While she lay tangled in her sheets at night, remembering the way his body had awakened hers, she longed to run to him, to beg him to make her his wife. A lifetime without him stretched before her and her heart ached with misery. It was only the reminder of his betrayal that held her back. If he’d betrayed her once, what was to stop him doing something similar in the future?
Besides, he always thought he was right, and he would expect his orders to be followed even if she suggested something better. She would not be able to run her castle as she saw fit and the feelings she’d developed for him would be squashed as he lost her respect.
It was far better to have fond memories of the time they’d shared. Thanks to his care, she now knew that there could be mutual passion between a man and a woman. She now knew that a man’s body wasn’t designed to hurt a woman. She’d be grateful for ever for the memories Braedan had created. She would turn to them whenever thoughts of Lord Swein threatened to overwhelm her.
Her fingers fluttered over her abdomen. His babe could be growing inside her... But, no. She mustn’t think like that. She hadn’t fallen pregnant during her married life—no matter how many times her husband had forced himself upon her. She was unlikely to be carrying a child now, after only one encounter with Braedan.
She picked up her mirror and held it to her face. Tired eyes looked back at her. She picked up her tweezers and plucked out a few stray hairs in her eyebrows. It didn’t make things better.
‘Shall we go for a walk, my lady?’ suggested Aldith. ‘It is looking fine out.’
‘Very well,’ said Ellena, putting the mirror and the tweezers down. ‘I’ll wrap these in a cloth for later.’
She folded the seed cakes into some material and set them to one side, glad not to have to force them down any longer.
The two women stepped outside. A brisk autumnal breeze greeted them, ruffling Ellena’s veil and making the skirt of her dress wrap tightly around her legs.
They made their way towards the Countess of Ogmore’s private garden. Inside it was a peaceful haven away from the main business of the fortress, somewhere only the noble ladies could come to get away from the bustle of the castle. Men were not permitted within its walls.
Aldith stopped as they reached a stone bench. ‘My lady,’ she said in a rush. ‘You do know that you can turn to me if you have a problem? I’ll support you, whatever it is.’
Ellena looked into Aldith’s wide eyes. She wanted to trust this woman who’d been her near constant companion for the past days, but knew that she couldn’t. Ultimately Aldith’s loyalty rested with Merrick. The man she had agreed to marry was Braedan’s man through and through.
‘Thank you, Aldith, I’ll remember that,’ she said, gently touching Aldith’s sleeve.
Aldith nodded and they started walking again. The wind scattered petals across their path as they rounded a corner. In front of them a young woman Ellena had never met before was attempting some needlework.
‘Bother!’ said the stranger as she held up her stitching to the light.
Even from a distance Ellena could see it wasn’t a very good attempt.
Just before the woman moved to unpick her mistake, she spotted Ellena and Aldith. ‘Oh, sorry—I didn’t realise I wasn’t alone.’
The woman stood up quickly and curtsied deeply to Ellena. Her clothes were neat, but old-fashioned and faded, as if they’d been left in the sunlight for too long. Long dark blonde hair was tied back in an elaborate braid which looped about her head in a style that didn’t flatter her face.
‘I’ll leave,’ she said, and made to scurry past them.
‘There’s no need,’ said Ellena.
The woman’s cheeks flushed a deep red, ‘Oh, my lady, you are very kind but I must go.’
She darted past them and hurried out of the garden, her dress flapping in the wind.
‘Who was that?’ asked Ellena, bemused by the exchange.
‘That was Katherine—Sir Leofric’s sister,’ said Aldith, folding her hands over her stomach.
‘Why was she so eager to get away from us?’ asked Ellena, puzzled.
‘Her mother keeps her and her sister confined to their rooms in the castle. They are virtually prisoners.’
‘Why ever does she do that?’ asked Ellena.
Aldith shrugged. ‘She feels the taint of her husband’s treachery deeply. She believes her daughters should be isolated from other people so that no further scandal can be attached to them. She wants them to be pure, and to make good marriages, but I don’t know how they are going to meet husbands while their mother allows them so very little contact with the outside world. It’s rumoured that their mother has been touched by madness. She is said to have wild tantrums if the girls displease her.’
Ellena gazed at the spot where Braedan’s sister had been sitting. Up high, a blackbird trilled in the afternoon air. ‘This isn’t their home, though, is it?’ she said softly.
She moved quickly away from Aldith before she could hear her maid’s response. Sensing that she wanted to be alone, Aldith kept a respectful distance as Ellena moved restlessly beneath the shady pergola, the wind rustling the leaves above her.
Braedan had talked about his mother, but she’d assumed the woman’s behaviour was motivated by love for her son and embarrassment about the predicament in which the family now found themselves. Ellena hadn’t realised Braedan’s father’s treason had made her unhinged.
She touched her stomach; a strange unsettled feeling was churning inside her. She wanted to hold on to the blazing anger she felt for Braedan. It was the only thing getting her through these long, lonely days. She needed to keep it in order to justify her plans to escape.
