Suddenly, the door slammed open and Jordan jumped. Fox stood in the doorway, looking more like a demon than a man.
Jordan’s fingers tightened on the window ledge. She had never seen such explosive anger in Fox before.
He stalked toward her, his fists clenched tight. “I warned you about trying to escape again.”
Jordan backed away from him, racing around to the other side of the bed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Fox came up short opposite her, the bed acting as a barrier between them.
“No?” He held up the piece of parchment his father had found. “Then what’s this? Enough of your lies.” He raced toward her, moving around the bed, but Jordan skittered away, keeping the bed between them.
“How would you have me act?” Jordan demanded.
“Like a lady.”
“A desperate lady! Fox, let me explain.”
Fox held the note up in a clenched fist. “This is all the explanation I need from you.” Fox bolted around the bed, and Jordan raced away from him.
“I have to escape! The children –”
“You have endangered my friends and my entire home! For that you will be punished.” Fox leaped over the bed.
Jordan turned to flee, but he caught her from behind, wrapping his strong arms around her. As she struggled in his hold, he twisted, wrestling her to the bed, falling on top of her to pin her flailing arms above her. When he had her pinned, he growled, “Do you realize what you’ve done?”
“The children need me!” she hollered back, struggling. “I will do whatever it takes to return to them.”
“You have given away the only place where I feel secure. My friends are now in danger because of you.” He shook her hard. When she stopped her fight, he added, “That I will not tolerate. There is only one place where you will not be a threat to us.” He hauled her to her feet, holding her wrist tightly, pulling her through his room and out into the hallway. “A place where I should have put you from the beginning.”
His steps were large and quick and she almost had to run to keep up with him.
Until she realized where he was heading -- the dungeon. There could be no other place to put her. Jordan dug in her heels and began to pull against his hold.
“No,” Jordan pleaded. “Fox, no.” She tried to twist her arm free, tried to pull her hand out of his hold, but his grip was unrelenting.
“No!” she hollered as they neared the stairs leading down to the depths of darkness. “No! Fox!” Jordan tried to grab onto a suit of rusted plate armor that decorated the hallway, but it tumbled to the ground, the crash echoing hauntingly through the crumbling stone corridors.
Drawn by the clamor, Beau rushed down the hallway, followed by Scout and Frenchie. But no one moved to stop Fox.
“Fox!” Jordan screamed, tears rolling down her cheeks as Fox pulled her roughly forward. “No!”
“Noooo!”
Fox effectively silenced her pleas in his mind, steeling his heart and soul against her cries. If she dared to endanger his friends, then the dungeon was the only place to keep her.
He moved down the hallway toward the dark door at the far end. He refused to think of the condition the dungeons would be in, as they hadn’t been used for over ten years. But if Jordan acted like an enemy, Fox had no choice but to treat her as one.
As he moved, Fox noticed a dark figure standing in an open doorway. At first Fox thought the figure an apparition to be paid no mind, but as he neared he recognized the ghostly figure. Michael nodded at him in smug satisfaction.
Fox froze, faltering in his determination. He turned to look over his shoulder. Beau and Pick and Scout and Frenchie and Smithy were all standing in the dark hallway. They were all watching him silently, confusion and grim acceptance on their faces.
But it wasn’t his friends that caught his attention. It was Mary Kate. She stood just slightly to Scout’s right, holding a candle. Tears glistened in her young eyes and smeared down her cheeks. He hadn’t seen Mary Kate cry for a long time. The little girl turned toward Scout, lifting up her face, looking for some kind of comfort. Scout rudely pushed past her and marched off down the hall, leaving Mary Kate standing alone in the dark hallway.
What am I doing? Fox thought, appalled at what he was about to do to Mary Kate’s one true friend. Fox felt the bruising grip he had on Jordan’s wrist and turned his gaze to her. He could feel her trembling. Her face was tragic and scared. Tears glinted off of her cheeks.
