Lady Thief (13 page)

“Good God!” William was not sure what
horrified him the most.
“You threw away your only daughter to
satisfy an unpayable gambling debt?”

Holton finally faced him, his face puffed up
and eyebrows drawn together.
“What would you have done?”

“Certainly not that.” It explained so much
and then much more that he had not noticed the first time.

When he said to Marianne that her father had
told him everything that day in their chamber, he lied.
What he had
assumed had not been half as horrendous as this.
“The day you
brought them here, Marianne and Archer, you weren’t in a rage
because you thought that Archer had tricked your daughter.
You
whipped him because you knew that without Marianne you had naught
with which pay your debt.”

Holton clenched both fists tighter than
before, they turned white and shook under the pressure.
“That does
not make it right!
He tricked her into doing something unspeakable!
Horribly unspeakable to both you and I, and it cost the both of us
dearly!”

“Nay, it has only cost
you
dearly.
If
you had married off Marianne to that whoreson, your debt would have
been paid and she would be gone, like she was supposed to be since
she was thirteen.
Perhaps having her out of your care would allow
you to wed easier since there would be no one to care for the
Holton home, correct?”

“‘Tis Ferdinand’s home now.” Holton muttered
hatefully.
“All he would allow me to keep were the few things I
could pack onto that small cart, two of my oldest mules, the horses
and Clovis.”

William resisted the urge to run his fingers
through his hair or sigh too loudly.
Though baffled, he still
wished to hold his position of power over the man.

“Dear Lord, you bet everything with those
dice, didn’t you?
And now that you are a beggar you cannot even
search for a wealthy bride.” William remembered Marianne telling
him that the men who aided in his abduction were family men.
Clovis
and Archer were the only ones in their party to come, and they came
alone.

He prayed they did not have beautiful wives.
Ferdinand loved beautiful women, regardless of their marital
status, but would he lay with women who were beneath him?

Holton had the nerve to glare at him, a
bitter thing that held little power in the way of intimidation.
“Ferdinand could not just leave it at my land, house, and servants.
He had to ruin my good name as well.
Within the fortnight everyone
knew that I had naught to my name, to ignore letters from me and
hide their daughters.
If Marianne had just cooperated, I would
still have everything, and she would be happily married to a rich
man destined to die within a few short years.
‘Twas a good match
and she would have been better off with it.”

William stood.
A chilling horror staggering
up his spine with the casual way Holton defended the selling of his
daughter to a man known for sexual tortures.

An image of Bertha invaded his mind, and he
could not put her away.
She was healthy and glowing with life, an
impish smile on her face that hid the secrets of the sinful things
she did behind closed doors, as she had done the last time he had
seen her before she disappeared forever.

She screamed and wailed to no avail before
she screamed no more.
He did not need to be there, to see it with
his own eyes in order for his imagination to create something foul
for him to see and hear, to haunt him with the guilt of her
death.

And William felt guilt, but he was not so far
gone in his ruthless thoughts that he failed to hear the gasp
behind the door, nor the sound of footsteps fading as they ran
off.

He shook himself.
Damn, they raised their
voices.

William made for the door.

Holton took two steps after him, his hands
outstretched like a helpless child, but he went no farther.
“Where
are you going?”

William did not look back at him.
“After my
wife.”

“And what about me?
What am I to do?”

William slammed the door with one word behind
him.
“Rot!”

Chapter Eight

Marianne ran to
the stables.
Clovis
and Archer still tended to the horses and mules with the other
grooms.
When her eyes fixed on them she stopped and burst into
heavy tears.
She barely felt their arms around her as they tried to
sooth away her sobs.
Like they had done in her childhood after the
deaths of her brothers.

Regardless of what her father might think,
she was not fooled into anything.
She conjured up the entire scheme
while imagining wicked and vengeful fantasies against Blaise for
insulting and damning her into a marriage with an elderly wretch
like Ferdinand.
Now, not only would Archer pay for it, but Clovis
as well.
They would never see their families again.
Every servant
she grew up with would be in the care of that horrible
creature.

She clutched them with a knight’s strength
and sobbed her apologies.
They desperately tried to comfort their
lady while the other grooms looked on as the curious behavior.

Both men must have already shed their tears
for their lost families, because neither did so with her now.
They
pat her on the back as she cried her guilty heart out to them.

She pushed herself away from when she could
stand no more contact and paced aimlessly.

