WinterofThorns (16 page)

How many women are gawking at me?
he wondered. He struggled to open his eyes but the lids refused to
budge. They felt as though they were glued together.

“Get the hell out of here!”

This time it was a man’s voice he heard
then the sound of a loud slap as flesh met flesh, a pained cry, and a door
being slammed shut.

“Fucking whores,” the man grumbled. “Guess
they like what you’ve got, son. I’ll try to keep them off you. Won’t be long
before the Reivers arrive.”

Reivers! His mind screamed at him. He was
to be turned over to the Reivers. He was lost in the horror of that, struggling
to break free of the sludge in which his body lay so he could escape but that
seemed impossible. He fought the darkness and tried again to pry open his eyes.
Only partially successful, through his lashes he could see a blurred shadow
hovering over him before he felt what had to be a sheet thrown over his
nakedness.

“You awake, boy?” the man asked.

He tried to grunt in answer but couldn’t
even do that. He was so tightly under the control of the drug his vocal chords
wouldn’t work. Neither could he flinch when rough fingers pushed one of his
eyelids up and a bright light was shone into first his right eye then his left.

“Aye, I can see you are. Well, we can’t
have that.”

Seyzon wanted so badly to resist as his
head was tilted to one side and something cold touched his neck. The smell of alcohol
told him the cold was an alcohol swab. The fiery sting of the drug shot into
his neck told him he was going back to sleep.

* * * * *

“I know that bastard in front,” Arbra said.
“That’s Jake Stoneway. He was one of Lord Raymond deVille’s men.”

With her lover sitting astride his black
roan, Lady Millicent—her hands expertly controlling the reins—and Jana were in
a buggy bound for Caldwell for a day of shopping. Arbra halted his mount as the
four riders came cantering toward them. He looked to the four outriders that
flanked the carriage. “Stay sharp,” he told them. He moved his right hand to
the dagger at his thigh.

“Do you recognize the other three men?”
Lady Millicent inquired, easily bringing the buggy to a stop.

“One of them is Jonas Ward’s oldest boy but
I don’t know the other two,” Arbra replied. He nodded as the men reined in
before them.

“We were on our way to Lavenfeld, milady,”
Stoneway said with a respectful bow of his head. “I am afraid I have unsettling
news.”

“What news?” Arbra asked.

Stoneway’s cold eyes darted to Arbra then
returned to Lady Millicent. “I am afraid your son, Lord Seyzon, has been
captured by Selwyn rebels.”

Jana’s hand went to her mother-in-law’s
arm.

“Taken when?” Lady Millicent asked.

As she listened to the man relaying what
had transpired on the road from Wicklow to Lavenfeld, Jana knew he was lying.
It wasn’t so much in what he said as in the way his eyes shifted and his lips
twitched as he spoke.

“Was my husband hurt?” she asked.

“His mount was shot from under him,”
Stoneway replied. “The beast fell with Lord Seyzon still in the saddle. We
tried to get to him before he was taken but where pinned down by heavy fire
from the Reivers.”

“Was he hurt?” Lady Millicent asked.

“I cannot say, milady. He was too far away
for us to see clearly,” Stoneway told her.

“You are lying,” Jana said. Both Lady
Millicent and Arbra turned to look at her. She shook her head. “He is lying
through his teeth.” She leveled her eyes on the man. “Tell us what really
happened to Lord Seyzon.”

Stoneway straightened his shoulders. “With
all due respect, milady, I have told you what happened. Your husband’s horse
was shot out from under him and he went down with it. His leg was pinned
beneath the steed so quite possibly his leg was broken. I believe he was
unconscious when he was thrown onto one of his captors’ mounts.”

“He’s telling only half the truth,” Jana
told Lady Millicent.

“Are you saying I would deliberately
mislead you, Lady Jana?” Stoneway asked.

“I am saying you are not telling all of it.
I’ve no doubt my husband has been taken. It is the how and the why of it that
you are not being honest about.”

“Did you have a hand in the Reivers
capturing the young lord?” Arbra asked.

“Most certainly not!” Stoneway snapped.

“Another lie,” Jana stated.

“Where was my son taken?” Lady Millicent
asked.