God’s blood! I am destroying her. Horrified, repentant, he took a step toward her. “Jordan...” he began softly. But in the face of her agony, there was nothing he could say.
Ashamed, he released her arm. How could he hurt her like this? How could he treat her like this?
Fox took a step away from her, turning his gaze from her. He didn’t even deserve to look at her. “Beau, watch her,” he commanded and turned, moving down the hallway. He kept his back straight, trying to muster some form of dignity. But slowly his walk turned into a run.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Fox hung his head. Around him, the branches of the willow trees housed him while a downpour of rain pelted the lands outside his rudimentary sanctuary. Wind lashed the branches, and the river churned with fury.
What is wrong with me? he thought. I almost threw Jordan into the dungeon. He ground his teeth. She is working strange magic over me, making me think emotionally instead of rationally. But she endangered my friends. How can I marry her without trusting her? How can I force her to do something she doesn’t want to?
Fox shook his head. The image of Jordan’s tearful face rose in his mind again, and her cries of desperation haunted his memory. How can I force her into marriage?
And then he thought of something he hadn’t before. What if he had taken Jordan just to be with her again?
The reality of the thought jarred him. He had wanted to see her for years after that fateful day, had yearned for her. They had been kindred spirits. There was nothing he could not talk to her about. But he had forced her from his thoughts, forced the memory of her from his mind, concentrating instead on taking care of his father and his brother and the welfare of his friends.
But when he’d seen her at the tournament, so regal, so statuesque, looking like a goddess, he knew her memory still burned brightly just below his conscious thoughts. It had taken the mere sight of her to rekindle it into a roaring inferno.
When he came across her in the hallway of Castle Ruvane, he acted impetuously, not thinking or caring about the consequences of his actions. He could have escaped the castle without her. That would have been simple. But when he saw her standing there with her beautiful eyes wide, he grabbed for her, clinging to her.
He had been compelled to grab her. He knew that now. There was no denying the powerful force still binding them together. Only now it was stronger. The attraction he had for her was unequaled. Part of her was permanently seared into his heart from their childhood. And now part of her was permanently scorched onto his memory as desire.
Thunder rumbled, and a sudden gust of wind parted some of the willow branches, whipping a blast of rain into the shelter. The cold water stung his face. He wiped at his eyes, clearing his vision of the chilling rain.
The icy gust sent his thoughts tumbling to his father, his brother. Men without lands, without titles, without honor. And then his thoughts grew darker, moving to the man who was the cause of their misery.
Evan Vaughn.
Painful images flashed through his mind. He remembered his father standing tall as the heavy hammers slammed at his spurs, remembered him dropping to his knees as the sword split in two over his skull, remembered the sickening sight of blood trailing down his forehead into his eyes. Fox’s jaw clenched hard and tight.
Someone had to pay for those memories haunting his dreams. He’d lost his father that day. And now Vaughn would lose something just as precious. His wife.
Yes. Fox stood up. He would take Vaughn�
�s wife from him and make her his own. It was unfortunate Jordan had to be mixed up in their battle, but so be it. Vaughn had to pay for what he did.
Fox stormed through the field toward Castle Mercer. He would marry Jordan and make her his wife. Her lands would be his. He didn’t give a damn how she felt. He couldn’t let himself give a damn about how she felt. That road was far too treacherous to follow. He didn’t care that she didn’t want to be with him as his wife. He knew he couldn’t care about what she wanted for his father’s sake, his brother’s sake, the sake of the Mercer family. He couldn’t let himself care at all.
He entered the castle, moving through the downpour of rain through the outer ward, the inner ward, and finally into the Keep. His decision played itself over and over in his thoughts. It was his only chance to regain what he had lost. He approached the meal room, ready to announce his intentions to Jordan.
When Fox entered the room it seemed unnaturally quiet. He noticed his hound, Doom, near the wall. The dog lifted its head to gaze at Fox but did not rise. The animal seemed to stare at him with reproach, but Fox knew that was ridiculous.
