Dryden's Bride

by Margo Maguire

  “Out of here? Absolutely,” he said gravely. “I’m Marcus de Grant. Your timing could not have been better.”

  Then Hugh stepped out. “Siân!”

  With one breath, she was in his arms, and nothing else was important, not his ragged clothes, nor the coarse, dark stubble of beard. Only the beat of his heart mattered as it pressed against hers, the tingle of his breath near her ear, the strength of his arms around her, and the very real possibility that they were all going to escape.

  “We’ve got to go,” Siân said reluctantly, looking up at Hugh, into the face of the man she loved. “Quickly.”

  Hugh rubbed away the tears Siân did not know she’d shed, then drew her back and kissed her forehead. He put his hands on her waist and said, “Lead the way.”

  And as he spoke, a pounding at the top of the outside stairway erupted, clearly illustrating that their time was limited.

  Chapter Eighteen

  They flew down the steps as fast as their various injuries permitted, and Marcus climbed into the boat behind Siân. Hugh asked no questions, but tossed his stolen sword into the bottom of the small craft. Then he pulled the mooring rope free and eased himself into the boat with the others.

  “When we get past the portcullis, you’ll have to put out the torch,” Siân said urgently to Marcus as she knelt up and manned one of the paddles. “We’ll be visible to anyone on the parapet or in the towers.”

  “If they break through that door up there,” Hugh said, “then douse it sooner.”

  Wrexton men would soon be upon them. They had to row hard and fast because there would be no doubt about where the prisoners had gone. It was obvious that the only passage out was by way of the river. “The current will take us past the gatehouse,” Siân said quietly, holding her body low in the little wooden boat. “We have to paddle against it, to get to the north side.”

  “Marcus, keep down,” Hugh said. He took up the spare paddle and alternated strokes with Siân, letting her steer, since she was the only one who knew where they were going.

  They heard voices as they reached the outer edge of the tunnel, and Marcus disposed of the torch. They were abruptly drenched in darkness. “Just keep going straight,” Siân whispered. The boat was in the center of the channel, and there was no possibility of hitting a wall. Siân and Hugh continued to paddle, keeping the boat on course, while Marcus stretched out as well as he could, in the back.

  Within seconds they were on the open river, with the curtain of Wrexton Castle rising high above them. Siân shivered not only with cold, but with the dread of capture. She had been lucky so far. Too lucky.

  The alarm sounded.

  In desperation, Siân increased her rowing speed, and Hugh followed her lead. She threw a glance back at the wall, terrified that archers would be able to see them in the open water.

  “Just keep going, sweetheart,” Hugh said, though it took all his energy to keep moving. “They won’t see us in time.”

  The current was strong, and they were drawn downstream. Siân had hoped they’d be able to control the boat better, but it was not possible. She had no experience with such things, and Hugh’s wounds prevented him from rowing with much strength. Every stroke was a struggle, and she heard him straining with the exertion. She wished she could tell him to sit back and rest, but that would spell certain disaster. As long as he was able, he had no choice but to row.

  “Give me a go at it,” Marcus said from behind.

  “No,” Hugh grunted. “We’re nearly out of arrow range. Can’t waste any time.”

  Siân realized he was correct. Though the powers who commanded Wrexton still hadn’t put archers in place, they had to know the prisoners were headed for shore. Even if no one shot at them from the wall, there was certain to be a troop of soldiers out scouring the countryside for them.

  They had to hurry.

  When the little boat finally made it to the riverbank, Siân quickly climbed out and held it close to shore so that Hugh and Marcus could crawl out.

  “Siân,” Hugh rasped as he lay supine on the grassy bank, “does the boat figure anywhere in the rest of your plans?”

  “No,” she replied as she looked up and tried to get her bearings. She was exhausted and wished she could afford the time to lie down on the ground along with the two men. Unfortunately, that was not possible. “I have a horse and cart somewhere nearby.”

  “Then shove the boat out, as far as you need to, so the current will catch it.”

