Matthew nodded.
“He lost his head,” Maddoc said and laughed.
Everyone looked at Maddoc who shrugged. Edwin began to laugh and then they were all hysterical, Rowenna having tears running down her face.
“It is not funny in the least!” Evelyn said as she continued laughing, arms wrapping her ribs.
It had the desired effect of relieving tension. The grave affair one that the silliness of their laughter was the only cure.
They all left save Rowenna. “What did he do to you, Clara”
Clara sucked in her lip, the images rifling through her head as playing cards. But she began simply, “He tried to rape Anna...again,” she paused, looking at Rowenna who encouraged her with a nod. “When he was hurting her, I intervened by,” and Clara showed her with her hand what she had done and Rowenna winced, envisioning the scene. “He turned on me and used his fist to do this,” Clara pointed to her head. “It is a bit foggy after that but when I next had my wits about me I was lying in a glade with the wood all around,” Clara said, remembering. “Then he was kissing me and trying to...”
“Did he?” Rowenna asked. “It is important.”
Clara shook her head, then stopped at the pain that ensued with her movement.
“Because...”
“I understand, Rowenna. They finally told me about consummating with the Band.”
Rowenna nodded. “If Rolland still lived, there would be no other. That he is gone frees me to be with another. The call of a male of the Band is fearsome.”
“Why are we so few?” Clara asked fiercely, fresh resentment boiling inside her for this blood that governed her.
She shrugged. “I know not.” She did not look away. “I am glad that Matthew reached you in time. We would not want you bound to another.”
“He would have killed him regardless,” Clara said, knowing Matthew.
“True. It is terrible to kill one of the Band. But his mind was gone, yes?”
Clara thought of his strange words and soft actions, such a digression from the initial beating and shuddered. She nodded. “He was very strange. He beat me, then he was tender toward me. It was a confusing event.”
Rowenna laughed. “I think frightening is more the way of it.”
“Oh, it was that,” Clara shivered.
They heard arguing outside her room and Rowenna held her finger up to Clara. Clara shrunk underneath the thin sheet which covered her.
It was Charles, trying to barrel his way inside. Finally, after much discussion he burst inside. “Clara!” he cried. “Clarence and I were just told of your abduction by that heathen.”
Clara winced at the name, knowing how rude it sounded to the people of the clan. He was obviously beyond caring as he began anew, “What has he done to your face?”
Clara looked down at her hands which twisted about, the sheet held taut underneath her armpits. “He struck me whilst I tried to assist Anna.”
“That loathsome brute! What has the Band done about it?” he seethed.
“They have not told you?”
“No. What measure have they taken?”
Clara began to laugh, which grew into great gasping fits of laughter.
“What could you possibly have to laugh about?” he asked, exasperated.
“He will not be thinking about another attack again,” she choked out between fits of giggles.
“This grows tiresome, Clara. Just tell me.”
“He has lost all thought process along with his head!” Clara whooped and continued laughing.
Charles looked at her dumbfounded, his mouth hanging ajar. Finally, when it was obvious she would not settle down, he began to laugh himself until Clara's laughter turned to tears and he came beside her and wrapped his arms around her, smoothing his hands up and down her bare arms.
“I am here, Clara, do not cry. I am here,” he said.
Clara sobbed like her heart was breaking, the last year's blur of activity culminating into terror. She had had enough of that in her young life.
She clung to Charles and wished for normalcy, as her head throbbed in time with her heartbeat.
A normalcy that escaped her.
CHAPTER 25
Maddoc worried at the handle of his dirk that rode high on his left hip, watching Evelyn. She was pacing around the outside of the room which Clara lay in, waiting until that insufferable sphere-dweller left. Why his sister was so enamored of his sentiments was beyond Maddoc. He and the other of the Band thought him a dolt. Maddoc wanted to comfort Evelyn but was unsure how. Just as he would make his way toward her Ella and Jocelyn approached him. He fumed. Mother had taught him to be kind to the females he was sworn to protect but this pair were his least favorite. They followed him around and hung about him like an ill-fitting tunic.
