They thundered down the mountain and toward the western cliffs. The wind blew cold over her, but she only felt the heavy regret in her heart. Regret that she had never allowed herself to simply love him in return. Regret that she had looked away as he laid his heart in her hands.I love you.
“I do,” she whispered, the words spilling from her mouth and disappearing into the wind.
God what a fool she had been. She couldn’t countenance a future without him.
Future. The word inferred hope, and for the first time, she had little. She had castigated Merrick for his lack of faith, but now in the face of living life without him, she felt hers flagging. God, let him be alive.
A short distance from the cliff, she halted the horse and slid from her back. She raced forward, her gaze darting over the terrain, looking for any sign of Merrick or his abductors.
As she topped the slope of the cliff, she saw him. Bound in a kneeling position on the very edge of the cliff, his arms were pulled behind him and a gag stretched across his mouth. Her relief nearly made her hasty. She pulled up and carefully scanned the area, looking for signs of danger.
The only sound was the ocean crashing below the cliff. Unable to keep from Merrick any longer, she bolted forward. When he saw her, he immediately began twisting, his eyes warning her to stay back, but she couldn’t leave him.
She dropped to the ground in front of him, her heart nearly bursting with relief. Yanking her dagger from her boot, she reached behind him to hack at the ropes binding him.
His muffled protests flooded her ears, and she sat back. “Of course, how stupid of me,” she berated herself. She reached up to free his mouth from the cloth.
“Isabella, get out of here,” he rasped. “Leave this place at once.”
“I won’t leave you,” she said fiercely.
She reached around to cut the ropes at his arms but froze when she heard a sound behind her.
The slow methodical clapping of hands echoed across the cliff top, and she whirled around.
As she took in the man walking from behind a pile of rocks, she swayed, her legs threatening to collapse beneath her.
“Well, well, well, baby sister. How nice it is to see you again.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Shock then euphoria shot through Isabella. Her brother was alive! “Stephane, how did you…” She broke off, her gaze flitting over his hands, both of which were perfectly intact. “I don’t understand,” she said numbly.
He reacted with no joy to see her alive. On the contrary, his eyes glittered malevolently as he slowly sauntered closer to her. He looked haggard as though he hadn’t slept in days.
“I underestimated you, sister dear. I never expected you to become such a problem.”
She stared dumbly at him. “What are you talking about?” The world moved slowly around her, her befuddled mind straining to make sense of the scene before her. She should be shouting to the mountains, yet, everything about this stunning revelation troubled her.
“Poor Isabella. You really have no idea, do you?” He smiled snidely, stopping a few feet in front of her.
Warning bells clanged loudly in her head. Something was terribly wrong, but seeing her brother alive, realizing that she wasn’t alone clouded the awful truth. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t believe what stared her in the face. Jacques’ strange behavior, Kirk’s adamancy that Jacques had nothing to do with his betrayal of Merrick.
“Why don’t you tell me,” she whispered in a ragged voice.
He laughed abrasively. “Surely it is obvious to you.”
“Why?” she asked, the dread so thick in her voice she nearly choked.
“It really doesn’t matter why. All that matters is that I take the throne. Montagne put into motion all I needed to set aside the old ways, but you ruined it by appearing with the relics. Relics that should have been mine,” he ground out.
“Don’t be so certain of that,” she said softly.
He looked oddly at her. “It matters not. Now that you have so graciously retrieved them for me, I can ascend the throne as its rightful heir.”
She gazed at him in agony, searching her memories for some small clue to his betrayal. “I loved you, Stephane. Mother and Father loved you. Father was soproudof everything you did. You were the heir. Why murder them?”
Disgust flared his nostrils, and he snorted derisively. “Father had no confidence that I could complete the quest. He said my heart was not pure, my intentions not righteous. He said I only saw with my eyes and that a good ruler also saw with his heart.”
