Chapter 3
Taken
Alina swayed in Roark’s arms and focused her
desire-hazed eyes on his. “What?”
“If I could say or do whatever I wanted
without consequence or repercussion,” he said, his voice low, his
eyes shining silver in the moonlight, “I would ask you to marry
me.”
Warmth flooded Alina. She smiled and laughed,
feeling light and happy. “If I could do or say whatever I wanted
without consequence or repercussion,” she whispered, “I would
answer you ye-mmpphh.”
She clawed at a hand holding a cloth over
mouth, staring wide-eyed at Roark, silently pleading with him to
help her. He stood there looking ashamed and not at all surprised,
and Alina realized with a sinking feeling that he was in on
whatever this was. She threw her head back, hitting whoever was
gagging her from behind square on the chin. Their hold slackened,
and she reached for her waist blade, but another pair of hands
grabbed her by the wrist and wrested the blade from her grasp.
“Restrain the bitch,” Leif ordered in the
Green Isles tongue.
A third pair of hands grabbed her from behind
and pulled her off the bench. She landed on her back with a thud
and tried to roll over on her side and get her hands and knees
under her, but was pushed down and held there by three men whose
faces loomed over her, cursing her and each other as she kicked and
thrashed. The gag fell out of her mouth and she took a big breath
in to scream out, only to have the gag stuffed harder and deeper
into her mouth. Breathing furiously through her nose, she was
losing air and strength, and the fear that had surged through her
veins and given her a burst of energy was turning to cold,
blood-freezing dread.
“If you’d be quiet and take it like a good
girl,” Leif said in her Northern tongue while standing over her
with a gloating grin, “it would go much easier on you.”
“Fuck you,” Alina screamed, though it came
out a strangled shriek. One of the men holding her raised his fist
and Alina glared at him.
“Don’t think I won’t hit you, you Northern
bitch,” the man threatened in his Green Isles tongue.
“Enough,” Roark commanded, and the man
withdrew his fist. Roark knelt down beside her, his beautiful,
treacherous rain eyes holding hers. “You won’t be hurt,” he said in
her Northern tongue. “I swear it, as long as you cooperate and stop
fighting.”
“How could you?” she cried, and though her
words were muffled, he understood their meaning.
“I am sorry, Alina. Truly.”
She closed her eyes and rolled her head from
side to side. How could she have been so foolish? It was all a
trap, and he’d been the bait. All he’d had to do was look at her
and smile at her and speak a few intelligent words and she’d walked
with him, no, she’d led him to the lake, alone. She’d let him kiss
her and she’d kissed him back. Worst of all, she’d believed he
wanted to marry her after knowing her for a day. She’d almost told
him yes.
“Help her up,” Roark said in the Green Isles
tongue, and the three men lifted her to her feet. “I’m going to
pull your gag out and tie it around your mouth,” he said in her
Northern tongue. “You must swear not to call out.” Alina nodded,
wondering why he kept switching from the Green Isles tongue to the
Northern tongue when he knew she spoke both.
He pulled the gag and she opened and closed
her mouth while he unfurled it, wound it tight, pulled it over her
mouth, and wrapped it snugly around her head. “Is that too tight?”
he asked. Alina shook her head and he leaned in close as he tied
the gag. “Forgive me, my lady owl.”
Alina grunted in response, throwing daggers
with her eyes as he took a piece of rope from the man who’d raised
his fist to her.
“I’ll tie her hands,” he said, taking her
wrists in hands that had been pressing her body close to his only
moments ago. He bound her wrists together and ran a finger between
her skin and the rope. “I’m going to relieve you of your cloak,” he
told her, unclasping it and tossing it to one of the men, who also
held her mask and his headdress. He pulled his waist blade and
Alina reared back. “I’m only going to cut off some of your gown,”
he said. “To throw those who’ll come looking for you off our
tracks.”
Alina stood shaking and panting as Roark cut
jagged strips of her gown away, leaving her legs bare to her knees.
He held his hands up to her, and then slowly reached for the left
sleeve of the gown and nipped the seams open with the tip of his
blade. He tore the sleeve off at the shoulder and handed it to the
same man who held her cloak and mask and strips of her gown.
“What about the pearl necklace?” the man, a
big, burly greybeard, said.
“No,” Roark told him. “We have what we need
for the ruse.”
The man grunted and headed off for the woods
with a redheaded man carrying a small bucket and the third man
followed, erasing their tracks with a branch of leaves.
“The plan worked,” Leif said in the Northern
tongue, meaning for Alina to understand. “I have to say I had my
doubts, but you played her like a fiddle.” He slapped Roark on the
back. “Who knew you were such a good actor?”
“Yeah,” Roark said, meeting Alina’s glare.
