She caught his arm. "Where are you going?"
"Home to the evil brother you so fear." He smiled. "You seem concerned that I plan some revenge because you will not keep your word. It is my idea that breaking an oath is revenge enough. You must live with this on your conscience the rest of your life. Were it me, I could not bear myself, but then you are a Peregrine, not a Howard, so perhaps your name means less to you than mine does to me. However, it is your choice. I will not force you to honor your own word. It is my belief that one has honor or one does not. In this case it seems that you do not. Therefore—"
"Cease!" Zared yelled at him, her hands to her ears. "I will marry you."
"I could not ask that of you, for you seem to doubt that I kept my end of our bargain."
"You kept it!" she hissed. "I have told you so. Do you wish me to shout it from the rooftops?"
"It might be pleasant were you to tell your brother you wish to marry me."
"Wish to marry you? You are the last person I would wish to marry."
He started to walk away.
"All right! I'll tell Severn I"—she swallowed— "that I wish to marry you. He would be suspicious otherwise."
"How kind of you," he said, smiling. "Shall I meet you in the church in two hours?"
"Two… two hours?"
"Of course, if you would rather not fulfill your part of the bargain, I can leave now. If you can live with your dishonor, I am sure I can."
"I will be there," she said, then she angrily turned on her heel and left him.
Tearle smiled at her back. He was very happy.
Chapter Eleven
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Zared sat rigidly on her horse, trying not to look at the man who rode beside her, the man who was her husband. They had been married for two days, and she was still a virgin. She was glad, of course—glad that the Howard man had not touched her—but some part of her, some part deep within her, resented the fact that he had not made her his wife.
But then she had said a few things to him that seemed to make him quite angry.
After she had agreed to marry him he had lost no time in going to her brother to ask his permission for the marriage. Severn, still involved in his own marriage negotiations, had not wasted much time in thinking about giving his permission. He liked Tearle, and he thought Liana had sent him, so Severn quickly consented. Zared had been hurt at how little attention her brother had paid to the matter of her marriage. Severn had given her a perfunctory kiss on the forehead and gone back to counting coins with Hugh Marshall.
Zared hadn't said a word to Tearle as they walked to the church, and her mumbled replies to the priest in answer to his questions could hardly be heard. After the ceremony she had stood rigid as Tearle had bent and kissed her cheek. There were others in the church, and they were snickering, for it looked as though the big man was marrying a slim boy. Zared kept her head up, refusing Tearle's arm as they left the church and went to their waiting horses.
She mounted and then tried to still her growing fear. What did the Howard plan for her? Did he mean to take her back to his brother's place, to the place for which Peregrines had died? Would he turn her over to his brother to use against her brothers?
"I am not the devil," Tearle said as he mounted his horse. "You need not look at me as though I mean to torture you."
She hadn't answered him. She didn't ask him where he was leading her or what he planned to do with her. Of course, he had said that he was going to take her back to her brothers and that he would live with the Peregrines, but she was not sure she believed him.
They left the Marshall lands, taking only what they could carry on their horses, and outside the grounds they were met by three men—Howard men.
Zared knew then that she had been betrayed by him. She cursed herself, for she knew that her marriage was going to cause the deaths of her two remaining brothers. She rode beside the man who was her husband, but she did not speak to him. Several times he tried to talk to her, but she didn't answer him. It took all her strength and all her courage to hold back her tears. She tried to think of ways to kill the three knights who rode with them, but she didn't think she could do it. She had to face what she knew was going to happen.
It was on their wedding night that all her fears and misery came out. The Howard man hired a room at an inn. At supper Zared sat silently by him. She did not speak, and she ate very little. Several times she glanced at Tearle and saw that he was looking at her with gentle eyes, almost as though he understood what she was feeling, but she wasn't going to let herself soften toward him.
When it was time to go to bed she braced herself, but instead, with a polite concern, he sent the landlady up with her. But Zared didn't undress. Instead, she sat rigidly on the bed and waited for him.
Some time later Tearle came to the room, and by the light of a single candle she stared at the bed hangings while she heard him undress. She heard the loud rustle of the straw-filled mattress as he climbed into bed beside her. And then he reached out to touch her.
At his touch all of Zared's fears and rage came leaping to the surface. Later she couldn't remember exactly what she had said, but she used words that would have earned her a beating had she used them around her brothers. She told the Howard man what she thought of his treachery, of his lies. She told him that the souls of the Peregrines would come back to haunt him. She called him every name she could think of and said that she would shed her own blood if he so much as touched her.
Days later she could still remember the look on his face. He seemed to be stunned by her accusations, stunned by her hatred. He got out of bed and pulled on his braes, then he turned to look at her.