Turning, she headed back for the keep and the lonely bed that awaited her.
“Hello, pretty lady,” a deep voice rumbled to her left and she turned towards it in shock, realising too late that she should have run in terror towards the keep’s gates. She screamed, hoping to rouse help, but her cry was smothered by a hand clamping over her mouth. Struggle as she might, she couldn’t free herself. To her horror she soon heard more men’s voices as she was dragged onto the boat the men had hidden at the foot of the mountain.
As soon as they let her go, she scooted as far away as she could.
“Your husband chose the wrong side to support,” one of the men rasped.
“He does his duty to king,” she argued.
The man ignored her. “And so we will take all from him. Starting with you.”
“I want her first,” the man who’d grabbed her announced. She realised she’d seen him before, when she’d visited town that day. He’d eyed her but she’d ignored him.
“You cannot. I am wed to another before God,” she said, hoping to deter them. The trio laughed.
“Where is your man, then?” one of them asked. “He leaves you alone, wandering unprotected while he fights his foul king’s battles. He deserves to lose you.”
“No…”
“I’ll take her now,” the first man said again, lurching towards her. “I rather fancy a fucking to the rock of a boat.”
“No!” Emma screamed, attempting to stand and run. But where? She tripped over her skirts, tumbling forward before dragging herself upright again. The boat tilted in the violent waves just as the man reached for her. Emma fell sideways, hitting her head on the side of the boat as she careened into the icy waves.
* * * *
“Emma!” Ailig bellowed as he had the last time he’d returned from his duty. He dismounted his horse at the gate and headed for the keep. Inside, three bodies lay. Recently dead.
Panic overtook him and he drew his sword, dashing into the castle in search of his wife. “Emma,” he called, the sound of his voice echoing off the walls of the empty keep. “Emma!”
What had happened? She’d foreseen his death, had she not? Oh merciful heaven no!
His breaths came so fast he couldn’t fill his lungs. Her solar was empty. Their bedchamber. Empty. He couldn’t find her anywhere. And where had the servants fled?
“My lord,” his squire greeted him, when he re-entered the great hall. “The men in the courtyard were killed with knives to the throat.”
“No…”
“We must go to the village and see if there’s anyone who knows what has happened.”
Ailig shook his head, only able to think of Emma. “I have to find her,” he whispered.
“We will, my lord.”
Shaking from the emotions choking his heart, Ailig followed his servant from the keep. On the shore below, a tangle of dark hair and green fabric caught his eye. No!
He ran, heedless of the steep, rocky terrain, heedless that he stumbled and ripped skin and garments as he flew down the incline. Reaching her, he sank to his knees, tears burning his eyes as his world closed around him.
“Emma, no,” he sobbed, lifting her against his chest. “No.”
* * * *
Emma’s corpse lay on the long trundle table in the main hall, awaiting preparation for burial. So recently they’d celebrated their marriage here, and now…
He’d take revenge on those who’d done this. But who? There were no traces of who’d taken her and the servants he’d located had no information that would reveal the assailant’s identities.
He paced, occasionally stopping and brushing his fingers over Emma’s marble-like cheek. Without her, his life had ended…their time had been so short. All his dreams for the future were contained in her. His fingers slid over the rounded stone of the necklace still around her neck.
The blessing he’d received had promised them an eternity together. An eternity, they would have.
Carefully, he removed the necklace from his love. Their dreams could be others’ dreams. Grasping the stone in his hand, he ran through the keep gathering supplies like a madman, and perhaps madness had indeed overcome him. He’d seen too much, endured even more. He’d lost the only thing of worth to him.
He retrieved a bottle and stopper from the kitchens, a quill and parchment from his thinking room, rope from the storage pantry beside the main hall. With a heavy heart, he returned to Emma and set the implements beside her. Dipping the quill in ink, he wrote:
A stone that's blessed by lover’s hands
To bless the wearer with a love that stands.
Through time and toil, no stopping fate
As lovers united, no hand can break.
So take this token and wear it true,
Destiny awaits with love for you.
A favour I ask from you to me
Once blessed return my gift to the sea.
For others await the hand of fate
My blessing to love's true mates.
Quickly he signed it, Ailig Bennett December 1264.
Gently he kissed Emma’s lifeless lips then kissed the stone. “Unite the lovers,” he said. “Unite them and give them the happiness we would have had.”
With care, he rolled the thick parchment and placed it in the bottle along with Emma’s necklace. He sealed the bottle. Sitting again, he wrote a second letter, this time to King Henry.
Leaving it on the table, he lifted Emma into his arms then picked up the bottle and the rope. Emotion escaped him as he looked around the keep which had been his home for so long. Once he’d been proud of this solid walls bequeathed him by the king. Once he’d had dreams of giving this to his son.
None of it existed for him any longer. None of it mattered.
