“You’re sure it’s poison?” he asked the leech.
The old man nodded, plucking a few of the bloated creatures off of Leah’s pale arm and dropping them into a bowl. “The symptoms are there, my lord. The fever, the belly cramps, the pounding in her chest.” He leaned forward and opened the unconscious girl’s mouth, and Royce leaned forward to look. “Her tongue is swollen as well. Someone’s poisoned her, possibly with a food or a drink.”
She’d been alone, eating in the solar when he’d seen her. She’d looked so sad as she’d nibbled on her cheeses and tarts, and had fallen into his arms so limply. She couldn’t even tell him what was wrong, and he’d nearly brought the castle down with his roars of outrage.
And now, to find out that someone in his castle – his own demesne – had poisoned his woman? Fury boiled in his blood, fury and a thirst for revenge.
Baron Rutledge was no doubt behind this. He’d found out of Leah’s seduction and had his spies poison her. His fingers tightened on hers. He’d find out who the traitor was and make him pay.
“My lord,” the leech said, and when he got no response, repeated his words. “My lord, perhaps it would be best to bleed her again in an hour. We need to clear the poisons from her body.”
“You’ve bled her three times already and she looks weaker every time.” Royce fixed his cold gaze on the leech. “Perhaps you’d best leave her be.” The man bowed and exited the room. “As you wish.”
The little man had no sooner cleared the room than Lady Matilda appeared in the doorway, her face souring at the smell of the sickroom. She was accompanied by two of her ladies in waiting that wore identical looks of displeasure. He wondered if he married her, would they follow into the bedchamber? She was never without them. One of the women carried a basket behind her.
Lady Matilda was dressed in fine garments again, her blond hair hidden by an ornate headdress and her full cheeks flushed with life. Royce experienced a stab of resentment, glancing down at Leah’s hollow cheeks and her pale complexion.
“What is she doing here?” Matilda’s voice was hard on his nerves, all angry edges. “Why is she in your bed?”
“She is here because she is sick.” Royce answered, trying not to run a hand down his face in frustration.
“She is a whore,” Lady Matilda insisted, oblivious to the fact that he grew more irritated by the second. “She should be in her own chambers above the kitchens, or wherever it is that
whores sleep.” The woman swept into the room and stood in front of his fireplace, her long, fur-trimmed skirts flaring out behind her and sweeping across the stone floor. “It doesn’t befit you as Lord of Northcliffe to sit here and wait hand and foot on the old lord’s castoffs.” Her words enraged him – all the more so because they had a grain of truth. Still, he felt guilty for leading Leah down the path that had caused her to be in the state she was now, and Lady Matilda could do nothing except look at her with uncomfortable disdain.
Which made his senses prick. Why was Matilda so very uncomfortable at the sight of Leah?
Unless… she’d been the one to poison her.
Cold flooded through his veins. He stood. “I’m afraid, Lady Matilda, that I’m going to have to cancel our betrothal.” He watched with satisfaction as her jaw dropped in a most unladylike fashion. “I find that we wouldn’t suit, and I’ve no wish to find myself married to a murderer.”
“A murderer?” Her voice was a shrill cry. “What are you talking about?” He gestured at the bed furiously. “Tell me that it wasn’t you that poisoned your rival?
Can’t stand to see the man you’ve chosen with another woman?” Her brows furrowed together. “Why would I poison your whore? You can’t marry her –
she’s a common trollop.”
The urge to slap her grew with every passing moment. “If you know what’s best for you, lady, you’ll leave this chamber and this castle behind.” She drew herself up stiffly, her eyes flashing outrage. “How dare you?” She hissed at him, picking up her skirts and sweeping past him. She paused in the doorway, magnificent in her beauty and her finery, if not her spirit. “My father will hear of this, and when he does, he will be
furious that you would insult our house so.” She gestured at one of her ladies, the one holding the basket. “If you must know, Lord Royce, I came to warn you of your doxy’s duplicity, not to confess any sort of murder.” She sneered as she regarded him. “I found this in the solar, stuffed into a basket of her mending.”
The waiting-woman hurried forward and dropped the basket at Royce’s feet. It was a basket of clothing, and he glared at Matilda, wondering what he’d ever seen in the petty shrew.
