At the table beside him, the sergeant grumbled something about the effect that an hour of waiting for a wench was too long. The girl sauntered off to fetch another round of drinks. William ordered one as well, a mug of rum he finished far too quickly, then a second mug that finally had the desired effect and began to make him groggy.
He must have nodded off, for when he woke a few minutes later, the sergeant was gone and two of the soldiers were haggling over a bet. One said the sergeant would finish his long lust long before the hour was up, while the other men said the girl would refuse him, no matter how much money he offered her.
A third man said it wouldn’t matter, the girl would wind up beneath him, whether she wanted it that way or not.
“Damn shame, if you ask me,” the lanky private said. “The sergeant’s a rough one when it comes to women. Pretty little thing like that oughtn’t be treated that way.”
William felt his heart pound hard against his ribs. Whatever effect the rum might have had was gone in a second. He jerked to his feet so fast he knocked over his chair, and then he was running, his booted feet pounding toward the servants’ stairs at the back of the taproom.
Katherine awakened slowly, her eyes trying to adjust to the darkness of her small attic room. A noise had aroused her, the sound of metal grating, or perhaps it was the lifting of the latch on her door. She knew that couldn’t be. She had locked the door. It must have been another door down the hall.
Rolling onto her back, she worked to get comfortable on the narrow, corn husk mattress when an odd prickling rose at the nape of her neck. Someone was in the room with her, she was certain of it. Someone was watching. Cold fear shivered down her spine, making her hands feel clammy. She bolted upright in her tiny bed, her mouth opened in a scream.
A large hand clamped over her mouth, stifling the sound, nearly gagging her. A large, heavy male body, laden with the smell of rum and sweat, forced her back down on the bed.
“Hello.” He twisted a lock of her hair around his callused thumb, and fear made her shiver. “Ain’t you a pretty little thing. You and me gonna get real well acquainted.”
His breeches were already partly unbuttoned, she saw. A thick roll of flesh around his waist hung over the band at the top. The fear within her increased, making her nauseous. He was at least twice her size. Even if she could pry away the hand and manage to cry out, the walls were thick and there was no one up there to hear her.
She started thrashing beneath him. His foul breath filled her nostrils and tears began to burn her eyes. He let go of her long enough to grab the front of her night gown and she jerked away, desperate to free herself. A scream erupted, but his hard slap muffled the sound. A second slap split her lip and made her ears ring. His long stubby fingers ripped her nightgown down the front, then he cruelly twisted one of her breasts.
“Ya better learn to please me. You’ll learn quick enough, I don’t take no sass from a woman.”
She bucked and kicked, but couldn’t dislodge him. Her scream died beneath his thick, punishing lips. Bile rose in her throat and she thought she might be sick.
She grabbed a fistful of his hair, she bit down hard on the tongue he forced into her mouth, and he jerked backward, swearing violently, his fist lashing out, slamming against her jaw and knocking her nearly unconscious back down on the bed.
“You bloody little vixen. You’ll pay for that!”
“You’re the one who is going to pay,” said a soft deadly voice from the doorway. “I’m going to kill you, sergeant. I’m going to do it with these two hands.”
Katherine whimpered. The room spun around, yet there was no mistaking the tall figure standing in the shadows across the room. William had come. She blinked to clear the tears from her eyes.
The sergeant straightened away from her, his eyes now trained on William, and Katherine held her torn nightgown together over her aching breasts.
“The girl is mine, bucko. I I have to take you down before I can have her, so it shall be.”
“Stand away from her,” William warned with a eerie calm. For the first time, Katherine’s eyes came to rest on his face. She almost cried out at the sight of the menace she saw there, his eyes so piercing they looked black, his mouth no more than a hard, grim line. Every muscle in his powerful body quivered with fury. His hands were so tightly balled, his knuckles looked as though they would pop through his skin.
She wiped at the blood oozing from the corner of her mouth, but she didn’t notice the pain. Instead she stared at the two deadly combatants, then caught the glint of steel as the sergeant reached toward his boot and withdrew a thin silver blade.
“William! Look out!”
He jerked back just in time, the blade missing him by inches. A corner of his mouth curved up in a predatory smile that gleamed with brutal purpose. Katherine’s whole body was shaking. She had never seen him like this, never could have imagined the ruthless determination that twisted his handsome features into a cold mask of rage.
William circled, but in the small room, there wasn’t much room to maneuver. The sergeant grinned with malice.
“She a ripe one, ain’t she? You can bet I’ll take her hard.”
William’s pupils shrank to pin dots. His jaw flexed, but the soldier’s words did not hamper his steely control. If anything it seemed to settle even more deeply.
“I’m going to kill you,” he repeated. “I’m going to carve you up with your own knife, and I’m going to relish every drop of blood I spill from your worthless carcass.”
Katherine made a sound in her throat. She didn’t know the man. She was nearly as fearful of him as she had been of the sergeant. She backed herself into a corner just as the soldier lowered his head and charged into William like a bull.
