The Northern Knights Series (Boxed Set) Page 21

  His hard slap was not long in coming. Though it dazed her, she turned her fiery gaze back on him and reached out, clawing at him. Her nails raked down his left cheek, drawing blood. His look of shock lasted all of a second.

  He backhanded her with a swift blow that sent her sprawling across the floor. The mark of his ring had cut into her cheek, splitting it open and blood soaked the front of her gown. Danielle sucked in a few deep breaths as the darkness threatened to claim her. He’d hit her harder this time and her vision was marked by white spots.

  For a moment, Thomas paused as he stood over her and lowered his hand. His cousin would have to die tonight, for if her husband saw this, he would not get out one sentence before the Norman bastard robbed him of his last breath.

  Change of plans. The trap he’d set to imprison the Norman would not do. He’d see to it the man did not come out alive.

  Thomas stepped away from her and his thin fingers caressed the jeweled dirk tucked in his breeches. He caught her gaze and his cold words brought Danielle’s gaze back to his.

  “Wish all you want, dear cousin. You will never get the chance. I will cut out your heart first.”

  Danielle did not flinch at his words, with her cheek throbbing, she grinned at him instead.

  With an exclamation of disgust, he waved his hand to the guard and quit the room.

  Danielle was dragged across the room and the guards opened the cubby door, forcing her inside the dark crawlspace. She was glad to be anywhere but in front of Thomas.

  She saw one of the guards’s feet coming at her and she twisted, a protective hand over her belly and turned her back to him. His kick hit home in her lower spine, hard. She bit her tender lip to stifle the cry of pain. She wouldn’t give Thomas or his men the satisfaction.

  At this moment, verily she vowed to work harder at her impatience. She only hoped that Aric would come soon. He was too smart of a man to let Thomas draw him into any sort of trap.

  She loved him and Danielle knew that even if he did not share her feelings, he cared for her whether he knew it or not.

  He would come simply for the fact that no one took what belonged to Aric Claydon. That alone, was enough for Danielle at the moment as she succumbed to the pain and darkness.

  The rain had slowed to an icy drizzle and although it was just past noon, the skies had blackened to make it appear almost night and the thick white gray mist blanketed Gravane Manor. Clinging to it like a veil of protection. Aric stood, with barely a change in his breath over the two lifeless bodies of Thomas’s rebels he had just run through. His sword still dripped their blood at his feet as he crouched near the rear of the manor by Danielle’s garden.

  Balwain’s whisper came to him. “The rest are inside with him, milord.”

  Aric nodded with a quick glimpse over Balwain’s shoulder to see two more dead bodies, with the mist swirling around them among his wife’s roses. She would not take kindly to that damage. He turned the other way and nodded to a handful of his guards to join the others he’d already sent round to the front, before turning back to Balwain.

  “Take your men through here, Balwain.”

  “Where do you go?”

  Aric nodded to the thick vine covered trellis. Balwain nodded. The secret passage.

  “Aye.” Balwain hesitated as he struggled within to leave his lord go through the tunnel alone.

  Aric’s look told him he had no choice. Clasping arms, the two men went on their separate paths to enter the manor.

  Chapter 29

  Aric neared the end of the smaller tunnel. He walked past the stone bench where Danielle had lain and nearly caught her death. Forcing his body through the small crevice in the wall a few feet from it, he entered the larger tunnel. The dirt floor was covered in water that reached up to his ankles. He inched his way through quietly, his keen warrior senses kicking in. He froze. Something was ahead of him. He waited, not breathing.

  The only sounds for a moment were the rain drops pelting above and the drip of the dark water down into the river at his feet. Then it came and focusing his eyes in the dark at his feet, the tiny waves rose above his ankles.

  He was not down here alone.

  Anger filled him. He’d been correct in his summation, Thomas knew of the tunnels running beneath the manor, but, he did not know of Danielle’s secret passage. That was confirmed by the fact that the men in front of him had their backs to him looking in the opposite direction awaiting his entry from the other end to pounce.

