“How so? My life will not change for having a wife. I will still go on as I have.”
In other words, faithfulness did not come into this, not that she would have expected it from any husband. But she would have expected respect, discretion, a degree of kindness, none of which she would have from Selig. His life would not change, but hers would go from this hell to a worse hell, the humiliations endless instead of temporary.
He had let go of her to pound her back. She moved farther away from him now to say, “You will go on as you have without a wife—at least without this wife.”
“The king’s bishop awaits us below even now.”
“The Saxon king is not my king,” she reminded him. “I do not tremble at his displeasure.”
“You are presently in his domain.”
“Not by choice.”
Selig ground his teeth together. He had been hasty in saying she would come willingly tothe marriage. Prideful confidence that was misplaced. She wouldn’t. Inducement would be necessary, something she would find more loathsome, something truly repugnant, something even he would find appalling. And fortunately, he was angry enough to make her believe it.
“You prefer pain to wedding me?” He crossed to her, taking her arm for once, instead of her chain. “Very well, come with me.”
Her heart leapt into her throat as he dragged her from the chamber. “Where?”
He didn’t stop to explain, had determination in his every step. And his voice was positively chilling. “I am taking you to the stable, where you will be staked out on the ground, naked, for the use of any man who finds you there. I would imagine you will gather quite a crowd in no time at all, and that crowd will grow rather than dispense.”
They had just reached the top of the stairs when she gasped out, “I concede!”
That got her released instantly. She hurried back to his chamber, wishing she could hide, knowing she could not. He would have done it. The thought came again and again, and she trembled with that knowledge.
“Well?”
She turned to face him. His hands were braced one on either side of the doorframe. His eyes were a stormy, wintry gray. How could a man so handsome have such a devil’s soul?
She dared to bargain. “I will wed you, as long as you do not touch me afterward.”
He was angry enough to say, “Gladly will I agree to that—but I also have a condition. No one is to know you remain untouched—especially your brother.”
She nodded curtly. Mischievous Loki could not have made a better bargain for them. But he was not finished. She had believed the other, and it sickened him how quickly she had believed it. But it was fortunate he had not mentioned the debt he owed her brother, or she would not believe what he was about to add.
He came before her again, slipping a finger through the ring on her neck shackle, forming a fist that lifted her chin. “My strength is recovered, wench. If you do not want to see your brother still die over this, you will not cry to him your woes when you are allowed to see him. You will, in fact, tell him how happy you are to have wed me.”
She groaned at such an impossible task. “He will not believe it.”
“Then you must think of a way to convince him.”
“Loki must have exchanged one of his sons for you at your birth,” she said bitterly.
That Loki’s offspring were all reputed to be monsters made her remark a grave insult. He merely laughed now that he had gotten what he wanted of her.
She supposed she would have some time later to think of what she could possibly tellher brother, but right now Selig led her from the room again. To be married. To be married to him, and still bound in his damned chains. She hoped she could get through it without crying.
Chapter 30
THE BISHOP WASto wait a while more for their appearance, because Selig’s mother appeared at the top of the stairs before they reached the landing. And having asked Selig if Erika went willingly to the sacrifice—she did not use those exact words—Lady Brenna lost her temper. It took him a moment to figure out why.
“I will not have it!” she told her son, though it was at Erika’s chains that she was looking so balefully. “Remove them. What you do later is your concern, but you have her consent for this wedding. You have agreed to it yourself. She will not go to it chained any more than you will.”
Selig didn’t argue, though it was a close thing, so annoyed was he. But with an expression of chagrin and not a little embarrassment at being so sharply upbraided, he simply slapped the key into his mother’s hand and stalked off to await them below.
“Thank you,” Erika said in a small voice.
Brenna gave her an impatient look before she started opening the shackles. “Do not thank me.You are as like to have them back as not. I wouldst suggest you learn quickly how to deal with my son. You will be the happier for it—and so will he.”