“Stay here,” he told his squire as he passed him in the courtyard outside the great hall. The man nodded, busy removing the remains of the men who’d died there. He barely noticed Ailig, which Ailig decided was good. He had no desire to argue with his servant.
With measured steps, Ailig returned to the place where he’d found Emma. He paused as the icy water swirled around his ankles.
“Find them. Unite them,” he whispered. Drawing back his arm, he hurled the bottle into the waves, watching momentarily as it bobbed and was drawn away. “And now our turn,” he told Emma. After binding her to him with the rope, he paused again, this time lifting a prayer to the heavens for salvation and forgiveness of what he was about to do.
Then he walked.
Emma cradled in his arms.
“Our life here is ended,” he murmured. “But I will find you again, love. Our souls are entwined, and we will be together again…”
Ailig’s body fought the water, but his resolve was stronger as the ocean flowed over him. His chest burned as everything went dark, with Emma still clutched to his chest, and he sank deep into the waters, dragged down by the weight of his heavy mail.
And then brightness, unlike any he’d seen, filled him as he was drawn away. The pain from the cold and the water filling his body no longer tortured him. The pain from his loss lessened as peace flowed through him.
Emma stood before him, smiling as she reached for him.
“My love,” she said.
“I cannot live without you.”
“Nor I without you.”
Ailig dragged her to his chest, distantly aware of ethereal figures circling them in the distance. He held no fear or wariness. They would not harm him.
His mouth covered hers and she kissed him back. There was no urgency, no overwhelming lust. They had transcended human need. For now. Ailig knew when they again united it would be unlike anything he’d before experienced. Better. Perfect.
“We cannot stay here,” Emma told him, her fingers smoothing his long hair from his face.
“What? No!”
“It is not our time to be here. We still have our life to live together. In another time and another place.”
“No. I do not w
ish to be parted again.”
“We must. For a time. We have much before us, love. But trust. We will be united again.”
“No!” Ailig screamed as he was pulled from her by an unseen force. His scream turned to an unintelligible cry as his being was pressed and he found himself staring up into the exhausted face of another woman.
“Sweet baby,” she murmured. “It’s all right, my Alexander.”
Ailig continued to cry as the task before him settled into his soul and the memory of the one he loved faded from his mind. He would find her again…someday.
And as the waves covered the great knight and his love, the bottle travelled across the waters, searching for other great loves to unite until the day when these two souls would again be entwined and the necklace would once more rest against the heart of the beloved…
About the Author
When it comes to books and movies, Brynn Paulin has one rule: there must be a happy ending. After that one requirement, anything else goes. And it just might in any of her books.
Brynn lives in Michigan with her husband and two children, who love her despite her occasional threats to smite them. They humour her and let her think she's a goddess...as long as she provides homemade chocolate chip cookies on a regular basis. Brynn is president of her local chapter of Romance Writers of America and also hosts a weekly writing critique group. She’s conducted workshops at several writers’ conferences around the country as she enjoys mentoring and meeting new people.
According to Brynn, her writing success can be attributed to 70's music, her local road construction crews, a trusty notebook, and of course, her husband (and willing research subject), AKA Mr. Inspiration.
Email: [email protected]
Brynn loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com.
Also by Brynn Paulin
Redemption: Fallen
Redemption: Incubus
Tribute for the Goddess
Circle of Three: Tempting Tamera
The Debtor’s Daughters
GAINING HOPE
Lacey Thorn
Dedication
To Michelle, Chris and Carol: May this be just the first of many
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Levi’s: Levi Strauss & Co.
Prologue
Shawn O’Grady looked at his mother and shook his head in disbelief. She couldn’t possibly mean what he thought she did.
“Oh, quit looking at me as if I’ve gone daft Shawn Michael O’Grady! Did you really think that you were keeping any secrets from me?” Maureen O’Grady was still a force to be reckoned with though she was heading into her sixties. She had outlived both her husband and Shawn’s older brother Robbie. She was small in stature, barely five feet tall but no one would dare think that meant that she couldn’t hold her own with anyone. And today Shawn was feeling the full force of his mother’s attention.
“I’m not sure what you mean,” was all he could think of to say to her. Nothing else was computing in his brain right now.
“You know exactly what I mean.” Maureen fired back. “You’re just embarrassed because I called you on it.” Her expression softened as she stepped forward and hugged Shawn tight. His mother’s head barely reached his chest as he loomed over her at six feet three inches.
“It’s not that easy Mom.” He relented enough to tell her.
“It’s just that easy.” She replied. “You and Tommy have been together since you were boys. You’ve shared a lot in that time, some things that even a mother doesn’t want to know about.” This last was added almost under her breath but Shawn heard it and blushed to the roots of his black hair.
