Gem of Gravane (The Northern Knights) (28 page)

Danielle felt true fear with the
calculating look in his beady eyes. “What have you done, Thomas?”

He released her and belted out
another chilling laugh. He leaned back, head tilted with a finger tapping at
his pointed chin. “What would your Norman do to save you, Danielle? Hmmm?”

His derisive tone caused a shiver
to slide up her spine. Danielle watched him. Something was wrong. She knew that
Aric was pleased with her, but love her? Nay. He did not. But he would still
come for her. 

Thomas closed in on her yet again
and her back came against the wall. That evil gleam was back in his eyes.

“Ah.  Did you think even a
Norman bastard like him could love a fat sow like you?”  Danielle could
not help but wince beneath his words and he saw it and laughed in her face.
“Ah, this is too rich even for me to digest. Well, dear cousin, your silly
dreams will be put to the test this eve. We shall see what lengths indeed he is
willing to go to get you back.” He grabbed her by the throat as his crazy laughter
filled the room and dragged her over to the table. “There will be plenty enough
time later to taunt you. Enough of this. Now. Tell me where your Norman hides
my documents?”

“I told you, that I do not know.”

He gave her a look that frightened
her. Danielle’s thoughts were on what he might have planned for Aric.

What might her cousin have done
that could cause him harm? She sucked in her bloodied bottom lip and tried to
pry his fingers from her throat yet again. He loosened his hold.  

“You will get him to give me what’s
mine. And you will do whatever it takes to convince him.   Else I
will give you over to the lepers to feed upon your flesh. Do we understand one
another, dear cousin?” Thomas snarled and pressed his wet lips against her temple. 

Revulsion washed over her as she
shuddered from the feel of his touch upon her skin. Danielle choked back the
bile that rose up from her stomach and spat. “Never, Thomas. 
Never.” 

His hard slap was not long in
coming. Though it dazed her, she turned her fiery gaze back on him and reached
out, clawing at him. Her nails raked down his left cheek, drawing blood. His
look of shock lasted all of a second.

He backhanded her with a swift blow
that sent her sprawling across the floor. The mark of his ring had cut into her
cheek, splitting it open and blood soaked the front of her gown. Danielle
sucked in a few deep breaths as the darkness threatened to claim her. He’d hit
her harder this time and her vision was marked by white spots.

For a moment, Thomas paused as he
stood over her and lowered his hand. His cousin would have to die tonight, for
if her husband saw this, he would not get out one sentence before the Norman
bastard robbed him of his last breath.  

Change of plans. The trap he’d set
to imprison the Norman would not do. He’d see to it the man did not come out
alive.

Thomas stepped away from her and
his thin fingers caressed the jeweled dirk tucked in his breeches. He caught
her gaze and his cold words brought Danielle’s gaze back to his.

“Wish all you want, dear cousin.
You will never get the chance. I will cut out your heart first.” 

Danielle did not flinch at his
words, with her cheek throbbing, she grinned at him instead.

 With an exclamation of
disgust, he waved his hand to the guard and quit the room. 

Danielle was dragged across the
room and the guards opened the cubby door, forcing her inside the dark
crawlspace. She was glad to be anywhere but in front of Thomas. 

She saw one of the guard’s feet
coming at her and she twisted, a protective hand over her belly and turned her
back to him. His kick hit home in her lower spine, hard. She bit her tender lip
to stifle the cry of pain. She wouldn’t give Thomas or his men the
satisfaction. 

At this moment, verily she vowed to
work harder at her impatience. She only hoped that Aric would come soon. He was
too smart of a man to let Thomas draw him into any sort of trap.  

She loved him and Danielle knew
that even if he did not share her feelings, he cared for her whether he knew it
or not.  

He would come simply for the fact
that no one took what belonged to Aric Claydon. That alone, was enough for
Danielle at the moment as she succumbed to the pain and darkness. 

