Bliss tried to remain patient for Rannick to return but as time slipped away, her worry grew. He had had enough time to think it through. It was time for her to face him and her fate. She gathered her courage to confront him and stepped out of the cottage to find a man standing only a short distance away and Rannick nowhere in sight.
“Rannick’s got himself a woman,” the fellow said and approached Bliss on an angle.
She turned to keep an eye on him and realized too late his intention—to stop her from seeing the man who came up behind her.
He grabbed her arm, wrenching it with a sharp twist that sent a pain radiating up her arm and a painful stitch to her side that sent her to her knees.
The other fellow hurried to take a cautious peek in the cottage. “He’s not there.”
“Keep watch while I have some fun with her,” the fellow who kept a tight hold on Bliss ordered.
“There’s no time for that. Our orders are clear—kill Rannick,” the other man argued.
“And we will, but there’s always time for a quick poke,” the fellow said.
“And if he comes back while—”
“Kill him, then you can give her a poke and maybe we’ll take her along with us for the other men to enjoy,” the fellow said.
Bliss was shocked at what she heard. They had been sent to kill Rannick, but why? Whatever reason, they had not known of her marriage to Rannick. That meant this had been planned before she had wed him.
The one who held her had a more unkempt appearance than the other and an unpleasant odor about him. She would think them common thugs, but the one’s bravado spoke more of a mercenary confident in his skills. And that he thought to keep her and share her with the other men made it obvious they were part of a group of mercenaries. Yet only two had been sent or were there more waiting close by?
She was relieved to learn the answer without asking the question.
“Just think of the fun we can have with her in the three days it will take us to reach the others,” the fellow said.
The man grinned at the suggestion, though it quickly faded. “You’ll wait to poke her until we kill Rannick. You heard what a fierce warrior he is. It will take us both to see him dead.”
“I will see him dead with no problem,” the fellow boasted.
Bliss listened, praying Rannick would return while trying desperately to think of how she could escape. She would fight if there was no choice left to her. But the odds of her defeating two men were not good. Even running if she got the chance would prove difficult with her side still healing. Rannick was her one sure chance of surviving.
“Good, then I’ll hold the woman while you see to Rannick,” the man said.
“I get first poke,” the fellow ordered.
“That is if Rannick does not kill you and I am left to kill him, then she is all mine,” the man said with a grin.
The fellow laughed. “Then I better poke her now since I wouldn’t want to die without one last poke.”
“TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF HER!”
Both men jumped and the fellow that was holding Bliss swung her around in front of him, positioning her like a shield. So much for his confidence.
“Or what?” the fellow bravely said from behind Bliss, his head moving from side to side as his eyes searched for Rannick.
“Or I’ll see that you die painfully instead of swiftly,” Rannick said as he stepped out from around a group of trees.
Bliss suddenly felt the point of a dagger at her neck.
“Come close and I will kill her,” the fellow shouted.
“If you kill her, I will rip your limbs slowly from you one by one until you scream and beg for death,” Rannick said, walking toward them. “I have seen it done to men and some actually survive the ordeal and if by chance you do, I will leave your torso in the forest for the animals to finish. They do like live, fresh meat.”
The man paled and looked to the fellow holding Bliss. “He’s the devil himself and I want nothing to do with the devil.” He ran past Bliss, headed for the woods.
He fell just before the woods would have swallowed him whole, a dagger protruding from his back.
“That leaves you without a weapon,” the man said with a bravado that didn’t match the way he trembled against Bliss.
Rannick held up his hands. “These are much more lethal and painful than a dagger. Now let her go.”
“I let her go. You let me go,” the fellow bargained.
Rannick nodded. “I will let you go.”
The fellow kept the dagger near Bliss’s neck as he forced her to walk with him to the edge of the woods, then he gave her a shove, sending her sprawling to the ground, and took off into the dense woods.