Katherine tried hard not to scream. The side of her face ached, her head pounded and her jaw throbbed, yet she felt none of these things. She was too caught up in the horror of watching two fierce male opponents determined to take each other’s life.
The men crashed over a rickety table near the corner. William captured the sergeant’s knife hand and twisted the viscous blade away, but the moment the soldier’s hands were free, he wrapped them around William’s neck and began to squeeze.
“William!” Fear blinded her. Watching his face turn a vivid shade of red, she began to search desperately for some sort of weapon.
Then his fist lashed out, pounding into the sergeant’s face, bloodying his nose and smashing his lip. William rolled free and the two men staggered to their feet. The sergeant landed a heavy blow to William’s ribs but he merely grunted. His fist lashed out, taking the sergeant square on the chin and knocking him over backward. William grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and dragged him to his feet, and began to smash one fierce blow after another into the sergeant’s bloody face.
Grunts of pain erupted from between the man’s bleeding lips. Blood spurted from his nose. Frantic to save himself, he clawed the floor above his head until his fingers closed around the handle of the knife. He swung it down fiercely, but William caught his wrist and wrenched it away as if it were no more than a simple distraction.
Smiling coldly, he gripped the handle and pressed the blade against the sergeant’s fleshy neck. “I’m going to slit your throat. I’m going to let you bleed to death like a butchered pig.”
“William!” Katherine screamed. Bolting forward, she gripped the hand that held the knife gouging into the sergeant’s flesh. “forgo sakes, don’t kill him!”
He didn’t seem to hear her. The thin edge of steel bit cleanly into the solder’s mottled skin, leaving a fine trail of blood in its wake.
“Have pity, man, she’s only a serving wench!”
William’s eyes blazed. “The woman is my wife.” The blade cut deeper, blood began to flow.
“William!” Katherine started crying. She could hardly see for the tears flooding her eyes, just a hazy blur of his tall, powerful figure that appeared to be edged with crimson. “Please, I’m beggi
ng you, please don’t kill him.”
His hand shook, but the pressure remained. The knife blade wavered but did not move.
“William. . .” she whispered, still gripping his arm. “Please. . .”
His breath hissed out. His dark head dropped forward against his chest. He tossed the knife against the wall with a steely clatter, grabbed the sergeant’s jacket, jerked him up and hit him so hard his head bounced loudly on the floor.
“He’s unconscious,” Katherine whispered between her dry lips, staring with horror at the blood-covered figure on the floor.
William staggered to his feet. “He’ll stay that way for a while.” he weaved unsteadily toward her, his lip bloody, his coat torn. Unconsciously, she flinched when he reached out to touch her, and his eyes shot up to her face. They were clouded with concern, she saw, dark with worry and fear for her.
Staring into her stricken features, the look slowly faded, changing into something she could not read. The muscles in his face went taut. He seemed to collect himself, withdraw somewhere inside. “Are you all right?”
She was not all right. Every part of her ached an throbbed. She was shivering with fear and she wanted to cry more than she wanted to draw the next breath of air.
“I don’t want to stay here. I can’t. Please. I want to go with you.”
He surprised her with a shake of his dark head. “You can’t mean that. Not after what has happened.” His eyes remained dark, forbidding, the bleak eyes of a stranger. “Not after what you’ve seen.”
She did not understand, couldn’t seem to make her foggy mind function. “What I’ve seen?”
“I would have killed him Katherine. I would have slit the bastard’s throat. If it hadn’t been for you I would have done it.”
“Yes.”
“Now do you understand?” He glanced away from her, no longer able to meet her eyes. Stark pain outlined each of his features. “Now do you see the kind of man I am?”
Her legs were trembling so badly she feared they might collapse, yet she forced herself to move. Stepping over the sergeant’s unconscious body, she walked unsteadily toward him, feeling the same thumping ache for William that pounded through her bruised and battered body.
She stopped in front of him, waited until his eyes came to rest on her face. “Yes, I saw what you did. I understand you cared enough for me to risk your life defending me. I saw that you are even braver than I had imagined.”
He gripped her shoulders. “I would have killed him!”
“Yes. Or you would have died fighting to protect me, if the sergeant had had his way.”
His eyes bored into hers. “I don’t understand you. How can you still believe in me? Surely now you have doubts, surely you must wonder. . .”
“Did you kill your father?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“This man beat me. He would have raped me. You wee angry, blinded by fury at what he had done. You were trying to protect me!” Still clutching her torn and bloody nightgown, she closed the distance between them. “Take me out of here, William. Please. Take me out of here now. I know with you I will be safe.”
For a moment he didn’t move. Then a low sound came from his throat and he reached out to touch her, enfold her in his arms. He buried his face in her hair. For seconds, he just held her, then he lifted her against his chest, kicked open the door, and stepped out into the hallway.
“We’ll be safe in my room.” His boots echoed down the stairs. “We’ll get your things in the morning.”
Katherine did not argue. Shock had claimed the last of her reserves and she had started to shake all over. When they reached his room, he drew back the covers on the bed and placed her carefully in the middle. He lit a candle on the bedside table, then went over and locked the door. Pulling a pistol from his satchel, he checked the load and set it on the table next to the candle.
