“Take me, Lyall, take me and we will truly be wed. My oath before, sworn to the baron that we had been lovers at Dunkeldon will no longer be a lie.”
From somewhere far away he caught her words, and their meaning. His stepfather’s accusation came charging back to him clearly and as if he were there shouting into Lyall’s ear.You have ruined her!The thought was like being doused with a bucket of melted snow. He pulled away, trying to gain some sense of control. The air he needed had disappeared and he panted, searching for the breath he needed to cool him down, another dousing. His body throbbed from his cock to his head.
“Lyall?”
He held up a hand to warn her, the other clutched into a tight fist and the urge to pound the wall hit him hard. The ability to speak escaped him. He did not move. He couldn’t look at her. Somehow he would do this. “Leave.”
“Nay. I will not.”
“I said leave!” he hissed in barely controlled anger, facing her.
She did not back away, but she was shaken.
“Go,” he said in a low rasp and pushed her toward the door. “Go! Get out! I swear on all that is holy in this world, Glenna, I will call out to the guards if you do not leave now.”
She shook her head.
He picked her up and she fought him, silently, but kicking and pounding him with her fists. She connected with his eye as he shoved her out and closed the door, leaning against it as hefelt her hit it with her fist. Through the door she spat his name as if it were a vile curse, then wished him an eternity in hell.
He was already there. His back blocking the door, he stayed that way, breathing hard, head thrown back, eyes tightly closed, his teeth clenched and his hands shaking. He fought her; he fought himself; he struggled, while the last flicker of hope—that his life was not lost--died inside of him.
28
The shadows were lengthening as they rode over the crest topping another hill, and past the lush forests to a point where Baron Ramsey reined in. Glenna had not seen Lyall since that morning at the inn, when he chose his position at the rear of troop. Their eyes met once, enough for her to see what she knew—that he was far from through with her, and she was even farther from through with him. The baron had been kind to her, and she knew he had not missed nor was unhappy about the distance Lyall had put between them.
As they stopped, one of the knight’s palfreys nipped Skye and reared, almost throwing the man from its back, and loud curses flew through the air. The men closed ranks about her as Skye sidestepped uneasily, forcing Glenna to quickly control her or be thrown. But she knew horses well, having been in the saddle since she was three, and she knew Skye more so. When the elegantly bred mare calmed down with little trouble, some of the men murmured appreciatively. Glenna settled into the saddle with the sound of creaking leather, and the baron leaned over and nodded to the valley below. “There is our destination.”
She followed his gaze and experienced her first sight ofCastle Rossi. Her breath caught at the immense impression it made, and the reality of it frightened her to death.
Built in an opulent and fertile valley and spreading out in the wingspan of a great walled city, the seat of power for the barony of Montrose was a massive stone structure with towers at each corner, and thick outer walls which were turning pink from the setting sun. The nearby river was wide and turbulent in places; it snaked along the castle’s southernmost edge, gleaming eel-like and silver, winding its way through rich farms dotting the eastern plains and out into the deep, blue waters of the great firth beyond.
As the contingent rode down into the glen, the walls of Rossi loomed closer, and Glenna’s fears grew. She sat rigidly stiff, her eyes straight ahead while mad thoughts and images flew through her head. Lyall’s mother and sister were inside the keep. They would be the first women of the new life she would be forced to face.
You have sisters.
There was the true curse: more women she would have to face. She closed her eyes and white-knuckled the reins. She could not bear to think of her unknown sisters, women of the same blood who never existed in her world before, and to imagine who they were and how they would view her was enough to make her run away with her hair on fire. She had been raised with men. Sisters were as foreign to her as was a father who was king.
But now, ahead of her, she must confront the two most important women in Lyall’s life. And they would judge her. That’s what strangers did. They would have expectations, and would take one look at her and form their opinions.
The sunlight was waning fast and night descending, but not quickly enough or dark enough to hide who she was.
The women inside that keep would stand there in their beautiful gowns, their hair coiffed and hands soft and uncallused, pale, with their practiced ways and natural status, and look downtheir noble noses at the sight of her and her tangled hair, worker’s hands, and peasant clothing.
The cold meat and bread she had eaten earlier now roiled in her belly, making her want to retch into the bushes, but she pressed a hand beneath her ribs and sought some kind of courage. Her pride was her only asset, and her shield against the expectations she was certain she would face…and would surely fail to meet.
Surrounded by more than two hundred men and the Baron Montrose, she rode up to the perimeter of the castle feeling completely alone. A call came from the guard above the gatehouse and the heavy portcullis rose like an iron smile to the sounds of chains and cranks, and the hollow clatter of horses’ hooves on the drawbridge. They rode into the outer bailey, past Rossi’s villeins who watched or stood poised at the edge of a garden with hoe in hand and eyes on her, while others rushed out from their huts to wave at the baron on his great horse, riding with pennants flying at his side, and the strange woman with him. She sat even more stiffly, trying not to show her fears and weakness to all and sundry.
Inside the walls was like a village, complete with smithies working the bellows and hammering out red-hot iron, and outbuildings sheltering workers, animal pens with sheep and pigs, a dovecote, and huge stone wells where water was drawn or cooked and stirred in giant vats of laundry, the linens hanging from ropes that crisscrossed from heavy posts in the ground.
Glenna could still feel the curious gazes of the baron’s people watch her as they rode past and through another thick wall to the inner ward, where many of the knights were greeted happily by their women and children. Behind the families, there were household quarters along the walls and an enviable stable large enough to house all the men’s horses and more, filled with working farriers and grooms, and the troop reined in before the massive keep. There was a flurry of squires who came rushing out from the yard and milled around the chaos ofdismounting men, taking reins and orders from the Montrose knights.
Her breathing froze in her chest and her hands gripped the reins in the busyness and blur of their arrival. As if he had appeared out of thin air, Lyall was at her side, and that surprised her, since it had been the one place he had avoided all day. He seemed to fill the space, so tall and golden, the last glow of the setting sun behind him and casting his face in shadows and angles. She blinked and looked at him, his face unreadable as he stood next to Skye, his arms reaching up to help her down from the saddle.
The words ‘why now?’ were on the tip of the tongue, but a sound pulled her attention away to the enormous doors of the keep, which opened slowly.Oh, lud!She closed her eyes. The women….
A strange roar sounded in her ears, like nothing she had ever heard, and her blood seemed to grow warm, too warm. Her vision changed suddenly and grew foggy. As if her bones had melted, she slipped from the saddle and felt Lyall’s strong arms catch her, then heard the worried tone of his voice when he said her name, but it sounded as if it came echoing out from a cave, then the whole world went black.
To the soundof his stepfather’s shouts, Lyall ran through the open doors of the great hall with Glenna unconscious in his arms, and almost trampled over his sister. “Mairi!”
