Jennet broke free from Roger and ran for her brother. The earl was wrong or playing some jest on her. He was angry at her for her refusal of his offer.
But when she reached the edge of the refuge, she saw Giric sitting on the ground. She almost smiled until she noticed he was holding her kerchief. He shook his head, and she followed his intent eyes as they landed on her brother.
Edward’s surcoat was covered in blood. The contents of her stomach threatened to spill. Her feet carried her forward, but something in her screamed for her to stop and turn around. A voice inside pleaded with her to sprint back to the castle and forget what she’d seen and heard.
Giric glanced up and saw her. He covered his face, then ran his hands through his hair as if he were trying to deny what was plain before her.
He stood and reached out to her. She backed as tears streamed down her cheeks. She thought to wipe them away, but what good would it do? She knew they wouldn’t cease. His gaze traveled between her and Eddie.
Her eyes rested on Giric and stayed as her heart jumped to the next conclusion. She’d been part of his plan. Her heart split in two at that moment. The faith she’d placed in this man shattered like pottery. She’d trusted her freedom to him. She’d given him her heart.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the words refused to dislodge from her tongue. Then talons were again gripping her arm, and she found Lord Roger at her side. She turned to him and attempted to pull free, but his grip was firm.
“Unhand her.” The snarl came from Giric.
Grounded and filled with anger at Lord Roger, she was able to turn back to her knight, who now had his fingers curled around the hilt of his sword like he was ready to unsheathe it and attack at any moment. She felt helpless; all her independence gone in one moment.
She would have to marry Lord Roger, and Giric was going to take his revenge on her family.
What had he said that night in his bed?
“I want the baron’s family to suffer as mine has.”
She uttered the awful conclusion. “I was part of your plan.” Her voice shook, and her throat closed as a sob escaped. When her knees wobbled, she would have fallen had the earl not been holding her up.
He was her knight. He’d saved her and proven she could trust him. She’d freely given him everything—her favor, her faith, her body.
Had it been his plan to break her heart, or had he just intended to use her to get to Eddie and her father?
“Jennet.” Giric inched forward again, his eyes confused. As if he’d not known who she was. Pretending to care…as if he’d not been trying to destroy her family all along. And the worst part of it was, she wanted him to wrap her in his arms and tell her it was all a mistake. She wanted to believe in the man who had harmed her brother and desired to see her father dead. What was wrong with her?
“No.” She held up the palm that wasn’t detained by Roger’s grip.
“I didnae ken. I swear, I didnae.” His voice sounded lost in the shouts that continued on around them.
She shook her head. He was lying. He had to be.
Lord Roger cut in. “Come, Jennet. I have already worked out the details.”
“No. Let go of me. You have no say in this matter.” She tried once more to pull free.
“Tell her, Edward. We are to be wed. We have a deal.” His glare darted between Eddie and her.
She let her gaze travel to her brother, who couldn’t meet her eyes. Bile rose in her chest. It was true. Eddie had taken away her choice, the one thing she’d always been assured was in her own hands. Not that it mattered now, anyway. She’d chosen poorly.
Giric was not the man she’d believed him to be.
Pulling back her shoulders, she tried to preserve some kind of dignity, but it was truly too late because she felt like a ship beaten by the waves and rocks of a treacherous shore. Now she floated about without sails, devoid of a purpose, lost. These three men had taken from her what had been promised.
Her gaze locked on Giric. “Was I part of your revenge? Did you take me to your bed to get back at my family?” She choked out the words.
Giric shook his head.
The grip on her arm tightened to a painful pinch, and she felt Roger stiffen.
Her chest burned as if a fire had been set within its walls. “You are just like my uncle. You have let revenge consume you and destroy everything.”
Giric stepped forward and reached out with the hand that had held her so gently just the day before. “Jennet.” Her name left his lips, and what stung the worst was that she still wanted to run to him.
He looked as if he wished to stroke her cheek and tell her that all would be well and that he would care for her. How had he become so good at lying? She gave him one last chance.
“Let Eddie go.”
“Ye dinnae ken what ye ask.” His eyes hardened.
Aye. She did. She knew exactly what she was asking.
He shook his head. And there it was, his revenge meant more than her. For some reason, he believed her father had killed his. It couldn’t be true, but anger was a bitter, consuming thing.
No matter how honorable men thought it to be, retribution destroyed everything good.
He wanted a justice that would soothe his soul, but it wouldn’t change the past. It wasn’t because she didn’t care for him; it was because she cared too much that she said, “I never want to see you again.”
Two men came up between her and Giric. The earl’s guards.
Then the grip on her arm loosened as Lord Roger turned to her and latched onto her chin. He squeezed so hard that she winced and gasped as his nails dug into her cheeks. “No one lies to me.” He glowered and tilted nearer to hiss into her ear. “You told me you’d not given yourself to anyone.”
“Let her go,” Giric called, sounding closer. She glanced over to see the earl’s men blocked his progression and had swords drawn toward him.
“You may have command over her brother currently, but she is mine.” Lord Roger’s controlled fury belted back at Giric.
“Take her back and guard her in my room until I arrive.” Only one man had dared lay a hand on her before without her permission—her uncle, the day her father had come for her. And if she’d not fought back later that day, her older brother would still be alive.
She couldn’t rebel against Lord Roger until she knew Eddie was safe.
She let Lord Roger’s men cart her away because he was the only man that could free her brother, even if her father wouldn’t spend his last days at peace with family. Eddie had his whole life ahead of him.
A shiver ran down her spine. Lord Roger was cold and aloof, but this was the first time she was actually afraid of him.
Giric’s fists clenched at his sides. In all the years of anger he’d held onto about his father’s demise, he’d never felt a rage so hot as when he’d seen the Earl of Bruton squeeze Jennet’s chin and hiss at her. He hadn’t heard what the man had said, but he’d seen the fear in her eyes. He’d stepped forward to defend her, but the earl’s men had pulled their swords and stood between them.
