A strange laugh escaped me. “Without a groom?”
“You think if you leave Conwy he won’t follow?” Marcus’s eyebrow lifted, making clear his scepticism at such a possibility. “Now, come inside before you freeze to death.”
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Marina skidded to a halt in front of us at the entrance back into the castle, dismay written large on her face when she saw Marcus was with me. “Can I speak to you alone?”
“Later,” I promised her.
“No, now.” She hopped from one foot to the other, her tone beseeching in spite of her stubborn position.
Marcus gestured towards the great doors and the festivities within.
“It’s fine. I need to find someone myself,” he said, taking his leave.
“They are saying that you will marry Marcus tomorrow,” she started, as soon as we found an empty room to talk in. “You can’t.”
“I can’t?” I tilted my head. “You’re the only one who thinks so.”
“No, really, you can’t. You and Devyn, when we was in Londinium, I thought that maybe you liked him…” Her eyes narrowed. “I saw you kissing him in the hallway.”
I pulled in a shaky breath. “I can explain…”
“You don’t need to explain nothing. But well, I think you and him have been… together. And I noticed you haven’t been eating much the last few days. My mum, she couldn’t eat either early on. So I asked Madoc if there was any way of telling for sure. Don’t worry, I ask him loads of things so he won’t think nothing of it.”
“Nothing of what?” I interjected. I didn’t have time for this. I didn’t have any time. I needed to think. Was Marcus right? Should we go tonight and damn the consequences?
“Oh, you haven’t realised. I thought maybe you knew and were going to marry Marcus anyway, but then I thought maybe you didn’t and that’s why I had to ask Madoc how—”
“Marina,” I ground out.
Her eyes rounded.
“You haven’t maybe missed your time of the month recently?” she asked, biting her lip.
“What does that have to do with…?” A hand stole to my mostly flat stomach. I had put on a little weight but I’d blamed the griddle cakes. Was it possible? My mind scrambled to calculate the weeks that had passed since I last had my period. It had been in the city before we left. I hadn’t even thought of it; we had been on the road for most of November, I had been distracted with the poisoning and then the trial, and it was midwinter now. “I’m pregnant?”
Marina gave a crooked smile. “I think so.”
“How?”
Her eyebrows shot up, that cheeky smile creasing her face. “You really want me to explain?”
“Ha, ha,” I replied weakly. It had to have been the night in the city before the handfast. “Did Madoc tell you how to check?”
She nodded and put her hand out to me, taking it in the traditional grip. Her inner wrist pressed against mine as she closed her eyes. A slow smile spread across her face.
“Congratulations,” she offered, her face twisting, knowing as well as I did how complicated this made everything.
A child.
I took a deep breath. It certainly helped focus the mind.
“Find Devyn. Tell him.” My voice trembled. Would he be pleased? It put him in a corner but I knew him; his duty to me would compel him to defy Rion once more. “We need to leave tonight. Tell him to meet us out the back of the kitchen gardens after midnight. I will let Marcus know that Devyn will be coming. He has a plan.”
“What plan?”
“For Devyn and me to marry before anyone can stop us.”
Marina clapped her hands, hopping up and down on her toes. “Really?”
“Yes, hurry. And don’t tell anyone else.” She rolled her eyes at me, already halfway out the door.
I spread my hand across my belly and the new life that was contained there. A life that Devyn and I had created.
Marcus had a plan already in place. It had to be tonight.
We would figure everything else out tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The mood was merry in the kitchens as the staff were finally able to enjoy the fruits of their labours and eat all the food they had cleared from the great hall. After an hour or so of drifting around the party looking increasingly wan, I had finally made my excuses, blaming a headache for my early exit. I made my way through the feasting staff, some still busy carrying fresh platters and jugs out to the celebration beyond.
I smiled and nodded at their happy greetings to the long-lost Lady of the Lake until I thought my face would crack from the strain. My exit through the kitchens might be more public than using one of the quieter doorways, but in the hustle and bustle I was also less likely to be challenged. People were in and out of the door all night. The main doors had sentries posted who were a lot more likely to take note of the guest of honour going outside and not returning to the party.
I finally made it out into the clear night, my heels clicking across the flagstones as I kept close to the walls, hoping the shadows would conceal my passing as I made my way to the kitchen gardens. The door was closed but the latch opened, and I slipped silently through.
And was immediately caught around the waist and pulled back against a broad iron chest.
“Well, well, kitty cat, out for a midnight stroll?” His breath was warm in my ear. My stomach plummeted. Gideon.
“Let go of me.” I pulled at the velvet-encased band of steel that had wrapped itself around me.
“Of course, my lady.” In a fluid motion he spun me around and, taking my hand, bowed low over it, his lips touching briefly on the backs of my fingers.
“Allow me to escort you back to the festivities. Your brother will be so relieved that your headache has cleared,” he added drily, his gleaming eyes meeting mine in the moonlight. “And I am relieved that I have not missed the opportunity of a dance.”
He didn’t believe me, not for a moment. What had given me away? Why had he followed me? I didn’t for a moment take his presence here to be mere coincidence.
