He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair before turning to me with solemn eyes. “I hate for you to find out this way… I hate for you to find out at all, truth be told, but I can see no way around it. Hohenzollern has surely been attacked by now, and all within it will have been given to the Free Cities. That would have included you, had I not taken you with me.”
His words sounded distant and distorted. None of what he said made any sense. What did he mean, I did not have a home? Surely everything he said was nonsense, meant to make me accept my fate, meant to keep me from running away from him. “I don’t understand,” I said, speaking from lips that felt numb. “Attacked by whom?”
“The people of the Free Cities. It seems that the Princess Susanna—”
“No,” I protested, shaking my head. “Susanna is agoodperson, she—”
“Please, I know it’s very hard to accept, but you have me now, little one, and I intend to make you my wife.”
The more he spoke, the more I trembled. Surely nothing but lies tumbled from his full lips. It wasn’t possible. Hohenzollern, no more? What would have become of Susanna, of the other ladies I knew? It was unthinkable. He was only trying to unnerve me, but I was a duchess. I was made of sterner stuff than he realized, and I would not bend to the fear that he attempted to drum up in order to get me to fall in line.
“I shall always treat you fairly, with kindness. You have nothing to fear from me.”
Become hiswife? What did he think of me that made him believe that I would consent to such nonsense? “Thank you, sir, I am sure you mean well,” I told him with frost in my voice, “but I alreadyhavea husband.”
He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Madam, I’m afraid your husband is most likely dead.”
The knots in my belly tightened but I forced myself to keep walking, to keep breathing evenly as if nothing was amiss. The thought of Wallace dead… oh, how my knees wanted to buckle, but I would not let them. Not for the sake of a lie.
“And as I said, you will have nothing to fear from me,” he continued. “Nothing, save the thrashing I mentioned earlier.”
As I stopped in my tracks once more, a gasp managed to escape my parted lips. When it reached his ears, he turned his head to look over his shoulder at me. It was, in a way, as if I was seeing him for the first time, because only then did I notice how very like my husband’s they were: steely gray and as hard and determined as sharp pieces of flint.
Chapter Three
The man that I thought of as my jailer saw to it that the new horse was bedded safely within the stable and gave the lad there instructions to tend it, as he had been doing for my horse, Fortune. Only then did he turn back to me once more. “Come with me.”
He didn’t force me to walk alongside him, he didn’t lay a finger on me, but I at least had the sense to know when I was beaten. I knew that I could not run again—indeed, it seemed that it had been foolish to do so in the first place.
The moment we walked into the establishment, I saw that the innkeeper was by the door, smiling tightly at the pair of us.
“So, you have found her.”
“Yes, madam. Thank you for your concern. Now, if you’ll excuse us…”
“Oh, of course. I suspect you’ll have… matters to attend to.”
He gave her a thin smile in acknowledgement of her words, yet I turned my head to stare back at her. What could she have meant? Did she know… surely not! Surely, he couldn’t mean to carry through on such an awful threat! And even if he did, certainly he never would have shared such sensitive information with her!
He opened the door and gestured me inside, but as soon as I’d crossed into the room, I turned to him with arms folded across my chest. “Did you tell that woman that you… that you…”
“Intend to spank you?” he prompted as he closed the door behind us.
My eyes narrowed into slits. “You should know that a true gentleman would never—”
“I do not know what manner of ‘gentleman’ you’ve encountered, princess, but I think both of us know that a title and lands don’t make a man.”
For some reason, the way he looked at me made me think he spoke of Wallace, who I suddenly felt fiercely protective of, if for no other reason than this man was too low-born to look down upon him. “If you refer to the Duke of Württemberg, then it is my duty to tell you that you don’t know whatyou’re talking about,” I informed him airily. “He was the most noble, most caring, bravest man that ever lived.”
My captor stared at me for the span of several long heartbeats, his gray eyes piercing me, as if searching me for lies. When he spoke again, his voice was soft. “You must forgive me my impudence, princess.”
He was finally giving me the deference that I’d told him in tone and manner that I deserved, and yet, somehow his gentle, unassuming demeanor made me feel ashamed. My mother had always cautioned me not to wield my nobility like a weapon, and I’d been doing it from the moment I’d met him—ifmetwas the proper term. It didn’t matter that it, coupled with my razor-sharp tongue, was the only weapon I had, it only mattered that I was acting below my station by being so haughty. And to a man that, though he’d kidnaped me, had been nothing but patient and kind with me.
“Please… I’m not a princess.” When I spoke, my voice was mollified.
“I know, my lady. It’s my private jest, I suppose, and I pray someday you’ll see fit to forgive me for it.”
I ventured a small, tentative smile, though I kept my eyes on the floor. “If you have only been looking for something to call me, you can use my name. It’s Cecily.” I didn’t know that I’d ever told my given name to a commoner before, but somehow, it felt right. A peace offering of sorts.
