucers and the lad chewed his fist nervously.
Henry cursed. “Simon, we would have thought better of your sense than to entangle yourself with this.”
Simon appeared to consider that. “Nay, Majesty, I appear to be rather suicidal in such manners. Besides, I’ve always wanted to see Scotland.”
Sin arched a brow. “Who says I shall allow it?”
A taunting, irreverent smile played on the edges of Simon’s lips. “Allow it or not, I will be there. I figure it would be safer traveling with you, but either way, I will make for Scotland. You need someone at your back.”
His words seemed to bitterly amuse Lord Sin. “I assure you, my back is well protected.”
Something unspoken passed between them. Something that obviously bound these two men together on the level of brothers. Something that seemed sinister and cold judging by the tormented looks in both their eyes.
“Well I know it,” Simon concurred. “But even the strongest of us can use a friend now and again.”
“I appreciate the thought, Simon, however, I have yet to agree to the marriage.”
“You agreed,” Henry insisted.
Callie wanted to argue, but she knew better. There was only one hope for her.
Escape.
There was no way to argue with these men who didn’t care one whit about her or her opinions. She was nothing to Henry except a political pawn to be used as he saw fit.
As for Sin, she didn’t know what he would gain from their union. But then, she didn’t intend to stay around long enough to find out. Let him find an English heiress to marry. Or some other lass who caught his fancy.
She had to get away from here. From these men and this horrible country or else, all was lost.
“Well,” she said slowly, backing away from them, “if I am to marry on the morrow, I’d best be returning to my room where I can make preparations for it.”
“You’re going to marry a devil?” Jamie urled his lip at the thought of it. “Bet you grow horns if you do.”
She ignored him and took him from Simon’s arms.
Jamie shook his head like an old man chastising a child. “I wonder if you’ll get a tail, too.”
Callie sighed. Well, at least the lad had found his tongue again. She shushed him and still he rattled on and on about the consequences of marrying into the devil’s royal family.
“Bet your children will be born with the tongues of snakes. Scales, too. Think you, they’ll have poison in their teeth if they bite me?
You remember that time, don’t you, when Robbie’s baby bit me?
I think I still have the bruise. Dermot said it went bone deep though it just looked kind of purple to me. ”
Sin watched the two of them head back to the castle all the while the boy prattled.
The woman had reversed herself just a little too quickly and he knew her mind, could see her thoughts plainly. She was plotting a new escape.
He motioned Simon to him. “Watch her while I speak to Henry.”
“Should she escape custody, you won’t have to marry her.”
“I know. Watch her just the same. She has an incredible knack for getting herself into trouble.”
Callie felt Lord Sin’s gaze on her as she made her way with Jamie toward the castle. At the door, she stopped to look back and found Simon a few feet behind her.
Oh cursed toads, Sin must have sent the knight to watch over them.
No matter. It merely made it more challenging.
It by no means made it impossible. In her youth, she had often thwarted her intuitive nurse to slip out of the castle so she could swim naked in the pond.
If she could fluster Elda, who was part fey, with her abilities to read Callie’s mind, she could easily bypass a mere Englishman.
As Simon approached, she noted the black raven on his green surcoat. By the cut and cloth of the stylish piece and pride of the knight, she surmised he was a man of some standing and wealth. No doubt a great nobleman. “What are you lord of?” she asked politely.