  “Good idea,” said Marcus, who was trying to garner enough strength for the next step of their escape.

  Siân did what Hugh said, hoping that the Wrexton men would find the boat and assume they’d drowned. And if not, at least there would be no clear evidence of where they’d alighted on shore.

  When Siân returned from setting the boat adrift into the current, Marcus was either asleep or unconscious, his breathing shallow.

  Hugh was awake. Siân fell to her knees next to him, afraid to touch him, to hurt him any further, but desperate to be near him, if only for the moment, before they continued on.

  “Sweet Siân,” he said as he raised his arm and pulled her head down, desperate to taste her, in spite of his weakened condition.

  Their lips met in a kiss that melted her resolve not to touch him. He pulled her closer, and Siân cupped his face, the only part of him that did not appear to be injured. She whimpered as he deepened the kiss, even though she knew they had to stop. They had to get away from there.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” Hugh said, his voice husky and tight.

  Siân would not dwell on the fact that she had already lost him. To Marguerite. “I—I thought I was lost, too,” she finally said, between fevered kisses. “On the ship…the storm…and later…But I got away…” If only they could crawl away somewhere together, she thought, away from life’s realities, away from Wrexton. But that was not to be, and Siân was well aware of it. “Hugh!”

  “I know, love,” he said as he dragged himself to a sitting position, “we have to move.”

  “Will you see to Sir Marcus while I find the horse and cart?”

  He nodded, then kissed her again before going over to de Grant. Siân stood and wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the cold. Turning away from the river, she looked for the landmarks that would help her find where she’d left their only means of transportation.

  Siân had planned as carefully as possible before making the swim to the castle. She’d taken off her outer clothes, knowing she would need a dry tunic and shoes if they got this far. Then, well aware that the men would not be capable of walking any distance, she’d left the cart downstream, knowing the river would draw them that way in the little boat when they made their escape.

  After securing the horse and cart in a secluded part of the woods, she’d walked quite a distance to start her swim from a point upstream so that she would not have to battle the current, letting it carry her downriver to the inlet under the castle wall.

  So far, so good. But it was fully dark now, and difficult to see the stand of oaks where she’d tethered the horse. She turned and looked across the river at the castle and tried to get her bearings. Soon realizing that she would find the horse and cart a little ways upstream, Siân started to trot eastward.

  And prayed she was not mistaken.

  Her feet were raw by the time she came upon the little oak forest. Her teeth were chattering, and she was shivering nearly out of control. Her exhaustion had not abated, but Siân managed to continue on by the force of sheer nerves. She found the horse, sleeping right where she left him. Quickly, she discarded the wet linens she’d worn for her swim, and pulled on the dry tunic, hose and shoes. Instantly, she felt better.

  She untied the horse, then got up onto the cart and rode back to get Hugh and Marcus.

  As Siân climbed down from her perch to help them into the cart, she realized that Hugh was smiling. And so was Marcus.

  It could not be, she thought. Their situation
was too precarious for humor, and she was certain Hugh would not see anything funny in their predicament. Then she heard a mirthful snort.

  “It pains me when I laugh,” Marcus said, grinning wryly.

  “There’s nothing to laugh at!” Siân cried. “We have little time, as well you know it!”

  “It’s the irony, Siân,” Hugh explained as he climbed up behind her. “This wagon is the very same one we stole to get into Wrexton.”

  “And now it will carry us out!” Marcus said weakly, but with enthusiasm.

  Their laughter was Siân’s undoing. Torn between laughing and crying, she began to weep in earnest.

  Hugh pulled himself up next to her on the seat and took her in his arms. “Hush, love,” he said, tucking her head possessively between his neck and shoulder. “You’ve done so much, worked so hard for us. No other woman in the kingdom could have done what you have. All will be well now….”

  Siân sniffled and pulled away. “We m-must go now,” she said, embarrassed to have broken down at this juncture. She had been strong so far. Now was not the time to fall apart.