  The fools.

  The idiots had two torches. It was just enough light for Aric to count their number and rage shook him when he recognized a few familiar faces of Gravane’s Saxon foot soldiers.

  By the time it registered on their surprised faces that their would be target stood behind them, Aric had cut three of them down in quick succession with his blade whistling through the tunnel to their unprotected throats to deliver the death blows.

  With a yelp, another dropped his torch, leaving the one at the rear of the remaining fifteen men looking to escape with no thought to his comrades.

  A ferocious battle cry escaped Aric’s lips as he jumped over dead bodies cutting away the men through to flesh and bone with lethal force and leaving terminal wounds in his wake. The clang of steel resonated and bounced off the stone walls of the tunnel.

  When all of five remained, one of Gravane’s foot soldiers, a stout and burly fellow, bared his teeth and charged him, knocking them both into the wall.

  Aric came down hard with his elbow and the pommel of his sword on top of the man’s thick skull as another’s meaty fist struck his jaw.

  The blow stunned him but a second. The wound at the back of his neck flared with jarring pain. He could not black out now.

  Aric grunted when he felt the cut of one’s blade on the back of his hand that held his own sword.

  He reached out and grabbed the man’s long craggy beard. Aric beheaded him in one swift clean blow and then brought the blade down in a practiced move between the shoulder and neck of the stout one climbing up his leg.

  Another battle cry rent the air and bounced off the walls.

  Aric kicked the dead man off his leg, sliding his blade out in time to see Balwain quickly dispatch the remaining three. Aric caught the torch before it hit the water under his feet as the last man fell.

  Stepping over the bodies to his second, he gave Balwain a look. His friend nodded. Aric said nothing. His ever faithful and bull-headed vassal whom he was ever grateful for.

  “Did he not know that he would need to send more than five and ten to stop you?” Balwain boasted with a grin.

  “Nay. Just as he cannot think that aught will stop me from coming for her.”

  Balwain followed behind him to the end of the tunnel.

  Aric peered out into the hall of the manor. All looked normal within. Thomas had used the tunnel to enter and the guards that now lay dead below had been the ones that had stood at the great doors of the manor.

  Aric’s rage made him see red and he paused but a moment.

  Danielle’s soft words would not save her cousin this time. Those men back there had come at him hard. Intent to kill blazing in their eyes. Her cousin would see no reprieve.

  Despite Thomas’s treason like crimes, Aric only saw one at the forefront. The man had sealed his fate simply by thinking to harm his wife again. He’d boded her naught but ill will since their childhood days.

  Retribution had come and Aric would not be denied.

  His blood pounded through his veins as the image of Danielle’s sweet face swam before him. His heart twisted painfully in his chest and he prayed for the first time in a very long time that he was in time before any real harm befell her.

  Aric broke through into the hall.

  Danielle came to with an ache in her back and to the sounds of what had to be battle in the hall. She heard screams and steel clanging. Her heart beat rapidly.

  Aric had come.

  She winced as she tried to tu
rn within the small crawlspace, her hands still on her belly. Her cheek throbbed and she reached one hand up to touch it. The blood had dried and the cut was tender to touch.

  She heard the cries of people dying and her heart pounded in her chest. Nausea washed over her and moved her into action.

  Pushing against the locked door, she panicked in the dark and started to kick at it with her feet, to no avail. They had locked her in. Yet, she kept at it with tears streaming down her face and opened her mouth to call out.

  “Aric! Aric!”

  Danielle clawed at the door. She had to get to him. Her heart tore inside her chest as the muffled noises increased. The keening sounds of pain reached her ears over her own screaming.

  Her husband could take care of himself she knew, but she did not know how big or small her cousin’s small army was or wasn’t. Even with Balwain at his side, he could still be wounded and he was not yet healed completely from his head wound. If he were to succumb to the pain…

  She could not, would not think that.

  Not being able to see what was happening shot more adrenaline through her and Danielle ignored her bleeding feet and hands as she fought to break open the thick cubby wooden door to get out and to him.

