“Not another word, Beatrix,” Warrick warned, his tone pure ice.
“The time of my leavingcanbe verified, my lord,” Rowena offered. “Mistress Blouet will tell you that she looked for me, but could not find me the entire afternoon. And the guard at your postern gate can tell you exactly what time Mildred engaged him in conversation so I could slip past him unnoticed. ’Tis my hope you will not reprimand him for his carelessness, for had he been more diligent, you would have found me not at your gates, but in your dungeon—at least, you would have found what was left of me,” she ended, giving Beatrix a look of undisguised contempt.
“What say you, Beatrix?” Warrick asked.
“She lies,” Beatrix said disdainfully. “Bring in those she claims will support her lies. Let them say so to my face.”
“So you think to intimidate them into silence?” he replied, the smile on his lips that Rowena hated. “I think not. But answer me this. If she stole your pearls, why did she not take them with her when she escaped?”
“How should I know how a whore thinks?”
That remark brought his blackest scowl into place. Beatrix stared back at him stonily, too angry to be afraid. But when that scowl came to bear on Melisant, his youngest daughter promptly burst into tears.
“She made me say it!” Melisant wailed frantically. “I did not want to, but she slapped me and said that she would sayIstole her necklace if I did not say your leman did it! I am sorry, Father! I did not want to hurt her, but Beatrix was so angry with you—”
“Aye, with me,” Warrick growled low. “All this formybenefit. Well, what you have earned, Beatrix, is foryourbenefit, and long overdue.”
Chapter 39
Warrick whipped his daughter right there in the hall for all to see, and he used the thick leather of his sword belt. Rowena leaned back in the chair she had been allowed to use and closed her eyes to it, but she could not close out the sound. And it was a brutal walloping. Beatrix’s screams became hoarse, her pleadings pitiful to listen to. Rowena had to bite her lip to keep from trying to end it sooner than Warrick deemed sufficient. But by the time he was through, his daughter was utterly repentant, and utterly cowed.
After she was assisted from the hall by her ladies, Warrick dropped into the chair next to Rowena. “That should have appeased my anger, but it did not.”
“It certainly took care ofmine,” Rowena assured him dryly.
The sound he made was choked laughter. “Wench—”
“Nay, I am sorry,” she said seriously. “’Tis no time for levity. And your continued anger is certainly understandable. It can only be heart-sickening to know that your own child wouldst do you harm. But try to remember that sheisstill just a child, with childish reactions, which was what her attempt at revenge was.”
He cocked a brow at her. “Are you trying to console me, wench?”
“God’s mercy, I would not dream of it.”
He could not choke back his laughter this time. “I am glad you are still here.”
Rowena stopped breathing at those words. “Are you?” she asked softly.
“Aye. I would hate to have to go out to hunt you down in that rain.”
She glared at him for that answer, until she noticed the slight curl of his lips. Was the feared dragon actually teasing her?
’Twas amazing how relaxed she felt with him now. Verily, he seemed no longer her captor, nor she his prisoner. Had that night of mutual passion they had shared really put an end to his need for vengeance against her? The thought was too tempting not to explore further.
“The question of my stealing,” she began carefully. “Has it been settled to your satisfaction?”
“Aye—in this case.”
Rowena almost stopped there, for that taunt did not bode well for what she hoped to hear. But it had not brought annoyance to his expression, so she braved on.
“What of my—temporary sojourn in yonder woods?”
He snorted at her mild terms for what would have been a successful escape if her brother had not been in the area seeking vengeance. “What is it you ask, wench?”
“Am I to be punished for it?”
“Am I a monster that I would do so, when I am aware of the harm that could have been done you had you not left the castle when you did?”
She grinned. “Actually—”