“Near Bixley-on-the-Green,” Stoneway said,
his jaw clenched. “Just the other side of the bridge. That is where you will
find the lord’s stallion.”

“The closest town to the bridge would be
Tunstead,” Arbra said. “Is that where you took him when you killed his horse?”

Stoneway stiffened. “I will not sit here
and be called both a liar and a traitor!” He tugged on his horse’s reins to
turn it. “I have told you what happened and now I will return to Wicklow to
inform His Grace.”

“You do that,” Arbra said with a snort. He
crossed his hands over the pommel of the saddle and watched the four men
galloping back the way they came.

“Vindan is at the bottom of this,” Lady
Millicent said.

“Aye,” Arbra said. “It has his stink all
over it.”

“Why would he do this?” Jana asked. Her
face was crinkled with worry.

“To get my son out of his way,” Lady
Millicent told her.

“Seyzon…” Jana began, her voice breaking.

“He will be safe with the Reivers,” her
mother-in-law stated.

“How can you say that?” Jana asked. Tears
were making her eyes glisten. “There is a bounty on his head. A bounty of—”

“Ten thousand credits,” Lady Millicent
finished for her. “Aye, I know, but he is worth more to them alive than dead,
Jana. They’ll first try ransoming him to Vindan and when Vindan refuses to pay,
they will contact me.”

She clicked her tongue and snapped the
reins, setting the carriage in motion.

“What are you about, woman?” Arbra called
after her.

“I am going to Wicklow to confront the
little bastard who set this gods-be-damned farce into play!”

* * * * *

The prince refused to meet with the Lady
Millicent for two days.

Nor would he speak with the Lady Jana
though she sent message after urgent message to him.

He kept the women waiting well into the
third day and when time for the evening meal came, they found themselves alone
in an informal dining room.

At a table set for three diners.

“Where is he?” Jana asked. She sat with her
hands clenched in her lap, her lovely face filled with strain.

“He is biding his time,” Lady Millicent
replied. “It is an old ploy designed to unnerve and unsettle your opponent, to
give that opponent time to let his imagination run wild with him.”

“How can he be so cruel?” Jana whispered.

“To him it is a strategy, sweeting, not
cruelty,” her mother-in-law said with a sigh.

The door at the opposite end of the dining
room opened and Vindan entered. His gaze went straight to Jana—held for a long
moment—then shifted to Lady Millicent. He inclined his head to her.

“Are you here to box my ears, milady?” he
asked as he came to the table.

“I should have done that long ago, but I
doubt it would have made you any less arrogant or greedy.”

He put a hand to his heart. “You wound me
yet again, godmother,” he said and smiled. “I don’t know how many more times my
heart can stand such lacerations.”

“Give me a dull knife and I will carve it
from you so you will no longer need to wonder,” Lady Millicent mumbled.

“Oh, you are
very
angry with me this
time!” Vindan said, sitting back in his chair and folding his arms.

“Angry, disappointed, ashamed,” Lady
Millicent said. “Mostly ashamed. I thought I had raised you to be a better man
than the one you are showing to me this night.”

Vindan’s mouth tightened. He switched his
attention from the older to the younger woman. “And you, milady? Are you just
as irritated with me?”

“Where is my husband?” she asked.

“Where I sent him,” Vindan stated.

“To men who have threatened to hang him,”
his godmother snapped.

“You and I both know they will not harm a
hair on his fair head,” Vindan told her. He shrugged. “Robbie Bray would no
more hang your son than I would, Millie.”

“No but you would break his arm and leg and
kill an animal he helped deliver!”

Vindan frowned. “I am sorry Zonny was hurt
during the chase but that was his fault. If he had not tried to—”

“What?” Lady Millicent sneered. “Run?” Her
eyes bored into him. “He ran because you gave him a reason to. What reason was
that, Vindan?”

“The one I am going to give you now before
you say something we will both regret,” he countered.

“You have set aside his Joining, haven’t
you?”

Jana’s head snapped toward her
mother-in-law. “What?” she asked, lips remaining parted.

“Didn’t you, Vindan?” her husband’s mother
pressed.

“You know I have else you wouldn’t have
asked,” the prince answered.

