Knight of Her Heart (Conquering the Heart) (38 page)

Rowan’s breaths were hardly perceptible in the silence whereas her breaths were quick and shallow. The air she inhaled was saturated with the almost metallic smell of blood mixed with the scent of fear and sweat.

Lisette shook like a leaf.

“Come, my love. Do not distress yourself,” Rowan urged.

“I...I’ll be fine.” And, she would be—despite the fact that her teeth were chattering madly. “I’ve just never...”

“’Twas them or us, and I promise I shall defend you and our child to the last breath in my body.”

“I know.”  In truth, she understood.

The heavy fall of running footsteps approached—presumably more soldiers—their pace indicative that they had heard the sound of conflict and were intent on discovering the cause.

Rowan rushed her into a darkened alcove. He placed his index finger up to his lips in order to communicate to her that she must be silent. Shrinking back against the wall, praying that their forms would be obscured by the shadows, she clenched her teeth together to stop them rattling in her skull. Her pulse pumped so frantically that the tattoo must surely be loud enough to reveal their hiding spot to the dozen soldiers who passed.

“Quickly,” Rowan whispered. He tugged at her hand as soon as the last of the troop had rounded the corner of the corridor.

“My Gawd!” came the first cry as the bodies were discovered. The exclamation was followed immediately by curses and vows of revenge.

“Find the bastards who did this,” one of the Baddesley men commanded.

“The door to the torture chamber is ajar!”

“The baron had taken the prisoners there.”

“Nobody there now.”

“Inform Baron Baddesley!”

General pandemonium ensued from the soldiers, but Rowan wasn’t hanging around. Lisette had never moved as quickly in her life. She couldn’t believe the speed at which her husband ran, half-towing her along.

“In here.” Rowan opened a door and ushered her inside, closing it swiftly and silently behind them. Immediately he went to a diagonally opposite wall and began tracing his hands hurriedly along the stones.

“Is there a secret passage?” Lisette asked shakily. She’d heard of them even though Bridlemere possessed no hidden escape routes.

“Aye. It should be here somewhere,” he replied without looking at her. “The baron used to lead me to this room, blindfold me and make me find the stone that triggers the opening. I could find it in seconds.” His fingers pressed into the joins between the stones. “The problem is that I’m a lot taller than last time I used it, so I can no longer find it instantly.”

A few seconds later, as if by sorcery, a stone in the wall depressed and a section of the wall grated open to reveal a secret passageway.

“Hurry,” he compelled her, glancing over his shoulder. Outside in the corridor, the threatening sound of the soldiers approach loomed ever closer. Judging by the commotion, those hunting them down had grown in number.

The instant Lisette was in the passageway Rowan closed the entrance and they were plummeted into pitch-black darkness. A shiver of anxiety ran through her. Suddenly ’twas hard to breathe the thick and musty air because panic made her throat constrict.

Rowan seemed to sense her inner terror. His hands on her upper arms grounded her. “Be brave for just a little longer, my noble wife,” he whispered. “I know these passages and they will lead us to safety. But we must move as quickly as possible for Malin also knows of them and I fear we will not have gained much of a head start. I will use one hand to edge along the wall and I will hold onto your hand with the other.”

Before he moved along the wall both of his hands moved up her arms to her shoulders, outlined her neck, then settled on her cheeks. Robbed of her sight, every other sense sharpened. Lisette heard the slight intake of Rowan’s breaths. Even had he not touched her, each of her own shallow breaths would have reassured her that he was close as she inhaled the familiar scent of the citrus and sandalwood soap he favoured.

His lips met hers very gently in a feather-like kiss. Although she yearned for him to kiss her deeply and thoroughly, she knew the urgency of their situation and the necessity for them to reach safety.

“You can do this,” he told her, his breath intermingling with hers.

“Aye. I can. And, once we are away from here, I have every intention of kissing you properly, my husband.”

