Fairest Of Them All (31 page)

Holly huddled deeper into her mantle, wondering how it was possible that the world had succumbed to winter in August, forsaking both the indolent pleasures of summer and the crisp delights of autumn. A pall of gloom hung over the forest The brisk wind took spiteful glee in rattling the leaves and hurling gusts of cold drizzle into her face.

They’d already wasted a day and a half of their journey crouched beneath a shelter of pine boughs, watching the rain unfurl in a dense gray curtain. They might have spent another interminable day doing the same had Carey not feared they would run low on provisions. So they had emerged from their sodden nest and plodded on toward Tewksbury, their spirits as glum as the weather.

Even Elspeth seemed to have lost her gift for chatter. After catching her rubbing her gnarled knuckles as if the dampness pained them, Holly had ignored the nurse’s croaked protests and insisted she don the fur-lined gloves that had belonged to Austyn’s grandmother.

Holly could no longer feel her own fingers on the reins. She only wished the hollow ache in her chest would subside to numbness. After years of fearing she was naught but a pretty shell, she had finally discovered she possessed a heart as vital and vulnerable as any other woman’s only to have it ripped out by the roots.

Twas just as well, she supposed. She would have no further need of it It seemed she was destined to spend her life being worshipped from afar, never again to know the loving intimacy of her husband’s touch.

You are, and always will be, the wife of my heart.

Austyn’s pledge echoed through her mind in a bittersweet refrain. He had probably believed the words when he spoke them, but she was certain a few months of solitude would tarnish his noble intentions. Under the benevolent guise of setting her free, he would seek that annulment they’d discussed and woo some mild-tempered maiden with calf-brown eyes and a face like a horse to his marriage bed. Holly would bump into them at a tournament or Mayday celebration, smile graciously to hide her pain, and compliment the herd of coltish children frisking about their heels.

One of her hands fluttered to her abdomen, giving silent testament to a hope she’d barely dared to acknowledge. Austyn had made it painfully clear that he had little interest in any child she might bear him, but she could not help but wonder if his resolve might not soften if she presented him with a squirming son. A precious little man-child with dark locks and the hint of a mischievous dimple in one chubby cheek. The dull ache in her chest sharpened to yearning anguish.

“Stop torturing yourself,” she muttered beneath her breath, earning an uneasy look from both Elspeth and Carey.

The rain had nearly ceased. A canopy of branches spanned the narrow path, muting the feeble daylight to premature dusk. Holly’s nape prickled. She glanced over her shoulder, hard pressed to shake off the sensation of malevolent eyes peering at them from the tangled bracken.

She swallowed hard to calm her nerves, remembering what a fool she’d made of herself when she’d succumbed to similar fancies on the journey to Gaven-more. This time there would be no Austyn to draw her into his lap and dry her tears. No Austyn to hoist her up on his mount and offer the comforting expanse of his back as a pillow.

She was not the only one affected by the sinister atmosphere of the forest. Carey’s hand strayed to his shoulder to check the readiness of his bow. Elspeth lowered the hood of her cloak, her gaze darting from tree to tree. They all breathed a sigh of relief when the tunnel of foliage opened into a mist-shrouded glade.

Holly’s sigh surged to a cry of astonishment as she saw a cowled figure standing at the edge of the clearing. Ignoring Carey’s shout of warning, she threw i herself off the palfrey and ran to meet him.

“ Tis only Nate!” she called to Carey, smoothing away the priesf s hood to reveal his familiar features.

Carey settled back on his mount, his face darken-! ing with a scowl that would have done his master proud.

“Thank God you’re well!” Nathanael exclaimed,’ enveloping her in a less than brotherly embrace.

Holly drew away from him, rather discomfited by ; the intimacy. “Of course, I’m well. But what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Why aren’t you at Tewksbury?”

Hectic patches of color brightened Nathanael’s cheeks. “I was coming to rescue you from that tyrant” He shuddered. “You can’t begin to imagine the dreadful fates I’ve envisioned you suffering at his hands.”

Holly might have defended her husband, but she feared her own fair coloring would betray the variety of delicious torments she had suffered at Austyn’s accomplished hands. She knew Nathanael would never believe her anyway. His pious fervor had been stirred into a frenzy by the prospect of a quest In his estimation, a princess locked in a tower by a wicked ogre held no less allure than the search for the Holy Grail.