But how could she remain angry with a man who only wanted to put his family first? With the stewardship of her castle he would gain a home for his sisters—two women who were currently trapped in a life of isolation through no fault of their own.
She tried to hold on to the knowledge that he’d betrayed her trust, but a little voice in her mind argued that Braedan had made his deal with her father before they’d even met. How was he to have known they would become friends? She certainly hadn’t expected it. And when she’d found out the truth she’d not given him a chance to explain himself.
She closed her eyes at the memory of the way she’d treated his marriage proposal. If she was looking at her own behaviour she’d have to admit that it hadn’t been exemplary.
She stopped and ran her fingers over the fading petals of a rose. It was still soft, despite its browning edges.
Perhaps she should engineer a meeting and talk to Braedan. If she reasoned with him he might agree to give up the stewardship of Castle Swein. She would tell him she’d be willing to take his sisters with her and help arrange good matches for them. Maybe he would even be glad of her suggestion. She couldn’t imagine him sitting down with a ledger and working through the estate’s accounts. He was too elemental. And of course he would want to visit his sisters...
Her heart fluttered. This need not be the end for them...
She rounded a corner, still lost in thought.
‘So we meet again, Lady Swein.’
Ellena gasped. Lord Copsi stood in front of her, out in the open, in her mother’s garden, as plain as day.
She spun and darted back around the corner.
Aldith was lying crumpled on the ground, with two of Copsi’s men standing over her, grinning.
She skittered to a stop, inhaling sharply as thick fingers encircled her right arm.
‘You’ve caused me no end of trouble, Lady Swein,’ growled Copsi, close to her ear, his fingers digging into her skin. ‘But don’t worry... I’m going to enjoy myself as you repay your debt.’
‘You’ll never get out of the fortress grounds,’ she said, pleased that her voice came out calm, despite her knees shaking violently.
Copsi laughed. ‘I can assure you that I will. Not all of your father’s guards are as loyal as he believes.’
She felt a heavy blow against the back of her head.
Her world turned black in an instant.
Chapter Eighteen
Ellena woke slowly. All around her was darkness. She blinked. Her eyes were gritty. She blinked again but she still couldn’t see anything. She turned her head but was still none the wiser.
She appeared to be lying down and yet the floor beneath her was swaying violently.
She licked her lips and tasted the metallic tang of blood.
She swallowed; she was so thirsty.
She tried to roll over but her back hit something solid.
Where was she?
She blinked again and sucked in a sharp breath as she remembered. Copsi had come for her—and this time he’d succeeded.
Sweat broke out across her forehead as she tried to gather her thoughts. The throb in her head was making it virtually impossible.
Her upper arms screamed in agony. She tried to move, to relieve the tension, but found her hands were bound tightly behind her back.
Her heart sped up until it was beating painfully fast.
She took a deep breath and filled her lungs with stale air. She coughed, remembering at the last minute to keep the noise down.
Her eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the darkness and so, shifting slowly, so as not to hurt her arms too much, she managed to roll onto her back. Beneath her fingertips she could feel rough cloth. She tilted her head and felt the same material against her cheek.
Her hands trembled as she squirmed frantically, trying to get the cloth off her face. She only pulled it tighter.
She kicked out her legs, but the cloth must be surrounding her completely because her feet hit a barrier.
Her breathing came faster as her heart rate kicked up another notch.
Tears pricked her eyes and she scrunched them shut, willing herself not to cry. Crying wouldn’t solve anything, and showing weakness to Copsi could be fatal.
Despite her resolution, she felt water leaking over her cheeks. She bit her lip until she tasted blood again. She couldn’t even wipe away the evidence of her distress.
She took a few shuddery breaths.
She had to call on the resolve which had got her through all those years with Swein as her husband. She hadn’t fallen apart then and she wouldn’t fall apart now.
She had to assume that Copsi had taken her out of her father’s castle. The rocking motion of the floor beneath her had to be from some sort of cart. She listened carefully and could just make out the muffled sound of hooves against soft ground.
She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious. It could have been minutes or hours. If Aldith had been found then Braedan would know something was seriously wrong. He could be following her right now.
Her heart clenched at the thought of Braedan. He’d warned her so many times to be more careful and she’d ignored him, imagining herself safe within her father’s walls. How naive she had been.
There was nothing she could do to free herself until the cart stopped moving. Until then she needed to conserve her energy, because when the moment presented itself she needed to run. She had to hope that when she did Braedan and his men wouldn’t be far behind. If she could get to them she would be safe.
Her throat constricted. She couldn’t begin to contemplate her future if Braedan wasn’t following her. She’d only survived running from Copsi the first time because of him.
Her head felt heavy, and pain pressed down on the top of her skull. She closed her eyes and her surroundings slowly faded away...
When she woke again the ache in her head had dimmed a little and the world didn’t seem quite so hazy. Over the noise of creaking wood and the clomp of horses’ hooves she could hear the faint rumble of deep voices.
