“Fuck you,” Alina screamed, though it cameout a strangled shriek.One of the men holding her raised his fistand Alina glared at him.
“Don’t think I won’t hit you, you Northernbitch,” the man threatened in his Green Isles tongue.
“Enough,” Roark commanded, and the manwithdrew his fist.Roark knelt down beside her, his beautiful,treacherous rain eyes holding hers.“You won’t be hurt,” he said inher Northern tongue.“I swear it, as long as you cooperate and stopfighting.”
“How could you?”she cried, and though herwords were muffled, he understood their meaning.
“I am sorry, Alina.Truly.”
She closed her eyes and rolled her head fromside to side.How could she have been so foolish?It was all atrap, and he’d been the bait.All he’d had to do was look at herand smile at her and speak a few intelligent words and she’d walkedwith him, no, she’d led him to the lake, alone.She’d let him kissher and she’d kissed him back.Worst of all, she’d believed hewanted to marry her after knowing her for a day.She’d almost toldhim yes.
“Help her up,” Roark said in the Green Islestongue, and the three men lifted her to her feet.“I’m going topull your gag out and tie it around your mouth,” he said in herNorthern tongue.“You must swear not to call out.”Alina nodded,wondering why he kept switching from the Green Isles tongue to theNorthern tongue when he knew she spoke both.
He pulled the gag and she opened and closedher mouth while he unfurled it, wound it tight, pulled it over hermouth, and wrapped it snugly around her head.“Is that too tight?”he asked.Alina shook her head and he leaned in close as he tiedthe gag.“Forgive me, my lady owl.”
Alina grunted in response, throwing daggerswith her eyes as he took a piece of rope from the man who’d raisedhis fist to her.
“I’ll tie her hands,” he said, taking herwrists in hands that had been pressing her body close to his onlymoments ago.He bound her wrists together and ran a finger betweenher skin and the rope.“I’m going to relieve you of your cloak,” hetold her, unclasping it and tossing it to one of the men, who alsoheld her mask and his headdress.He pulled his waist blade andAlina reared back.“I’m only going to cut off some of your gown,”he said.“To throw those who’ll come looking for you off ourtracks.”
Alina stood shaking and panting as Roark cutjagged strips of her gown away, leaving her legs bare to her knees.He held his hands up to her, and then slowly reached for the leftsleeve of the gown and nipped the seams open with the tip of hisblade.He tore the sleeve off at the shoulder and handed it to thesame man who held her cloak and mask and strips of her gown.
“What about the pearl necklace?”the man, abig, burly greybeard, said.
“No,” Roark told him.“We have what we needfor the ruse.”
The man grunted and headed off for the woodswith a redheaded man carrying a small bucket and the third manfollowed, erasing their tracks with a branch of leaves.
“The plan worked,” Leif said in the Northerntongue, meaning for Alina to understand.“I have to say I had mydoubts, but you played her like a fiddle.”He slapped Roark on theback.“Who knew you were such a good actor?”
“Yeah,” Roark said, meeting Alina’s glare.“Who knew?”He double-checked Alina’s binds, his hands lingeringover hers and giving them a gentle squeeze.“We should go,” hesaid, taking her by the arm and leading her into the woods.
***
“You’re right-handed?”Roark asked as heuntied the ropes around Alina’s wrists, though he knew she was.Itwas one of the many details he’d discovered about her.He’d neverwanted to be part of her kidnapping, even if all the horriblethings Roger said about her parents were true.After meeting KingJerrik and Queen Alyssa and talking with Digby and Pavel and othersin the city of Sea Ridge, he had serious doubts they were.Still,he’d gone along with it for the same reasons he’d explained toAlina for going along with marrying Gwyneth.Too many peopledepended on it.On him.
Alina nodded and her eyes grew wide as heclapped an iron cuff around her left wrist and locked the shortchain on the cuff to a larger chain attached to an iron pole in themiddle of the hold, which would allow her to stand, sit, or lie onher bed of furs until they reached the Green Isles.
“If I take your gag out,” he asked her, “doyou promise not to scream?”
She shook her head, her green eyesblazing.
“Screaming will do you no good,” he told her.“The ship’s hull is too thick for sound to carry, and you’d onlyend up with a raw throat.”
She looked around the hull, snorted, andnodded.
Roark untied the gag.“I’ll make sure itstays off as long as you keep to our bargain.”
“You’re a fucking liar,” she hissed.“Whyshould I believe a word you say?”
“I never lied to you, other than the lie ofomission.”
“Like omitting the real reason that you camehere?”she huffed.“Which means everything you said to me, mybrother, my father, was based on a lie.”
“Not everything,” he said.He folded thelinen gag and wrapped it around her left wrist to cushion her skinand bone from the iron cuff and lowered his voice to a whisper.“Imeant everything I said and did at the lake.”
She opened her mouth and snapped it shut, hisbetrayal reflected in the green depths of her eyes.“That makes allthis so much worse.”
“I know.”He’d flirted with her and gottenher to trust him.He’d lured her into a trap while becoming trappedhimself by her wit and beauty.Then he’d kissed her.The memory ofit still warmed his blood and other body parts.“I am sorry,truly.”