“How have you come so far? Is my father with you?” She searched the woods behind him, not realizing until that moment how much she longed to cast herself on her papa’s neck and weep out her grief.

“We thought it best not to alarm your father unduly. Once we’d laid siege to Gavenmore and liberated you from the clutches of that villain, we were planning to—”

“We?” Holly interrupted, his smug expression sending a skitter of dread down her spine.

They slithered from the rustling undergrowth like a nest of vipers. Before Carey could slot arrow to bow, the tip of a rusty sword was pressed to his Adam’s apple. Elspeth’s cry of alarm was cut off mid-croak by the filthy hand clamped over her mouth. Between one breath and the next, Holly and her party were surrounded by a dozen men.

Holly had heard tales of these men before. They’d been spotted skulking at the borders of her father’s land more than once. They were infamous for terrorizing their master’s own villeins—robbing them of their pathetic earnings, beating old men and dragging their virgin daughters into the forest for a bit of brutal sport. They were slovenly and vicious, their eyes narrowed by an inbred appetite for depravity that made them seem more beast than human.

But somehow the man who stepped out from behind their ranks—his ebony surcoat and hose immaculate, every hair slicked back into flawless alignment, a genial smile pasted on his handsome features—made them look no more menacing than a band of bumbling pages.

“If ‘tis not the damsel in distress herself! How very courteous of you to spare us the bother of rescuing you. I do find sieges to be most tiresome.”

Holly had been clutching Nathanael’s sleeve without realizing it. She pried her fingers loose, reluctant to exhibit any sign of weakness before this man. “Na-thanael, what is he doing here?”

Nate’s patronizing smile faltered. “Why, he saved my life. I lost my way in the wilderness. Were it not for the baron’s kindness and hospitality, I might have per-ished.”

Eugene de Legget snorted with contempt “We found him wandering in circles, half-dazed with hunger and thirst, mumbling a rather tedious string of mea culpas beneath his breath. He was only a few feet from your father’s border at the time.”

“You never told me that,” Nafhanael said indignantly. “I thought I was still in Wales.”

“Of course I told you. You were simply too delirious to remember.” Eugene turned his oily charm on Holly. She was surprised he didn’t ooze right out of his surcoat “Once the good brother informed us of your grave predicament, we were only too willing to offer our assistance. I must confess you don’t seem much the worse for wear.” He reached out to finger a curL “I like it Tis rather . . . boyish.”

His lips caressed the word, shedding an entirely new light on his penchant for maidens who’d yet to celebrate their thirteenth birthdays. Suppressing a shudder, Holly ducked out from beneath his hand. He shook his head at her rudeness.

She grabbed the front of Nathanael’s robes. “Do these ruffians look capable of conducting a siege to you? I see no crossbows or battering rams. And where are the scaling ladders? The catapults? The archers?”

Nathanael blinked like a man reluctant to wake up from a pleasant dream for fear of discovering it had been a nightmare all along. “I—I do not know. I just assumed the baron knew what he was about He promised we would save you.”

“Aye, most likely by slipping into Gavenmore by night and slitting the throats of its helpless inhabitants. How could you be so impossibly naive?”

Eugene tsked beneath his breath. “Don’t be so hard on him, Holly. I found his innocence to be rather touching.”

She faced de Legget, lowering herself to address him directly for the first time. “Then make good on your vow, my lord. Escort me to my father at once.”

“ Twould be my most humble pleasure, my lady.”

The tension seeped from Holly’s shoulders. Perhaps she had overestimated de Legget’s villainy after all.

His lips puckered in an apologetic moue. “But I’m afraid ‘twill be quite impossible.” He reached to his braided belt and unsheathed a small silver dagger.

Holly took an instinctive step away from Nathan-ael, then another. As de Legget stalked her, two of his rogues seized the priest by the arms.

He squirmed in protest “I say, sirs, unhand me this minute!”

Holly’s back came up against a tree. Eugene twirled the knife in his deft fingers.

“If you harm a hair on her head . . .” Carey snarled.

Elspeth whimpered, her eyes bulging with terror.

Only Holly was silent, determined to stare Eugene down with all the scorn at her disposal. She forced herself not to recoil, not even when he pressed his hot mouth against her ear and whispered, “You won’t be quite so haughty when I’m through with you, my lady, for I have every intention of bringing you to your knees. One way or another.”