“It’s torn clothing.”
“Beneath those rags you’ll find a great deal of money,” Matilda lifted her nose in the air, staring down at him as if he were dung beneath her silk slippers. “Money that’s no doubt missing from your coffers.”
How had she known about that? He bent down to pick up the basket and sure enough, a good deal of gold and silver plates were revealed just beneath the cloth. They were the missing items from his treasury. “And you found this?”
She straightened even more. “I did.”
“In the solar?” He kept his voice as calm as possible.
“Yes.”
He dropped the basket at his feet again. “Your games go too far, lady. There’s no sense in framing a woman that you intended to kill.” He gave her a cold look. “You have one hour to leave these premises or I will drop you in the moat myself.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“You’re the only one with reason enough to try and remove Leah. So no, I don’t.” Her cheeks flushed with outrage, and Lady Matilda grabbed her skirts and stormed away, a shrill cry of outrage echoing down the hall. “You’ll regret this!”
He had a feeling he wouldn’t.
#
When Leah woke again, the entire world ached. Her mouth was dry, her head pounded, and there were waves of familiar pain radiating outward from her legs.
She slid one eye open experimentally. The room was dark, lit only by a faint, wavering candle behind her. The pillow beneath her cheek was soft and full, the mattress not the hard ticking that hers had been. The blankets brushing her arms were fur. She was in Royce’s room, then.
Her mind was fuzzy. Why did everything hurt so much? She rolled over in the bed and nearly cried at the pain that shot through her.
“Leah?” The husky voice was at her side, full of concern, and she focused her eyes in on Royce’s shadowed face. “How are you feeling?” He brushed a stray lock of hair off of her cheek.
She tried to give him a faint smile. The pain was choking her, mind numbing in its agony.
Her legs felt blistered from the inside out. What had happened? Normally she felt painful twinges, but for her to feel such pain, something bad must have happened. All she remembered was Royce coming to her in the solar, and her being sleepy…
“You were poisoned, Leah.” He straightened the blankets around her, tucking them under her chin and looking down at her with such concern that it made her heart clench. “Someone put something in that food that was brought to you in the solar. Do you remember who it was?” Poisoned? What the hell? Someone had tried to kill her? She shook her head, remembering the man that had brought the basket of food to her. He was a servant, she’d
guessed, but she hadn’t recognized him. And what had he said? Something about how he’d been told to bring her the food. Silly her, she’d assumed it was Royce.
Apparently not. She struggled to sit up in bed, then fell back weakly. How long had she been out? How much time was left in the month?
His hand clasped over hers. “Calm down, Leah. You’ve been sick. Relax. Let me take care of you.” His fingers tightened over her own. “First you take an arrow for me, now the poison,” he said, his fingers rubbing her arm and stroking her skin, as if by touching her he’d reassure himself that she was fine. “Is there any trouble you’ve not gotten into yet, Leah?” The amused, relieved affection in his voice belied his unkind words.
She reached up to touch his cheek. She’d risk all kinds of things for him.
#
Pain awoke Leah the next day.
She regained consciousness with agony streaking through her limbs and cascading from her feet to her fingertips. The unnatural torment was all-encompassing, and Leah sat up in bed with one purpose in mind.
She had to get to the ocean.
Leah had tried to sneak out yesterday, but she was no more than three blindingly painful steps out the door when he’d found her, scolded her, and lovingly carried her back to her sickbed. She’d smiled at him, all the while biting her lip to keep from screaming at the anguish shooting through her limbs.
The thought of the task ahead of her was enough to make her stomach churn. It seemed such a long walk from Royce’s chamber to hers, and then down the winding secret passage that led out, far away, to the beach. She stumbled out of the bed and nearly crashed onto the floor, the thick headboard the only thing keeping her upright. Black circled the edges of her vision as she took a tentative step. This wasn’t going to work.
Yet… there was no other option. She had to get to the beach.
Grimly, she continued on. The passageway to her own small room seemed endless, but she made it. Kneeling over to touch the secret brick was almost enough to fell her, but she managed to struggle her way upright again and take the few shuffling steps. Luckily for her, she’d seen no servants on her way in, no one to stop her.
