The Prisoner Bride. Susan Spencer Paul

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СКАЧАТЬ were well out of London now, several miles, at least. She’d meant to cry out for help at the city gate, God’s truth she had. But Dina still lay so limply against her, so entirely vulnerable, and the knave had secreted his knife with such obvious meaning that she’d decided it would be best to do as he said for now and deal with getting rid of him later. Once he realized that she had no money and that her relatives wouldn’t begin to know how to ransom her—for they had little practical knowledge of the world, and no knowledge of how to access their own fortune—he’d let both her and Dina go. There could surely be nothing else he wanted, unless it was from Dina. Glenys knew herself to be thoroughly undesirable, despite the practiced smiles the rogue was yet sending her way.

      And so, resigned to at least obey the man until she was able to reason with him, Glenys had repeated exactly what he’d told her to say to the guards, and they, recognizing her, had opened the gates and let them pass. Almost immediately thereafter Dina had begun to come to her senses, and Glenys had been busy dealing with her maid’s incoherent fears and fits of weeping for the next quarter of an hour. Only now had Dina subsided, reassured by Glenys—and also by the stranger, though Glenys had bid him to the devil when he’d spoken—that no harm would come to her. The younger girl sat, dazed and frightened, with her hands folded in her lap, sniffling and wiping away silent tears. Glenys, certain that she could at last now deal with the matter at hand, crossed her arms over her chest and prepared to reason with their captor. His insolence had held her silent, daring him to speak first, but now that several stubborn moments had passed between them, she at last gave way.

      “You will have no money from this venture, I promise you,” she told him. “Indeed, you will be fortunate if your only recompense is escaping a fitting punishment at the hands of the king, which would be, most like, nothing less than being drawn and quartered. But you will escape that fate only if you cease this venture now, sir. If you do not, I can make no promise that you will evade your just due.”

      He appeared to be entirely amused at her pronouncement, and nodded at her regally.

      “You are kind to think on my safety and well-being, mistress,” he said, “but I fear I cannot put an end to this…venture, as you term it…even for the sake of my own life, and that of my companion. I have already accepted payment for the deed and, having done so, I cannot now give way for the sake of my honor, as little of it as I possess.”

      Glenys’s eyes grew round with surprise. “Someone paid you to kidnap me? Who was it? And to what purpose? I tell you there will be no ransom, even if you should threaten to kill me.”

      His eyebrows rose at this. “Your family holds you far more dearly than you think, mistress. I’m certain they would pay well indeed to secure your return, and most especially to make certain of your life. But you have not been taken for that purpose, for the sake of a ransom. I was hired by your lover, Sir Anton Lagasse, to secret you away and keep you safe in a place where your—”

      “Sir Anton!” Glenys cried, interrupting him.

      Beside her, Dina groaned out loud and said, “Oh, no!”

      The stranger regarded them with bemusement. “He isn’t your lover?”

      Glenys had set a hand to her forehead in distress and briefly closed her eyes. She opened them now and said, far more loudly and irately than she’d meant, “Nay, you God-cursed fool! He’s my direst enemy. The very man who means my family naught but ruin and misery.”

      The knave at last lost his smile. “I’m very sorry then, for ’tis clear that he lied to me about his intentions. But I thought it might be thus, for he seemed a feckless knave. Still, I have taken you as I agreed to do, and will hold you captive until he comes to fetch you.”

      “Hold me? Until he comes to fetch me for what? What lies did he tell you?”

      “Sir Anton told me that he is your lover, but that your family refuses to recognize his request for your hand in marriage because they deem him unsuitable. Howbeit, he is shortly to become both landed and more highly titled, and believes that your relatives will thereafter find him acceptable. He fears, however, that you will be forced to marry another before he can attain this goal, and therefore hired me to secret you away at his keep in York, safe from your family, until he can come to claim you in all his splendid glory. I have already admitted that I found the story foolish,” the stranger said without shame, “but I had reasons of my own for accepting the task. For those same reasons I will see it through, and we must both set our minds to it.”

      “He must have paid you well,” Glenys said with disgust, “for, in truth, he has good cause to want me out of his way. And what a fine jest to make himself out as my lover. He must have known you would realize the truth once you set sight upon me.”

      To his merit, the thief didn’t laugh, as she’d expected him to do. He gazed at her with measured calm and replied, “If this was indeed his thought, then he was far mistaken. I understand what it is that you say, mistress, but you merely prove once more that you realize very little of the truth.”

      “I realize perfectly well that no man would claim me as his love unless in jest,” Glenys retorted angrily, furious that they even spoke of such things. “Many, however, might be willing to make such a claim for money, and as that is the heart of this matter, then I pray we speak of it now. Clearly and plainly. Sir Anton paid you well, but I can pay you far more. What amount will you require to stop this foolishness and release us? I vow, upon my honor, that I’ll make payment and let you go peaceably on your way. I’ll say nothing of the matter to anyone, and will make certain that John and Willem are silent, as well. Only stop the carriage now and we’ll speak terms.”

      “I’m sorry to be so disobliging, Mistress Glenys,” he said, “but no amount of gold could cause me to turn this task aside. Apart from Sir Anton’s desires, I have reasons of my own for taking and holding you, as I have already said. Mayhap we should begin again. Let me introduce myself to you. My name is Kieran FitzAllen, and I am pleased to be known to you, Mistress Glenys and Mistress Dina.” He sat forward and regally bowed his head.

      Glenys wished she had something to bash him with in that vulnerable moment, but there was nothing to be had. She threw her hands up in the air, instead, in a gesture of the fury she felt. “I care not who you are, idiot knave! How can I make you see reason? Sir Anton will not come to fetch me. He has sent you on a fool’s errand only to keep me out of his path.”

      Kieran FitzAllen’s gaze sharpened.

      “Then why would he hire me, if not at least to try to force you to wife? Even if he is not your lover, do you not think it likely that he desires your fortune?”

      “’Tis no fortune of gold that he desires,” Glenys told him, “but a treasure that rightly belongs to the Seymours. He seeks to find this treasure, which has been lost to us, before I can do so.”

      “Ah,” her kidnapper said with sudden understanding, “the Greth Stone. Is that what we speak of?”

      Glenys was so surprised he knew of it that she was momentarily stunned into silence. Beside her, Dina stiffened and whispered fearfully, “He knows, m’lady! He’s in league with Sir Anton!”

      “Nay, that I am not,” Kieran FitzAllen said at once, directing his attention to Dina as he strove to allay her fears. “Sir Anton’s reasons for having your mistress taken and held are as nothing to me, though I admit they provided me with the opportunity for doing so. I know of the Greth Stone because he warned me that Mistress Glenys would resist being taken for the sake of her own quest to regain it.” He looked at Glenys. “In this matter, at least, ’tis СКАЧАТЬ