“‘Twas no’ yer fault, milady.” Said Clovis
for the second time.
His words did not reach her.
A ringing in her
skull refused to leave her.
She needed to get away, she needed a
place to gather her thoughts.

Marianne ran to the stall that already had
her riding horse ready, threw open the gate and climbed onto the
young mare.

Archer’s face twisted in terror, and he
approached with his hands up as if to grab for the reigns.
“Milady,
where are ye off to?”

She shrugged away from his grasp and went
around him.
Clovis could only stare as she went at an even trot
towards the open doors of the stable.

“I shall return shortly, do not worry for
me.” She would return, but she knew she would be out for longer
than she implied.

“But milady, wait!” Archer tried to grab for
her reigns again so she kicked the mare into speed and fled the
stables, moving towards the castle walls and the gate that William
usually left open due to a lack of threats.

She would have to speak with him and the
servants about that as well when she was in a right of mind.

She rode her mare until the wind dried her
cheeks.
When she felt she was far enough away from the castle she
slowed her poor animal to a walk, allowing the both of them to
breathe the autumn air deeply.

She was far from her troubles, everyone she
hurt was not within a shouting distance of her, but she did not
feel like they were far away at all.
Her guilt pressed heavier
against her chest.

Marianne could still see the castle from
where she rode just outside of the forest, and while she felt only
a little better for releasing her anger, it did not completely
dissipate, and she knew it would eventually return like a violent
siege if she did not speak with her father and take all of her
anger out on him where it belonged.

Marianne wiped the building moisture from her
eyes, disgusted with herself for even considering his motives might
be honorable.

He hadn’t a drop of honorable blood in his
body, not for several years now at any rate, and she was an
emotional fool for thinking he had returned to his former self.

Father or not, if she saw him right away she
would strangle him, and being the lady of the castle, to attack a
penniless man would do no harm to her whatsoever.

The thought of her hands wrapped around his
neck while he had a comical look of strangulation on his face
brought a small joy, but the distant cry of another horse pulled
her out of her thoughts.

She turned.
The form of the small horse
become larger and larger as its hooves thundered towards her from
the direction of the castle at unnatural speeds, and before she
could make out the form of the rider she instinctively knew William
rode the beast.

He charged at such a pace that she craned her
neck, searching for any threat, alert and fearful of what she could
not see.
The only sound came from the wind rustling the tree
leaves.
Marianne felt no danger.

She turned back to William and did not expect
that his face would be so twisted with anger when he came close
enough for her to see it.

He ripped the reigns to her horse out of her
hands, leaving her to only hold onto the neck of the best.
William
glanced behind her to the trees, and began riding toward the castle
without so much as saying a word to her, his expression set in
chilled stone.

The easy pace and thick silence after his
crazed ride to get to her pressed on her nerves.

She would take none of it.
“Will you not say
anything to me?”

He grunted, sparing her feelings enough to
face her, trusting the horse he rode to lead the way, though his
expression remained the same.
“There have been times when I assumed
my first impression of you to be false, but now I see that I was
correct all along, and apparently I need to protect you from
yourself.”

Marianne could not say what he was referring
to.
It did not sound like he was angered with her for listening
outside of his door.
But if not that, then what?

“I do not know what you are speaking of.”

The angry lines in his face deepened.
“You
rode outside of the protection of the castle!”

“Some protection it provides when the gate is
left open at all hours of the day and night!”

He turned away from her, watching where he
was leading the horses instead of looking at her while he
reprimanded her.
“Well, it shall no longer be so, and despite it
being left open, single thieves and murderers looking for foolish
ladies traveling alone would never dare try to enter.
They hide in
the forest waiting for their prey.”

The fog in Marianne’s mind cleared and she
knew of what he spoke, and she looked back toward the forest she
had been on the brink of entering in disbelief.
The calm scene she
had thought of it only moments before instantly changed into
something sinister.
“Murderers?
Where?”

He whipped his head at her, a tiny protruding
vein thickened along the side of his neck.
“They do not sit where
you can see!
You have never traveled alone before, and even then
you are still fortunate to not have come across any.
Never run away
like that ever again!”

Marianne pouted and fought the urge to argue
that she could usually tell when someone was watching her, which
had become quite often since she made Graystone her home.
But his
words rang true.
She should have known better and felt humiliated
for her own naivety.

Archer had seen what she had been trying to
do and tried to stop her, but she rode around him.