  Less than an half hour later the sounds of battle ceased within the walls of Gravane as Aric and his men quickly dispatched Thomas’s small army of rebels and soldiers. The few that had surrendered were imprisoned in the lower level with the other prisoners until they were judged later.

  Through it all, Aric had not laid his eyes on Danielle’s form or Thomas. With his bloodied sword still dripping at his side he strode to the raised dais, his face dark with his anger. He let out a heavy breath and turned to look over the bloody carnage filling her- nay, their home and something inside him cracked.

  They had searched every inch of the manor and still they had not found her. Surely, Thomas could not escape him again with her at his side. Not only would she not go quietly, he had only one route of escape to take and Aric had come in that way.

  So, where was the bastard? Where was Danielle?

  After checking the alcoves behind the dais, Aric swallowed the lump of panic as something began to burn within his chest. She had to be here.

  She had to be.

  Voices made him turn back to the hall’s entrance. He saw two of the men-at-arms he had sent out with another group to search the perimeters of Gravane. The two men stood there with grim expressions. The burning sensation in Aric’s chest grew stronger. He addressed them and they told him what he’d already known and feared.

  No signs of her.

  Aric began to worry that mayhap there was another secret passage within the manor that he might have missed. That thought left him with a sinking feeling of dread. As he searched the other end of the manor once again he had Balwain bring his wife’s maid to him. The pale faced and shivering Edie said there was not. That eased him an inch and soon a loud commotion drew him back to the hall.

  He was at the entrance in a flash to see Thomas’s soiled form struggling between two of his guards. Aric came and stood before him, barely able to contain his rage.

  Thomas’s struggles ceased when he recognized the boots in front of him and lifted his eyes up to the dark warrior.

  Aric scrunched his nose at the foul smell emanating from the smaller man. He was covered head to toe with the garderobe’s contents.

  “I see that you are covered in what you are full of.” Aric’s deep timbre of rage shook the walls and caused Thomas to shiver. “Where is she?”

  Thomas swallowed. He was good as dead. Even if he told the Norman, the man would kill him as soon as he’d seen what he’d done to her. Either way he was going to die. He cursed that his cousin had won.

  “Why should I tell you? Either way it will not save my life will it?” He asked. His tongue snaked out like a serpent to lick his wet lips.

  Aric’s flat cold tone confirmed his fears. “Nay.”

  Aric noted the possessed look in his eyes. The man was crazed.

  “Well then. Since I cannot have that which is mine. Nor shall you. I will never tell you. I will go to hell with that fat cow rotting at my side.”

  Aric’s large fist smashed into the side of his face and he gave his men the nod to stand the filthy man upright. By then, Thomas had come out of his dazed state with a sneer on his face.

  Aric demanded. “I will ask you but once more. Where is she?”

  Thomas tried to shake the hold of the guards off, but they held fast. He opened his mouth.

  “I am here, Aric.”

  Danielle’s hoarse cry tore through him and Aric, the hairs on the back of his neck standing, turned to see her at the hall’s entrance standing next to Balwain.

  Emotion he did not want to name slammed into him at the sight of her as she limped towards him. She came to a stop a few steps away from him and Thomas. Aric drank in the sight of her. His rage returned when he noted her bruises. The cuts on her cheek, lip and fingers were bleeding.

  He paused but a moment when her fingers gripped his forearm. His sword was raised between them. He’d not even been aware that he’d lifted it. He would have her cousin’s head.

  “Danielle.” The sound of his own hoarse voice shocked him.

  “I am here. I beg you, no more. No more bloodletting,” Danielle said tightening her grip on his arm in restraint.

  Aric trembled with the storm inside him. Did she not know what it was she asked of him? He shook with his need to kill Thomas. She had no place in these matters and he opened his mouth to say as much when she spoke.

  “Aric.”

  Everything was in that one word, her plea was like the cry of a wounded animal and the sound tore through him. After all the grief her cousin had caused her. She would still- Nay!