The swaying beneath her appeared to be slowing, and then they seemed to turn sharply. She held her breath as the cart gradually came to a stop.
She forced herself to relax her muscles as the voices came nearer. She heard the sound of material being untied, before rough hands dragged her from her resting place and she was thrown unceremoniously over someone’s shoulder.
Even through the thick cloth she could smell the scent of an unwashed body. She retched, unable to keep her body from the violent spasms that gripped it. Her captor paused for a moment, before adjusting his grip so that he held her tightly across the legs. The throb in her head returned as she dangled upside down and another wave of sickness washed over her. She swallowed convulsively.
A door creaked open and the rumble of several voices grew louder. It was difficult to isolate one voice, but her scrambled brain calculated that there must be at least five men nearby—possibly more. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as visions of Swein’s rough treatment of her pushed into her mind, forcing her to imagine the horrors that might be inflicted upon her by her captors.
Suddenly she was dumped roughly on her side, and she bit her lip to stop herself crying out in pain.
‘Get her out of the sack,’ came Copsi’s voice from quite close to her. ‘If she’s still unconscious throw that water on her. I want her awake for this.’
The men around her laughed and she trembled, instinctively curling herself into a protective ball. A dull light reached her eyes as the material holding her was untied at the end nearest her feet. She whimpered as coarse hands grabbed at the bare skin under her skirts. Her legs were pulled from where she’d tucked them under her stomach and she was yanked out of the sack into a dully lit timber room.
Seeing she was awake, the man pulled her roughly to her feet and spun her to face Copsi. She stumbled and fell to the floor, her knees jarring without her hands to break her fall.
The man cursed and set her on her feet once more. She staggered, and then righted herself before she could fall again.
The smell of unwashed bodies was even stronger now, and she retched more forcibly as her empty stomach spasmed in pain. Slowly the cramping subsided and she forced herself to stand straight and look around her.
She was standing in a low-ceilinged barn, with only one entrance and no windows. Her fingers curled as it quickly dawned on her that escape from here would be virtually impossible. No light seeped from the edges of the door. She’d been unconscious for most of the afternoon.
Her heart stopped as she realised no one had come to rescue her in all that time.
She was alone.
‘Ellena, you’ll be pleased to know we have just been married,’ said Copsi, stepping towards her.
Her head swam. ‘No...’ she muttered. ‘Impossible.’
‘Ah, yes, I thought you might say that—but you see we’re surrounded by witnesses who all saw it happen.’
Her head lolled onto her chest and she forced it upwards. ‘No one will believe you. My father...’
He laughed. ‘Some peasants from the nearby town will also confirm they were witnesses. They will happily tell anyone who asks how you entered into the union of your own free will, glad to be out of the shackles of your meddlesome father. What better way to repay the manipulative bastard than by marrying his biggest enemy? I’ve paid them handsomely for their trouble.’
‘No.’ She shook her head again, the motion making the room spin.
‘Of course,’ he said, stepping towards her, ‘no marriage is properly legal until it’s consummated...’
The men around her leered and grunted in agreement. Ellena’s fingers trembled behind her back.
‘I can’t decide,’ said Copsi, sliding a hand up her arm, ‘whether we should have an audience for that too.’
A chorus of approval ran through the group.
‘No!’ she gasped, stepping backwards into the man who had dragged her from the sack. His stubby fingers dug deeply into the top
s of her arms and she flinched away from him.
‘If you’re good I’ll send my men outside, but if you try and struggle... You decide. I hear you’ve already experienced the attentions of Ogmore’s hideously disfigured knight. If you’ve rutted with that animal you’ll enjoy what I have to offer.’
Ellena couldn’t speak. Terror clogged up her throat until she couldn’t breathe. Then everything turned black again.
Cold water being flung over her face brought her coughing and spluttering back into the world.
She was lying on the floor, her hair tangled with the straw that littered the barn’s insides. She shivered as the icy water seeped into her dress. Her hands chafed against the rough ground, but they were still tied behind her back and she couldn’t move enough to release them.
Copsi stood over her, an empty water skin in his hands and his lips twisted into a smile that made her shiver.
‘Good, you’re awake,’ he said as she blinked the water out of her eyes. ‘Now, enough of this nonsense. You owe me for the amount of trouble you’ve caused.’
He knelt down next to her, his bulbous nose looming over her, and fumbled with the hem of her dress, trying to drag it up her body.
‘No!’ she screamed as she tried to wriggle away from him, feeling the skin on her hands scraping across the rough floor. ‘Stop! I won’t!’
He backhanded her across the face and she cried out in pain.
‘We will be consummating this union right here and now,’ he yelled, grasping her face in one hand.
The men around him jeered in approval.
She shook her head and the room swam. ‘Please, don’t do this...’
‘It’s too late. I’m already doing it. Swein’s lands will become mine and every advantage of its strategic position will increase my prosperity. You can either fight me on this or submit to my will.’
‘I’d rather be dead than be married to you.’
The Warrior Knight and the Widow Page 20