As the men drew Jennet away, the earl turned to him, a smug look on his face. “I’ll still honor our deal, but Lady Jennet is mine.”
Giric started toward him. “She doesn’t want you. Have yer men release her.”
“Touch me, and you’ll never see Baron Gillingham,” the snake calmly replied.
Giric stopped, every muscle in his body tense and out of sync. How had this happened?
“I’ll send the documents immediately. But you are to stay away from Lady Jennet,” the earl ordered, then pivoted and strutted away.
He wanted to follow the pompous arse, but there was nothing he could do, and he still had Edward to contend with. If he left the man unattended, he could just rise up and walk off. Then Giric would have nothing.
So, he watched the earl stride back to the castle to fulfill his earlier demands.
No, no, no… This was not how his day was to end. He and Jennet were to be walking down the chapel’s aisle to meet a priest, and his enemy was supposed to be delivered to his door. Now another man was claiming rights to the woman he loved. His revenge was on its way, but it felt hollow.
Jennet had spoken of her family as he had his clan. She loved them, and he’d set his sights on destroying them.
He turned to his captive, who still sat quietly on the ground. Giric paced, fisting and unfisting his hands, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened and fighting the urge to leave his prisoner and his revenge to run after Jennet. The ache beneath his breastbone was similar to the loss on the day of his father’s death.
He let his memory go back to that day. Anything to help him stay on course and bring back the pain because now he doubted everything.
“Did you know that our father has not been right since that trip to Scotland?” Edward’s voice held sadness.
“Did the guilt over killing three innocent people devour him?” He tried to inject anger into the words as he searched for the bitterness he’d felt over the years. A void deeper than that chasm had invaded his chest as he fought to take a simple breath without new pain enveloping him.
“In a way, but it’s not what you think.”
Giric looked away. Did he want to know what really happened that day?
A merchant from the camp passed by selling spirits. He purchased a full flask and sat next to Edward. He took a large swig. It burned, but he welcomed the heat, then he handed it to Jennet’s brother.
“The fire wasn’t Jennet’s fault, but she always blamed herself.”
Giric’s hands shook. Jennet had been there. Nae, that was not possible. She would have been a child.
“Start from the beginning.” Giric grabbed the stout drink and took another long gulp.
“Our uncle hated our father.” Edward took the flask for a swallow and handed it back to Giric.
“Go on.” He nodded because he’d gotten that from Jennet before.
“He absconded with Jennet, took her to Scotland, and pretended she was his child for five years. When my father finally tracked them down, there was a fight. She was so young. She didn’t know better.”
“What happened?” His nails dug into his palms as a picture started to form in his mind.
“Our uncle had Father pinned to the ground, beating him. She tried to stop the fight by picking up the first thing she could and throwing it at our uncle.” Edward reached for the flask again. Giric handed it to him and watched as the man took a large swig. “It was a lamp.”
He shook his head as pieces of Jennet’s tale replayed in his head and mingled with Edward’s words.
“The rushes caught immediately. A man ran in and pulled Jennet from the building, then he went back in for Father. The stranger was able to bring him out, but Father had burns all over his body.”
“No one knew that our brother Richard had also come in to try to save them. Except maybe the stranger because after he saved Father, he ran back into the building a third time. No one else came out, and when the flames had consumed everything and no one else appeared, Jennet took our father to a healer.”
Gooseflesh spread across his limbs. “Jennet was the little girl with the bow.”
“Aye. That would have been her. She’s always had an affinity for the weapon. Our mother taught her.”
He didn’t know what to say.
Edward continued. “The stranger must have been your father. But we never knew who saved her and Father.”
“She was so young. ’Twasn’t her fault.” Giric pictured the girl with the page’s haircut.
“It’s why she’s worked so hard to take care of all of us. She blamed herself for all of it.”
Giric took the drink back and inhaled two large gulps. “I thought ’twas the girl with the bow who died in the fire, but ’twas yer brother. No’ her. That’s why her stance was so familiar.”
It had all been a mistake. One caused by an angry man’s vengeance, and now Jennet was doomed to a life she didn’t want because of his need for recompense. His heart ached. He’d just taken her choice away from her again.
No one had murdered his father. He’d died attempting to save a boy from a fire.
He had died an honorable death.
There wasn’t enough malted spirits whisky in all of England to wash away the guilt that clung to him like the mist on the moors back home. Jennet was innocent, and it was time she stopped having to pay for bitter men’s grievances.
“I change my demand.” Jennet would probably never forgive him, but he could still do the right thing.
“Ah, and what will you do, Sir Giric?” Edward reached for the flask.
“For yer freedom, Jennet will have her own. She will have the right to make her own decisions.”
“I agree, but that puts me in a bind. How do I handle Lord Roger, who challenged me for her hand?”
“We will put it in writing. This has been public. Does anyone else know of your previous wager?”
“No.”
“Then ours will overrule it. And if he protests, I will seek him out. That man will never put his hands on her again.” Rage reigned over the heartache as he thought of the earl.
Giric stood and held out a hand for Edward. “Shall we head to the castle and draw up the agreement?”
“Aye.”
A little while later, as they signed the papers, Edward turned to him. “Would you like to come with me to give them the news?”
“Nae. I dinnae think she will wish to see me now. ’Tis enough to know she will be able to chart her own course.” Even as he said the words, the pain invaded again. Would she be able to forgive him for what he had done?
“And what if she still chooses you?” Edward looked as if he believed there might still be a chance for them. But Giric couldn’t let that hope in—it would crush him anew if he did, and she didn’t forgive him.
“Then she will know where to find me,” he said as he walked away.