De Warenne Dynasty 01 - The Conquerer (42 page)

'Tis stranger still you allowed her in your bed. In one blow you cuckold wife and good friend. Is it true-that she has the eye?"

"Yes, but she is no witch."

"Mayhap she did give you a potion,"William said. "Because you are not a man to behave as you have, nor are you one to spill our secrets-in bed, good God! It matters not how comely the wench is!"

Rolfesaid nothing. But his eyes blazed.

"You are angry. I am glad to see it. You have been punished enough. You did not mean to abet her, and the result was you lost a dozen of your men. I will not add to what you are already suffering."

"Thank you, Your Grace,"Rolfe said without gratitude. His jaws were clamped together.

Williamsighed. "In truth, despite the betrayal, we weakened their numbers and drove them from their lair, as we intended. Although our losses were heavy, we still succeeded in our plans."

"Yes."

"I place the wench in your custody. My dungeons are overfull already; besides, 'tis fitting, I think. Yet do not mistake me-she is a royal prisoner."

Rolfesmiled, cruelly, coldly. "I gladly accept," he said.

CHAPTER 54

"Your confinement is ended,"Rolfe said coldly at the door to the chamber.

Alicerose from the bed, staring. Then she swept forward, dropped to her knees, and took his hand.

"Thank you, my lord," she said humbly. "I beg your forgiveness." She lifted her face, her mouth quivering.

He ignored her, gesturing for her to rise, and turned grimly to examine the heavy door and inner bolt. A man stood at his heels. "This must be removed," he told the carpenter. "I want it placed on the outside. It
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must be unbreakable. Do you understand?"

"Yes, my lord," the carpenter said, inspecting the door.

Rolfecrossed the room with hard strides, to peer out an arrow slit. Not even a child could slip through, he noted with satisfaction. There was only one way out of the solar, and that was through the door. "The bolt shall be wood for now, but made of iron immediately. Inform the smith," he stated.

Alice, wide-eyed, wet her lips nervously. "What passes, my lord?"

His disdainful gaze swept her, surprised she was still there. "You will move back into my chamber," he told her shortly. "Your sister will be imprisoned here."

"Ceidre!"

Rolfestarted to leave the room, andAlice hurried after, catching his sleeve. "My lord, what has happened!"

He did not break stride until he was in their own chamber. He ripped off his hauberk. "I need a bath now."

Alicescrambled to call for one.

"Your sister has committed treason one time too many,"Rolfe said carelessly, yet with such an ice-cold attitude thatAlice shivered. He pulled off his padded leather undertunic. "She is the king's prisoner, and her sentence is for life.William has placed her in my custody. She will never leave the solar until the day she dies."

Alicebit her lip to keep from smiling, unable to believe her good fortune. She wanted to know details, but she would find them out soon enough. "I wanted to warn you," she said carefully, "before you left forYork ."

Rolfepierced her with a cold gaze, clad only in his hose. "Did you?" His tone was mocking.

AliceRushed. "She came to me the day before you left, my lord."

"If there is something you want me to know, then spit it out."

He was rude and crude and she hated him. Yet she remembered the feel of his huge lance inside her, the pain and the pleasure, and imagined him taking her again, roughly, hurting her, making her hate him, making her weep, making her keen. The carpenter's blows as he nailed the new bolt in place on the solar door began ringing out. She lifted her chin. "She came to apologize for bedding you, my lord. She wanted to explain that 'twas her duty-to her brothers."

Rolfestared, expressionless.

"They had asked her to seduce you and gain your trust-to spy. 'Twas the only reason she shared your bed, she said. She thought to ease my mind."Alice laughed lightly. But she was watching him, and she rejoiced silently when she saw the hot, red anger flooding his face and the hard, cold hatred filling his eyes. He turned away from her, and she smiled quickly, unable to contain herself.

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When the tub was filled,Rolfe eased himself in. His heart was thudding thickly, too thickly, and he kept remembering how he had come to this room and found the witch naked in his bed. It had been a plan, a scheme of her brothers-seduce him and spy. And he, the fool, had been led by his eager cock. Well, he thought, a cold laugh passing his lips, 'twould never happen again.

