The room roared with approval. Even Cassian grinned, though he was trying desperately not to. Rebecca was about to face the consequences of her deplorable actions and she was both angry and terrified as she beat on Jonathan’s back, demanding he put her down. Jonathan, of course, ignored her as he made his way back to Essien and Cassian, Addax, and Ashton.
“Now,” Jonathan said, smiling broadly, “what shall it be? A good spank? A good pinch?”
Essien, fighting off a smirk, went around to Jonathan’s back, where Rebecca was hanging upside down. Her face was red from all of the blood rushing to her head, but she caught sight of him and reached out in desperation.
“Essien, help me!” she demanded. “Help me and you shall be rewarded!”
Essien cocked an eyebrow. “With what?” he said. “There is nothing from you that I need or want. But let this be a lesson to you, my lady. Harass men at your own peril.”
Rebecca didn’t like that answer. She began fighting and kicking and twisting, making it difficult for Jonathan to keep his hold on her. He tried to keep his grip, but she twisted and lifted her knee at the same time, right by his face, and ended up kneeing him in the nose. His head snapped back and he grunted in pain as she slipped from his arms, falling to the ground.
“You wicked, terrible man!” she scolded as blood began to pour from Jonathan’s nose. “You deserve everything coming to you! I hope you fail spectacularly tomorrow, do you hear? I hope you lose!”
She was on her feet by now, raging, but the four men who had been standing around, Essien included, were now crowded around Jonathan, helping him stifle the blood that was pouring from his face. Rebecca looked at Jonathan in anger, then confusion, then perhaps something that resembled concern. She hadn’t realized she’d hit him in the face in the midst of her struggles. As she was focused on Jonathan’s bloody face, perhaps trying to think of something less cruel to say to him that might even resemble an apology, a big hand came from behind her, full of cherries, and smashed them right into her face.
Rebecca began screaming again.
Paris had his revenge. While Rebecca had been distracted with Jonathan, Paris had managed to grab a handful of those cherries she’d been so fond of throwing and rubbed them into her face. Even as she tried to get away from him, swinging her arms and trying to turn her face away, he was smashing them into her. They went up her nose, into her mouth, into her eyes. One even got in her right ear. She was covered with cherries and juice all around her face and in her hair by the time he finished. As she gasped in outrage, he wiped his hands off on the tabletop.
“How do you likethat, you little chit?” he said. “If you are going to play games with grown men, then you’d better be prepared for them to fight back. Now who’s ugly and unappealing, Rebecca de Lohr? The answer to that question would beyou.”
Rebecca was covered with the stuff. It had dripped down onto the front of her lovely green frock, staining it. When she realized that, she quickly rushed away, but not before they heard her sobbing. As Paris lifted his chin triumphantly, Cassian came to stand next to him, watching Rebecca cross the bailey, heading toward the keep.
They could hear her crying from where they stood.
“She deserved it,” Cassian said simply. “But do not be surprised if Lady Hereford gets involved. If I were you, I would stay out of the woman’s way.”
Paris cocked an eyebrow. “She raised the tyrant,” he said. “It is her fault if her daughter’s punishment has been left to others.”
“She will not see it that way.”
That was more than likely true. With a shrug, Paris headed back to his friends, who were over by the feasting table, while Ashton and Addax took Jonathan out of the hall to tend to his still-bleeding nose. That left Cassian standing by himself for a moment, hoping the evening didn’t become much more violent than it already had. As he stood there pondering that very thing, he felt someone standing beside him and turned to see Essien.
He smiled weakly.
“An eventful evening already,” he said. “Rebecca is the lively one of the family.”
Essien grinned. “You mean the troublemaker,” he said. “You forget that I’ve watched her grow up, too. She was always the dramatic one. Weeping if she didn’t get her way, screaming if someone as much as frowned at her. I seem to remember hergetting you into trouble on more than one occasion because you had eyes for Brielle and not for her.”
Cassian snorted. “She was barely five years of age at the time,” he said. “Every time I would speak to Brielle, she would pretend to hurt herself so my attention would shift to her. Do you remember that?”
Essien laughed softly. “I do, indeed.”
“She was a nuisance.”
“She still is,” Essien agreed. “Only she’s a woman now, and a beautiful one at that. If someone doesn’t curb that wild streak in her, then there’s going to be trouble. Hereford knows it.”
Cassian eyed him. “Why not you?” he said. “Speaking on behalf of Sherry and myself, men who have married the daughters of de Lohr, we would welcome you into our pack.”
Essien shook his head, throwing his hands up in surrender. “Not me,” he said. “You’ll have to find a lion tamer for Rebecca, because it will not be me.”
Cassian continued to snort. “Truthfully, I do not blame you,” he said. “You deserve a woman who is better suited as the wife of a prince.”
Essien shook his head. “A prince with no lands, no country,” he said. “That is what ambitious women want—men with titles and wealth, of which I only have the title, and a minor one at that. Nay, my friend, I am afraid the woman I marry will have to be a very unique blend of acceptance, beauty, and obedience. She will have to accept me as I am, be outrageously beautiful to behold, and obey every command I give her. And she will not care that I am a prince from a bereft house.”
Cassian smiled at him. “There is a woman out there like that, I am certain.”
“Are you? For I am not.”