Seating himself carefully on the edge of the bed, he reached toward her. His hand shook as he gently lifted her chin, turning it into the light so that he could survey the bruises. He blanched when he realized the extent of the sergeant’s cruelty.
The muscles in his throat constricted. He couldn’t seem to speak. “I’m sorry. So damned sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Katherine said softly. “You came for me. That is what is important.” But she was still shivering and she was still frightened inside.
He gently parted the front of her nightgown, saw the bruises beginning to darken around her breasts. “My God, he really hurt you.” His eyes slid closed. “Damn the bastard to hell.” His gaze was piercing. “I never should have brought you here. It’s my fault this happened.”
Katherine gripped his hand, felt the tension pulsing through it. “Do you think everything that happens is your fault? Just because you are a duke does not make you responsible for every bad thing that occurs.”
But the look on his face said he believed that it did.
“Even your father wasn’t perfect. If he had controlled his temper, if he hadn’t followed you to the inn, he might not have been killed, or do you believe that is your fault, as well?”
His head dropped forward. A weight seemed to settle on his shoulders. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Katherine blinked back the tears. She rested a hand on his cheek, felt the hard line of his jaw beneath her fingers. “I am still shaking. Please, William, I am so very tired but I know I shan’t be able to sleep. Will you hold me?”
She thought he would argue, that he would refuse. Instead he turned away, bent down and began to pull off his boots. His shirt and breeches followed. With his broad chest bare, wearing only a pair of tight fitting cotton drawers, he climbed into bed beside her. Katherine snuggled into his arms, rested her head against his thick muscled shoulder.
“Thank you,” she whispered. In minutes she was asleep. As she had said, she knew she would be safe. And that William would not close his eyes before the sun rose the following morning.
Chapter Seventeen
William was moving about the room when Katherine awoke. She opened one eye and discovered he was packing. He had apparently retrieved her small satchel from upstairs. It sat on a small chair beside the bed.
She forced herself upright, wincing at the pain screaming through her. Everything ached, her head pounded, her breasts ached and she had a puffy lip.
“What are you doing, William?”
He looked at her over his shoulder. “Taking you home.”
“What happened with the sergeant?” she asked, ignoring his comment.
“The soldiers have all left.” He stuffed a shirt into his satchel as she swung her legs over the side of the wooden bed.
“We don’t have to leave. Not yet. I’m sure the cook will understand my being late to work, especially once she learns what happened.”
“Are you mad?” He started toward her, his eyes wide. “Have you looked at yourself? You look like hell and there is no doubt you feel that way. You cannot possibly go downstairs in the first place. I’m taking you home before something else happens.”
He did have a point and she couldn’t deny it. Working in a kitchen was the last thing she felt like doing today. However, this was the choice they had come for and she wasn’t about to quit until they had the answers they sought.
“Just give me a couple of hours. As bad as I loo, the servants are bound to be sympathetic. Maybe they’ll confide in me and tell me what we need to know.”
“Absolutely not.” He went back to his packing. “We’re leaving and that’s the end of it.”
Katherine rose to her feet, wincing at the pain that shot through her body. Fortunately for her, he was looking the other way. “We have to see this through. Please, let me have one more chance to see if I can find out the truth.”
His eyes came up to her face. “I’ve hurt you enough.”
“I told you before, what happened wasn’t your fault. Now, I’m asking you, please just let me have one more chance. Two mo
re hours and then we can leave.”
He walked across the room, his expression stormy. “That is not fair.” he threw his satchel onto the bed.
“William, let me help.”
He walked toward her, stopping so close that they touched. He stared down at her. “Two hours, Katherine. That’s all. No excuses. After that, if you won’t leave I’ll drag you out over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.” He bent down staring intensely at her. “Do I make myself clear?”
“Very clear, my lord.” She smiled at him. Turning away from him, she quickly dressed, donning her servant’s clothes, ignoring the pains that she felt with every movement.
“I’ll meet you behind the inn, at the grove of trees. If you aren’t there in exactly two hours, I’m coming back to get you.”
“I’ll be there,” she called out, making her way down the stairs. As soon as she was out of his sight she gave in to the pain she had held in.
The cook was busy washing a heavy iron pot when Katherine walked into the kitchen.
“Good heavens, you look worse than I thought.”
“You heard?”
The woman nodded. “We all heard about it. Some of them soldiers was talking about the fella that came to help you. Nobody seemed to know who he was.” She wrinkled her face, her eyes twinkled. “However, some of us got our notions.”
The heavyset woman laughed and walked toward Katherine like a mother surveying the bruises. “They say they had to carry that big sergeant out of here on a stretcher. Too bad the bloody heathen was still breathin’”
“What can I do to help you?” Katherine asked and the woman’s frown intensified.
“You don’t plan on working?”
The woman sighed. “Me girl’s back and she can wash the pots and pans. You can sit right here and I’ll bring you some towels to mend.”
Blood Lust Page 18