  “Your turn to rest now, sweetheart,” Hugh said, taking the reins. “Lean on me, and I’ll try to get us out of here.”

  He wrapped one arm around her and drove the horse slowly through the dark woods, trusting that the old workhorse would not step into a foxhole or run them into a tree.

  Hugh could not fathom what Siân had gone through to get to him, other than the fact that she must have swum across the river to get to the little prison under the keep.

  She was truly amazing.

  “I never planned beyond this,” she said. “I didn’t know where we would go once I got you here—I just concentrated on getting the wagon over here, and then getting you.”

  “It’s all right, Siân,” Hugh said, hugging her fiercely to him. “At least now we have a chance. We’ll head north and look for shelter,” he said.

  “You know this area?” Siân asked.

  “Only what de Grant and I saw when we arrived,” he said. “Which was not much. We were anxious to get inside the castle to find you.”

  “Oh, Hugh…I was never there!” she repined. “After Wrexton’s ship landed, I was tied up and put into the back of a wagon…We traveled for hours, but I managed to get away. In the dark. I heard…”

  “What did you hear?”

  “I—I heard you!” she said, fully aware of how fanciful she sounded. “You told me to keep going, keep running.”

  Hugh gave a shake of his head. “Mayhap it was me you heard…For I never stopped thinking of you, Siân.” Then he kissed her lightly.

  “I fell,” she said, “and that was the last thing I remembered until some Pwll men found me in the morning.” Siân described her homecoming to Hugh and how she’d learned that he was held captive at Wrexton. “I knew I had to come. I had to do what I could to get you out.”

  “Siân,” Hugh said quietly, abruptly interrupting the flow of her narration. “Do you know how far this forest extends? Does it go on for miles or is it a shallow copse?”

  “I d-don’t know, Hugh,” she said, quickly turning around to see what had Hugh concerned.

  “There are patrols coming, love,” he said. “Wrexton had to know there were only two directions available to us—along the riverbank, which would have left us in plain sight, or through the woods.”

  “Abandon the wagon,” Marcus said from the rear. “Unhitch the horse and let him wander,” he added, “and we’ll have a better chance losing ourselves in the underbrush.”

  “You may be right,” Hugh remarked as he jumped down to the ground. He turned to help Siân down, then freed the horse. Marcus managed to climb out without help, and he handed the stolen sword to Hugh.

  “Which way?” Siân asked.

  “Over here,” Hugh said, his voice an urgent hiss.

  He led them deeper into the woods, helping Marcus as they walked. Siân took Marcus’s other side and gave what support he needed.

  “Is that a ridge above us, to the east?” Hugh asked.

  “I think so,” Siân replied, her vision being slightly better than Hugh’s. “Do you think we can climb up there?” she asked, fully realizing the advantage of getting above their pursuers. Wrexton’s knights were still quite a distance behind them. There was time.

  “Let’s try,” Hugh said. “Marcus, can you do it?”

  Breathless, Marcus did not waste his breath on speech, but he nodded.

  “Let’s go, then.”

  The climb was difficult. The grade of the hillside was fairly steep and laden with loose rock and soil. Many times they lost their footing or tripped over loose vines. Marcus fell once and Siân did not think he’d be able to get up and go on. She did not know how she was able to keep going, either. The muscles in her legs were shaky and burning. Her mouth was dry and her feet were in agony. But somehow, they made it to the summit.

  And when they finally climbed over the top of the ridge, they were met with a silent row of lethal, steel points belonging to a battalion of swordsmen.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Siân felt that she would faint. She was at the end of her endurance. After an entire day fraught with challenge and danger, she had reached the top of the ledge, only to have a sword thrust in her face. And then she heard Hugh’s incredulous voice.

  “Douglas Henley?” he asked in astonishment. “Alfred Dunning?”

  “Aye,” one of the men replied. “We’re here to help ye, lad. Claude Montrose is here, as are Ranulf Bele and Egbert Gunne and a whole host of Windermere knights.”

