Besieged and Betrothed

‘No!’ She kept on resisting, wrestling furiously with his soldiers as they half-led, half-carried her towards the door. ‘Please!’

She stopped struggling when they reached the stairwell, refusing to suffer the indignity of being carried upstairs. It was no use. Lothar wasn’t going to listen, no matter how much she begged or pleaded with him, and by the look of things he wasn’t going to forgive her either. She marched furiously up to her room, spinning around at the last moment to confront her captors, only to see the door close in her face instead. She gulped as the key turned in the lock. She’d exchanged places with Lothar completely now. He had her home and her father, and now somehow she’d become his prisoner, too. Her secret had been discovered in the worst possible way and she’d already been judged and condemned.

She sank down on to her bed, overwhelmed by a sense of her own helplessness. Her one consolation was that her father would soon be back in his old chamber, too, back in his own bed, but everything else about the situation was too upsetting to think about. What if he woke up surrounded by strangers? What if he woke up in pain? Ulf was the only other person who knew what to do—would Lothar let him?

She lay down on the mattress and closed her eyes. If Lothar was just going to ignore her, then there was nothing she could do for the moment except worry and she was too tired even for that. She hadn’t slept for so long that she felt as if there were actual weights pressing down on her eyelids. Now that her secret was out, there was no need for her to think or to plan or to hide any more. That was almost a relief. She’d done her best to honour her promise to Stephen, but it was over. In the meantime her father was safe and not in pain. That was all that mattered now. As for the rest, she’d think about it later. It was all out of her hands finally...

On that thought, she fell asleep.

Chapter Fifteen

Lothar folded his arms, looking down at the emaciated, corpse-like shadow of his friend. William was sleeping deeply, too deeply for his liking. He hadn’t even stirred when they’d carried him up two flights of winding stairs, probably due to whatever potion his daughter had given him. A sleeping draught she’d called it, though he had his own experience to know how powerful those could be.

He shook his head, still struggling to get over the shock he’d felt when he’d first walked into the taproom. If he’d found Stephen himself, he couldn’t have felt any more surprised. He’d sent Lady Juliana away because he’d been too overwhelmed to take anything else in, certainly too angry to think straight and listen, though worse than that had been the feelings of betrayal and disappointment, as if she hadn’t been the woman he’d thought she was.

Somehow he’d managed to restrain his temper. He would never have hurt her, but there had been men enough in the bailey that he could have vented his anger on. Still he hadn’t done it, remembering what she’d said about not wanting violence, and, ironically, he hadn’t wanted to let her down. No matter how much of a liar and deceiver she was, somehow her influence still had the power to calm him, even when she was the one making him angry.

Now that he’d had some time to think, however, the other things she’d said tugged at the edge of his consciousness. She’d said that her father was in pain, though not from an injury, which suggested an illness of some kind. That made sense. William was too thin, like everyone else in the castle, but he seemed to have aged twenty years since they’d last met as well. There was something unnatural about his appearance, too, his blue veins standing out against pale skin that looked almost translucent, as if he were wasting away to bone.

‘Sergeant?’

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; He turned to find one of his men standing in the doorway.

‘Have you brought him?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Good. Send him in and then leave us.’

He set his feet further apart, bracing himself for another confrontation as Ulf stumbled unceremoniously into the chamber.

‘Where’s Lady Juliana?’ The Constable’s truculent expression was back with a vengeance.

‘That’s none of your concern. Did you know about this?’

He gestured at William, expecting some kind of denial, though Ulf answered at once.

‘Yes.’

‘What about your men?’

‘Yes.’

He lifted an eyebrow. ‘All of them?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then how the hell could you go along with it?’ His temper exploded at last. ‘This is your master, the man you ought to serve, not hold captive! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t execute the lot of you for disloyalty.’

‘Do whatever you want.’

‘Your lady, too?’

‘No!’

‘And why shouldn’t I?’ He took a threatening step closer. ‘Bad enough that she sided with her father’s enemy, but then to keep him hidden away like a dog! I ought to leave and let Sir Guian deal with the lot of you.’