“Is this it, then?” the boy whispered when they reached the door at the end.
“If Walter’s wench did not misguide him. And block the light when I open the door. I do not want the lady waking ere I reach her.”
The door was not locked, but it was blocked by a pallet spread on the floor in front of it. Ranulf closed the door again and swore under his breath.
“What is wrong?” Kenric asked.
“One of her maids sleeps in front of the door. You will have to squeeze through the crack and see to it she continues to sleep.”
Kenric’s eyes widened to great turquoise circles. “You want me tokillher?”
“Sleeps, lackwit, not ‘never wakes up.’ A light tap on the head with your dagger hilt should do it nicely. Just be quiet about it.”
Kenric set the torch in the wall bracket beside the door before he slipped through. In half a minute he was back and opening the door wide.
“’Twas not a she, but a he,” Kenric whispered, his surprise still evident. “That boy—”
“I can guess who,” Ranulf replied in disgust. “Just bring the restraints. We will see to the lady first; then you can tie up her ‘guard.’”
“’Tis done.” At Ranulf’s raised brow, Kenric amended with a grin, “Just his hands. You said to be quick.”
Ranulf grunted. “So I did. Let us have this over with, then.”
With the door left open, torchlight spilled a few feet into the room, but only dimly lit the rest of the area. However, it was enough light for what they had to do.
The chamber was not large, though not too small either. It was in feet nearly identical with the one Ranulf had been given for his use. Theo was slumped beside the door where Kenric had shoved him. The bed sat in the center of one wall, the curtains closed about it. A number of items cluttered the room, several tables and stools, a wooden chest at the foot of the bed, a large brazier where a fire had burned earlier, needed even for this wanner weather of late spring.
Carefully, Ranulf drew back the curtains on the bed just enough to lean inside. She was there, no more than a tiny mound beneath her covers, topped by the raven locks spread across her pillow. It was she. Even in the darker gloom inside the enclosed space, he could see the whiteness of her small, piquant face, the dark slanting brows, that full lower lip forming a pout as she slept.
For a moment he hesitated. Once she woke to see him in her chamber, there would be no turning back. She would belong to Rothwell, for better or worse. And he knew it would only be for worse. But he would then have Farring Cross, his own land, earned by his own labor, not given to him, as his younger half brother had come by his land. Ranulf had had to work for what he wanted because his mother had been no more than a village wench, whereas his brother’s mother had been a lady—not wed to their father, but a lady nonetheless. For that and that alone, her son, a bastard as Ranulf was, younger man Ranulf was, had been named their father’s heir, had been raised with all the privileges accorded a precious heir.
No, Ranulf could not afford to feel anything for this lady sleeping so innocently in her chaste bed. There were little enough ways for a man to earn the kind of money he needed without stealing it, so he could not pick and choose as his conscience might dictate. And she was just another heiress to be fought over and won by the stronger man, Rothwell being that man because he had hired Ranulf. She was no more than a job to him, hopefully the last. So being, he hesitated no longer.
Her eyes opened the instant Ranulf’s hand slid across her mouth, colorless in the dark, wide and fearful. The softness of her lips registered, but only for a second, for he had to apply more pressure when her small hand came up to push against his arm. He leaned across her to keep her other arm trapped beneath the cover whilst he exchanged his hand for a gag and quickly secured it with a strip of cloth. Her free hand was ineffective in stopping him, useless no matter how she pushed or pulled.
She moaned, for no other reason than he had pulled her hair in tying off the gag, but Ranulf stiffened, not knowing what caused it, and immediately leaned away from her. He had thought his mind hardened against her, but that soft sound pricked him on the raw, enough to make him furious with himself, with her, with life in general.
“Kenric!” The boy instantly poked his head through the curtain. “Get her hands and feet tied.” But the boy did not move, and Ranulf swore under his breath when he looked down to see that the cover had moved enough to reveal the lady was naked beneath it. “Hold her down.”
Ranulf angrily left the bed to rummage in the chest he had seen. He returned and thrust a sleeveless shift through the curtain.
“You wantmeto put it on her?” he heard Kenric squeak in horror.
Ranulf gritted his teeth. “Just do it and be quick about it.”
Kenric gave Reina an apologetic look before he slipped the shift over her head. But that was as far as he got. She had both hands loose now, and it was all he could do just to keep her in the bed. He was not Ranulf.
“She will not let me!” Kenric called out desperately.
“Shewilllet you, or she will be carried out of here naked.”
No more was heard from behind the curtain after that. Ranulf waited several moments more for the lady to be clothed, then threw the curtain wide to swipe the cover off the bed. While Kenric struggled to bind her wrists with the cloth strips they had brought along for that purpose, Ranulf spread the cover on the floor.
“You are not finished yet?”
“She does notwantto make this easy,” Kenric hissed in answer.
With a low growl of irritation, Ranulf returned to the bed and grabbed Reina’s hands to hold them together whilst Kenric finished wrapping the cloth around her wrists. He did the same with her feet, ignoring the furious looks he was now getting from her. That done, he lifted her off the bed.
