by Snow Novels
“It’s the truth.”
I looked at the floor, then looked back at Sam.
“Sam,” I said softly. “I want to be with you more than anything. But there are things about me that you just won’t understand. Trust me, if you knew, you wouldn’t want to be with me anyway.”
“Try me.”
“I can’t. You would never look at me the same way.”
“I want to know everything about you, Paige. I’m not afraid of your past. I’m not afraid of your present. I just want your future. I want a chance to be your future.”
Tears were welling in my eyes once more. I wanted to tell him the truth. I wanted to tell him about Fiona. But something told me that, if I did, he would run away. Sam may have thought he was falling in love with me, but he wasn’t reformed enough to want to care for a child. At the very least, his father had promised to help raise her.
“I have to go,” I whispered, kissing Sam on the cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“What are you going to tell him?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “But I have to accept the consequences.”
“Paige, don’t ...”
But I was already gone
.
Chapter 8
It was nighttime when he finally came for me. Neither he nor Sam visited me during the day. He was either looking for me elsewhere, or he knew I would return. Either way, he was every bit as angry when he showed up as he was in Sam’s chamber that morning.
“Where the hell were you last night?”
The door slammed open as the words came forward. I looked from where I sat by my vanity table. I had been brushing my hair, mulling over the destructive path that my life had become. I had tried for hours – and still I had not been able to supply an acceptable excuse for the night before. So, I tried the only thing I could.
“I was jumped,” I whispered, looking down at the table. “Three men came after me when Sam left me at the gate. They chased me to the stable. I took one of the mares and road away. I didn’t feel safe coming back until morning.”
This partially rehearsed speech fell flat as I spoke. Slowly, I realized the flaws in my story. First of all, why would three men jump me? As the town whore, I wasn’t very sought after. Second, how could I have escaped with a mare? Surely they had checked the stables last night and found all of the horses secure in their pens. And third, why wouldn’t I have alerted the Duke to the threat as soon as I arrived home – rather than at night?
I wasn’t the only one who saw the holes.
“You whore woman,” he said, stepped toward me and slapping me across the face. “Tell me the truth! Where were you last night?”
“I already told you!” I screamed, but he wasn’t listening anymore. He grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me onto the bed.
“There are consequences for women who whore themselves around,” he roared, unbuckling his pants. “Undress yourself.”
I stared at him, completely unwilling to follow his orders. I wasn’t going to be raped. Not again. Even Fiona wouldn’t want me to go through that. Not for her sake.
“Do it!”
I shook my head.
“No,” I said softly. “I won’t.”
The Duke sneered, then leapt at me. He ripped off my nightgown in one, solid motion.
“You’ll do as you’re told,” he growled. “Or you’ll never see your daughter again.”
He was coming for me. I tried to roll away from him, but he pulled me back and held me down by the throat. There wasn’t any fighting this time. He would take me, and the nightmares would repeat themselves.
“Leave her alone,” Sam’s angry voice ordered from the doorway. “Touch her again, and I swear I’ll kill you.”
The Duke raised an eyebrow, then stood.
“I thought I taught you better than that,” he said, advancing on his son. “I thought I taught you to let your father do this job.”
“Your job doesn’t involve forcing women into bed,” Sam growled. “I mean it. Let her go. She doesn’t love you, and you know it.”
“Marriage isn’t about love,” The Duke growled. “If you don’t leave this room and shut the door behind you, I’ll see that you’re banished from this castle – and everything around it.”
“I’m not leaving without her.”
Sam reached a hand out to me, passing his father with ease.
“You love me,” he said as I cringed away from him. “You love me, so run away with me. We can start a new life. I’ll take care of you. No one will even know our names.”
I wanted more than anything in the world to accept the offer. Running away with Sam would have been a dream come true. But, for the sake of my daughter, I couldn’t accept. Yet, for the sake of my daughter, I couldn’t stay. What if the Duke threatened her? What if he was violent toward her?
There was no way for me to win.
“I can’t,” I whispered, staring at him with pleading eyes. “I want to, Sam, but I can’t.”
“You see?”
The Duke was making his way toward us.
“The girl has sense, after all.”
He pushed Sam out of the way and into the wall.
“I’m willing to forgive your transgressions,” he said, learning so close that I could smell the alcohol on his breath. “But you’ll give yourself to me. One way or another. Maybe not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow. But you will.”
The urge to spit in his face was great, but I refrained. I could feel my daughter in my arms. Once I had her, we could escape. Once I had her, everything could be okay again.
But maybe that was just wishful thinking.
Sam was pulling himself to his feet across the room.
“You love me,” he whispered, his eyes hurt and heartbroken. “I came here to save you. Let me save you, Paige. We can be happy together.”
“He’ll hurt you,” I said, knowing it was true. “I can’t let him hurt you.”
“Make your choice.”
The Duke wasn’t willing to waste any more time.
“Please,” I said, exhausted and weary. “I’ll marry you. Just don’t make Sam leave. He won’t be a problem anymore. I promise.”
