Corisande looked at her little sister with horror and disbelief. Gaia may have been spoiled and annoying, but she was still her sister. She had to protect her.
She couldn’t let anything happen to her.
She pulled Gaia into a frightened embrace.
“Oh, God,” she breathed, fighting off tears. “He’s not going to do anything to you. I will not let him.”
Gaia didn’t want to be hugged, at least not at the moment. She pulled back to look her sister in the eyes. “Whatwas he speaking of?” she asked. “Cori, I know you think I am silly and lazy, and mayhap I am, but I have seen ten years and eight. I am educated, like you, and I am not stupid. I am not a child.”
Corisande looked at her, seeing the young woman, but also still seeing the little girl she knew. “I know,” she said. “It is difficult for me to realize how grown up you are. I will always want to protect you.”
Gaia was surprisingly serious in the midst of their turmoil. “I understand,” she said. “And although we have had our differences since I returned home, you are still my older sisterand I love you. I know I am naughty and silly, but I do love you. Won’t you please be honest with me and tell me what he said?”
Corisande wasn’t entirely sure she should, but the more she looked at Gaia, the more she could feel herself relent. Perhaps if Gaia knew what was going on, she could protect herself should it come to that. All Corisande knew was that she was backed into a corner and she didn’t see any way out.
The reality of it was starting to tear at her.
“You remember the battle at The Keld a few weeks ago?” she finally said.
Gaia nodded. “Aye.”
“That man, MacDuff, was responsible for it.”
Gaia’s eyes widened. “What does he want from you?”
Corisande closed her eyes tightly before averting her gaze. “Oh, Gaia,” she whispered, feeling the horror and pain to her very bones. “For the first time in my life, I am happy. So happy. Cole and I are to be married. Did you know that? Papa gave his permission.”
Gaia appeared surprised for a moment but, just as quickly, her expression relaxed. “I suppose I knew it would happen,” she said. “Oh, I pretended I did not, but I knew he was fond of you. I could see it in the way he looked at you. And I saw the way you looked at him. I… I am sorry for pinching him. I should not have done that.”
Corisande looked at her and grinned, a moment of levity in the midst of a dire situation. “Not to worry,” she said. “Cole told me that his hand slipped onto your buttocks.”
Gaia grinned. “He spanked me!”
“You deserved it.”
Gaia’s expression of outrage held out for a mere second longer before she giggled. “I suppose I did,” she said, but quickly sobered. “I am glad you are happy, Cori. I’m very glad Colemakes you happy. But what does that have to do with what the man said to you?”
Corisande lost her humor almost immediately. Heavily, she sighed. “He gave me his terms for our release,” she said, struggling to get the words out. “He told me… he told me that one night with him would gain our release and the release of the English soldiers they captured with us. He’ll free all of us.”
Gaia’s eyes widened when she realized what she meant. “You mean…?”
Corisande nodded. “He wants to bed me.”
“And then he’ll let us free?”
Corisande nodded again. Then, she burst into tears. “My God,” she wept softly. “What will Cole say when he finds out? He will not want me after another man has touched me. But if I do not agree, MacDuff said that he will force himself upon you and make me watch. I have no choice if I am to protect you. Protecteveryone.”
She buried her face in her hands, sobbing, as Gaia sat there in shock. It was true that she was young and silly, and flirted with men most inappropriately, but she was an intelligent girl. She understood what her sister was telling her and she further understood what such a terrible proposal meant to her sister’s happiness. Corisande, who was sweet and kind, who had suffered terrible luck with the knight from Hexham those years ago, and now had finally found love with Cole de Velt.
A happy future awaited her.
And now this.
Gaia had never done anything worthwhile in her life. She was vain and petty, and shallow if she was honest with herself. She wasn’t worth her sister losing her happiness over and that was exactly what it would come to. Corisande was right– what man would want her after another had touched her?
Gaia could feel her sister’s desperation, a horrible position to be in.
But there was something Corisande didn’t know.