“I was not trying to flee.
I planned on
returning.”

William’s grip did not go lax on her reigns,
it tightened, and Marianne decided to keep quiet the rest of the
way to the castle.

William was livid, she could see it in his
face and hear it when he spoke to her again.
“There are thieves and
men willing to do dishonorable things to beautiful women like you.
They hide in every forest in the entire world.
Even the ones
protected by the royal family themselves.”

Marianne turned to look back at the seemingly
peaceful forest again, her mind conjuring men and monsters hiding
and waiting for her.
“Truly?”

He nodded.
“Aye.
What if someone watched you
and you had been unaware and decided to go into the woods to pick
flowers or some nonsense?
Being murdered quickly and robbed of your
fine clothes would be a blessing compared to what
else
you
could have suffered.”

Marianne shivered.
William said nothing more
to her.

William nodded to the men waiting for him at
the gates, shouted an order for them to close them behind him, and
led Marianne and their horses back to the stables.

To Marianne’s horror, Blaise stood waiting in
front of the barn doors, his arms folded and a familiar smug smile
on his face.
Archer and Clovis sighed their relief that she had
returned in one piece, but she could hardly see past Blaise’s
infuriating smirk.

Her jaw clenched but she refused to make a
scene again.
No doubt he had heard of her little fit and had run to
see it like a child waiting to see the punishment of his most hated
sibling.

Thankfully, he chose not to say anything in
the presence of his father, no doubt having remembered what
happened the last time he did so.

William was not blind.
He could clearly see
Marianne’s spine stiffen, and he searched for the source of her
discomfort and found the smirk on Blaise’s face.

He waved him away and allowed Archer to take
Marianne’s own mare after she dismounted.
“Leave us,”

Marianne noted how Blaise’s back was the one
to stiffen at the command, but after a brief hesitation he spun on
his heel and did as he was bid.

William brought own his horse to the stall
that belonged to Benedict, a beautiful and proud animal that
overfilled its skin with muscle.
Marianne now knew why both father
and son preferred him.

Marianne could not relax the bones in her
tight body, and she could only wrap her arms around herself while
Archer quietly walked passed her with Clovis after Blaise had gone
ahead of them.

The foolish emotion pumping through her was
infinitely worse than any punishment he would give, and she wished
he would just leave her with that.

She felt William’s eyes on her, but she
refused to let him see her tears or her hand brush them away.
She
moved to the stall that now contained an old mare that Marianne
recognized but had no name.
The sight of her banished all thoughts
of evil men lurking in forests from her mind, and refreshed the
guilt that hid inside of her.

She had been so happy to see her father that
she had not noticed how aged the animals were that carried his
weight and his belongings.
This mare was purchased to be worked
until completely useless, then fed to the hunting dogs.
If what she
heard was correct, the only reason the mare still lived was because
Ferdinand would not allow her father to keep any of the better
horses.

She touched the old mare’s nose, and she came
forth under the attention.
Large hands, warm and gentle, slid to
her shoulders and gripped like a tight cloth from behind her.

“What did you hear?” Marianne detected no
hint of a sneer in William’s voice.

She was shocked.
He was being patient, even
though he had no need to be.
She had disobeyed him and put her life
in danger.
Despite her frail emotions, he owed her about as much
kindness as could be fit in her thumbnail.

Even still, she wished to wallow in her
self-pity for a little while longer.
“Enough.”

His hands slid from her shoulders and down
her arms.
He pulled her to his chest and held her close with one
arm, and she made no move to pull away.
Truthfully she wanted to be
held, and felt almost loved.

Almost.
He’d told her already that he did not
love her, but was it too much to ask that he feel something?
That
when he moved to touch her shoulders, caress her arms and kiss her
neck that there be emotion behind the act?
Did he feel something
now?
Was that where the source of his patience came from?

“Are ye not angry with me for listening
behind the door?”

“You were happy when Holton claimed to have a
desire to visit you.” He reminded her, ignoring her question.

Bitterness swelled inside her.
“Aye, and
instead he comes only because there is no other place to go.”

William squeezed her.
“Calm yourself,”

“I do not wish to calm myself!” She shrieked,
spinning to yell at his face, but all that would come out were her
broken moans.
“He is right, I did this.
‘Twas bad enough when
Archer was given to you, never to see his wife and child again, but
now Clovis as well, and the others are to work in the home of that
pig.
My home.”