The rain had slowed to an icy
drizzle and although it was just past noon, the skies had blackened to make it
appear almost night and the thick white gray mist blanketed Gravane Manor.
Clinging to it like a veil of protection.  Aric stood, with barely a
change in his breath over the two lifeless bodies of Thomas’s rebels he had
just run through.  His sword still dripped their blood at his feet as he
crouched near the rear of the manor by Danielle’s garden. 

Balwain’s whisper came to him. “The
rest are inside with him, milord.”

Aric nodded with a quick glimpse
over Balwain’s shoulder to see two more dead bodies, with the mist swirling
around them among his wife’s roses.  She would not take kindly to that
damage.  He turned the other way and nodded to a handful of his guards to
join the others he’d already sent round to the front, before turning back to
Balwain.

“Take your men through here,
Balwain.”

“Where do you go?”

Aric nodded to the thick vine
covered trellis. Balwain nodded. The secret passage. 

“Aye.” Balwain hesitated as he
struggled within to leave his lord go through the tunnel alone. 

Aric’s look told him he had no
choice. Clasping arms, the two men went on their separate paths to enter the
manor.

Chapter 29

Aric neared the
end of the smaller tunnel. He walked past the stone bench where Danielle had
lain and nearly caught her death.  Forcing his body through the small
crevice in the wall a few feet from it, he entered the larger tunnel. The dirt
floor was covered in water that reached up to his ankles. He inched his way
through quietly, his keen warrior senses kicking in. He froze.  Something
was ahead of him. He waited, not breathing. 

The only sounds for a moment were
the rain drops pelting above and the drip of the dark water down into the river
at his feet. Then it came and focusing his eyes in the dark at his feet, the
tiny waves rose above his ankles. 

He was not down here alone.

 Anger filled him. He’d been
correct in his summation, Thomas knew of the tunnels running beneath the manor,
but, he did not know of Danielle’s secret passage. That was confirmed by the
fact that the men in front of him had their backs to him looking in the
opposite direction awaiting his entry from the other end to pounce.

 The fools.

The idiots had two torches. It was
just enough light for Aric to count their number and rage shook him when he recognized
a few familiar faces of Gravane’s Saxon foot soldiers.

By the time it registered on their
surprised faces that their would be target stood behind them, Aric had cut
three of them down in quick succession with his blade whistling through the
tunnel to their unprotected throats to deliver the death blows. 

With a yelp, another dropped his
torch, leaving the one at the rear of the remaining fifteen men looking to
escape with no thought to his comrades. 

A ferocious battle cry escaped
Aric’s lips as he jumped over dead bodies cutting away the men through to flesh
and bone with lethal force and leaving terminal wounds in his wake. The clang
of steel resonated and bounced off the stone walls of the tunnel. 

When all of five remained, one of
Gravane’s foot soldiers, a stout and burly fellow, bared his teeth and charged
him, knocking them both into the wall. 

Aric came down hard with his elbow
and the pommel of his sword on top of the man’s thick skull as another’s meaty
fist struck his jaw. 

The blow stunned him but a
second. The wound at the back of his neck flared with jarring pain.
He could not black out now.

Aric grunted when he felt the cut
of one’s blade on the back of his hand that held his own sword. 

He reached out and grabbed the
man’s long craggy beard. Aric beheaded him in one swift clean blow and then
brought the blade down in a practiced move between the shoulder and neck of the
stout one climbing up his leg.

Another battle cry rent the air and
bounced off the walls. 

Aric kicked the dead man off his
leg, sliding his blade out in time to see Balwain quickly dispatch the
remaining three. Aric caught the torch before it hit the water under his feet
as the last man fell. 

Stepping over the bodies to his
second, he gave Balwain a look. His friend nodded. Aric said nothing. His ever
faithful and bull-headed vassal whom he was ever grateful for.

“Did he not know that he would need
to send more than five and ten to stop you?” Balwain boasted with a grin.

“Nay. Just as he cannot think that
aught will stop me from coming for her.” 

Balwain followed behind him to the
end of the tunnel.

