He barked out a laugh, his foul breath brushing across her face. ‘That can be arranged as well—but not before I’ve ridden into Swein with you as my wife. I want there to be no doubt in everyone’s minds that you and the lands are mine. I intend to enjoy myself too, but when the enjoyment runs out...’
He grinned, and Ellena cringed as low, masculine laughter rumbled around the room.
Copsi’s hands resumed their struggle with her clothing. And as Ellena was plunged back into the horror of her marriage bed the remembered pain and humiliation paralysed her with fear.
Her skirts were over her knees when a high-pitched scream rent the air.
Chapter Nineteen
Copsi froze.
‘What was that?’ grunted the man who had pulled Ellena from the sack.
‘A vixen,’ barked Copsi, but his hand on Ellena’s leg stopped moving nonetheless.
Ellena breathed out slowly.
The barn descended into silence.
A muffled thud sounded outside.
‘What was that?’ the man asked again.
Copsi’s men started to shift on their feet, a low murmuring breaking out among them.
‘It’s nothing,’ snapped Copsi, his small eyes narrowing in anger. ‘Yates, go and check with Ulmer. I want to know that everyone is still awake and watching out for anything suspicious.’
The man Yates tugged at his belt. ‘I’m sure it’s nothing, my lord.’
Another thud sounded—this time much nearer the barn’s walls.
‘Yates...’ warned Copsi.
‘What if The Beast has followed us, my lord?’ asked Yates, sounding a lot less confident now that he was expected to go outside alone.
‘That’s impossible. No one followed us from the fortress.’
‘Then what’s making those noises, my lord?’ Yates’s eyes were darting from side to side and sweat was beading across his brow.
‘It’s only the wind!’ roared Copsi. ‘Now, get out there and check that everyone is awake. I don’t want anything to disturb me while I enjoy myself with my new wife.’
Yates unsheathed the dagger he carried at his side and made his way over to the barn door. He stepped outside into the darkness, the door creaking shut behind him.
Then there was only silence.
‘Now, where were we?’ said Copsi. ‘Ah, yes—I was about to make you my wife in every way possible.’
Copsi laughed and the men around him relaxed too.
Ellena squirmed frantically against her bonds, serving only to scrape some of the skin off her fingers as she rubbed them against the barn floor.
She gritted her teeth against the pain. Then Copsi’s grasping hands reached her thighs and she cried out as his fingers bit into her flesh.
Moments later something heavy slammed into the side of the barn, shaking the timber frame and causing Copsi to jump to his feet.
Ellena scrambled onto her side, gasping for breath.
‘Wylie!’ he barked. ‘Stay with Ellena—make sure she doesn’t try and run for it. The rest of you come with me. Swords out—expect trouble.’
Ellena rolled onto her knees as the men traipsed outside, with Copsi staying towards the back of the group. Before Wylie could reach her she was able to stagger to her feet. The room swayed alarmingly, but she managed to stay upright.
‘Don’t come any closer,’ she slurred as the short, bald Wylie swaggered towards her.
He laughed. ‘How do you plan to stop me, hey? It doesn’t look to me as if you’re in any position to be giving orders.’
She skittered backwards, her heart hammering in her ears. ‘Just don’t...’ she whispered hoarsely as her back hit a wall.
There was nowhere else left for her to run.
He sniggered and, reaching out a hairy arm, easily pulled her towards him.
‘Copsi will be back soon,’ she croaked.
‘I can be quick.’
Ellena closed her eyes. Her worst nightmare was coming true and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Outside metal clanged and shouting suddenly filled the air.
Her new assailant laughed. ‘It looks like Copsi will be a while after all!’
He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and Ellena’s instincts took over. She brought her knee up sharply and hit the man hard between the legs. He instantly let go of her and crumpled to the floor.
She stepped over him, just managing to dodge the flailing arm which reached up to try and stop her.
She stumbled to the door, hearing Wylie cursing her from his prone position. She toed it open and slipped outside.
She screamed as a body flew past her and hit the wall of the barn.
‘Ellena!’ called a voice which caused her knees to weaken in relief.
Braedan was here.
He had come to get her.
Her head swam as she tried to find him in the melee.
‘Get away from the barn!’ shouted Braedan.
She twisted and turned as she tried to pick out his familiar body. But her eyesight wasn’t working properly. Everything seemed hazy. Men were moving in all directions and she couldn’t tell the difference between friend and foe.
Braedan had told her to get away from the barn. She stepped forward and the world tilted. She retched as nausea swept through her. She was so tired. All she wanted to do was lie down and rest her eyes...
She took another step and slipped in the mud.
‘Keep moving!’ yelled Braedan, somewhere to her right.
She tried to get her legs underneath her once more but they kept sliding away, and her dress was becoming heavier as wet mud soaked into it.
Swords clashed against swords.
A body fell next to her.
She saw Yates’s eyes, wide and unseeing. Relief swept through her. Perhaps Braedan and his men were winning. Maybe this nightmare would end.