“Did he send you?”
“Your brother? No, Cat. What reason would he have to think your journey to your room after such a big day would take you via the gardens?”
My mind raced. What possible reason could I give to explain why I was here?
“I wanted to gather some peppermint to make a tea… to help clear my head. “
“Of course you did.”
Why was it every time Gideon said of course, it sounded like he was calling me a liar? I was lying, but that he saw right through me was damned inconvenient.
Well, damn them all. My spine straightened.
“Let me go, Gideon,” I said softly into the night. He knew where I was going. I was suddenly sure of it. That amber gaze missed nothing.
“Don’t do this, kitty cat.” His voice was equally low, the gravel in his tone making my heart sink. Gideon behaved as though he answered to no one, and the only person to whom I had seen him show any loyalty was my brother.
I swayed, unsure if my legs would hold me. Tears sprang unwanted into my eyes and my lower lip trembled. There was no way I could speak without betraying my despair. I took a deep breath to steady myself.
Devyn was waiting. If I didn’t make it to the meeting place, he would come in to look for me. Or would he assume I had come around to their way of seeing things and accepted the inevitable? Everyone was against us. His family, my family, even Devyn himself.
But there was a tiny life inside me that needed a father, and I would give it all the security, and family, and love, that I had never known. Whatever it took. Even if it meant lowering my pride in front of my least favourite Briton.
“Please…” Damn. Despite my best efforts, my voice broke on the word.
Gideon stood unmoved.
“I’ll come back,” I promised.
The door to the kitchen garden opened behind me and I turned at the noise. Marcus st
ood frozen in the open doorway.
I looked back to see Gideon blink in confusion. It confirmed my long-held belief that he had seen through our pretence, and the fact that Marcus was the one who had come out here to meet me had him stumped.
I couldn’t help the smile that tweaked my lips. Even in my desolation, having got one over on Gideon was gratifying.
“He’s outside already,” I explained.
Gideon’s lips thinned. Seeing Marcus would only have reminded him of the enormous political repercussions of letting me go. Marcus and I were city-born so we were less invested in the political machinations of the Briton world, but Gideon was keenly aware of the shattering impact my union with Devyn would have.
I was messing this up. I could see Gideon’s resolve hardening, his fingers tightening on my hand which he had never released. I had nothing to lose. I pulled his hands to my belly and held it there, revealing the truth that my body had only just begun to share: the bump that sheltered the life that beat inside me.
Gideon’s eyes widened as his hand warmed my abdomen.
“Cat…” he breathed. His eyes glowed hotly at me, nostrils flared as his eyes shuttered. He drew in a controlled breath before lifting his eyes once more to mine.
“What have you done?”
“She was conceived long before any of this. She should have both her parents – a real family.” Somehow, I was suddenly sure I carried a girl; I could practically feel her pleasure at being acknowledged. A soft smile touched my lips at her fledgling emotion and, looking up, I caught the sudden conflict in Gideon’s gaze.
“Please,” I breathed again, pressing his hand closer to the life that I had just introduced for the first time. “Gideon.”
His muscular body stilled. I wasn’t even sure he was still breathing. I reached up and laid my hand over his heart, which inside that immovable body beat steadily. It was a comforting, grounding beat.
“I’ll be back. I’ll owe you a dance,” I said and then, “I promise.”
I knew how he felt about promises. I knew he had no faith in them and that he gave none himself. And yet I gave him mine. I would be back to face the consequences of my actions, but I would do this first. If they weren’t all so bloody rigid in their ways, then I wouldn’t need to run away with Devyn. I had to believe that Rion Deverell would forgive me after the fact.
“Go,” he commanded.
He removed his hand and took a step back into the shadows. I hesitated for a moment. Was he really letting us leave?
“Go.” His tone, this time, had an edge of exasperation to it.
I whirled around and was through the door to the waiting Marcus before he could change his mind. Marcus took my hand and we hurried along beside the well-tended herb beds and under the bare fruit trees.
At the far wall, Marcus pulled me to a stop as he retrieved two packs from behind a low-lying bush. The warm cloak was a welcome sight.
“Devyn told me they’d be here,” he explained. “Marina, and her brother.”
“I told her not to tell anyone.”
“I’m not sure she counts her brother as anyone.” He smiled, wrapping the fur-lined cloak around me.
“I thought for sure it was all over,” he said of the scene at the far side of the garden.
“Me too.”
“Why do you think he let you go?” It was a reasonable question. Marcus hadn’t been close enough to see or hear the interplay that had made Gideon step aside.
“I told him about the baby,” I said, smiling.
Marcus’s face changed, and if it weren’t for the darkness, I would have said it greyed.
“What?” His voice was off.
“Marina figured it out,” I explained. “How do you think we got Devyn to agree to this?”
He opened his mouth and closed it again. He pushed a hand through his hair. I was taken aback at his reaction. Gideon had been angry – that I could understand. My pregnancy by the disgraced Griffin was a major upset to the expectations that his lord, my brother, and everyone else the length and breadth of the island, had for me. Marcus didn’t want me; we had never felt like that about each other. Maybe it was a lingering effect of the handfast, the news catching him unawares.
