Authors: Phoebe Conn
A faint smile played across his lips as he recalled the day he had left Grena’s. To be returning as part of the small raiding party amused him, but he had not the slightest doubt they could accomplish what they had set out to do. Rescuing attractive maidens was an enjoyable pastime, but he couldn’t help but wish they were on their way to rescue Dana so she would be in his debt.
As he had been on the first day he had ridden behind her, he was fascinated by the sunlight’s bright sparkle on her glorious cascade of fiery red curls. The memory of falling asleep with her silken tresses spilled over his chest was almost unbearably sweet, and his smile grew wide until he recalled his dismay at awakening to find her gone. Clearly she was ashamed of what they had shared, although he had gloried in it. If Berit could love Erik, who had little but ambition and good looks, then why couldn’t Dana love him? he wondered. He scolded himself silently then, knowing he should not long for love between them when what they shared always proved deeply satisfying to them both.
With that tantalizing thought in mind, Brendan hoped they could complete their mission swiftly so he would have an opportunity to convince Dana to meet him again that night. Three nights had passed since he had last held her, and he did not want their separation to continue indefinitely. As they neared Grena’s home, Erik and Dana came to a halt, and Brendan swiftly moved to take a place at her side.
“Dana will go to the door and ask to speak with Grena,” Erik explained. “Then the three of us will circle to the rear of the house. While the women are talking, we’ll go to Berit’s bedchamber and bring her out. I doubt we’ll get far before Grena discovers what’s happened, but at least Berit will be safe from further harm.”
Brendan frowned slightly, seeing a complication Erik obviously did not. “We shouldn’t leave Dana unprotected, for we’ll have gained nothing if we free Berit but leave Dana behind.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Erik nodded. “You’re right, of course. I’ll not allow Dana to become a hostage. You stay with her, and Soren and I will enter the house.”
Although her first impulse was to argue, Dana saw the wisdom in Brendan’s suggestion as quickly as Erik had. “I have an idea,” she suggested helpfully. “Give Soren that sword, Brendan, as he’s more likely to need it. I’ll keep Grena talking as long as I can, but if I have trouble, force your mount to misbehave. Create some sort of a disturbance that will kick up enough dust to keep Grena distracted until Erik, Berit, and Soren have made good their escape.”
Dana’s expression was such a sincere one Brendan wasn’t even tempted to display his earlier sarcasm. After handing his weapon to Soren, he assured her he would do his best. “I won’t disappoint you,” he promised, but his inviting smile conveyed a far more intimate meaning than his words.
Choosing to ignore the suggestive comment, Dana turned her horse toward the path, while Erik and Soren split off in the opposite direction to approach Grena’s house from the rear. With her usual confidence, Dana rode right up to her aunt’s door, and when a servant appeared, she asked for her mistress. She sent Brendan a worried glance, but he was enjoying himself too greatly to share her fears.
When the servant returned with the announcement Grena had no wish to see her, Dana was at a loss for a moment, for she had been certain Grena would come out, if only to scream at her again for aiding Erik. When she glanced toward Brendan, hoping for a sudden inspiration, she instantly received one. Knowing she simply had to draw her aunt out of the house, she quite shamelessly used him as an excuse.
“I’ve come to buy this thrall from her. Tell her I’ll meet whatever price she sets.”
As the servant again disappeared into the house, the clever redhead dared not look at her companion, for she knew without having to see his expression just how angry he would be. “I told you I wanted to discuss your freedom. I might as well arrange for it now,” she whispered encouragingly.
“This is not the time!” Brendan hissed, certain Dana had just made an extremely foolish mistake.
When first informed of Dana’s visit, Grena was outraged, but when she had been told the purpose of her niece’s call was not to plead her half brother’s cause but to do business, she became too intrigued by the prospect of making an attractive profit to send her away.
“Brendan is not for sale,” she said without bothering with a greeting, attempting to conceal her eagerness to strike a bargain.
“My father always says that everything can be bought if a person has the right price. You know that we do, so why must we haggle over him? He is strong but frequently disobedient, and I doubt anyone else would have him.”