She heard a low, keening noise and took a moment to realise it was coming from her. She shuffled forward on her knees, trying to put as much distance between herself and the hateful barn as she could.
When she twisted backwards to see how far she’d come she realised she’d only managed a few steps. The man she’d hit would be able to get up and come after her soon.
She started shuffling forward more quickly.
A hand reached out to grab her, but a sword swooped and the hand disappeared.
‘Please...’ she muttered. ‘Please, let this be over.’
She screamed as someone grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her up out of the mud. All around her the sound of fighting stilled. Heavy breathing sounded in her right ear.
‘Tell your men to back off, Braedan!’
Ellena whimpered as the grip on her hair tightened.
‘I’m warning you, Braedan,’ Copsi growled. ‘If your men don’t back off right now then my new wife is going to meet an untimely end.’
‘You can’t win, Copsi. You’re outnumbered and outclassed.’
Copsi responded by brandishing his dagger in Ellena’s face. ‘Shall I give her a scar to match yours?’ he taunted Braedan.
In the sudden silence Ellena could see Braedan, his muscles tightly bunched as if he was ready to spring into action, mud streaked across his face.
‘All right...all right,’ said Braedan. ‘My men are backing off.’
‘No...’ whispered Ellena as Braedan’s men slowly moved away from their opponents.
‘It seems we’ve reached an impasse,’ said Copsi.
Braedan said nothing. Ellena willed him to look at her. If these were her last few minutes on earth then she wanted her vision to be filled with the image of him.
But Braedan didn’t heed her silent pleas, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Copsi. ‘Let Ellena go and I will let you live,’ he said husk
ily.
‘Let me ride off with Ellena and I will let her live,’ responded Copsi.
Ellena’s vision swam. ‘I would rather be dead than leave with Copsi,’ she rasped.
Braedan nodded, and in one swift movement he brought his dagger up and flung it at Copsi. It flew straight and true towards its intended victim.
Ellena heard a grunt, and then the arms holding her so tightly fell away. She staggered, but Braedan reached her before she could fall again and gathered her in his arms.
‘Ellena, my love,’ he said as he held her close to his chest, his hands quickly untying the cords that bound her.
She flung her aching arms around his middle and held on tightly. He became the centre of her world as all around her everything swooped and swirled.
‘I’m sorry,’ she sobbed against his chain mail. ‘I’m sorry...’
‘Hush, my love. Everything is all right. You’re safe now.’
His hands stole into her hair and he tenderly stroked the strands away from her face.
‘Is he dead?’ she asked.
Braedan glanced away from her and towards the body on the floor. ‘Yes.’
For some reason her tears came harder at the news, and she clung to Braedan, who still held her tightly.
She was vaguely aware of people moving around them. There were grunts, and the sound of bodies being dragged through mud mixed with the sound of chains being fixed around wrists. But for the most part she was only concerned about Braedan: his familiar scent, the rough stubble of his chin against her hair and the reassuring pressure of his arms around her.
She never wanted to move.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said again, when she could speak.
His arms only tightened around her. ‘Hush, my love. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.’
‘You were right. I was foolish to assume I was safe in my father’s grounds.’
She heard him sigh. ‘You should have been safe. It’s me who’s sorry that you were taken from right under the nose of my men. When I think of what could have happened...’
She felt a shudder run through his whole body. ‘He didn’t... I mean, there was only...’
‘Aye, I know, my love. We weren’t far behind you. We only lost you when Copsi’s cart turned off the track unexpectedly. We found you quickly enough, but I’m so sorry for those moments you had to endure while we took Copsi’s guards. I wanted...’ He heaved a sigh and tightened his grip even further. ‘But Merrick was right. It was best not to storm in there, no matter how much I wanted to. You could have been killed in the confusion. I am sorrier than you will ever know that you had to face that unpleasantness.’
He leaned a little away from her.
‘I wish I could kill him all over again for the pain he’s caused you.’
He reached up and lightly touched his fingers to the place where Copsi had hit her.
‘It’s fine,’ she said, smiling shyly up at him.
He smiled, and then he brought his lips gently down to hers.
Their kiss started off softly, but it quickly built in intensity. All her worry and fear poured into him and he took it, replacing it with wild desire.
Around them his men continued clearing the area, but neither of them paid any attention. All that mattered was Braedan’s mouth on hers. She was safe once more and it was all because of this man.
Eventually there was the sound of shuffling feet, but Braedan still didn’t raise his head.
Merrick cleared his throat. ‘The bodies are buried, Sir.’
‘Good,’ murmured Braedan against her mouth.
‘The Earl will be worried about his daughter.’
Braedan sighed softly and raised his head, tucking Ellena to his side. ‘Then we’ll return to Ogmore.’
His men remained silent as Braedan led Ellena over to Ffoi. The only sound came from their horses, snorting impatiently into the cold night air. He helped her into the saddle and then swung up behind her, using one arm to pull her flush against him.
She didn’t resist. Here in Braedan’s arms she was at her safest.
He kicked the stallion into motion and his men fell in around them.
