Temptation of the Warrior

by Margo Maguire

  “Where are we going, Matthew?”

  “I have an idea, but you’ll have to trust me, moileen. And do as I say this time!”

  The fire had drawn onlookers from their hovels, and they were creating crowds in which Merrick and Jenny could lose themselves. At the same time, they interfered with Merrick being able to catch sight of Lambton to follow him.

  The mob started to turn ugly as it had done the night before. There were shouts and screams as the people decided to run toward the town center where they’d gathered the night before. Merrick caught sight of Lambton in the crowd. “There he is!”

  Swallowed up in his jumper, Jenny held his hand tightly and hurried to keep up with him. They raced down the crowded lane, pushing their way past everyone who impeded their path, but the man was getting too far ahead.

  “Matthew! Go on without me!” Jenny cried, almost breathless.

  He slowed and pulled her against him with one arm ’round her shoulders. “Nay, lass. We’ll never get to him through this horde. Now that I know who he is, I’ll be able to catch him on the morrow.”

  “I can find my way back to the hotel…Go on—”

  “No’ tonight, Jenny.”

  There was no point in allowing themselves to become bogged down in the mob. Merrick wasn’t going to catch Lambton this way, even without her. Better to come back later, or in the morning, after the crowd had dispersed.

  He could use himself as bait next time. After thrashing the man as soundly as he’d done, Merrick was sure Lambton would feel he had a score to settle. All Merrick would need to do was show up in the vicinity of the Old Scratch and boast of his conquest. Lambton would hear of it and come to him like a spark to flint.

  Most importantly, Jenny could stay in the safety of her room at the Queen’s Hotel while Merrick went searching for Lambton and the sister.

  The constables routed the crowd, and they heard gunfire coming from the direction of the Lanes. Jenny jumped and screamed at the sudden, startling noise that was so much louder than the Gypsy boys’ gunpowder. Merrick hurried her away from the crowd, circling ’round to the back of the hotel to the servants’ entrance. A surprised maid opened the door to them, and Merrick drew Jenny inside.

  He did not stop to make explanations, but drew Jenny along a dim passageway to a narrow wooden staircase. They climbed it and reached a service area, then found the door to the lobby. Going through it, they headed for the staircase and quickly made it to Jenny’s room.

  She was still shaking when Merrick closed the door behind them.

  He pulled her into his arms and held her. “Hush, moileen. You’re safe now.”

  He skated his hands down her back, rubbing her body and warming her. “Ah, moileen, would that we were born of the same place and time,” he whispered into her right ear, aware that she could not hear him.

  He knew he should leave her now that their time together was coming to an end, for he would surely locate the locket on the morrow. This would be their last night together.

  When her shivering subsided, he helped her remove his oversized jumper, then unfastened the buttons of her dress for her. A moment later, she was standing in her shift and Matthew was turning down the blankets of her bed. “Climb in, Jenny.”

  She moved to the far side of the bed, allowing space for him to join her, something he should not do, for the temptation to possess her was too strong. There was no magic on earth that could keep him from wanting her. “Jenny…”

  There were things he needed to tell her. About Usher. He intended to deal with the headmaster before he left, but could do naught before he was ready to leave for Coruain. In the event that there was some further delay in his finding the locket, Jenny might need to protect herself. She needed to know Usher was nearby.

  Casting his better judgment aside, Merrick pulled off his shoes, his shirt and trews, and climbed in with her. He lay on his side and faced her in the dark room. “I saw your headmaster earlier today.”

  “Reverend Usher? Where?”

  Her trembling returned, so he drew her into his arms to soothe her and warm her.

  “He was at the town hall this afternoon with the same two constables from the Gypsy camp.”

  She made a small sound of despair.

  “Doona worry about him, moileen.” He brushed his lips across her forehead. “I will take care of him for you—”

  “What can you possibly d-do, Matthew?”