Brendan sat silently fuming as Dana and her aunt debated his worth. Even knowing Dana’s purpose was a noble one, he couldn’t help but be deeply insulted. He was not a piece of horseflesh, nor a fine bull that could be sold from one family to another. Holding his tongue was almost impossible, but he succeeded for a few moments at least.
Opening the rear door with swords drawn, Erik and Soren slipped inside. They could hear the voices of the women working in the main hall, but there were no sounds coming from the bedchambers. Soren pointed to the door of Berit’s room, but Erik found it securely locked. Motioning for the boy to stand aside, he aimed a brutal kick at the lock, and with a loud crash the door went flying open. Erik rushed into the room, saw Berit lying pale and limp upon the bed, and hurriedly gathered her up into his arms. Returning to the passageway, he found Soren brandishing his sword to keep half a dozen startled servants at bay, and with a call for him to follow, he carried Berit outside to their horses.
“What was that?” Grena cried, certain she had heard a disturbance inside.
“Perhaps someone dropped a cooking pot,” Dana suggested, “but what does it matter? My last offer was a good one. Will you take it or not?”
Before Grena could respond, a serving woman came to the door and tearfully exclaimed that Berit had been kidnapped. Flying into a rage, Grena reached out to grab Dana’s mare’s bridle. “You’ll not leave here until Berit is returned! Brendan, you belong to my family, not Freya’s. You must help me!”
“Yes, mistress. Let Dana go. I’ll see that she doesn’t get away.” Instantly the Celt positioned his mount to block Dana’s escape.
Dana’s expression was one of strained disbelief, as with a mighty yank Brendan wrenched her mare’s reins from her hands. She had known he was angry with her, but had he planned to betray her when he had insisted she ought not to confront Grena alone? That was so fiendishly clever a ploy she was stunned, for it made his hatred of her shockingly clear.
Grateful that Brendan had moved so quickly to assist her, Grena followed the thrall’s instructions, released her hold on Dana’s mare’s bridle, and stepped back out of his way. She laughed as, having lost control of her horse, Dana had no way to fight Brendan. “It is you who is caught in your own trap now!” she shouted gleefully.
The terror in Dana’s eyes inflamed his already boiling temper, but Brendan had had no intention of actually doing Grena’s bidding. Instead, he pulled Dawn’s Kiss alongside his mount and wheeled them both around in a tight circle. Then with a wild cry he urged his horse into a gallop that the dapple gray mare had no choice but to match. Leaving Grena choking in a cloud of dust, he and Dana rode out of the yard and continued at a furious pace until they were lost from sight.
Knowing there would be no way to escape the fury of Grena’s wrath, Brendan swore Dana was going to make the daring risk he’d just taken worthwhile.
Chapter Sixteen
Rather than race all the way to Freya’s, Brendan veered off down a path that ran beside a stone wall separating two grain fields. Once he was certain they would not be observed from the road, he drew both his mount and Dana’s to an abrupt halt. Leaping to the ground, he pulled the shaken redhead from her saddle and forced her back against the wall.
“Is there no end to the ways you’ll use to humiliate me?” he shouted rudely. “First you describe me as the most worthless of slaves, and then you actually believed I’d taken Grena’s side against you!”
Dana had to grip Brendan’s shoulders to remain on her feet, for she hadn’t had nearly enough time to recover from the fright he had given her before they had fled Grena’s. Hoping he would continue to vent his rage with words rather than his fists, she didn’t interrupt him, but wisely waited until he paused to draw a breath to defend herself.
“I have never tried to humiliate you. Never. That is a completely ridiculous accusation, and as for my remarks to Grena, you knew I had to keep her outside until Erik had made good his escape. I would have told any tale, no matter how outrageous, to hold her interest, and there was no reason for you to feel insulted. As for thinking you’d decided to return to Grena, I knew you were mad enough to do it. Indeed, you were already furious when I first saw you today, although I’ve no idea why.”