The dagger’s blade grazed her cheek. From the corner of her eye, she saw Carey start to struggle. Saw the sword at his throat notch away a sliver of flesh, sending a rivulet of blood trickling into the neck of his tunic.

“You might bring me to my knees,” she hissed. “But I won’t be reduced to slithering on my belly as you do.”

She bit back a cry of pain as he seized her hair, hacking away a single curl with icy detachment Drawing a folded parchment from the velvet purse dangling from his belt, he sealed the curl inside.

“This should do to ensure the effectiveness of my demands. Were I not so chivalrous, I would throw in your tongue as well. I’m sure your husband has endured enough of its nagging to recognize it.”

Holly swallowed her retort, for once in her life choosing discretion over valor. She almost wished she hadn’t when one of his henchman seized her around the waist, crushing the breath from her with a burly forearm. She knew she really ought to be grateful she couldn’t breathe. The toothless fellow smelled nearly as bad as he looked.

“Bring the horses,” de Legget commanded. Two of his cohorts slunk off through the trees.

“I believed in you, sir,” Nathanael said softly, looking as bewildered as a child by his rapid change of fortune.

Eugene slanted him a glance, as if just remembering his existence. Holly cared nothing for the look. A knot of foreboding tightened in her chest As de Leg-get approached the priest, the dagger shimmering like quicksilver in his fluid hand, she bucked and clawed in a futile attempt to escape the giant

The baron’s heartfelt sigh would have melted winter frost. “ Tis the most tragic failing of we mortals, don’t you think, brother? That we so consistently disappoint each other. But you still have faith in your God, do you not?”

Nathanael nodded, his dark eyes somber. “Aye.”

Eugene’s tender smile spread. “Then give Him my regards.” Grunting in satisfaction, he rammed the dagger into Nathanael’s breast

A scream of anguish ripped from Holly’s throat Carey went down beneath a sea of flailing arms and legs. The hand clamped over Elspeth’s mouth could no longer muffle her squeals of horror.

As Nathanael collapsed, Holly managed to shake off her captor and stumble forward.

Even as a damning stain blossomed on the front of his robe, he stretched out a hand toward her. “Forgive me,” he whispered, his eyes going so hazy and unfocused she could not have said if he entreated her or God. “Please forgive me.”

Holly’s fingertips grazed his; Eugene’s henchman caught her around the waist jerking her out of his reach. She wailed her frustration as Nathanael’s eyes drifted shut and he rolled to his back.

Eugene reached down, coolly withdrew the dagger, and wiped the blade on the parchment still in his hand. “May God rest his pathetic soul.”

Ignoring Holly’s murderous glare, Eugene strolled over to where Carey lay pinned to the ground by four hulking men, his lower lip puffed to twice its normal size and one of his eyes already swollen shut.

“Do try not to kill him or break his legs.” Eugene tucked the parchment into the waistband of Carey’s hose. “Either eventuality would necessitate finding a new messenger and I really haven’t the patience.”

As Eugene grabbed Holly’s elbow and jerked her toward the waiting horses, she winced at the sickening thud of fists on flesh and the sound of Carey’s helpless grunts.

“You bastard,” she spat, blinded by a hot torrent of tears as she stumbled past Nathanael’s still form.

His fingers dug into her tender flesh. “Remind me to teach you to address me with more courtesy when I’m your husband.”

“I already have a husband!”

His cold smile sent a shaft of pure terror through her soul. “Not for long, my lady. Not for long.”

Holly soon learned that there were more grueling ways to travel than perched sidesaddle on a palfrey in the rain. Such as being trussed hands and feet and heaved like a sack of grain over the back of a monstrous destrier. Each thunderclap of a hoofbeat jarred her spine and set her teeth to rattling like dice. Cold gobbets of mud spattered her face. She shivered to imagine the effects of such torture on Elspeth’s frail bones.

As the hours passed, her thoughts churned in rhythm to the horse’s strides, stirring up a maddening maelstrom of grief and regret. If only her love had been strong enough to win Austyn’s trust If only she hadn’t baited Eugene. If only she’d never enlisted Nathanael’s help in her mad scheme. He might be safe at Tewksbury this very moment, nagging the servants about their lack of piety and chiding her papa for hawking when he should have been attending Mass. A rush of warm tears blurred the flailing hooves.