The low sound he made bespoke of his own need for her as he dropped his hands to capture one of hers, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Then the sooner we are gone the better, for I shall keep you to your promise.”

“Wait.” She resisted moving with him as he would have made his descent through the passage.

“What is it?”

“Rowan,” she spoke softly into the darkness, “I need you to know, I truly love you.”

There was a pause before he replied. “Hush, wife. Take not the easy way out. You will tell me this again when I can look into your beautiful eyes and behold that the depth of my love for you is mirrored back at me.”

“You truly love me?”

“So much that life without you would be meaningless.”

She held each word in her memory. This moment in time would live within her forever. “I will be happy to tell and show you the depth of my love every single day,” she declared. The pronouncement of her love for him would be in no doubt, for her adoration for the Earl of Romsey would be visible for all to see.

Rowan pulled gently at her hand and this time she did not resist as he led her down the passage. Her mood was much lighter. No longer did she feel as though she was drowning in the darkness, for Rowan was her light.

Step after step she followed him. Occasionally her hip still stung from the lash it had received from Malin’s whip, but the sting and its reminder of her captor’s cruelty only made her more determined to escape from this place and ensure Malin was punished for his wickedness.

The passageway was interminably long and in places was quite steep and very uneven. Every now and then the chill of a breeze would blow, making the air fresher for a time before they must have rounded a corner and lost it. It felt as though they were continuing down to the very bowels of the earth.

“Is it much further?” she whispered, hoping she didn’t sound like an impatient child on the long carriage ride to London. All she wanted was to be free of the threat of this place that loomed over them. Free to return to Romsey with her husband and be the wife she wanted to be.

Ahead the darkness receded and fingers of golden-red sunlight thread their way into the passageway. Dawn must have broken.

“Stay silent,” Rowan warned in a hushed undertone.

Lisette frowned then immediately understood. ’Twas not the faint glow of the morning sun, but the flickering light from torches as they were lit along the passageway. The illumination of the old tunnel passages was occurring very quickly now and the party who provided the light approached rapidly. Searching frantically, she saw no place for Rowan and her to hide.

“Put your hands to the wall and retrace our steps until you are completely hidden in the darkness, Lisette.”

“What about you?”

“There will be more bloodshed and I need to know you and our child are safely out of harm’s way”

“But—”

“For once in your life, don’t argue with me,” he insisted quietly. “Malin knows these passages too, and has realised we’re down here. We have not found our way to freedom just yet.”

Heart hammering so hard it would surely break free of her chest cavity any second, Lisette did as he bade, knowing that she would only be an impediment to Rowan if she remained in his radius.

Several moments later the sound of a loud, enraged battle cry carried up to her through the darkness and made her blood curdle. The tenor told her ’twas Rowan’s cry. He must have decided to attack rather than to wait to defend himself. Although patience had never been a strength of hers, and she longed to see for herself that Rowan was safe, she forced herself to remain where she was. Fiercely independent, she was unused to following orders, but then, she’d never been given an order before by one in whom she placed so much trust.

Chapter 22

Two by two they came at him. As Rowan fought the poorly trained soldiers he knew that he would despatch them easily. Even so, the adrenaline surged through his veins. This was, mayhap, the most important battle he had fought in his lifetime. Now the stakes were higher for ’twas not just his life that was under threat, but Lisette’s and that of their unborn child. ’Twas more important that he win this battle for them than it had ever been that he win for his liege. Lisette’s life was more valuable than any spoils of war—any recognition or glory. He would fight to his last breath to defend her and any children they might have together. As he drew his sword against the first two soldiers he knew that Lisette’s safety was more important to him than life itself.

The corridor was narrow and there was scarce room to wield his sword freely. His attack was limited to quick thrusts at one man in between parrying the attacks of the other. Malin’s men were weak. Their skills were sloppy and no match for Rowan. Without doubt Rowan’s squires would have defeated them easily. They were poor soldiers rather than knights and none of them had the protection of mail and armour.