  This time, Siân thought she might faint with the reprieve. She recognized those names. She had heard about Hugh’s exploits with Wolf Colston and these knights. She might have realized that they would show up here, as a fighting unit. Naturally, these men would not allow Hugh to face Wrexton alone.

  Hugh helped Siân up over the edge of the ridge, then got a couple of the Windermere men to help with Marcus. “He seems badly hurt, Hugh,” Ranulf said, frowning. “How did you manage to get him all the way up here?”

  “The climb looks worse than it is,” he replied glibly.

  “The climb is much worse than it looks!” Siân contradicted, nearly giddy with relief.

  “Oh!” the men exclaimed, taken aback at the sound of a woman’s voice. “M’lady!” Her appearance was anything but that of a lady, and they’d mistaken her for the boy she’d been all day.

  “You rescued her!” Claude exclaimed.

  Hugh laughed out loud, causing a stir among the men who hadn’t seen even a smile from their old cohort since he’d lost his eye. “Not exactly,” he said with humor, and a full measure of pride in his lady’s ingenuity. “’Twas Lady Siân who got us out of Wrexton.”

  “God’s Cross!” Henley muttered, astonished. “It’ll be a tale for later, if you’ve a mind.”

  “Douglas, how did you manage to—”

  “Now, ye know better than to ask that, Dryden,” Henley said. “We were just ponderin’ whether to storm the castle or wait for an opening.”

  “When we saw patrols come out of the gates,” Alfred said, “we knew something was amiss. We held our position until we could determine what mischief you’d caused.”

  “Now you’ve got Wrexton’s knights right on your tail,” Claude remarked quietly as he walked to the ridge and looked down at the shadows of the mounted knights below. “And a fine lot they are, all rested and ready for a skirmish.”

  “Wolf will surely be sorry to have missed this,” Henley muttered as he drew his sword again. “They’ll be comin’ over the ridge in a few minutes.”

  “Hugh,” Claude said, “you’d better take your lady and head for cover.”

  Marcus had already limped out of the way, anticipating the battle that was to come, and knowing full well he would be more a hindrance than a help to the Windermere swordsmen. Hugh and Siân withdrew as the Windermere knights arranged themselves in a formation that would allow them to
take the offensive as soon as the Wrexton men came over the precipice.

  Wrexton’s knights reached the precipice only to be met by a surprise attack. Hugh’s hands itched to get involved in the fray, but he would not leave Siân’s side for any reason. Nor did he wish to test his endurance any further. Though he felt better now than he had hours ago, the beating he’d sustained, and the wounds it had caused, gave him pause. He had no wish to die now that he had Siân by his side.

  So far, the only action was at the precipice of the bluff they’d just climbed, where the knights were engaged in fierce battle. Hugh felt secure for the moment, away from the fighting.

  Siân felt ready to collapse. If she’d had any right to do so, she’d have thrown herself into Hugh’s arms and begged him to take her away somewhere. Someplace where she would not have to worry about the earl of Wrexton and his loathsome soldiers. A place where she could indulge in Hugh’s strength, and not worry about having to swim, or steal a boat, or overpower any guards.

  She only wanted to be free to love him now, while there was still time.

  She and Hugh were essentially alone, with soldiers fighting on the westernmost edge of the ridge, and Marcus lying on the ground at the edge of the forest. When Hugh turned to face her, all rational thought fled her mind. It was too dark to see clearly, but she sensed an intensity in him that had nothing to do with the battle being waged nearby. He closed the space between them and took hold of her upper arms, then drew her close to him.

  “Siân,” he said, “It’s been forever since I touched you like this…” And then his lips were on hers, searing her with his heat, drawing her into him, making her part of him.

  Her lips parted and he invaded her mouth with an intimate caress that promised more. His hands left her arms, only to traverse the length of her back, pulling her body into close contact with his own. Trembling, Siân moved against him, torturing herself with wanting what she could not have.

  Her eyes drifted open as Hugh pressed smoldering kisses to her jaw, and her neck, and she saw a threat looming behind him.