Or him.
Perhaps he was going to have to finally accept that.
“If you think, for one minute, this marriage makes me happy, then you would be wrong,” he said after a moment. “I do not want you any more than you want me. All I’ve seen from you isa woman who has no idea how to behave and hates me simply because I was born in one country and she was born in another. Someone has poisoned you, and they have poisoned you badly, my lady. You have hatred flowing through your veins instead of blood. And you think I wanted to marry someone like you? Think again.”
Her sobbing had lessened dramatically as she looked at him in outrage. “You came to take my home away,” she said. “I am allowed to defend myself!”
He looked at her. “Youviolated a treaty between your father and the King of England,” he said pointedly. “Youstarted this. You had no authority to break the treaty, but you did. Arrogant and imperious, you made that decision, so you brought this down on yourself.”
She leapt up from the rock again, enraged. “Is that so?”
“Of course it is,” he said, standing up and facing her. “This is all your fault. The death, the destruction, is all because you felt you were important enough and strong enough to break a longstanding treaty, so don’t blame me for your troubles. If there is death here, as you put it, it’s because you caused it. Weep all you want, but everything is your fault. And you think I want to marry someone like you? Someone without honor? A foolish woman who cannot see beyond her own arrogance? You do not deserve me, Enid Arielle ferch Gwenwynwyn. Did you ever stop to think about that?”
She was taken aback by his harsh words. Not because they were brutal, but because they were so truthful. He was spelling out the truth of her actions and the truth of the hatred running through her veins.
Someone has poisoned you.
Perhaps that was true, but that someone had ingrained it into her long ago.
Every bit of it.
“Mayhap I do not deserve you, but I do not want you, either,” she said, her voice trembling. “Mayhap this is all my doing, but this marriage is your father’s doing. He could have simply told Henry that there was no woman for you to marry, but he seems to think my royal bloodlines make me a suitable wife. All he talks about are my royal bloodlines, as if they are the only thing that matter. If you must be angry, be angry at him. I did not ask for this.”
Curtis sighed sharply, scratching at his forehead. “Then what do you want to do?” he said. “Do you want to return to your people? Just leave? Then go. I will not hold you here any longer. We have come to an end, my lady, and I surrender. I’ve tried to be kind. I have tried to be understanding. But you do not want that. You simply want to hate and point the blame at others, so do it with people who will tell you that your hatred is warranted and that you’ve done nothing wrong in this situation. I’ll not stop you.”
She eyed him in the moonlight. “Go where?” she said. She gestured to Brython. “Thisismy home, but now it is yours.”
He shook his head. “I do not care where you go,” he said. “Go find Llywelyn and tell him of the defeat of Brython and see if he’ll take you into his household. Your grandmother was from his family, wasn’t she? Go back to him and hate all you want. Let it eat you alive, because I do not care. You’ve never given me a reason to.”
She looked at him with some surprise, but that surprise quickly cooled. “You’ve been speaking to Gruffydd.”
Curtis snorted. “As far as I am concerned, he is the only sane and reasonable one in your family,” he said. “The man has good sense, and it is a pity you learned nothing from him. But I suppose he is to be hated, too, because that’s the only thing you have in your nature.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You do not know what is in my nature.”
He frowned at her. “Are you mad?” he said. “That is all I’ve seen from you since the moment we met. Since you tried to topple me over that wall, and you’ve been showing me ever since. Petty, arrogant, foolish, and full of hate. That is all I’ve seen from you, and I do not want to see any more.”
Elle was hurt by his words, more than she would ever admit. She’d pushed the man, and now she was paying the price. The truth was that other than their first meeting on the wall, he’d been inordinately kind to her, and all she did was throw it in his face. He’d given her soap and she’d given him vitriol. He’d smiled and she’d frowned. He’d tried to reason with her, and all she could see was her own pain and superiority.
Nay… He wasn’t wrong about anything he’d said.
Now, the situation was coming clear.
“We were married a while ago,” she said. “Your father isn’t going to let you walk away.”
He laughed bitterly. “You let me worry about my father,” he said. “I will have the marriage annulled, have no doubt. Now, go back to my tent and take off that dress. I’ll not have the likes of you touching something that means a good deal to my mother and father. Hopefully, if you take it off quickly, your stench will not cling to it. You can find other clothes in my chest if you wish. There are tunics there, and hose. They will not fit you, but I’m sure you do not care. Take them. I am going to Presteigne to find myself a room for the night because I need to get away from you. You can sleep in my tent. But when I return in the morning, I want you gone.”
With that, he headed off, leaving Elle standing there feeling as if she’d just been thrashed. More than thrashed—beaten. Badly. But, as she’d realized from him since the beginning of their association, he was right. He could always win an argument. She had started the downfall of Brython. She was so determined that the Welsh castle should be solely for the Welsh—for Llywelyn—that she’d disregarded her father’s treaty and sent the English soldiers away.
That had been the beginning of the end.
The truth was that her father had died long ago. It had been Gruffydd and her father’s loyal men who held Brython and kept the treaty. She’d been at Tywyl and Brython for years before finally taking the initiative to throw Gruffydd in the vault and purge the castle of the English soldiers, all in the name of Welsh freedom. But it had cost her everything.
Now, it had cost her the only man who had ever been truly kind to her.
Not that she blamed him.
She deserved everything he said to her.