His anger choked him. It had been choking him since she had actually confessed-he could not escape it.

And with it came the hate.

She was a traitor, and she was his prisoner, and she would rot in that chamber until the day she died.

Ceidre was led by a guard into the solar. He released her and left, slamming the thick wooden door closed behind him. She heard the bolt falling, the sound ominous, final.

She hugged herself, hard, and looked around.

This was whereAlice had been confined, yet the chamber no longer resembled that room. The bed had been removed-a straw pallet and blanket took its place. One candle had been provided, with a cup of water and a chamberpot. Being so bare, the room seemed vast, even though it was half the size of the chamber across the hall.

Ceidre walked to the arrow slit and looked out, tears filming her gaze. She had been imprisoned in the dungeon atYork for half a day. That dungeon had been nothing like the one at Aelfgar, fortunately. It was large, taking up the entire space beneath the keep, and airy in comparison, not pitch-dark, with cells and many prisoners. She had been able to breathe despite the cloying fear in her chest. True, her breathing had been shallow, she had felt as if she was going to suffocate, but somehow the awful madness that had seized her in the other dungeon had not overwhelmed her. Maybe it was because of the other prisoners, maybe it was because the place was so large. She had had her own cell, half the size of this chamber.

She had huddled in a corner, ignoring the other prisoners, perspiring and panting, but she hadn't tried to claw her way out in a futile hysteria.

She had wept.

The pain in her heart overshadowed all else, and she did not care that she might be swallowed up by the ground or choke to death from the lack of air. She wept, hopelessly, endlessly, grievously. She had betrayed him, and Ceidre knew what kind of man he was. She knew he would never forgive her. She wept until she had not another tear to shed, because she loved him.

The realization came much too late.

And even if it had come sooner, what difference did it make? She loved her brothers too. She would have been torn between the two irreconcilable sides. She would have, however, refused to spy, but brooding upon what might have been did not change anything. He would never forgive her.

The ride back to Aelfgar had taken two days. Ceidre had only seenRolfe 's back upon occasion. He had cut her out of his existence with one brutal blow. She knew this, was not surprised, just as she knew there would never be any going back to what they had once shared. Fortunately, she had no tears left.

Her heart ached with its broken love. And whenever she saw his broad shoulders, or heard his voice, she could not tear her gaze from him. Yet he did not once look her way.

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Not once.

It was growing dark. Ceidre wondered if she would be brought another candle once this one was finished. She decided not to light it. She was uncertain how her confinement would be styled. Right now, she feared the utmost deprivation. In truth, she was surprised she hadn't been sent to the black pits beneath Aelfgar.

She heard the bolt being removed and assumed it was bread and ale, the fare she had subsisted on since her imprisonment. She leaned her cheek against the wall, not bothering to look. Yet when the door was open, she knew who had come. She could feel his presence-it was overwhelming, vibrating with force, seething with hostility-and she jerked around, eyes wide.

Rolfestood framed in the doorway in the last dimming light of the afternoon.

Ceidre said nothing, but her heart was leaping wildly-with hope. Why had he come? Oh, God, please let him forgive me, 'tis all I wand

Rolfelooked around, then smiled with cruel satisfaction. His gaze pinned her. Ceidre saw the contempt, undisguised, and the hatred, and all her hopes died. She slumped, beaten. He hated her. "I had no choice," she whispered, the words unbidden. "You must believe me!"

He smiled, another cruel twisting of his lips. "You think I care about your choices, Ceidre?"

"Have you never been forced by circumstance to act against your will?"

"Pretty words." He laughed roughly. "Pretty words from a pretty whore. Proof lies in the deed, and you have indeed proven yourself."

She gulped air. "Please listen, please!" She heard herself begging. "I had no choice! I sought only to protect Hereward, not to harm you! Never to harm you! I-"

He reached her in three strides, twisting her arm up behind her back and forcing her against the wall.