Aric peered out into the hall of
the manor. All looked normal within. Thomas had used the tunnel to enter and
the guards that now lay dead below had been the ones that had stood at the
great doors of the manor.

 Aric’s rage made him see red
and he paused but a moment.

Danielle’s soft words would not
save her cousin this time. Those men back there had come at him hard. Intent to
kill blazing in their eyes. Her cousin would see no reprieve.

Despite Thomas’s treason like
crimes, Aric only saw one at the forefront. The man had sealed his fate simply
by thinking to harm his wife again. He’d boded her naught but ill will since their
childhood days.

Retribution had come and Aric would
not be denied.

His blood pounded through his veins
as the image of Danielle’s sweet face swam before him.  His heart twisted
painfully in his chest and he prayed for the first time in a very long time
that he was in time before any real harm befell her.

Aric broke through into the
hall. 

Danielle came to with an ache in
her back and to the sounds of what had to be battle in the hall.  She
heard screams and steel clanging. Her heart beat rapidly. 

Aric had come.

 She winced as she tried to
turn within the small crawlspace, her hands still on her belly. Her cheek
throbbed and she reached one hand up to touch it. The blood had dried and the
cut was tender to touch. 

She heard the cries of people dying
and her heart pounded in her chest. Nausea washed over her and moved her into
action.

 Pushing against the locked
door, she panicked in the dark and started to kick at it with her feet, to no
avail. They had locked her in. Yet, she kept at it with tears streaming down
her face and opened her mouth to call out.

“Aric!  Aric!” 

Danielle clawed at the door. She
had to get to him. Her heart tore inside her chest as the muffled noises
increased. The keening sounds of pain reached her ears over her own screaming.

 Her husband could take care
of himself she knew, but she did not know how big or small her cousin’s small
army was or wasn’t.  Even with Balwain at his side, he could still be
wounded and he was not yet healed completely from his head wound.  If he
were to succumb to the pain…

She could not, would not think
that.

Not being able to see what was
happening shot more adrenaline through her and Danielle ignored her bleeding
feet and hands as she fought to break open the thick cubby wooden door to get
out and to him.

Less than an half hour later the
sounds of battle ceased within the walls of Gravane as Aric and his men quickly
dispatched Thomas’s small army of rebels and soldiers. The few that had
surrendered were imprisoned in the lower level with the other prisoners until
they were judged later.

Through it all, Aric had not laid
his eyes on Danielle’s form or Thomas. With his bloodied sword still dripping
at his side he strode to the raised dais, his face dark with his anger. He let
out a heavy breath and turned to look over the bloody carnage filling her- nay,
their home and something inside him cracked. 

They had searched every inch of the
manor and still they had not found her. Surely, Thomas could not escape him
again with her at his side. Not only would she not go quietly, he had only one
route of escape to take and Aric had come in that way.

So, where was the bastard? 
Where was Danielle?

After checking the alcoves behind
the dais, Aric swallowed the lump of panic as something began to burn within
his chest. She had to be here. 

She had to be. 

Voices made him turn back to the
hall’s entrance. He saw two of the men-at-arms he had sent out with another
group to search the perimeters of Gravane. The two men stood there with grim
expressions. The burning sensation in Aric’s chest grew stronger. He addressed
them and they told him what he’d already known and feared. 

No signs of her.

Aric began to worry that mayhap
there was another secret passage within the manor that he might have missed.
That thought left him with a sinking feeling of dread. As he searched the other
end of the manor once again he had Balwain bring his wife’s maid to him. The
pale faced and shivering Edie said there was not. That eased him an inch and
soon a loud commotion drew him back to the hall.

He was at the entrance in a flash
to see Thomas’s soiled form struggling between two of his guards. Aric came and
stood before him, barely able to contain his rage. 

Thomas’s struggles ceased when he
recognized the boots in front of him and lifted his eyes up to the dark
warrior. 

Aric scrunched his nose at the foul
smell emanating from the smaller man. He was covered head to toe with the
garderobe’s contents.