He watched them fasten their eyes upon Evelyn and smirking, they came for him like twin leeches. Evelyn stopped her pacing and looked briefly at the young women as they advanced on him, then looked away. Maddoc seethed inside, he did not wish for Evelyn to presume he wanted their company. She had the blood of the Band running in her veins. Her very essence called to him. As of yet, she had not warmed to him though. He was waiting for her to notice him, show interest. After the way that fool Lee had behaved, he needed to prove all of the Band were not an insufferable lot of imbeciles.
“Well, well, how fare you?” Jocelyn asked in her best effected seduction.
Maddoc barely restrained himself from rolling his eyes. He was not impressed with her efforts, his eyes straying back to Evelyn.
Ella sidled up beside him and put a warm hand upon his arm, pressing her breasts against him. It distracted him for a moment, his need to respect her warring with his desire to speak with Evelyn. A small noise made him look back at Evelyn. Lee was walking toward her and Maddoc forcibly removed Ella's hand from his arm.
“Maddoc!” she cried, sulking.
As he passed her Jocelyn said, “Do not go to her. She is not worth your time!”
“I will be the judge of that, Jocelyn,” Maddoc said, never pausing as he moved toward Evelyn.
Evelyn saw Lee walk toward her and her feet became rooted to the spot outside Clara's door. She was not some weak-kneed female but his pushy sexual advances were fresh in her mind. His hand on her breast a charred memory seared onto her brain. She hated herself for it but she looked to where Maddoc stood with the two witches of the clan. But he was moving toward her already. The relief that flooded her brought her shame. Evelyn desperately did not wish for him to know how he affected her. Nor did she want the two hussies that crawled after him to know either.
Lee and Maddoc faced each other. “Why do you not walk away now, Lee?” Maddoc asked in a pleasant voice that did nothing to veil the threat his voice held.
Lee shook his head. “I come but to apologize to Evelyn.”
Jocelyn and Ella strolled up. “She has told us what you did and we do not believe her. She thinks to gain some kind of false sympathy,” Jocelyn said, looking at Evelyn in feigned innocence.
Lee frowned at her. “Mayhap you are right?” he said, giving Evelyn a narrow look.
“I have told you so it must be true,” Jocelyn purred at him.
Evelyn wished to vomit on the bodice of her revealing blouse.
“Ooh, she looks so angry. See how her face puckers,” Ella said, trying to copy what she thought Evelyn's face looked like.
Evelyn put her hands on her hips. “I have not uttered one word of untruth since my party has arrived. From whence I come the Band protects females. My Band protects females,” she gave an accusing glance at Lee.
“You did not say 'do not'.” Lee shrugged in defense.
“The blood from your lip was answer enough,” Maddoc said in a low voice, his hands curling into fists.
“It is not an apology to agree with females as soft as these,” Evelyn said, raising her palm at the two women. “They believe their own deceit so it is truth to them. I know what real truth is and you offered m
e none of it one night past.”
Evelyn gave a look to Maddoc and a curt nod. She turned her attention to the others and gave them a withering glance as she stalked off.
*
Evelyn felt hot tears burning the back of her eyelids and bit the inside of her lip to keep from crying. Those stupid females! She felt a fool. They were obviously beautiful and desired by the Band and she not yet ten and four. Why did they not treat her as a guest? Did they have no respect for Clara, the daughter of the their Band leader? It made little sense.
She walked into the woods, but not too far. She did not wish to be about without the Band. She looked around in the dim light of the wood and remembered how mindful a female needed to be of the fragment. She went deeper into the wood to a special place of respite that no one knew about.
Or so she believed.
*
Jocelyn and Ella rummaged about in the supply chamber. Finally, they found some foul smelling twine made from the guts of seals, like bands of steel when it dried, it would make dandy ropes.