"Stop!" he shouted. "Stop with your lies! Words spill from your lips like honey, but 'tis poisoned honeylike the honey that spills from here!" He grabbed her crotch.

She whimpered. "I love you."

He released her and laughed. "More honeyed words!"

" 'Tis the truth."

His face was filled with revulsion. His eyes were brilliant. "Do you love me, Ceidre?" A cold purr. "Yes."

"Show me," he said. "Show me, prove it. Deeds not words."

Ceidre froze, her heart pounding, unsure of what to do. How to convince him? Was she really being given this chance? How to soften his heart, heal it? Take away the ugly hatred?

He laughed, the sound bitter, and turned to leave.

She catapulted against him, her cheek on his back, her whole length pressed to him, clinging. He froze.

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"Do not go," she cried, choking on thick tears. "Let me show you, let me, I will!"

He did not move.

Her hands were shaking as she ran them over his shoulders frantically. She kissed his shoulder blades, his spine. She wrapped her arms around his waist and nuzzled his side. She curved her groin against his buttocks and held him, as hard as she could.

"I love you," she whispered, and she slid her palm up to his heart, to feel its fast, hard beat. She slipped her fingers down, into his hose, to touch the silken flesh near his navel. She was instantly rewarded with the big tip of his aroused sex springing against her hand, and she felt a tremendous relief-he still desired her, at least! "Let me love you, my lord." She gasped, her heart racing wildly. "I will show you-"

She was suddenly wrenched free of him and thrown backward, against the wall. She stumbled but did not fall. He was enraged.

"Save your whore's tricks for a farm boy," he rasped, blue eyes blazing, and then he was gone.

Chapter 55

The lying whore sought to seduce him again.

Did she think he was a fool?Rolfe paced his chamber in a fury. He had been enraged since supper, nothing would quell the flames within him. He hated how his body had responded to the slut. He told himself he would respond like a man to any woman, ugly or fair, not just to the witch who was imprisoned in the chamber just beyond his door. God curse her! Maybe he should have let her work her wiles, see how far she would have gone to prove her "love"! Maybe he should have taken her and fucked her until she could not walk! He was a hair's breadth from doing it now!

"Will you come to bed, my lord?"Alice breathed.

He looked at his wife with disdain, eyes blazing. He understood her husky tone. She wanted a fucking.

Well, it would be no problem, because his groin was thick and swollen with his anger. He stripped methodically. He climbed into the bed and pulled her beneath him, impaling her instantly.

Alicegasped from the suddenness of his entry, and whimpered.

Rolfemoved hard and steadily, eyes closed, imagining it was Ceidre beneath him, crying out in pain, trying to push him off as his wife was doing. He plunged deeper, harder, wanting to hurt her, the bitch!Alice sobbed and writhed, clawing his chest. He caught her wrists, yanked them out of his way, driving himself mercilessly into her-the traitorous witch. The woman beneath him keened wildly in orgasm.Rolfe was still filled with the need to hurt Ceidre in the most basic, primitive way, and his angry, brutal thrusting did not cease.

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Ceidre did not seeRolfe alone again, and two days after his hurtful, hate-filled visit, he rode out with a dozen men. She watched him leaving from the arrow slit, the pain in her heart as vivid and agonizing and heavy as ever. He was unbearably handsome as he sat his big gray, his face tight and closed-the way he had been that first day she had ever seen him at Kesop. It was hard to believe that this man was the same lover who had played with her in the orchard, teased her in the dark of the barn. He had learned to laugh and love so well, she thought, unbearably sad, and now he had learned to hate with the same fervor.

Marywas the only one to come to her chamber, bringing bread, cheese, and ale, once in midmorning and once at dusk. She was left with minimal amounts of water, and had not yet used the candle to test her captor's generosity-as she suspected he had none and would not bring her another candle. Her chambrevet was emptied every other day, thankfully. She was denied a bath-told, in fact, that if she wanted to wash she should use what was given her to drink. So she became dirty, and did not care.