Fox turned his gaze to the table where Beau sat. His friend stared at him with narrowed eyes, as if in disapproval, and then swung his look to Jordan. Beau bowed his head and shook it, his gestures mirroring the same condemnation Fox saw in Doom’s eyes. Now what have I done? Fox wondered. But deep down he knew. He had treated Jordan badly. Even if she had deserved it, dragging her down a hallway intending to toss her into the dungeon had been no way to treat a lady.
Fox swung his gaze to the hearth. Jordan sat before the cold fireplace, a blanket draped over her shoulders. In her hands, she cradled a mug of ale. Her shoulders were slumped slightly and her hair drooped down to touch her lap.
Fox halted as she turned to gaze at him. She rose and came toward him. She looked weary and sad, so very sad. Fox knew she had not slept from the rings beneath her eyes, eyes that were full of sorrow and remorse.
“Fox.” The word came from her lips softly, full of repentance. “I shouldn’t have endangered your family. I shouldn’t have endangered your friends. I never should have sent those notes.”
Guilt filled Fox. Where others, even Doom, would cast blame on him for his shameless actions, for his fit of rage, Jordan took responsibility for the incident herself.
His plans immediately evaporated before him as he looked into her troubled face. One second. That’s all her doe eyes needed to make him forget himself, forget anything else he thought he so fervently desired. There was so much pain in her eyes. How could he force her to marry him? How could he hurt her like that and live with himself? How could he sentence her to a life of misery with him when all he wanted to do was make her happy?
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but suddenly Pick raced into the Great Hall, skidding to a halt just before Fox. “Mary Kate is missing,” the big man panted.
Fox scowled at him.
Pick continued, ”She didn’t sleep with Scout last night, and Scout hasn’t seen her all day.”
Great. The one day Scout showed any interest in her daughter was the day the girl disappeared. “Find her,” he ordered his men. They sprang into action, forming search teams.
Fox looked at Jordan for a moment, urgency filling his gaze. She stood forlornly before the dark hearth. It could never be between them, he knew suddenly. With that thought came a sense of great loss and great anger. He looked away from her.
“Go,” he said. “You are free to go. I can’t bear to look at you like that.” Once the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them. But there was no time to take them back, no desire to keep her caged.
He raced out of the meal room without a glance backward. He had to concentrate on Mary Kate, had to find her. An even bigger storm was threatening.
Then why did he feel as if his heart was being wrenched out of his chest?
Jordan stood at the hearth, gazing after Fox with her jaw agape. Go? she silently wondered. Go? He was releasing her. Go! She could go to her children! She ran toward the door, but then halted at the threshold. She would never see Fox again. Such a great sense of loss filled her that she didn’t take a step for a long moment.
But I have to go. I have to make sure my children are all right.
She ran to the door of the Keep. The sun was setting, the darkness coming. The rain had lessened, but the clouds were still very dark above. In the distance, an even darker mass of clouds appeared to be heading their way. She would be crazy to leave the safety of Castle Mercer now, risking robbers and highwaymen and the approaching storm. But did she really have a choice? What if Fox returned and changed his mind? What if he didn’t let her go? Would that really be such a bad thing? Yes, she quickly answered herself. Yes, it would. I have to get back home.
Jordan squeezed through the opening of the Keep just in time to see Fox thunder past on his great black stallion, racing toward the outer gatehouse. Jordan watched him go, feeling forlorn and lost and so very alone.
She wanted desperately to be here when Fox returned. After all, he did want to marry her. No, a voice inside her said. He doesn’t want to marry you. He wants your lands, your title. He even said he couldn’t look at you anymore. He doesn’t want you. He doesn’t need you. And you don’t need him.
She had to leave now, before she lost something far more important than her lands and title -- her heart.