“All the more reason for us to do this,” I said. “They’ll have to agree to let us marry anyway; this means we can just skip the arguing part.”
“Yes, of course,” He shrugged off his surprise. “Let’s get you two hitched then.”
He bent down, taking up both our packs, and then we were out of the gate, through the outer wall, and down to the treeline and the waiting Devyn.
Devyn was there with two horses. The last time I had met him like this, in the moonlight under the trees, it had been in an attempt to run away to a new life. This life. A life together. Last time our plan had been scuppered by the handfast tie to Marcus, so this time we were bringing him with us. There had, of course, been the small matter of the armed soldiers who had been in pursuit, so hopefully this time would be nothing like that night in Richmond.
Devyn slid off his horse at our approach and lowered his face to mine for a slow, lingering kiss full of promise. His hand went immediately to my belly.
He leaned his forehead down against mine.
“It’s true?”
“Yes,” I said.
His eyes were bright with a light that went all the way through to the core of him, as he laid a palm against the tiny bump. He kissed me once more before stepping back.
“You’re late,” he growled. “I thought you might have changed your mind.”
“Ha. Me?” I scoffed. I was the steadfast one here. He was the one who was always trying to do the right thing and leave me. “As if. It’s hard to slip away when you’re a miracle brought back to life, you know.”
“I wouldn’t know.” If I was the rainbow, then he was the dark cloud that people only suffered because they couldn’t have me without his sacrifice. It was a mantle he donned all too readily for my liking.
“Gideon caught me,” I said, as much to distract him from his train of thought as anything.
He looked past me up the path we had arrived by, immediately on alert.
“He let me go.”
Devyn looked at me in disbelief. To be fair, it was a fairly unlikely turn of events. If everyone else wished that Devyn would disappear accidentally, then Gideon would be more than happy to provide the accident.
“He let you go,” he repeated, still surveying the treeline. “I don’t suppose you asked him to be best man while you were at it?”
“You made a joke!” Devyn was always so serious. Was this a sign that he was happy at last?
He huffed and handed me the reins of my horse.
“Maybe we can make him godfather while we’re at it,” he added.
I almost fell back mid-mount.
“Ooh, two in a row,” I teased, as he actually chuckled aloud at my ungainly stumble.
The night was magical as we rode through the countryside, a thing of silk and possibility, an ebony coverlet full of stars on a perfect crisp winter’s night. For once, we were dressed appropriately for our journey. It felt strange to be just the three of us again. Strange, but right. And so we rode on, uninterrupted.
It was near dawn before we arrived at the Menai ferry to take us over onto the island of Anglesey. The moon had started to slide away, but the sky was lightening in front of us as we made our way westward through the thickly forested hills. The smell of bonfires from the various celebrations still lingered over the land.
As we approached the bridge that would allow us to cross over from Anglesey onto the holy isle, the sky had finally begun to lighten, casting a red-gold light out across the crashing shoreline. The salty scent of the sea mixed with the smoke…
Smoke that was far too dense to be the lingering residue of the previous night’s midwinter bonfires.
“Devyn?” Something was off.
He had already halted.
“Stay with Mar
cus,” he commanded shortly as he rode ahead at a gallop.
“Damned if I will,” I muttered, and urged my horse forwards in pursuit. The druids were under attack, but who would dare to touch the holy men and women? They were deeply respected, and more than a little feared.
I had my answer as we reached the top of the hill and looked down on the fleet of tall ships anchored in the bay. They were flying the flag of the Empire, and Londinium.
The community below us was burning, and the sentinels were showing little mercy to those who tried to flee, striking them down with gun and blade. I would show them no mercy either. I jumped down from my horse as I centred myself and reached for the power in the forest around me, just as Callum had taught me. I willed the elements to come at my command.
As so often happened when I consciously tried to summon the energy, it failed me. But no, this wasn’t that. It was gone; it wasn’t there.
This I recognised from before. “I can’t feel anything. I’m blocked.”
Marcus looked at me with widened eyes. “Me too. It’s gone.”
“We’ve got to get help,” But how? We were many hours’ ride from Conwy. The ferry – they could send someone to Conwy to raise a resistance force.
“I’ll go to the ferry. They’ll be able to raise the alarm.”
“Let me go,” I countered. “If there are any injured people down there, at least you can be of some assistance, even without your magic.”
“No,” he said. “You stay here. It’s too dangerous. Stay out of sight. I won’t be long.”
I watched him mount and ride away and then looked about for a place to hide. My saddled horse would give me away if any of the soldiers came this way, so I took off the saddle and bridle and shooed her away. Free of the tack, she was happy to be gone.
The growing dawn light overtook the firelight visible in the sky. Devyn hadn’t returned. He should have been back by now. The bond between us was wide open; but with the handfast cuff curbing it the thrum of his anger on seeing the fire in the sky had quickly faded once he rode away.
Curse of the Celts Page 35