  “I do not think I can give you this boon again for him. After all that he has done! He forfeited his miserable life when he chose to harm you.” Aric’s eyes blazed with fury and disbelief. His hand tightened around the hilt of his sword seeing the answer in those eyes he could lose himself in forever. God’s teeth! Would he ever be able to deny this woman?

  Danielle was aware of the struggle within him and knew that he did not understand. She knew too that some of his anger was directed at her for he was mad that she dared once again to interfere with his choice of dispensing justice upon her cousin. She had wanted Thomas dead. Wished it with each nail she had lost in clawing her way out of that crawlspace. Wished it if any harm came to her little secret she’d yet to reveal to Aric.

  But looking at all the dead bodies strewn over their floor and now at Thomas. She could not bear to see another life taken. Even if it was one that deserved it more than any she knew. She met her cousin’s possessed gaze for a brief moment before she turned away.

  Her gaze shot back up to Aric’s and she said, “I trust you, Aric.”

  She saw the tremor go through his large form before she felt it. He tilted his head. He was not happy, but he did lower his sword. He would bend yet again for her and Danielle let out a held breath.

  “Step away, Danielle.”

  Danielle backed up and moved near the raised dais. Aric’s snarl was one that bode his true intent for Thomas.

  “In your futile campaign in stealing Gravane coin for your own selfish ill-gotten gains and to build your cause against me and against our liege lord, King William you must now face your judgment, Thomas Balfour. I know that you are a follower, for you are too much of a simpleton to be anything but. Know this. Any that stand with you or have stood with you will see the end of their plight at the tip of a Norman sword. England will be united. What say you of your crimes?”

  Thomas was sputtering like the simpleton he was even before Aric completed the question. Aric’s gaze impaled him where he knelt.

  Thomas’s beady eyes shot over the other knights in the room and saw that they each had their hands on the hilt of their swords.

  All but Aric, Danielle noted, for the look shooting
from his eyes told Thomas and all within the hall what he wanted more than any weapon he could have drawn.

  Death.

  Thomas rose on his spindly and unsteady legs as that look intensified with each of his movements. A moment of long lost lucidity surfaced in him. If it meant he would have to beg. Then beg he would.

  Aric wanted to cleave the man in two, but with Danielle at his back, he tried to swallow his fury. He wanted to show her that he was a fair man, no matter the crime. But it was harder and harder to be that man when the crime was against her. He continued, sharply, “Your days of stealing and murdering are over. For such crimes against what is now mine, I can imprison you here. As ill as it makes me to admit it, part of my wife’s bloodline runs through your selfish veins.” He felt Danielle’s gaze bore into the side of his face, but he did not look to her.

  “Aye, we are related!” Thomas’s pitiful outburst was laced with the panic rising in him.

  “Yet, that did not stop you from murdering your own sister, did it?”

  Aric ignored Danielle’s shocked cry.

  Thomas had a choking fit. He was caught. The damn Norman knew. Thomas knew his reaction had sealed his fate. There was nothing left. Begging was out. He made a move to step near Aric to interrupt.

  Balwain slapped the flat of his sword with disgust across the back of his knees and Thomas went back down on both knees. Thomas shot the angry knight a pleading look, his wide eyes skirting from Aric’s dark gaze to the big sword, fearing the angry knight would behead him right there.

  Aric’s voice cut through his rising terror.

  “As unfortunate as that may be, know this, man. It is just that relationship and her wish, which saves your hide and gives you, how shall I put it, mercy.” Aric let his words sink in. When Thomas all but shot a relieved look, still laced with his terror upon Danielle, Aric moved to block his vision of her.

  “This will be the last time you look upon her. You shall be stripped forthwith immediately of the lands this relative’s father had so generously given your sorry arse and cast out. Your exile will give you plenty enough time to think of the many wrongs you have committed. Be grateful that you leave here with your head intact. And Thomas,” Aric approached the kneeling man,” consider that a boon too because of your cousin, my wife.”