“Allow him to go free, and I shall cooperate in whatever way you command of me.”
The earl quickly jabbed his sword into my other thigh. The sharp edge sliced into my flesh enough that it caused me to jerk with burning pain, even as I held in the involuntary grunt. I realized exactly what the earl was doing. He was more astute than I’d allowed. He’d surmised the situation all too quickly and realized he could control Olivia by hurting me.
“Stop!” she called out, her eyes widening at the fresh blood seeping from the new wound into my garments. “Father, please. Let him go.” Her voice was panicked, and her beautiful eyes pleaded with her father.
The earl held his sword above my leg, poised and ready to slice again. The blade was crimson with my blood. He stared at Olivia, as though weighing her suggestion, yet I knew better than to hope he would have mercy. He was too conniving for that. He was also too wise to kill me quite yet. As long as I knew the location to the chalice, I would be of use to him.
“You fancy yourself enamored with Lord Pitt’s commander.” He finally spoke in a deceptively calm voice.
“I have told you. He is a good man.”
Whatever had happened between us over the past month was real and strong and alive. Neither of us could deny our growing feelings for each other. But she would be safer to hide the truth from her father and pretend she cared nothing for me.
“Then if I had not freed you when I did, you would have carried through with Pitt’s plans to marry you off to this man?”
“I had to wed him or face the hangman’s noose.” Her chin lifted again in that defiant way she had about her. Eldridge hadn’t released Olivia, but he held her arm behind her back so that if she moved too much she would find herself in excruciating pain again.
“I know you well enough, daughter. You could have figured out a way to free yourself if you’d wanted it.” Her father’s voice contained accusation.
“Perhaps I decided Sir Aldric would make a more honorable husband than Lionel Lacy.”
“Honorable.” The earl sneered the word. “And what of loyalty to your family? You would fight for this man rather than your family.”
“I would not see an innocent man killed,” she retorted.
Her father wiped my blood from his blade and sheathed his sword. He spun and left the cell. When he was in the passageway, he paused. “Be assured, Olivia. I have condemned this man to die. How slowly and painfully will depend upon your cooperation and his.”
With that, the earl turned to leave.
Olivia acted with decisive and expert speed. In a move that surprised me as much as Eldridge, she slipped out of his hold, flipped him onto his back, and thrust a dagger against his throat. I tried to reach for the sword inches from my bound hands, but I couldn’t make my fingers work. Before I could figure out another way to help Olivia, Eldridge had bucked her, rolled her over, and had her hands pinned to the ground.
She released a frustrated cry that contained her pain at the pressure Eldridge had placed against the tender spot in her wrists.
The earl stopped and looked back at Olivia with something like contempt in his eyes. “Lock her up,” he called over his shoulder to Eldridge as he started on his way. “She’ll submit eventually.”
Eldridge rose, tossed Olivia over his shoulder, and strode from my cell, taking all the weapons and locking the door. Olivia screamed, kicked, and punched. But the stocky soldier didn’t waver in his mission. He carried her to the cell across from mine, dropped Olivia to the hay strewn ground, and then stood with one boot against her diaphragm. “Take out your pins.”
“No!” She spat at his outstretched hand.
He responded by pressing his heel into her ribs so that she screamed—this time in pain.
“Your pins.” Eldridge held his hand steady.
With shaking fingers, she began to tug the pins from her hair and place them into his palm. When she finished, he didn’t remove his boot but instead dug it back in. She cried out again and writhed on the floor in agony.
Everything in me burned with the need to slay Eldridge. Yet I was helpless to do anything but watch her suffer, the same way her father had forced her to watch my torment. If only I could take her place . . .
I’d do anything for her, even die for her if I had to. The realization pummeled me.
Pitt was right. I loved Olivia. I couldn’t deny it any longer. And just as I’d failed to protect Giselle, I was failing to protect Olivia. If I’d stayed within the confines of the hunting party, perhaps we wouldn’t have fallen into the earl’s hands. At the very least, if the earl had decided to ambush, I would have had the assistance of my men to protect Olivia.
As it was, I’d put us in a place where we were vulnerable and open to attack. Instead of helping Olivia, my fears had only made matters worse. I thought I was protecting her, but ended up hurting her.
Was that what happened with Giselle too? I let my fears dictate her activities and boundaries. I believed I was doing my duty as her husband in shielding her. Instead I’d confined her too much until she resented me and ran away.
I swallowed my self-loathing. Apparently, I was no different than before. The moment fear ensnared me, I resorted to my old habits. I’d tried to confine Olivia, to restrict her activities in order to keep her safe. But Olivia, unlike Giselle, wouldn’t retreat and let me hedge her in. Olivia would fight back, like she had today.
Maybe that’s what I needed, a woman who would challenge me, who wouldn’t be afraid to tell me the truth when I needed to hear it, and who would sharpen me into a better man. Wasn’t that what Pitt said, that I needed a strong woman who I wouldn’t intimidate or crush? Was Olivia that woman?
“Give me the rest of the pins, my lady,” Eldridge said. “I can’t have you picking the lock.”
“That is all.”
He added pressure against her chest, and I feared he would begin snapping her ribs one at a time. I tried to call out, to draw his attention back to me, but Olivia’s scream drowned out my noise.
Eldridge reached down and carefully removed three more pins from her hair before he straightened and exited the cell. He closed the barred door, locked it, and stalked away.
Only after his footsteps were gone did I realize he’d left the wall sconce burning. Dread settled in my stomach because I knew the burning light meant only one thing. He’d be back soon. And when he returned, he’d torture one of us.
I just prayed he’d hurt me and not Olivia.
Chapter
20
I shuddered uncontrollably. With contempt, fear, and anguish. Most of all, I shook because I’d failed Aldric. I’d tried so hard to find a way to save him. I’d hoped by preventing Father and Eldridge from murdering him and by bringing him here to Wigmore, that I’d find a way to secure his release, perhaps even sneak him out of the castle.
But everything had gone horribly wrong.
Hot tears still coursed down my cheeks, tears I hadn’t been able to stanch no matter how hard I’d tried, especially as Eldridge had grown more brutal and Aldric hadn’t been able to suppress his anguished groans.
With each slap of Eldridge’s whip across Aldric’s bare back, I’d wanted to beg Aldric to tell Eldridge the location of the Holy Chalice. But Aldric hadn’t spoken a word. He knew as well as I did, that the only thing keeping him alive was his knowledge regarding the chalice. Once he disclosed the whereabouts, his life would no longer hold any value to my father.
Finally, Eldridge had wearied and cut Aldric’s hands free from the hook on the wall. Aldric had fallen into the hay a quivering and bloody mass. And he hadn’t moved since.