The expression in his eyes hardened. Turned into a dark and burning fury. “What happened, Briar?” he asked her, and she could feel the tension in him as he waited for her answer.
She spoke slowly, halting over her words as she recalled her terror. “Once I was inside the house, I knew it had all been a lie. A reason to bring me to him, alone. He wanted me because he thought I belonged to you. He planned to use me, to hurt me, to hurt you.”
Ivo took her arm in strong fingers. “You spoke to him last night. Was that when you hatched this plan?”
“Aye,” she whispered, casting him an anxious glance. “I saw him at the back of the hall, and when I went to find him he was waiting in a chamber there. He asked me to meet him here, today. He said not to tell, that you would not like it, that there were reasons and he would explain to me. He... he wept. He was so plausible, Ivo. I did not think to doubt him.”
But Briar remembered she had doubted; she had simply pushed her inner warnings aside. Briar the impulsive, with her mind set on doing what she thought was best. Would she never learn? Had not the night she mistook Ivo for Radulf taught her that she was not always right?
Ivo was watching her, mayhap thinking the same thing. Was she too much trouble for him, too much of a bother? She did not want to be a burden. The thought of being seen in that light made her squirm. She loved him, and during those moments with Miles, she had wanted nothing more than to have the opportunity to tell him so.
And yet now she said nothing.
“Miles has a warrant on his head, lady,” Sweyn said, glancing between the two of them with curious blue eyes. “That is why he was hiding last night, why he cannot walk about like a free man. He led a rebellion against Lord Radulf in Somerset, and the king wasn’t best pleased.”
“I did not know,” she whispered. “You should have told me.”
Ivo spoke. “Would you have listened, Briar? When I went to your dwelling and found you missing, I had a feeling ‘twas Miles’s doing. He ever had the smoother tongue. There were always women eager and willing to fall into his lap like ripe plums. And then he would suck them dry and spit them out.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, not sure whether she was apologizing for her own actions or those of his brother. “How did you find me?”
“Mary overheard you last night, lady, and unlike you she did not like Miles’s looks. You are lucky to have a sister who loves you and watches out for you. If I had not come, Briar... How could you be so foolish?” He stopped, and pressed his lips tight together.
She took a breath, feeling some of her uncertainty ebbing away. She had acted in good faith, after all. “I meant to help, Ivo. I thought if I could heal the rift between you and Miles, you would forgive my lack of... of honesty. That the end justified the means.” Her eyes narrowed. “You should have told me. I asked you again and again, but you wouldn’t explain to me.”
“So now ‘tis my fault?” Ivo drew a deep sigh and looked away from her tear-filled eyes, staring down the once lively, and now forlorn street.
“Nay, not entirely...”
Ivo looked as if he would have liked to smile, but didn’t have the heart for it. “You are right. I should have told you. I should have made you aware of what he was. I thought I could keep you safe by keeping you in ignorance. And I thought... I hoped I wouldn’t have to tell you, Briar. I didn’t want you to know about the past. There are matters, there are things I do not tell many people.”
Briar stared at his profile, the sharp nose and strong chin, the dark stubble on his jaw and the curls beginning to grow longer at his brow. He is going to tell me something horrible, she thought, her heart turning cold. Something so horrible that I won’t be able to love him anymore.
“I am a fool, demoiselle. Your opinion of me cannot matter if you are dead by Miles’s hand. Better you look upon me with loathing than I never see your smile again.”
Briar stared at him in dismay. “Ivo? You make me uneasy with such talk. Tell me what you mean?”
Dark eyes moved intently over her face. As if, she thought, he were fixing her in his mind, remembering every little detail, as if he expected never to see her again. Briar’s fear grew, trembling over her skin like butterfly wings, until she barely felt the cold outside for the cold inside herself.
At last he seemed to make up his mind.
“Come,” he said abruptly, and held out his hand. “I will take you to Lord Radulf.”
Radulf.
Briar could not hide her shocked surprise. Radulf, her enemy, the man she had hated for so long, had wanted to revenge herself on for so long. Could she go there now, and look upon him, without all those old memories surfacing? But Ivo needed her, and he was waiting. Ivo, her husband to be, the father of her child, was in some desperate trouble. Ivo, the man she loved above all others, even above herself.
Which was the more important? Her old memories and longing for revenge—the past—or Ivo, her future?
Briar reached out and placed her fingers in his.
Chapter 13
Lord Radulf was surrounded by important men. Some were allies in his fight with northern rebels, some were vassals, and some were simply there to hear what he had to say.
Ivo recognized a dozen or more as he passed, his hand firm on Briar’s arm. Lord Henry dapped him on the back, and gave Briar an interested stare. Ivo drew her protectively closer, feeling the tension in her body thrumming through her, as if she were one of the strings on Mary’s harp.
She was afraid. This was not safe ground for her. But despite that, she straightened her back and lifted her chin and prepared herself to face her father’s old enemy.