His mother glanced up and laughed before patting his cheek and stepping back. “You go after him and tell him that he was right. Patty wasn’t for you because she couldn’t accept that you and Tommy were a pair, a matched set if you will. Some day the right woman will come along and she’ll accept you both. Destiny has a true mate for you. You’ve only to be patient and let the fates bring you all together.”
“Mom, you know that Tommy and I don’t…” he broke off, unsure of exactly what his mother thought they did do. He didn’t want to plant any ideas in her head if they weren’t already there.
“I know that you and Tommy don’t share a physical love with one another if that is what has you all twisted up inside. But I do know that you love each other as brothers. I know that you two have shared your women since you were fifteen and snuck out to meet the widow visiting down the street.”
Shawn lowered his head and felt his mother’s tinkling laughter wash over him. “Not much you can get past me, Shawn Michael, and best you not forget it. Now go find Tommy and together you’ll find your destiny.”
Shawn kissed his mother and grabbed the duffel she had put together for him. It was time that he head back to his home anyway. Business would be booming and hopefully Tommy would be there, keeping the office running smoothly. How he had ever fancied himself in love with a selfish woman like Patty, he would never know. He could only pray that he hadn’t lost his best friend and blood brother through his stupidity.
Hope hid in the hallway listening to her father on the phone. She couldn’t believe he was already agreeing to wedding terms when her birthday was still three months away. But he was. There was frustration in his voice and she wandered at it. She’d love nothing more than to hear both sides of the conversation. But the only thing that she was sure of at the moment was that she needed to finalise her plans to get the hell out of this town and the life that waited for her here.
Her father slammed the phone down and let a four-letter word loose that almost had her laughing. He would be so angry if he knew she was standing there listening. Sometimes she hated him and sometimes she wandered if any of them even knew him at all. She had caught him with odd looks on his face, almost as if he felt sorrow or pain or some other tender emotion that seemed beyond him on a good day.
Faith had escaped three years earlier, the night before her wedding. Now it was up to Hope to take the place of the bride. It was something that she didn’t plan on doing. She still wasn’t sure exactly how her sister had managed to escape. She’d had word that Faith was married now and happy with a guy who once visited their town. They lived on the east coast somewhere. Hope had a postcard hidden in her room with the address. Once she made it out of this town, she’d find them and see her sister again.
Her one shot was the fair coming to town. She planned to slip away during the festivities and if luck was with her she should make it to the Gulf and from there to safety. All she had to do was find a boat to sneak onto and somehow manage to hide out there until they were too far out to turn back. She’d just go with them and eventually make it to Faith. She’d search for a nice older couple. Hell, anything would be better than the guy who was eagerly awaiting their honeymoon. She’d swim the entire Gulf of Mexico first!
She slipped quietly down the hall, peeking into her three younger sisters’ rooms along the way. She hated to leave them behind. But sometimes life presented you with hard decisions and you just had to do what you could and hope for the best. She was leaving…and hoping for the best for those she left behind.
Chapter One
Hope waited in the shadows of the early night fall, watching the older woman move about the boat. It looked as if she was preparing it to set sail and that was just what Hope had been searching for. The woman was sixty if she was a day and was humming as she worked. She would definitely help Hope get away once they were far enough out. Hope had no doubts that she could talk her into what she needed. A man would be different. She’d been ogled enough by men to know that her full breasts and curvy body filled most men with lust.
Hope watched the woman leave the boat and head up the dock and knew that her
moment was fast approaching. It was now or never. Once the woman was out of sight, she crept out from behind the storage building she was using for cover and sprinted down the dock to hop on board the boat. It rocked a little and Hope held her breath praying no one else was on board as she cautiously crept down the stairs below deck. She had to find a place that she could hide for an adequate amount of time. It wouldn’t do her any good if she was discovered before they even left.
She entered a large bedroom and marvelled at the beauty within. The furniture was gorgeous and decidedly masculine. It was also immaculate. Hope had only seen the woman on the boat and with the condition of the room she wondered if it was even being used. Doing a fast search of the room she finally found what she was looking for in the closet. There were several blankets haphazardly thrown on the floor and she was able to make a small nest with them. The clothes hanging up helped to hide her.
She snuggled down into the blankets and by pulling one up and over her, she was completely hidden from view. Hopefully, it would still just look like a pile of blankets. At five foot three she wasn’t all that tall anyway so she should be okay. She’d just stay here for as long as she could and when enough time had passed with the motor going, she would come up with a way to be discovered and take it from there. She’d always had a great imagination. She’d wait and create her story when the time was at hand. She was fairly good at that. For now she’d just take a little nap.
Shawn and Tommy stood on the shore watching the water of the Gulf lap the sand. It was a beautiful sunset. In the last three months, they had managed to mend the rift caused by the woman Shawn almost married and both agreed never to let a woman come between them again.
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