Briar’s limbs turned to water.
He gripped her arms a moment longer, holding her until she had steadied herself, and then he looked past her. Briar also swung around, trembling for what she might see, but there was no one. Only the abandoned house as silent and forbidding as before.
“But…where did he go?” she gasped, eyes huge.
“You mean Miles.” It was not a question.
“He was inside. I…I was frightened of him.”
“At least you have that aright.” But his dark gaze slid quickly over her, assessing any damage, and if possible he grew even more angry. “Briar, stay here with Sweyn. Do not move. Do you understand me?”
For the first time, Briar noticed Sweyn standing to one side. Instinctively she wanted to protest. She didn’t want to stay here, she didn’t want him to go inside alone. But his intensity was such that she bit her lip and nodded her head. He walked toward the building, his head moving slowly from side to side as he surveyed his surrounds with all the care of a prospective purchaser. And then he reached down and slid his sword from its scabbard and walked through the doorway into the darkness.
Briar held her breath. She expected to hear shouts, swords clashing, a dying scream…Ivo came out of the house with a quick, easy stride, resheathing his sword as he approached.
“There is no one there now,” he said shortly, with a glance at Sweyn. “Miles must have found another way out—there are plenty of broken walls. He was always good at running away.”
Sweyn gave an edgy laugh. “This time you’ll catch him, Ivo. This time you’ll beat him.”
Ivo nodded, but he looked bleak.
Briar closed her eyes, weary beyond imagining. “I do not understand. He said he had more to tell me of my stepmother, and to meet him here. He said he would talk to me of you. I thought it would be a good thing, to bring you together again, to reconcile you with all that remains of your family. If it was me, then I would want that very much, Ivo, and he…he seemed to want that.”
The expression in his eyes hardened. Turned into a dark and burning fury. “What happened, Briar?” he asked her, and she could feel the tension in him as he waited for her answer.
She spoke slowly, halting over her words as she recalled her terror. “Once I was inside the house, I knew it had all been a lie. A reason to bring me to him, alone. He wanted me because he thought I belonged to you. He planned to use me, to hurt me, to hurt you.”
Ivo took her arm in strong fingers. “You spoke to him last night. Was that when you hatched this plan?”
“Aye,” she whispered, casting him an anxious glance. “I saw him at the back of the hall, and when I went to find him he was waiting in a chamber there. He asked me to meet him here, today. He said not to tell, that you would not like it, that there were reasons and he would explain to me. He…he wept. He was so plausible, Ivo. I did not think to doubt him.”
But Briar remembered she had doubted; she had simply pushed her inner warnings aside. Briar the impulsive, with her mind set on doing what she thought was best. Would she never learn? Had not the night she mistook Ivo for Radulf taught her that she was not always right?
Ivo was watching her, mayhap thinking the same thing. Was she too much trouble for him, too much of a bother? She did not want to be a burden. The thought of being seen in that light made her squirm. She loved him, and during those moments with Miles, she had wanted nothing more than to have the opportunity to tell him so.
And yet now she said nothing.
“Miles has a warrant on his head, lady,” Sweyn said, glancing between the two of them with curious blue eyes. “That is why he was hiding last n
ight, why he cannot walk about like a free man. He led a rebellion against Lord Radulf in Somerset, and the king wasn’t best pleased.”
“I did not know,” she whispered. “You should have told me.”
Ivo spoke. “Would you have listened, Briar? When I went to your dwelling and found you missing, I had a feeling ’twas Miles’s doing. He ever had the smoother tongue. There were always women eager and willing to fall into his lap like ripe plums. And then he would suck them dry and spit them out.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, not sure whether she was apologizing for her own actions or those of his brother. “How did you find me?”
“Mary overheard you last night, lady, and unlike you she did not like Miles’s looks. You are lucky to have a sister who loves you and watches out for you. If I had not come, Briar…How could you be so foolish?” He stopped, and pressed his lips tight together.
She took a breath, feeling some of her uncertainty ebbing away. She had acted in good faith, after all. “I meant to help, Ivo. I thought if I could heal the rift between you and Miles, you would forgive my lack of…of honesty. That the end justified the means.” Her eyes narrowed. “You should have told me. I asked you again and again, but you wouldn’t explain to me.”
“So now ’tis my fault?” Ivo drew a deep sigh and looked away from her tear-filled eyes, staring down the once lively, and now forlorn street.
“Nay, not entirely…”
Ivo looked as if he would have liked to smile, but didn’t have the heart for it. “You are right. I should have told you. I should have made you aware of what he was. I thought I could keep you safe by keeping you in ignorance. And I thought…I hoped I wouldn’t have to tell you, Briar. I didn’t want you to know about the past. There are matters, there are things I do not tell many people.”
Briar stared at his profile, the sharp nose and strong chin, the dark stubble on his jaw and the curls beginning to grow longer at his brow. He is going to tell me something horrible, she thought, her heart turning cold. Something so horrible that I won’t be able to love him anymore.