“She will be taught this lesson and learn what it is to follow directions from her elders,” Jocelyn giggled, snapping the rope taut between her outstretched arms. It made a loud snapping sound and her lips curled into an evil smile.
“We will not hurt her?” Ella asked uneasily, wondering to herself if it was the best of ideas. It had sounded like great fun when Jocelyn had first proposed it. They would be near to shunned if Rowenna became aware of their little scheme.
Jocelyn glared at Ella and she shrank back. That silly girl would pay. An image of Evelyn stood in her mind, her ridiculous hair that was a golden color not found in nature, her eyes so blue she could hardly bear to look upon her. And the curves that she flaunted! She narrowed her eyes on Ella and saw her gulp. “She is a tart that needs to learn a lesson. She acts the part of the whore, flaunting her unnaturalness to our males. What does it matter that she has a small drop of select blood running in her veins?” Jocelyn shrugged then went on, “I was but this near,” she put her index and thumb a hair's breadth apart, “from capturing Maddoc.”
Ella had not thought so but wisely said nothing. Instead, she remembered barely contained tolerance from Maddoc toward Jocelyn. Ella did remember Jocelyn allowing Lee to paw her from head to toe on more than one occasion.
“Help me do this, Ella. This will keep the wretched girl from interfering between Maddoc and I.”
Ella was still uneasy about it but shoved her disquiet away, she had sworn fidelity to Jocelyn. “I will help. But we must tie her up but briefly.” She looked around. “If anyone catches us we will be found in the wrong.”
“Nay. No one will believe her. She is not of this clan. It will be our word against hers,” Jocelyn smiled, thinking of how clever she was. She thought of Evelyn bound in her hiding place in the wood and smiled, her pretty mouth gagged, her curves untouched by any of the Band, those blue eyes soaked in fear.
Yes, she would like that very much. They gathered the implements of restraint and covertly hid them in a rucksack.
*
Maddoc was searching for Evelyn everywhere and could find no trace. He opened his throat slits fully, trying to capture her unique scent. She and Clara smelled alike to him. Clara more strongly of his mother but he realized it was possibly that they scented similarly because they were kin, that being select was secondary. He did not know, but he was desperate to find her.
It was not as Jocelyn and Ella had said to him. They believed that it was only out of a sense of duty that he wished to protect Evelyn. Their arrogance was beyond description. He remembered Jocelyn's words that she had uttered but moments before:
“She is utterly plain Maddoc, and will return to her own clan forthwith. It is a kindness that you bestow upon her your protection when she claimed to need protection from your bandmate. But let us look at it; She is barely ten and four. She has not need of protection. She is not yet a woman,” Jocelyn had said, putting her fingers across the flesh of her bosom and allowing them to trail there.
She infuriated him. He was absolutely ill from her constant infatuation. Any fool could see that Evelyn's womanhood could not be measured by her age alone. His mind supplying the image of her blue eyes, laying as startled jewels in the ivory of her face, the golden hair that held streaks of platinum which framed her face. She was all the woman that he wanted, thinking of the slap she had given him the day they met. He smiled. None of the females of his clan would have been so bold.
“Do you listen to my reasoning?” Jocelyn said, anger seeping into her voice.
“I see a female that chokes on her jealousy of another,” Maddoc had said, walking off before she could refute him.
Now he was frantically searching for her. His sense of danger had risen...where was she?
*
Evelyn lay upon her back and looked at the bare patch of sky revealed in the dense canopy of trees. She hummed a little tune and tried to quiet her heart. She badly wished to visit with Clara but that stubborn Charles was attending her presently. She sighed. Mayhap she needed to stop feeling sorry for herself and make friends here. Evelyn knew they would depart soon and though she looked forward to visiting with Jonathan again, she longed for a female of her own age to chat with. She had high hopes of friendships within this Band, but too soon realized that they saw her as a threat to their chances with the Band.
Then they discovered her grand-sire had been Band and treated her most terribly since.