With that, Jordan set out from the castle, moving into the forest beyond.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Fox’s horse pranced anxiously beneath him. He had to force the animal to move slowly with firm yanks on the reins as his gaze swept the empty hilltop, searching for the child. Lifting a hand to his mouth, he yelled, “Mary Kate!” His own echo was the only response.
He had searched narrow trails in the forest, across muddy paths, but found nothing. No broken branches to mark her direction, not even a single footprint. It was as if she had vanished.
He heard the echoes of Pick calling out to Mary Kate, but there was no response from the child. He cursed Scout for the hundredth time. She should have told him immediately about Mary Kate’s disappearance. She could be hurt.
It wasn’t like the little girl to venture out of the castle. Fox couldn’t remember the last time she had taken more than a dozen steps beyond the castle walls. She usually only came out with her big branch to help cover their tracks when they returned from an outing, and that was about the extent of her ventures into the world.
She was only a child, for the love of God. How far could she have gone? She had to be around here somewhere.
Frustrated, Fox reined in his horse and headed back toward Castle Mercer, wanting to try a different direction. Why would she have gone out alone? he wondered again. They had actually searched the castle again quickly before heading outside in case she had been hiding, but they had not found her, nor any hint of which direction she might have headed.
Lightning flashed, and Fox cursed again. The damned rain that had plagued the land the night before in torrential downpours was threatening again. That was all he needed. He decided to move closer to the village. Maybe someone there had seen something.
His thoughts tried to drift to another female out alone in the dark beneath the threatening sky, but he refused to let them linger longer than a moment on Jordan Ruvane.
Jordan moved quickly through the field outside of Castle Mercer. Thunder rumbled overhead, and she glanced up. The sky was dark, and blackened clouds churned above her head. The grass was still wet from the previous night’s rains, and the dampness clung to her dress, slowing her down, as if the forces of nature were trying to hold her back.
She glanced back at Castle Mercer. She wished she could have made Fox believe she wanted to make sure her children were all right, but he wouldn’t listen to her. All he wanted was the lands and his title.
She certainly shouldn’t care about him. After all, he said he couldn’t stand to see her. Then why did she feel this e
mpty ache in her chest? Why couldn’t she erase the sadness encompassing her? Why couldn’t she forget him?
She hung her head. Fox thought she had turned her back on him, abandoned him. He despised her. Yet he hadn’t locked her in the dungeon when he could have done so. What had made him stop? Maybe he did care for her. Maybe he did have feelings for her that were not full of anger and hate and hurt.
Why? Because she wanted him to have those feelings? Because she had feelings for him? Because she wanted those warm feelings she had for him to be given to her in return?
Jordan entered the forest. Her feet were soaking wet, her slippers heavy with mud and leaves. She pushed on, knowing the farther she got from Castle Mercer, the closer she would be to her children.
She wanted to help find Mary Kate, but this might be the only chance she got to see her own children. And they needed her. Fox would find Mary Kate. She would be fine.
Jordan shoved her way through the thick tangles of branches, moving toward the path she knew was near the river. Could she find it before it became too dark to see?
Thunder boomed above and a jagged tail of lightning lit up the trees around her.
Jordan increased her pace, trying to run. She slipped on the wet earth and went down on one knee. When she rose, her hand was slick with mud and her knee was caked with the wet dirt. She wiped her hand on a nearby tree.
Another spear of lightning lit the forest and cast odd shadows all around her. For a brief, mad moment she feared the woods might be as haunted as local gossip said the castle was. Thunder followed the hot light almost immediately.
Jordan pushed on. Ahead the river rumbled. She was almost at the path. She pushed urgently through the trees, and some of the gnarled branches snatched at her, catching in her long hair, as if nature herself was still trying to hold her back.
But Jordan pulled through them, tearing them away from her, desperate to reach the path before she could no longer see it in the deepening darkness. Surely she could get a ride from a passing merchant, maybe even get to the children before morning.
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