  He could not explain how he intended to destroy Usher, so he changed the subject. “Why is he so bent on finding you, Jenny? You know that Bardo was right. Since you took none of his possessions, you must be a threat to his good name.”

  He could hear her swallow above the noise of the crowd outside. “I don’t have any idea how I could be. No one ever took the least notice that the headmaster beat his students. Even Mr. Ellis thought Reverend Usher’s disciplinary actions were justified.”

  Bristling at the thought of a physician who did not see fit to come to the children’s defense against a bullying tyrant, Merrick slid one hand all the way down her back, and thought again of the scar Usher had given her. “Mayhap ’tis something you saw. Did he ever scar another child as he did you?”

  “I don’t know about scars…He liked to single out the smaller girls, the ones with light hair. Me, in particular. Even Norah mentioned it.”

  “Norah?”

  “My friend who died. She once saw the headmaster thrashing me and threatened to tell the old doctor who sometimes tended us.”

  “I doona understand. If Usher beat all the children…You mean to say your beatings were worse…?”

  Her shaking became worse and he drew her even closer. “Jenny, lass?”

  “He liked to…to strike m-my…my naked backside.”

  “Ainchis,” he said under his breath.

  “With his bare hand.”

  The man was not only a monster, he was a deviant. “Did he do this to anyone else?”

  “He told me never to speak of it…to anyone.”

  Matthew made a rude sign. “He’d have said the same to any others. Could this be the reason the headmaster hunts you? To prevent you from telling anyone else?”

  “He would have to hunt all the other girls who were at school then. Many of them suspected…”

  “But they’ve gone from Bresland?” he asked as a theory formed in his mind.

  “I’m the only one who stayed. I could not find a position anywhere, no matter where I advertised.”

  “So you remained at Bresland as a teacher. Did you have no other options?”

  “Marriage seemed a possibility for a time, but my only suitor believed all that Reverend Usher told him about me and decided…” She pulled back, and Matthew could see her puzzled expression. “Do you think he intentionally kept me at school?”

  “I canna say for certain, Jenny.” But he suspected it was so.

  “I never received any responses to my advertisements. None at all, not until the post that came when Usher was ill and could not leave his bed.” She looked over at him. “Oh, Matthew, you are right! He did not want me to leave!”

  “Now we must try to understand why. What do you know that is so dangerous to Reverend Usher?”

  Jenny tried to remember every altercation she’d ever had with the headmaster, from the time she’d asked for additional bread on her first day at school, to the words she’d exchanged with him the night Norah had died. But there had been so many.

  “We tried to make ourselves invisible to him,” she said. “All but Norah. She defied him to his face, and reaped harsh—”

  “Punishments as harsh as your own?”

  “Different. He…” She sat straight up in the bed.

  “What is it, moileen,” Matthew asked, pushing up to sit beside her.

  “I remember…” She felt her heart pounding in her chest as a dark recollection came back to her. She went cold all over, and even the close proximity of Matthew’s warm body did not take away the chill.
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br />   “You said he punished her…He left her outside in the cold?”

  She swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. “For interrupting him while he was beating me.”

  “One of those naked beatings?” His voice was a low growl.

  “Norah said she was going to tell old Dr. Crandall about it. She even started walking to Kirtwarren…But the headmaster prevented her leaving and locked her in the privy all day. It was bitter cold, and when he finally let her out, she was chilled all the way through.”

  “But she was no’ daunted by it?”

  “No. Nothing frightened Norah, not like me.”

  Matthew pulled her into his arms and eased her back down to the bed. “You’re the bravest lass I’ve ever known,” he said.

  “Hardly.” Not when she intended to run away from all manner of wonderful possibilities merely to avoid being hurt by Matthew’s own departure. She had not changed, not in the least. “I was a frightened mouse.”

  She’d hidden herself in a dark cupboard to avoid Usher’s wrath…“When Norah got out of the privy, I heard her say that it did not matter what the headmaster did to her, she would see that everyone in Kirtwarren knew of his perversity.”

  “That’s a lass.”