“Who knew?” He double-checked Alina’s binds, his hands lingering
over hers and giving them a gentle squeeze. “We should go,” he
said, taking her by the arm and leading her into the woods.
***
“You’re right-handed?” Roark asked as he
untied the ropes around Alina’s wrists, though he knew she was. It
was one of the many details he’d discovered about her. He’d never
wanted to be part of her kidnapping, even if all the horrible
things Roger said about her parents were true. After meeting King
Jerrik and Queen Alyssa and talking with Digby and Pavel and others
in the city of Sea Ridge, he had serious doubts they were. Still,
he’d gone along with it for the same reasons he’d explained to
Alina for going along with marrying Gwyneth. Too many people
depended on it. On him.
Alina nodded and her eyes grew wide as he
clapped an iron cuff around her left wrist and locked the short
chain on the cuff to a larger chain attached to an iron pole in the
middle of the hold, which would allow her to stand, sit, or lie on
her bed of furs until they reached the Green Isles.
“If I take your gag out,” he asked her, “do
you promise not to scream?”
She shook her head, her green eyes
blazing.
“Screaming will do you no good,” he told her.
“The ship’s hull is too thick for sound to carry, and you’d only
end up with a raw throat.”
She looked around the hull, snorted, and
nodded.
Roark untied the gag. “I’ll make sure it
stays off as long as you keep to our bargain.”
“You’re a fucking liar,” she hissed. “Why
should I believe a word you say?”
“I never lied to you, other than the lie of
omission.”
“Like omitting the real reason that you came
here?” she huffed. “Which means everything you said to me, my
brother, my father, was based on a lie.”
“Not everything,” he said. He folded the
linen gag and wrapped it around her left wrist to cushion her skin
and bone from the iron cuff and lowered his voice to a whisper. “I
meant everything I said and did at the lake.”
She opened her mouth and snapped it shut, his
betrayal reflected in the green depths of her eyes. “That makes all
this so much worse.”
“I know.” He’d flirted with her and gotten
her to trust him. He’d lured her into a trap while becoming trapped
himself by her wit and beauty. Then he’d kissed her. The memory of
it still warmed his blood and other body parts. “I am sorry,
truly.”
“If you were truly sorry you would—”
“What are you talking about?” Leif demanded
as he came down the ladder. He glanced from Alina to Roark and
laughed. “The princess doesn’t look too happy with you,” he said in
their Green Isles tongue. “Too bad. The way you two were going at
it, she would’ve spread her legs for you in no time had we not
shown up.” He laughed at his own crude humor. “I think your chances
of swiving her now are slim to none.”
“Shut up, Leif.”
“Why? The bitch can’t understand a word of
what I’m saying.”
“She may not,” Roark said. “But I do. Don’t
talk about her that way.”
Leif sauntered over to Alina and her eyes
narrowed to slits of green ice.
“How about if I take what she was about to
give you?” Leif asked.
Roark fisted his hands to keep from wrapping
them around Leif’s neck. “Your father wants her whole and in one
piece,” he reminded Leif. “If her father pays the ransom and
discovers her sullied, who knows how he would exact his
revenge?”
Leif shrugged. “It would almost be worth it,”
he said, grinning salaciously at Alina, who had the good sense not
to react. “Still, you’re right, my father wouldn’t be pleased if I
took her before he had a chance to.” He chucked Alina under the
chin, jerking his hand back as she snapped at his fingers. “Oh,
she’ll be a fun one to break.” He met Roark’s scowl and laughed.
“Don’t worry, she’s yours to protect until we get home, then she’s
my father’s to do with as he will.”
Leif climbed up the ladder and Roark met
Alina’s icy glare.
“Congratulations on a plan well executed,”
she told him. “I know it was your plan, your trap. Leif doesn’t
have the brains or the cunning. Well done, you. I’m sure your laird
will reward you generously.”
“Alina.”
“Don’t Alina me. We are not lovers, not even
close, despite what Leif thinks, despite whatever you thought.” She
chuffed. “Nice touch, asking me to marry you. It certainly kept me
off guard. Too bad we were interrupted before I could give you my
answer, which would be a big, fat no.”
She was lying. Roark knew it. She knew he
knew it. Her eyes, her smile, her kiss had already answered him
before she’d started to say yes, before Leif had grabbed her and
her eyes had filled with Roark’s betrayal.
“I can only say I’m sorry for my part in this
so many times,” he told her, leaving the rest of what she’d said
alone. “I can’t make you believe me. Still, Leif’s right. You’re
mine to protect while we sail, and I will. I swear it.”
“Was Leif right about his father doing what
he will with me once you’re home?”
“Roger knows you’re worth more to him alive