“You may become my brother-in-law,” Henrik said, his tone uncharacteristically harsh, “but you are no longer my friend.”
“Very well,” Friedrich said.“You may show yourself out.”
“Wait, please.Henrik,” Lise pleaded.At first, he wouldn’t look at her, so she grabbed his arm, willing him to return to her familiar, loving brother.
Finally, his blue eyes, so like her own, turned to her.She shivered, wanting to sob at their icy glint, devoid of their usual love and approval.
“Our parents will be heartbroken,” Henrik said.“But I will give you this wedding present, sister.You no longer need worry about Lord Bowen.”
“What do you mean?”she demanded, as he tugged his arm free and strode for the doorway.
“Answer her,” Friedrich demanded.
“As it turns out, he freed himself,” Jonathan said before storming out, leaving the front door open behind him.
Lise couldn’t help the cry of anguish.She had sacrificed everything for nothing.Her knees wobbled, and she nearly sank to the floor.
“Stop the theatrics, Lise,” Friedrich snapped.“Now you have what you wanted.Your Englishman’s freedom.Pity you’ll never see him again, if I have any say in the matter.Besides, it has all worked out for the best.Your family will be safe, as long as that spy stays away from them.”
She listened but couldn’t really take it in.Was she really trapped?
Then Friedrich softened his voice.“Since Henrik thinks we’ve already shared a bed, we might as well enjoy ourselves tonight.”
“If you lay a hand on me before we are lawfully wed, I will scream and scream,” she threatened.“You will have little joy of me, I promise you that!”
Leaving him standing there, Lise ran for the stairs.
Chapter Sixteen
Jonathan paced the shadowed alcove in the exterior of the south tower of Lübeck’sMarienkirche, a massive Gothic brick church that, at any other time, he would love to explore.With hands clenched at his sides, his jaw tight with barely restrained agitation, he waited for Henrik.
Despite being beside a Lutheran church, his thoughts were not particularly patient or holy.The moment Lise’s brother appeared, Jonathan strode forward.
“Where is she?”he demanded.
Henrik shook his head, and the gravity of his expression made Jonathan’s insides quake.
“Henrik.”His voice dropped to something raw and desperate, despite Lise’s brother not knowing how he felt about the man’s sister.“Where is she?”he asked again.
“She’s ...”Henrik swallowed hard, and Jonathan realized the man could scarcely meet his eyes.“She will marry Friedrich.There’s nothing we can do about it.”
“The devil she will!”Jonathan now wished he’d gone to Friedrich’s home with Henrik, regardless of the danger.Evidently something significant had changed that would allow Lise’s brother to even consider leaving her with a French collaborator.
“Did you tell her I was free?”
“I did.”Henrik’s hands curled into fists at his sides.“It makes no difference.”
“Tell me what has happened.She cannot remain with —”
“They’ve been intimate,” Henrik interrupted, his tone flat, as if saying the words was torture.“Thus, she must marry him.”
Jonathan recoiled like he’d been struck.For a long moment, he simply stared at Henrik, his chest rising and falling with shallow breaths.His brain raced to make sense of what her brother had just said.Then the only reasonable explanation gutted him.“He forced her, didn’t he?That scoundrel took her against her will.”
But Henrik was shaking his head.“No.It wasn’t that way.She didn’t even ask me to remove her from his house.She intends to stay there until he gets the pastor to marry them.Which will happen in a day or so.”
Then Lise’s brother strode to the closest tree and did what Jonathan wanted to do to Friedrich Albrecht.Henrik punched the broad trunk of the tree.Hard.It was stupid, but understandable.Also, premeditated, for he’d used his left hand, protecting the hand that held a gun or sword in battle.
“Pointless,” Jonathan muttered.“Better you should have shot the bastard.”