“You can’t do that!” Jana said. Her hands
went to the arms of her chair. “Tell him, milady. Tell him he can’t—”

“He can and he has,” Vindan said. “And at
midnight this night, you and I will be Joined.”

“No!” Jana shouted and got to her feet so
quickly her chair fell over. “I will not Join with you. I am married to
Seyzon!”

“No, dearling, you are not,” Vindan stated.
“And he is in Selwyn where he will stay.”

“This is the wickedest thing you have ever
done to Seyzon,” Lady Millicent accused. “It will come back to haunt you as
surely as day follows night.”

Vindan cocked a shoulder. “I gave him time
with her then I took her back. He should be grateful for small favors.”

“Took me back?” Jana said. She was standing
beside the table, trembling. Her hands were doubled into fists at her side. “I
was never yours for you
to
take back and I will
never
belong to
you!”

“You already do and within a fortnight,
I’ll have your belly plumped with our first brattling,” he said. “That should
seal the deal nicely.”

Jana opened her mouth then snapped it shut.
She shot her eyes to her mother-in-law. “Do something, milady. I beg you!”

“There is nothing she can do save pay the
ungodly ransom Robbie Bray is demanding for Seyzon’s return since he now knows
he can’t use him as a pawn to influence me. I doubt milady has the kind of
money the border lord requires for her son’s release so he will stay in Selwyn
until she has come up with the amount.” He smiled hatefully. “An amount that
will take her years to raise.”

“Go to your room, Jana,” Lady Millicent
said softly.

“Aye, milady. Go to your room. Your ladies
are waiting to dress you for the ceremony this eve.”

“You go to hell!” Jana threw at him and
spun around. She ran from the room as fast as her slippered feet could carry
her.

The grandfather clock in the hall ticked
away a full minute before Lady Millicent pushed her chair back and got to her
feet. Her gaze was locked on the prince.

“He loved you,” she said. “As I loved you.”

“Loved,” he said. “As in past tense?”

“Aye, Prince Vindan. You no longer deserve
his love and you have effectively killed mine.” She headed for the door.

“I still love you,” he told her as she
passed behind him.

“More’s the pity,” she replied.

“You will be at the Joining,” he said,
making it an order. “As my surrogate mother.”

She turned to face him. “I would rather be
boiled in oil than stand at your side while you take Seyzon’s love from him.”

“Would you rather spend the remainder of
your days at Galrath instead?” he suggested.

Lady Millicent took a step toward him. “Merciful
Alel. Is that what you threatened him with?”

“That and having his lands confiscated as
well as him thrown into Utuk Xul,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “All
incentives for him to return to Lavenfeld to send Jana to me.”

“Did you truly believe he would do that?”
she asked, astonishment flitting across her lightly-lined face. “Give her up
that easily?”

“I know Seyzon,” he said. “I knew precisely
what he would do. I knew he’d run. I told my men to stop him, not let him reach
Lavenfeld. If he had, he might have been able to put you and Jana out of my
reach. The land?” He shrugged. “He didn’t give losing it a second thought. It
was you and Jana and his freedom that were his concerns. As I said, I know
him.”

“You might
think
you do, Your
Grace,” she replied. “A man who has been boxed into a corner can be a very
dangerous adversary. He will do things he ordinarily would not to protect what
is his. Never put him in a position where he doesn’t give a damn.”

“Zonny didn’t stand a chance against me. I
drew blood this time,” he said. “To the victor, the spoils.”

“We will see who the victor is once the
dust has settled,” she told him. “This is not over. Not by a long shot.”

“She is mine and mine she will stay!” he
called out to her but Lady Millicent did not respond. She left him sitting
alone at the dining table.

* * * * *

Jana did not go to her room as Lady
Millicent had suggested and the prince had all but ordered. Instead, she went
looking for a way out of Wicklow Castle. She had no intention of Joining with Vindan
Brell. Just knowing he had annulled her marriage to Seyzon sent waves of fury
lashing through her.

Voices from down the corridor startled her
and she whipped her head around, trying to find someplace to hide. There wasn’t
one. No doors. No alcove. She had two choices—keep walking or turn around. Lowering
her head, she decided to brazen it out and continue on in the hopes no one knew
she was missing and those coming toward her would not recognize her.