“Paige, don’t ...” Sam said from across the room, but it was too late. The words had been spoken.
“I’m so sorry, Sam,” I whispered. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Not for me.”
Sam nodded and turned to leave the room, but not before turning back and punching his father in the jaw. The Duke swung back and forth in place, then nearly fell to the floor. He caught his balance. By this point, there were two guards at the door and I was trying desperately to cover myself.
“Get him out of here!”
The Duke growled and pointed at Sam. The guards, rather happily, followed orders.
“No!” I screamed, attempting to sit up and run to him.
“Shut up, whore!”
The Duke pushed me back down on the bed and leaned on top of me. The guards, with Sam in tow, shut the door behind them.
“I could take you now,” he said, rubbing a greasy hand against my chest. “But I’m afraid I might strangle you instead. I think we’d better wait, don’t you?”
He kissed my neck, making me cringe, then stood from the bed. He gathered his things and left.
My life was in ruins.
Chapter 9
It was the day of the wedding. I hadn’t seen Sam in three days, since he’d been removed from the castle altogether. I missed him terribly. Without him around, I had no one to talk to. My maids had been fired – the Duke’s way of making me even more miserable as punishment for my love. The guards and maids employed in the castle disliked me by default. I had nothing but a feel ripped gowns to my name, and no one to share them with.
I sighed. This would be no life for Fiona, even when I finally got her. Still, it would have to do for now. Once I had her, we would pack our things in the night and run away. It was the only chance we had. I didn’t car
e about running away and starting a new life somewhere. I just wanted Fiona with me. Maybe, if we were lucky, we’d run into Sam on the way. Then, everything could be the way it was supposed to be.
My daydreams were cut short when the door opened and the Duke entered.
“Thinking about our wedding night?”
“No,” I said, staring out the window. “I’m thinking about Fiona.”
“Who the hell is Fiona?”
“My daughter.”
“I see,” he said, obviously holding back a laugh. “And you’re daydreaming about her, is that right?”
“Yes,” I said tonelessly, without looking up.
This seemed to make the Duke angry.
“This is our wedding day,” he said, lowering himself to my level. “And you’ll be excited about it. Do you understand me?”
I nodded, but I didn’t mean it.
A violent smack across the face landed me on the floor, my cheek burning.
“That’ll teach you to answer me with anything other than “Yes, sir”, whore.”
Despite my pain, I wasn’t angry. I just didn’t care anymore.
“Fiona,” I whispered, reminding myself that everything would be worth it, in the end.
“Are you still going on about her?”
I didn’t dare look at him.
“You should be more grateful, you stupid whore. I picked you up from the mud. You had nothing. I gave you everything. And you can’t even smile on our wedding day.”
“I’ll smile when I see my daughter.”
“You won’t see your daughter, you stupid bitch. I don’t even know where she is. She’s not coming to live here. For all it matters to you, she might as well be dead – because you’re sure as hell never going to see her again.”
The Duke thought he was hurting me beyond repair, but he wasn’t. Instead, he was supplying the only motivation I needed to leave his miserable castle.
I pulled myself from the floor and glared at him.
“You were never going to give me Fiona,” I said, my nostrils flaring. “You brought me into this marriage on false pretenses.”
I took a glass cup from my vanity and smashed it over his head. He became disoriented, but I knew it wouldn’t last.
I ran.
I ran from the building, from the screaming for the guards, from all of it. I ran to the stables, mounted my mare, and flew across the grounds. I didn’t know where I was going, but I wasn’t going to stop until I was safe. I wasn’t going to stop until I found Fiona and Sam. I wasn’t going to stop until everything was okay again.
I reached the outskirts of a small town. There, I found an innkeeper and his wife. I asked them if they’d seen a man by the name Sam. The innkeeper knew who I meant almost immediately, and told me where Sam was staying. It was a fifteen minute ride. On the way there, I thought about what I was going to say.
When I arrived and dismounted my horse, I realized I had nothing left in the world. It was all, officially, gone. If Sam wouldn’t take me, well, I was done for. I would choose death or running. And, since I’d already run and gotten nowhere, death seemed like the better option.
I knocked on the door. Sam answered right away.
“Paige?”
His eyes wide, Sam opened the door and allowed me to come inside.
“What is this place?” I asked as I came in.
“It belonged to my mother,” Sam explained. “Sometimes, she needed to get away from my father. This is where she came. He never knew it existed. Not until she died, anyway.”
“That’s awful,” I said sincerely. I couldn’t imagine any woman being married to the Duke long enough to raise four children. “I bet you really loved her.”
“I did,” Sam said nodding. “Just like I love you.”
He turned to me.
“What are you doing here?”
“I ran away,” I said breathlessly. “I needed you, Sam.”
He picked me up as he had once before, leading me into the bedroom. We kissed passionately until my body met the bed. Then, we both undressed and came together in a beautiful, unparalleled way. If this was how you made love, I wanted it – every single day, for the rest of my life.
