Robbie was more relieved than he wanted to admit when he heard someone fumbling with the latch. A few moments later, the door was thrown back and a rope lowered. With his injuries, it took him longer than it should have to pull himself up the ten feet or so to the top.
Chained manacles were slapped around his wrists by two grim-faced but silent soldiers the moment he stood outside the opening. Without explanation he was dragged outside the small anteroom, through another room, and pushed through an arched doorway into what looked to be the guardhouse at the main gate.
He heard a familiar gasp the moment he stumbled inside and he jerked his head up with surprise.Rosalin!Their eyes met and all the fear, all the longing, all the love he had for her hit him with the force of a thunderbolt.
A moment later when she looked to her right with a scowl, Robbie’s expression hardened as he became aware of the other person in the room.
“What did you do to him?” she demanded to her brother.
Clifford—the bastard—shrugged with a smirk he didn’t bother to hide. “A few of my men were a little overzealous when he identified himself at the gate last night. After what he’s done, he should consider himself lucky.”
“Go to hell, Clifford.”
“If anyone is going there soon it won’t be me. I’m not the one in irons.”
Rosalin frowned. “Take those off him, Cliff. I told you he wouldn’t hurt me.”
Clifford met his gaze; they both knew the chains weren’t for her protection. “I don’t think so,” the other man said. “Let’s hear what he has to say first.”
Rosalin took a step toward him. She looked so damned beautiful it took his breath away. But there was a fragility to her in the paleness of her cheeks and dark shadows under her eyes that hadn’t been there before, and any punishment Clifford might have meted out couldn’t compare to the guilt he felt knowing he’d been the one to put it there.
He half hoped she’d rush into his arms and tell him that she’d missed him. But she didn’t, and he had no right to expect it. Not after their last parting.
For once, the expressive eyes that had always seemed a window into her thoughts were shuttered to him.
He couldn’t have lost her. He wouldn’t countenance it. She’d given him her heart, and he wasn’t going to let her take it back.
“What do you want, Robbie?” she asked.
“You.”
Clifford made a low growl and took a threatening step toward him, but Rosalin caught him by the arm. “Please, Cliff. I want to hear what he has to say.”
Clifford gave her a long look before moving back. “It had better be good.”
Robbie ignored him and looked at Rosalin. He would have preferred to say this without an audience, but he supposed he should be glad he was getting a chance to speak to her at all. He’d expected to have to plead his case to Clifford.
“I’m sorry. I should have trusted you. I made a mistake, and I’m here to try to make it right.”
He turned to Clifford and squared his jaw. “I want to marry your sister.”
“No.”
Robbie gritted his teeth together. The bastard was enjoying this. “Rosalin said you would do anything to make her happy. She asked me to trust her. I do. That’s why I am here.” She made a sound, and he turned to see her eyes widen with surprise, and then slowly start to shine with what he hoped was the first glimmer of forgiveness. He turned back to Clifford. “Was she wrong?”
Clifford turned to Rosalin. “Christ’s cross, Rosie-lin, why the hell did you tell him that?”
“I never thought he would do something so foolhardy.”
“Or romantic,” Robbie put in.
He wasn’t sure whether she heard him. “I did give him my word,” she said to her brother.
Clifford made a face, and then glared at Robbie. “She wasn’t wrong. I just don’t think you can make her happy.”
He crossed his arms and gave Robbie a smug smile, as if challenging him to convince him.
Robbie’s fists clenched. He felt the manacles straining around his wrists and thought it was probably smart that Clifford had kept him chained. But a glance at Rosalin took the fight out of him. If they were going to have any chance, he and her brother were going to have to find some way to put years of hatred behind them.