  “She was so chilled, they put her to bed in a sickroom away from the dormitory.” It was not far from the tiny, dark place where Jenny had hidden herself.

  “The headmaster and two teachers stayed with Norah,” Jenny continued, “and when the hour grew late, he sent away the teachers. He ordered them to go and sleep so they would be ready for classes in the morning.”

  She felt tears streaming down her temples, and wiped them away more easily than she could the terrible memory of what had transpired that night. “The headmaster stayed with Norah, but after only a few minutes, he came out of the room.”

  “What then, moileen?”

  “I could see him through the crack between the cupboard doors. He was brushing his hands together a-and…muttering to himself, but I couldn’t really hear him…my ear. His footsteps echoed—they made an eerie, hollow sound as he walked down the hall.”

  “And then?”

  “When I was sure he was gone, I sneaked out of the cupboard and went in to see Norah.”

  Matthew held her, but Jenny felt little comfort as she remembered the rest. “There was only a thin stream of moonlight through the window, but I could see her…facing away from the door. Her hair was disheveled, and she lay perfectly still. I went around to the opposite side of the bed and spoke to her, but she did not answer.”

  “What did you do?”

  Jenny gulped back a sob. “I tidied the room. I was afraid Reverend Usher would punish her for the tousled bedclothes.”

  “Ach, Jenny.”

  “The teachers had been talking to her when they came out of the room…as though nothing was amiss. Yet only a few minutes later, she was dead.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I was frightened, afraid the headmaster would find me there, and I would be in trouble, too. It didn’t occur to me, then, that he’d killed her.”

  “Did he see you?”

  “He caught me as I c-came out of the room, just as I feared he would.” She felt her throat thicken. “I’d forgotten that. He marched me down to the chapel and made me stand on a chair before the altar through the rest of the night. It wasn’t until morning that the other girls told me about Norah. There she was truly gone.”

  “You were obviously too distressed to take it all in,” said Matthew, gently rubbing one hand across her back. “But now we know why he wanted to keep you at Bresland, and under his control.”

  “He thought I would go to the authorities?”

  “How would he know you didna remember exactly what had happened?” he remarked. “The magistrate I met today was a reasonable man. I doona believe he would ignore your accusations.”

  “But if the headmaster told the constables I stole something…”

  “I saw Usher pay them for their services, so I doubt they were true constables.” His caresses slowed. “Lies are difficult to keep up. The headmaster must surely be desperate to maintain his.”

  Jenny felt drained. “He doesn’t frighten me anymore. Now that I remember…”

  “Aye. The truth is a powerful ally.”

  “No doubt you’re right, Matthew,” she said quietly. “But outside of Reverend Usher’s sins, the only real truth for me is that I must be at Darbury tomorrow, or I will lose my position.”

  He did not speak for a moment. “Aye, moileen. ’Tis a truth that canna be avoided.”

  Jenny fell into a fitful sleep beside him. Merrick held her while the noise of the mob outside died down, and vowed that no one would ever hurt her again. He’d considered what to do about Usher and decided ’twould be simple enough to plant the questions that would bring Usher up before a magistrate and make him answer for little Norah’s murder and his vicious treatment of the Bresland lasses. Merrick needed only a few more details from Jenny, and then he would work his subtle magic.

  After he retrieved the locket and had the brìgha-stone in hand, ’twould take only a quick spell or two to see that Usher never hurt another child. A few more magical words would place Jenny in a comfortable home of her own, mayhap a cottage on the eastern coast where she could face Coruain whenever she looked out her windows.

  Yet she would not see him. And when Merrick returned home to his own place in time, Jenny would not even have been born.

  The thought of going away made his stomach burn. Sinann would never come to mean half as much to him as Jenny had, within only a few short days. She was everything to him, just as a true céile mate would be. Ainchis ua oirg, she was his céile mate. He loved her. There had to be a way to take her back to Coruain with him.