She could have easily gone to Rowenna and relayed the unfair treatment but it was something she instinctively felt she should handle. Today was the last straw. When the two worst females said in front of the Band, in front of Maddoc, that she was lying she had to leave. This was the one spot that reminded her of her home clan. It was a place very much like the one off the trail to their bathing spring.
She never saw the females of her musing until it was too late.
CHAPTER 26
Jocelyn saw Evelyn, laying about on the moss as a doe; a blond-haired, blue eyed one.
She crept forward, keeping her body sideways and narrow on her approach. Her lilting voice made its way to Jocelyn's ears and the clear beauty of it grated upon her jealousy like a discordant instrument.
She pounced, landing squarely on the girls legs and Evelyn squealed in fright and pain, completely unprepared as Ella grabbed her wrists from behind.
Too late Evelyn realized how vulnerable she had been and tried to get up, but the weight of Jocelyn coupled with Ella's body weight pressed on her wrists was too difficult to overcome.
Then Jocelyn swung her palm back and slapped Evelyn's face, her skull biting into the soft moss behind her head, her skin stinging like a thousand biting ants.
“Sit still, whore of the Band, whilst we teach you a lesson you will not soon forget.”
Evelyn's heart began to race, she looked about her and then her gaze locked with Ella's. “Please, do not tie me here and leave me. The fragment may come. They will hurt me.” Hysteria bubbled up in her throat unmercifully. Her time with the fragment lay as a cold hand on her heart. Surely they would not leave her here alone?
Ella was worried. Jocelyn had promised they would not hurt Evelyn. Just teach her a lesson. As she looked down into the girl's eyes, her fright stripped away the older look she wore about her.
She looked ten and four, her wide blue eyes terrified.
Ella did not believe that she was a whore.
She looked at Jocelyn.
But Jocelyn had narrowed her eyes on Ella. “You are a part of this now. Do not try to fail me because your spine becomes weak.” Ella saw the ropes clenched in her hands and sighed, bearing down with her knees on Evelyn's wrists and extending her hand for her portion.
Jocelyn smiled. Stupid Ella needed her. After all, she was a natural born leader.
Evelyn bit her lip to keep quiet. She knew Jocelyn's ilk. No amount of tears and pleading would set her free. She had set her sights on hurting Evelyn nearly from
the first moment of their meeting.
She would not beg.
Finally they had secured her to Jocelyn's satisfaction. Her wrists were bound together and tied to a gnarled tree root behind her back, her legs bound together. She could move her body but could not move from the tree that she had laid against.
Ella stood and warily backed away from her. Evelyn noticed her face. “You let her give you orders like a dog. You know what they call a female dog Ella?” Evelyn asked.
Jocelyn smiled, turning to Ella. “Do you see what this is? Even now, bound and vulnerable, she calls you a bitch.” She crouched down and dug her fingers into Evelyn's scalp, jerking her head to her face, Evelyn's shoulders straining against the bounds which held her. “You are the female dog. Meant to breed with the Band when you do not deserve the crumbs from their table. Stupid girl.”
Jocelyn let her head drop, Evelyn's scalp throbbing painfully. She set her jaw and glared up at Jocelyn.
Jocelyn swung her foot back and kicked Evelyn in the ribs. Evelyn grunted, hissing with the pain.
Ella grabbed Jocelyn's arm. “Let us go before someone finds us.” She looked into Jocelyn's eyes. “You said we would not harm her and yet you beat her. Tying her is enough. Let us go, Jocelyn,” she pleaded.
Jocelyn glared back at Ella and wrenched her arm away. “Where is your precious Clara to defend you now?” she asked.
With one more sullen glance at Evelyn, she lifted her skirts and whirled away, Ella following closely behind.
Evelyn waited until they were well and away before the first hot tear fell, her side a hot and broken pain she bore.
She thought of Maddoc and how she had not said thank you.
Evelyn shut her eyes and cried.
*
The Savage Blood (Savage Series, Book 2) Page 19