Before long a dozen corpses covered the floor. Only two soldiers were left. Two soldiers and Malin.

“For God’s sake, have I surrounded myself with incompetents?” Malin roared.

The fear of the remaining soldiers was obvious. The illumination from the torches revealed the terror scored into their features. Although their swords were held high, each tip wavered as the bearer shook with nerves.

“Go now and I won’t harm you,” Rowan issued.

“Go now and I’ll personally run you through,” Malin countered.

Rowan was sorry for the men. Clearly they were ill-equipped to fight and longed to turn tail and flee.

“Don’t listen to him. Just run and I’ll deal with him,” Rowan tried to convince them.

“The Earl of Romsey is naught but a barbarian.” Malin glowered fiercely at the man who looked most likely to turn tail and flee. “If you turn your back on him, the last thing you will feel is his knife in it.”

“I’m not like you, Malin. My enemies know they are my enemies. I am not the man who cut his father down in cold blood and without any warning.”

Malin ignored the taunt, continuing to attempt to persuade his soldiers to stay and fight. “I saw the blood lust in him as he sent your friends here to their deaths.”

Rowan gestured at the bodies on the floor. “He sent these men to their graves. Do not number among them.”

“I want no part in this,” one of the soldiers declared.

“Nor I. We are but farmers and both have families,” the second soldier explained, appealing to Malin. “This work was all we could do as the district has grown poorer and the taxes higher.”

“Go to your families,” Rowan ordered.

The men lowered their swords. Malin raised his and would have cut down the man nearest to him—just as he’d slain his own father years before.

Rowan stepped forward and blocked the cutting swipe of Malin’s sword. At the same time he stopped the deadly blow, he moved his wrist so that the sword was wrenched from Malin’s grip and the steel of the blade clattered to the floor.

The men fled and Malin stood alone and disarmed. Rowan regarded his half-brother closely. There was no fear in Malin, merely hatred and belligerence. How sad their parents would have been to see the man he had become.

“What are you waiting for?” Malin sneered. “Now is your chance to cut me down, for I stand here without a weapon. I know you have no qualms about murdering the defenceless.”

“Were that true I would have slain your men.”

“You are a murderer. You killed a man of God!”             

Rowan grew tired of Malin’s piety. The tension across his shoulders grew as he declared, “The priest who sentenced our mother to death—the man who lied to the king to cover up your murder of our father—deserved to die. He was not fit to call himself a man of God, for in no way did his actions reflect the teachings of Christ. He was a hypocrite, leeching off the church, plotting against the king and using his position as a shield.”

“You roused him from his slumber, Rowan, and murdered him in his bed. Your wife knows it now, too. When she thinks on it, she will not be able to look at you her loathing will be so acute.”

Rowan was all too aware that Lisette listened. ’Twas time she knew the whole truth, though ’twas lewd, before Malin had any chance to spread his poison. “Your
priest
was in bed and he was surely roused, Malin—not by me but by the two naked whores who were servicing him in his chamber.”

“You lie!”

“I suspect you know that I do not, for you knew the man far better than I.” Rowan decided to recount the whole story and spoke loudly enough so that his words would carry to Lisette. “I found the priest in bed with one woman crouched between his legs, taking him in her mouth and the other on her haunches, knees either side of his head with her head tossed back and her hips thrust forward so she could tilt her pelvis and grant his mouth full access to her sex.” The scene had completely tipped Rowan over the edge of sanity and unfurled an inferno of raging revenge that he, as a young knight, had been powerless to control.

“You hunted him down. You went with the intent to murder,” Malin accused.

“Nay. I learned of the priest’s whereabouts from my commanding officer. Initially ’twas my intention to visit the priest and demand he confess the truth to the king about the manner in which you murdered your own father. When I discovered the so-called holy man indulging in a veritable orgy of the flesh—especially after he had sent our mother to her death for what he had branded her ‘illicit fornication’—my hand reached without conscious thought for the hilt of my sword.”