She hadn’t taken more than a few steps down the dark passageway when she nearly tripped over a loose rock, stubbing her toe. A sobbing gasp of pain erupted from her mouth, and she bit her knuckles hard enough to taste blood. She was not any closer to the ocean now, and she’d spent at least a half-hour struggling to get this far. At the rate she was going, someone would discover she’d gone, and then Royce would think her a spy again. Or worse, they’d find out her secret.
A hand clasped her shoulder.
Startled, Leah turned, her eyes wide, straining to see in the darkness. No one would be here but herself… or maybe Muffin? But the hand on her shoulder was strong, and Leah’s voice would not work.
“Leah,” said Father Andrew, his cool voice bouncing off the walls of the narrow passageway around them. “I suspected I might find you here.”
Gone was the thoughtful, soft thread of the priest’s voice. In its place was a core of steel, an element of disdain that Leah had never heard before. She shifted her shoulder, and when she did, he dug his fingers into her skin even further.
“What do you do here?” He slid closer to her, his sweet, clean breath teasing the stagnant air about them. “Do you hide from Lord Royce? Searching for a lover?” When she remained silent, he chuckled. “I forgot. You cannot speak, or so you say. I suppose that is how you’ve kept your secret so long.”
Ice flooded her veins, and Leah tensed. What did that mocking note in his voice mean?
Why had he changed?
“Perhaps I have interrupted your nightly visit to the beach?” When she tried to jerk away from his hand, his fingers tightened painfully on her shoulder. “I wonder, does your lover know that you make these visits? That you can… talk? Among other things?” He
knew
.
Father Andrew knew her secret. Fear shot through her, as fierce and painful as the feelings coursing through her legs. What would he do to her now? If he told Royce the truth, she’d fail at Muffin’s game and her second chance would be gone.
“It is a shame, really,” Father Andrew said, his voice soft as she tried to weakly jerk away again. “I thought you to be a good woman when I first met you. Perhaps a bit unlucky in your choice of profession, but still good. I came to check on you several times in your room, but you were always gone. Where did you go, I wonder? I had your room watched for a full night once, and you never came out, so I knew that you must have found another way out. Imagine my surprise when I followed you and your friend out here.” He’d seen Muffin. Oh God. Leah began to tremble.
“Your friend, is she a witch? Does she make a special deal with the devil? Have you sold your soul as well? Is that why he has cursed you with such a monstrous form? Half fish and half woman?”
Leah shook her head. Feebly, she tried to step away from him again, but he kicked her leg out from under her, and she fell to the ground in pain.
“Has it occurred to you, woman, that you are at my mercy? At God’s mercy?” He leaned in close to her, his breath hissing close to her hair. “I tried to kill you with the poison, but it didn’t work. Your witch’s constitution is too strong for even the most potent of poisons, so I prayed to God to help me deliver this castle from the bastard and his unholy minions.” Hot spittle rained down on her face as he hissed above her. “And do you know what he told me?” She shivered away from him, wanting to get away from his evil, cruel words.
The priest followed her, leaning in and grabbing her hair to force her face close to his.
“He told me to use you.”
Instead of letting her go, he slid a hand underneath her scorching, throbbing legs and lifted her up. At first Leah was too surprised to protest, but she ceased struggling when he began to carry her down the passageway, heading toward the beach. Her head lolled against his shoulder – she didn’t understand his motives, but if it took her closer to her goal, so be it.
He said nothing to her for very long moments, not even when he turned sideways to slide out of the tunnel and began to cross the beach, though his legs dragged down in the sand with every step.
The surf was so close that the scent invaded her nostrils, and her mouth filled with saliva, her body so urgent for the release from pain that she could taste it. So close.
But the priest stopped mere feet from the water. “The Lord has told me to use you, Leah, and I will,” he said, his voice soft. “You will be the tool that I will use to break Lord Royce, to turn him from this castle and return it to its rightful owner, Lord Rutledge.” She pushed at his arm in protest. She wanted in the water, but his fingers were digging into her thigh and he wouldn’t let her go.
His eyes lit down on her, and behind the mask of kindness that reflected in their soft brown depths, there was a flicker of insanity. “You’re going to help me bring down your precious Lord Royce, or I’m going to expose you for what you are.” Leah stilled in his arms, terror clenching her body. No!