“Alyxandria!” came a bellow that could only be Raine’s.
Out of habit, Alyx opened her mouth to answer him in kind, but only a painful yelp came out. With her hand at her throat, she opened the door.
Raine whirled to look at her and for a moment their eyes locked. There were shadows under his eyes and his hair was sweat-plastered to his head in black curls. Dents in his armor were numerous. But what was frightening was the fury in his eyes.
“Come out here,” he growled, and his tone left no room for disobedience.
When she stood before him he clutched her shoulders, stared for a moment at her stomach, then looked back into her eyes. “I should beat you soundly for this,” he said.
Alyx tried to speak, but the rawness of her throat made tears in her eyes.
He looked puzzled for a moment, then one dimple flashed in his cheek. “The smoke take your voice away?”
She nodded.
“Good! That’s the best news I’ve heard in months. When we get through with this I have a few things to say to you and for once you’re going to listen.” With that he grabbed her shoulder and pushed her toward a small gate in the wall. Outside was a tall, deeply recessed door that obviously belonged to a chapel. Not waiting for her to enter on her own, Raine opened the door and pushed her inside. Before the altar stood Jocelin and a tall, slim man whom Alyx had never seen before.
“In your armor?” the stranger asked, looking at Alyx curiously.
“If I took time to change no doubt she’d slip through my fingers again. You have the ring, Gavin?”
Alyx’s eyes opened wide at the name. So this was Raine’s older brother, the man she’d written to and begged to help control Raine’s anger at Roger Chatworth. As she looked up at Gavin, thinking he wasn’t at all like Raine physically and Raine was so much more handsome, she was barely aware of a priest before them, talking.
“Pay attention, Alyx,” Raine commanded, and Gavin coughed to cover a laugh.
In consternation, Alyx looked at the men surrounding her. Jocelin’s eyes danced with laughter, Raine’s smouldered with barely controlled rage and Gavin seemed to be amusedly tolerant of everything. The priest was waiting patiently for something from her.
“Alyx!” Raine growled. “I know you can’t speak, but you could at least nod your head—unless of course you’d rather not marry me. Perhaps you’d rather have Jocelin... again?”
“Marry?” she mouthed.
“For the Lord’s sake, Raine! Sorry, Father,” Gavin said. “Have pity on her. She’s had a shock. One minute she’s about to be burned at the stake and the next she’s getting married. She needs a moment to adjust.”
“And since when have you known so much about women?” Raine asked hostilely. “You dumped Judith on your doorstep hardly minutes after you married her, and if I hadn’t broken my leg, she’d have been alone.”
“If you hadn’t been there she might have come to me sooner. As it was—”
“Quiet!” Jocelin shouted, then stepped backward when the two Montgomery brothers turned their wrath on him. He took a deep breath. “Alyx was looking at Lord Gavin and I’m not sure she realized she was marrying Lord Raine. Perhaps if it were explained to her, she’d answer the questions properly, even without her voice.”
The full realization of what was going on hit Alyx and, with her usual ladylike finesse, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.
“Is that horror at the idea?” Gavin laughed.
Raine looked away from Alyx, obviously not sure what her expression meant. “She carries my child. She will marry me,” he said flatly.
Alyx couldn’t speak, but she could hiss at him through her teeth, and when Raine still wouldn’t look at her she looked about for other means of getting his attention. He didn’t ask her to marry him, didn’t allow her the sweet pleasure of throwing herself at him and telling him she loved him, but instead stood sullen and angry and announced she would marry him.
“Would you like to borrow my sword?” Gavin asked, and his voice was so full of laughter he could hardly speak. “Oh, Raine.” He slapped his brother’s shoulder, making the armor clank, but Raine didn’t move. “I hope she leads you a merry chase. Judith’s going to like a sister-in-law who looks daggers at her husband. It’ll make her feel less alone in the world.”
Raine didn’t bother to look at Gavin and Alyx sensed there was some old argument involved. Never in her life had she wished more for the power of her voice than she did at this moment. She’d make Raine look at her if she could speak.
“My lady,” the priest said, and it took Alyx a while to understand that he was speaking to her. “It is not the church’s place to encourage unwanted marriages. Is it your desire to marry Lord Raine?”
She looked up at Raine’s profile, furious that he wouldn’t look at her. With two steps, she planted herself in front of him, his eyes focused somewhere over her head. Slowly, she reached out and took his hand, held it in hers. His hand was cut in several places, bloody, bruised, and as she looked down at it she knew he’d been hurt saving her. She raised it to her lips and kissed his palm, and when she looked up, his eyes were on her. For a moment they seemed to soften.
“She will marry me,” he said as he glanced back at the priest.
Alyx wanted to curse at him for his self-assurance and for his refusal to weaken in his anger at her. Silently, she moved back beside him and the marriage was completed, a gold ring slipped onto her finger.