She smiled slightly, remembering how closed in she had felt riding at the centre of them only a few weeks ago. Now she felt protected and cocooned, and she knew that these men, with this leader, would always come for her.
The rocking motion of the horse lulled her and her eyes drooped. Before she could succumb to sleep she murmured, ‘How is Aldith?’
‘She has a sore head, but she will live,’ Braedan rumbled behind her. ‘Now sleep, my love. You’ll be home soon.’
She must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew was the sound of many voices, and then she was being handed to her mother, whose soft, flowery scent had her crying again.
‘She needs rest.’
Braedan’s voice came from high above her.
‘No...’ she mumbled, her fingers stretching towards the sound of his voice.
There was something very important she needed to say to Braedan, but she couldn’t remember what it was. If she stayed with him then perhaps it would come to her. One thing she was certain about was that they mustn’t be separated. Bad things happened to her whenever he left her side.
But she wasn’t strong enough to stop the tide which swept her away from the dark courtyard and into the warm candlelight of Ogmore Castle, up and away from the only man she trusted to keep her safe.
Chapter Twenty
Days passed. Ellena drifted in and out of consciousness. She was aware that her mother only left her side to eat, and heard the soft sound of Aldith’s voice as she came and went from the bedchamber. Gradually she felt able to sit upright and take some food, with her mother spooning broth into her mouth as if she were a babe.
A few more days passed in a hazy blur of broth and sleep until finally one afternoon she felt strong enough to sit up in bed and feed herself.
‘What happened?’ she asked Aldith, who was sitting nearby, her head bent over her sewing.
Aldith didn’t need her to explain what she meant. The two women had become close in the aftermath of their shared experience, and Ellena finally felt able to call the woman her friend.
‘I’m afraid I don’t remember much myself,’ Aldith said, looking up from the hem she was mending. ‘I only know what I’ve been told. Apparently Sir Leofric was having you watched all the time, but there was a late change of duty. One of the new recruits got lost on his way to your bedchamber and missed us leaving the room. It took him a while to work out that we were no longer in there. He raised the alarm straight away, but no one knew where we had gone, and because we were in the Countess’s garden, where no man is allowed...’
Ellena tapped the bed next to her and Aldith moved to sit next to her, gently patting her outstretched hand as she did so.
‘It was Katherine Leofric who told her brother where she had seen us. I don’t know how long I had been lying on the ground before they found me, but by then you had already disappeared.’
‘How did they know I’d been taken out of the castle?’
‘They didn’t. Braedan had all his men, and every man, woman and child who wasn’t part of his guard, searching Ogmore’s grounds for you. Nobody denied him; apparently he was like a man possessed. He even yelled instructions at your father, and the Earl did what he was told. Apparently no one has ever seen that happen before.’
Aldith raised her eyebrows and Ellena felt heat wash over her face. She could well imagine Braedan in full warrior mode. His anger at her disappearance must have been terrible to behold.
‘What happened next?’ she asked.
‘Braedan split his men into teams, and each one set off after a different carriage of the two that had been seen leaving the castle during the day. Braedan chose the one he thought m
ost likely to be carrying you, and it turned out his instinct was right.’
Aldith picked at a thread that had worked its way loose from Ellena’s blanket. ‘You know the rest,’ she said quietly.
Ellena did know the rest. Braedan had found her before any real harm had been done. Copsi and his men had been killed and she had been returned to her father’s castle. Her father was no doubt pleased that his greatest enemy had been destroyed. She wondered if he’d thought about her at all.
What she didn’t know, because she couldn’t ask, was what had happened to Braedan since. She’d asked Aldith casually, but all she’d said was that he’d returned to his normal duties. She couldn’t believe that he’d kissed her like that in front of Merrick and then carried on as if nothing had happened.
As the days passed, and he still didn’t come to see her, she convinced herself that he had only kissed her because his bloodlust had been up. The fight with the two men in the woods, the demand for marriage and then her rescue had all been moments of high tension, and now that she was lying in bed like an elderly invalid he wasn’t interested.
She closed her eyes. The pain in her heart was worse than any physical damage she’d sustained. She wondered if she would be told one day that he had left for Castle Swein. If she couldn’t get up soon then that particular fight would be lost before she even got to say her piece. Not that she wanted to fight with him any more. Her anger had died and all she wanted was for them to talk about the estate in a rational manner and hope that there was a solution that suited them both.
Several more long, restless days passed. Ellena felt ready to go out into the world, but despite numerous pleas to her mother she was ordered to remain on bed rest for at least a week. No matter whom she appealed to, everyone had the same response.
More days passed and it was as if the walls had started to close in on her.
Her desire to see Braedan became frantic. She needed to speak with him about her castle. She wanted to explain that she understood why he’d acted in the way he had. She needed him to know that she forgave him for his decision, even if she didn’t agree with it. She wanted to tell him of her offer to take in his sisters in return for his taking back his claim. But most importantly she wanted to know whether he felt the burning passion for her that she did for him, or whether he had only ever been acting in the moment.
The Warrior Knight and the Widow Page 21