“Inside with you,” he told her. “Get in there and get into bed.”
Shocked at the cold, callous demand, Annavieve did as she was told. She was no sooner in the room than Victor slammed the door behind her. He remained in the corridor, however, and made no move to follow her. In the darkness of the passageway and with his soldiers out of earshot, he turned to Kevin.
“You belong to me now, Hage, so there are a few things to establish between us,” he said, lowering his voice. “When I give you an order, you are to obey it without question or hesitation. Are we clear?”
Kevin nodded. “We are, my lord.”
“No matter what the order is, you will obey me.”
“I will, my lord.”
Victor grunted. “Excellent,” he said. Then, his stiff and angry manner eased somewhat and for the first time since Kevin had known him, the man seemed to let his guard down. He sighed heavily, eyeing Kevin as he did so. “I will be honest with you, Hage. I am sure you have realized that this marriage was not something I wanted.”
“I have, my lord.”
“I never asked for it, yet my cousin seems to think it is a good idea. Breed the Welsh out of the Welsh royal bloodlines, he thinks.” Victor snorted at the ridiculousness of Edward’s wishes but when he received no reaction from Kevin, he continued. “That woman in there is my cousin’s idea. He forced me into marrying her so I could receive you. Do you understand that? You are worth more to me than some Welsh princess who has been kept in a convent her entire life. I married her in order to gain you but that is where it ends. I will do nothing more for the woman than give her my name. If she becomes pregnant as my cousin wishes, it shall not be from me.”
Kevin’s brow furrowed. He had been listening to the man’s rant with his usual impassive reaction but he couldn’t help his confusion now. “My lord?” he asked for clarification.
Victor looked him in the eye. “This is where you will receive your first and, mayhap, most important order from me, Hage,” he said quietly. “You will consummate my marriage and you will beget that woman with child so my cousin will think I have done my duty. You will bed her until she conceives and if you must do it five times a day, then so be it. All of this must be done in absolute secrecy so that my cousin believes it is I who has done my duty. You are sworn to me now, Hage. You will keep this secret and do my duty for me.”
Kevin stared at the man as if he’d suddenly sprouted horns and a tail. He’d sensed a dark streak in Victor since the moment they’d met and was coming now to understand what his instincts had picked up on; there was something deeply immoral about Victor de Ferrers. What he was asking of him was unthinkable. As the shock of the command sank in, Kevin’s eyes narrowed.
“You want me tobedyour wife?” he repeated, omitting the formalities of the man’s title. He was utterly stunned and trying not to show it. “But you have only just married her. I do not understand why…?”
Victor cut him off. “You do not need to understand. All you need do is obey me.”
Kevin couldn’t help his eyebrows from lifting at the absurdity of it all. “Is it possible that youcannotconsummate the marriage, my lord?” he asked, now concerned. “I am sure the king would understand if you would only tell him the truth.”
Victor was quickly growing angry. “I never said that I could not,” he said, making it clear that his manhood was intact. “You need not know why I have given you this order, only that I have. You will obey it without further question.”
So the man was capable of performing as a man should; that only meant that he did notwantto consummate his marriage. Kevin was back to being shocked again. “How is it possible that you do not want to do what any sane man would gladly do?”
Victor was enraged that Kevin had the audacity to question him even though he’d told him not to. There was rebuke in the knight’s tone and Victor would have none of it.
“It is not your place to question,” he hissed. “I have given you a command, Hage. You are sworn to obey me, so get in that room and do not come out until your seed is in her womb and her blood is on the sheets. Am I making myself perfectly clear?”
It was more than clear.The man is a monster,Kevin thought. He still couldn’t believe what he was hearing but Victor had spelled it out to him so there was no mistaking what Victor was instructing him to do. The new groom did not want to bed his bride, shirking the duties off onto someone else. The entire idea was preposterous but, preposterous or not, that was what Victor was telling him to do. Now, the reality of it was hitting him. Shaking his head, Kevin took a step back from his liege.
“It is an immoral command,” Kevin said, struggling to remain impassive. “I am not bound by the chivalric code to obey an immoral command.”
Victor glared at him. “Who are you to spout about immorality?” he demanded. “You, who have killed men because you were paid to. You are an assassin and assassins have no morality, Hage. You are ridiculous to pretend that now, suddenly, you have found a conscience.”
Kevin’s jaw ticked. “If I must explain the difference between killing a man because he is the enemy and bedding your wife because you do not want to do it, then I shall,” he said. “Would you hear me explain in simple terms?”
Victor shook his head vigorously. “You swore you would obey my commands,” he pointed out. “You swore in front of the kingthat you would. I have heard that you earned yourself a powerful reputation in the Holy Land. Scorpion, is it? I will go to the king right now and destroy that reputation in less than a moment. I will tell the man that you refused a direct command and that you are worthless as a knight. No lord will accept your fealty then. Is that what you want?”
Kevin’s shock cooled into something dark and deadly. “You would threaten a man who could snap your neck at this very moment before you could raise an alarm?” he asked. “Think about what you are saying, my lord. It will have consequences.”
Victor wouldn’t back down. “And I will go now and tell the king you have threatened to kill me,” he countered. “I can have you executed before this night is out, Hage. Do not test me. Get in there and obey my command. I will not tell you again.”
Kevin was seeing that his association with the duke was about to become one very large nightmare. He hadn’t worked six years in the Levant to see it all spoiled by a wicked and unbalanced man. Certainly, Kevin could reach out and snap the man’s neck, but then there was the small matter of the four soldiers behind him who would witness it. Then there were servants in the alcove, all of who could see or hear something. He could try to kill all of them but there would always been a lingering doubt that someone, somewhere, saw what he did and survived his killing spree.
Nay, to go on a murdering rampage wasn’t the best option for him at the moment. He wanted to keep his honor intact, and his reputation, and to do both he needed to obey Victor’s depraved order. It was a choice he would have to make and, torn, he made the only one he could at the moment.
He was a man sworn to obey.
Without a word, he pushed past Victor and entered the chamber Annavieve had disappeared into only a few moments before. As Victor listened, the bolt was thrown across the door,locking it. With a smile of triumph on his face, Victor went off in search of the young male servant he had been lusting after all night.
