“I gladly accept all embellishments to my reputation.”
“Youwould,” she grumbled.
He grinned at her. ’Tell me now how you enacted this remarkable escape.”
“’Twas not easy,” she assured him quickly, too quickly, for he laughed, still assuming he was being “amused.”
“If I thought it was,” he replied lightly, “I would install you back in the dungeon myself for safekeeping, though I wouldst visit you—often.”
The likelihood thathewas not joking put an end to Rowena’s attempt to “amuse” him. “You are returned just in time to save your castle, as well as your family. I would have tried, but there is no guarantee that your men would have believed me when I told them that the ‘king’s’ man who just fled here was no king’s man at all, that he planned to open the gates to his army later this night. Had you returned any later, you might have found him captured if I had been believed, or if I had not been believed you might have found your daughters held hostage to his demands, and what he meant to demand was your life.”
All amusement had left him ere she finished; in fact, his expression had grown quite dark. “Why do I feel you are no longer jesting?”
“Because I am not, nor have I been. ’Tis all true, Warrick. You will find evidence of that army in those woods east of here, if not the army itself—if they do not come to besiege you this very night. The dastardly lord? He—he is my stepbrother. He came here because he wants revenge against you—for destroying Kirkburough. You understand revenge, do you not?”
Without answering, Warrick leaned down and yanked her onto his horse. His hands, which held her in front of him, bit deeply into her flesh, as did the conclusion he came to. “And you would have helped him.”
“I would have betrayed him!”
“You expect me to believe that?” he asked sharply. “Your own brother?”
“No blood relation, and despised so much that I would kill him,willkill him, if given the opportunity.”
“Then let me do it for you,” he suggested reasonably, though his tone was chilling. “Tell me where he can be found.”
Was it time for the whole truth? Nay, he was too angry just now to hear that, too.
She shook her head in denial. “You have taken more than enough from me. Now you wouldst take my revenge, too? I think not.”
He scowled at that answer. He even shook her for it. But she still would not volunteer the information he wanted. He finally growled low and released her. She had to grab for his chest to retain her perch. Then the drawbridge dropped, startling her, and the horse moved under her, and she realized she was running out of time to tell him the rest, which he would soon hear from others—but to her detriment.
“You have not asked why I would have been put in your dungeon, my lord.”
“You have more confessions to make?”
She winced at that snarl. “’Tis not a confession, but the truth as I know it. I was to be accused yestereve of stealing an item of great value from one of the castle ladies. ’Twas to be found in your solar, thereby proving my guilt. This would give an excuse to ‘question’ me about other supposed thefts. ’Twas hoped that there would not be much left of me to tempt you when you returned—and that the pain of my interrogation would cause me to lose the babe I carry. I was not willing to suffer that when I was innocent of the charge, so I left ere the accusation could be made.”
“And if you are guilty, then you are making this confession to allay your guilt.”
“Except I am not. ’Twas Mildred who overheard the plot and warned me. You can ask her—”
“Think you I do not know she would lie for you? Best you do better than that to prove your innocence.”
“You see now why I had to leave,” she said bitterly. “I cannot acquit myself with other than what I have just told you. ’Tis you who will have to do so by proving my accuser a liar—else will you have to punish me with the severity that this crime demands.”
She felt him stiffen at those words. “Damn you, wench, what did you do to cause such enmity in this woman?”
Rowena took heart. The question said he believed her—or wanted to.
“I did naught,” she said simply. “’Tis not even me she wants to hurt, but you. And with me gone, she may not have accused me at all, or even reported the theft. ’Twould have served no purpose. With me returned, however, she may yet decide to do it, to force you to punish me.”
They had stopped before the castle tower. They had been stopped there for some time according to all the activity around them, men dismounting, horses being led away, squires and stableboys jostling about. Rowena suddenly thought to ask, “Whyareyou returned so soon, Warrick?”
“Nay, you will not change this subject, wench. You will tell me who the lady is who thinks to hurt me through you, and you will tell me now.”
She slid off the horse before he could stop her, but she turned to look back up at him. “Do not ask me that. If she changes her mind, deciding to do naught, then she redeems herself and should not be punished for what she plotted in the heat of anger. If not, you will know soon enough.”
His scowl was blacker than ever, seen so easily now with so many torches lighting the inner bailey, then seen even easier as the sky cracked with thunder and flashed with lightning. A chill went down her back, for he looked like the very devil, sitting there passing judgment on her…then he sounded like it, too.