“I love you,” Sam whispered, pulling me closer to him. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
When the lovemaking was over, Sam and I laid in bed together. It was oddly quiet until Sam gathered the courage to ask the question we both knew was coming.
“Why didn’t you come with me?” Sam asked, looking at me with a calculating gaze. “I don’t understand. What was holding you back? What did he promise you?”
I sighed.
“The opportunity to see my daughter, Fiona,” I explained, shrugging my shoulders. “I was raped when I was seventeen. I had a little girl after that. I named her Fiona. The king took her away from me, called me a whore, and forced me to live in exile. I’ve been searching for her ever since then. The Duke promised she could live with us after the wedding, but he lied. He never wanted to help me. He only wanted to help himself.”
Sam stared.
“I know you probably don’t want anything to do with me now,” I said. “But I’d appreciate your understanding, at least.”
“I’m so sorry,” Sam said. “I should have known. That’s terrible, Paige. That’s absolutely terrible.”
I opened my mouth to say more when a door banged open. I heard a gun cock.
“Sam!” I screamed, knowing the Duke was coming to kill us both – knowing a woman never does well to defy an older man, knowing I should have let him have me, knowing I could have kept Sam alive.
Sam ran to the corner of the room and pulled a large box out from underneath an armchair. He reached inside and produced a gun of his own, which seemed like an intricate machine.
“Get in the closet,” Sam ordered. “Don’t say a word.”
I did as I was told. My heart was threatening to remove itself from my chest.
“Give her up,” a deep voice said from the living room. “It’s time to let go of this nonsense. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’ll have to kill me first,” Sam said, holding his gun at eye level. There was only one door into the bedroom, but I didn’t like his odds. If he was killed, I was certain I would die with him – or, at the very least, the best parts of me would die.
“I have no problem with that.”
The Duke came into view through the door. He turned and shot at Sam. Sam took a bullet in the arm. That didn’t stop him from shooting his own gun, which landed a bullet in the Duke’s eye. Blood spewed everywhere. The Duke was screaming. There was no one around to help him, or to help Sam.
Luckily, I knew some healing methods of my own.
I created a tourniquet with a piece of the bedding and tied it around Sam’s arm. Luckily, the wound was clean.
Twenty minutes later, the Duke was dead. Sam didn’t have the time, nor the energy, to mourn. I guided him to the nearest doctor, who gave him a more permanent cover for his wound. The doctor wanted to keep him overnight, but Sam couldn’t afford to stay away from the castle. With the Duke dead, of his own accord, Sam was the rightful Duke of Southgate. If he didn’t arrive back home and claim his land within twenty-four hours, someone else might lay claim to it.
“Now, will you marry me?” Sam asked, as a carriage took us home. “I have all the money in the world. And I’ll find Fiona. Mark my words, I’ll find her. And she’ll live with us, and she’ll be happy. Can’t you imagine it, Paige? Can’t you imagine how amazing life could be, with the three of us?”
I grinned.
“Yes,” I said. “Now, I’ll marry you.”
We knew the people of Southgate were in for the surprise of their lives. Luckily, no one would able to combat the fact that the Duke had died by participating in a duel, which made both parties free from murder charges. Sam and I were finally going to be free, and everything was finally going to be okay.
“You know so
mething?” Sam asked, wincing as we turned a tight corner. “If you had asked me, a week ago, if I would fall in love with my father’s bride, kill my father, and take over the estate – I never would have believed you.”
“I don’t think anyone would have believed it,” I said with a half-smile. “I certainly wouldn’t have. I had you pegged as a played.”
“Trust me,” Sam said, holding up his good hand. “Those days are behind me. Now, everything is about you and our beautiful little girl. I’m going to write to every orphanage in the country. By this time next week, we’ll have her. I promise.”
I put my hand on his.
“Sam,” I said. “Are you sure you want this? I mean, a child had the ability to uproot your entire life.”
“I love you,” Sam said. “And I don’t care what consequences come with it. I want to meet your daughter. I want to meet our daughter. And I’m sure I’m going to fall in love with her, too. In fact, if she’s anything like you, I promise she will.”
I pulled him close to me and kissed his lips.
“Thank you, Sam,” I whispered. “You’re not going to regret this.”
“Beautiful girl,” Sam said, putting his hand below my chin. “You changed my life in a week. I’m not going to regret it. I get to marry you. I get to start a life with you. I finally get to stop feeling alone. Tell me – isn’t that everything you’ve ever wanted?”
I smiled, because I knew he was right. I was sitting in a carriage, heading back to a castle I would soon own, with my partner in crime – a man who truly cared about me and wanted the best for me. I knew someone else like that, but he’d been dead since I was fifteen-years-old.
“My father would have loved you,” I whispered. “My parents would have loved you.”
And, somehow, that thought brought everything together in a whole new, wonderful way.
We drove into the distance.
My life was finally going right.
THE END
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