  He had known of no Tuath who’d ever traveled to his magical isle. Yet he felt certain the spells that would protect him as he passed through the Astar Columns would protect Jenny, too. Merrick could no longer doubt that they had shared the magic of sòlas. He’d felt the merging of their bràths. He had to take her home.

  The elders would have difficulty accepting a Tuath as the high chieftain’s céile mate, and there was every likelihood that Sinann would be just as cruel as Usher, only in a different way. Merrick’s spirits sank when he realized ’twould not be fair to take Jenny to his home isle, to a place where she did not belong. She would be far from everything that was familiar to her, thrown into a culture that might very well be hostile. Merrick knew that his brother believed the Tuath were inferior beings. No doubt his opinion was shared by others, by Druzai who could make Jenny’s life a misery.

  Mayhap ’twould be possible for Merrick to stay with her here. He did not want to subject her to the derision of highborn Druzai like Brogan and Sinann.

  Other Druzai lords had remained in Tuath centuries before, when Eilinora had first been captured. But none of those men had prepared their entire lives to take on the responsibilities of high chieftain. None of them possessed the Mac Lochlainn power.

  Merrick felt his chest squeeze with frustration and set about trying to analyze a solution to his dilemma. No one else on Coruain had been trained to rule. Brogan was often rash and hotheaded, and had vehemently spurned any designs on inheriting their father’s scepter. Ana was already a powerful seer, well on her way to becoming a Druzai oracle. She would not rule. The elders and the Druzai people firmly held to the Mac Lochlainn line, so ’twas up to Merrick.

  His blood ran cold when he faced the reality of his responsibilities. He could not shun them, no matter how much he wanted to, not after taking his investiture vows. He could not make a life here with Jenny.

  The worst kind of emptiness weakened his bràth and threatened to drown him in anguish. His breath died in his chest, and his heart slowed to a deathly, irregular patter.

  He tried to convince himself that Jenny would fare well on Coruain, but he could not. She did not know their customs, and though he could easily give
her the Druzai language, he could not give her magic. She would be considered less than the least powerful Druzai, and be ridiculed by the likes of smug noblewomen like Sinann. Jenny would wither among his people.

  Feeling discouraged, he eased out of the bed quietly, so as not to wake her. After dressing in the dark, he leaned over and brushed a light kiss on her forehead, aware of what he had to do. “I promise you, moileen,” he whispered almost inaudibly, “I will make things right for you before I go.”

  ’Twas not yet dawn, but Merrick’s mood was as black as midnight. He went on foot to the Lanes where men still loitered, drinking from bottles and cursing their lot. Merrick made his way to the Old Scratch, which still remained standing. It seemed the fire had not taken sufficient hold to burn down the building. He heard noises from within.

  Instead of going inside, he went to the broken-down garden wall across from the tavern, and sat on it, garnering a few curious looks from the men who wandered past. “You see Lambton,” he said to one small group of lurkers, “tell him I’m looking to finish him off.”

  He waited awhile longer, saying much the same thing to a few others, then got up and took a circuitous route, back through an alleyway to the broken-down building next to the Old Scratch. He picked his way to a deserted shell of a room near the street and took up his post behind a grimy, broken window to watch the comings and goings of everyone who happened by.

  There were no gaslights in this district, but in the early morning light, he recognized a number of the passersby, men who’d been drinking in the tavern when Lambton had come for Jenny. For Merrick, ’twas a matter of patience now, of waiting for the right man to arrive. After putting out the word that he was waiting, he did not think Lambton would resist the taunt.

  An hour passed, and the streets came to life. People came out of their dwellings, and a few horse carts rambled down the lane. Finally, the man Merrick sought appeared. He went into the Old Scratch, but came out only a few minutes later with one of his cronies. Stopping outside with his hands on his hips, he turned his head to look up and down the street. He spoke to the man beside him, but Lambton was too far away for Merrick to hear what he said. When he did not find his quarry, he yawned and shoved his fingers through his hair. It looked as though he was off to find himself a bed.