“No idea!” Brendan scoffed. While she was still too flustered to think of protecting herself, he grabbed her knife and tossed it aside. Separating her legs with his right knee, he pressed her closer to the wall. His stare as menacing as his sneer, he slipped his hand beneath her flowing garments and ran his fingertips up the length of her thigh. His touch was hot, possessive, not the tender caress of a lover, but the demanding hold of a man seeking to sate his passions whether or not his woman was willing.
Dana’s eyes widened in alarm. She couldn’t believe Brendan would be so abusive, and struggled to break free ,of his confining hold, but her efforts proved futile. She twisted in his embrace as he began to taunt her with a touch of insulting familiarity, silently daring her to deny him what he had already claimed for his own. Her breath came in short gasps as he began to tease her most sensitive flesh, but she continued to try to break free.
“Stop it, Brendan,” she demanded, not about to give in to him.
“Stop what?” Brendan whispered hoarsely as he lowered his mouth to her throat. “This? Or this?” he asked as he began to probe deeply into her warm, moist sweetness. He held her open, vulnerable, striving to create a hunger for fulfillment that would match his own.
Rather than being aroused, Dana rebelled as she always had at the first possessive touch of other men. Consumed with a violent loathing, she gathered all her strength and struck Brendan a fierce blow to his left ear. When he recoiled in pain, she succeeded in shoving him aside. Retrieving her knife from the dirt, she wheeled around, prepared to use it.
“How dare you treat me as you would a whore you despise?” she hissed. “How dare you?”
Brendan’s ear was ringing so loudly he could barely make out her words, but he understood enough to reply. “Why not? That’s how you treat me.”
“It is not!” Dana screamed, her expression mirroring the depth of her disgust with him. Her hair flew about in wild disarray as she shook her head, adding to the ferocity of her pose. “I have never treated you badly, never, but you continually choose to show me your worst!”
Brendan leaned back against the wall rather than struggle to keep his balance and risk falling. He feared she had broken his eardrum, for he had never experienced such excruciating pain. “You come to me only when you must, and you cannot wait to leave. I would never have left you sleeping alone in the woods as you did me.”
Still brandishing her knife, Dana stared at Brendan, unable to believe his complaint was sincere. “Is that why you greeted me so coldly this morning? Because I awoke before you did? Was it very inconsiderate of me to leave without awakening you? You’ll have to forgive me, but you’re the only lover I’ve ever had and I’ve no idea what is expected of me.” Dana was bitterly sarcastic because she simply could not understand how something so insignificant as her early departure could have prompted him to treat her with such a shocking lack of respect.
“I thought it was your freedom that was the issue, since I had told you that was what we had to discuss. Everything is far more complicated now, but I’ve not changed my original intention to see you’re set free. I’ll not allow Grena to say you’ve run away either. I will insist that I forced you to remain with me against your will. She can’t threaten to have Jørn attack me with his sword, so neither of us will suffer any harm for what happened today.”
Dana paused, thinking Brendan would have something to say because he never kept his thoughts to himself, but he merely stared at her with a puzzled frown. He didn’t appear to have any interest in resuming their fight, and feeling safe now, she shoved her knife into its sheath.
“How am I ever to understand you, Brendan? You tell me nothing about yourself, and you twist each of my actions into an insult. I thought it was your freedom that mattered most to you. I’ll still arrange for it when Jørn returns, but if you ever repeat the mistake of treating me as badly as you did just now, you won’t be alive to enjoy it.”
As Brendan strained to hear her words through the haze of pain that filled his head, he wondered if it was his fault or hers that she understood so little about him. He longed to be free with a desperation that often threatened to wrench his soul in two, but his desire for her was an equally powerful force. “I can’t bear for you to treat me as a slave,” he finally admitted aloud, sacrificing a large portion of his pride in the effort. “For you to use me, then walk away.”
“Use you? How can you say such a thing?” Dana asked. “Erik thought you should remain at home today, but you insisted on coming along. It was also your choice to stay with me. If you were insulted by what I said to Grena, it’s your own fault, not mine, because you should have known I didn’t mean a word of it. Erik got away with Berit, and that’s all that matters. I’m not going to stand here and argue all day about how we did it, or apologize if your feelings were hurt. Now come on, we’ve got to go.”