Dragonblade Trilogy - 02 - Island of Glass Read Free Page B

the situation.
    Everett and Kenneth looked at
each other.
    “I am afraid we cannot allow you
to go,” Everett was reluctant to deny her but sensibilities dictated he should.
“Perhaps we should return to Kirk and see about procuring you an escort for
your journey.”
    Her pretty face darkened. “I am
not going back,” she growled. “You cannot force me.”
    “But.…”
    “No!”
    By this time, Lucius had come
upon his missing knights. Wondering what had befallen them, he set out to
discover for himself. He saw the lovely young woman, immediately recognizing
her. Being closer to the earl than the others, he had heard stories of the Lady
Aubrielle Grace and he had met her on a few occasions. He knew what a burden
she had been to her mother. Whatever she was doing out here, in the middle of
the wild country, could not be good. He did not relish the confrontation that
was undoubtedly to come.
    “My lady,” he greeted her evenly.
    Aubrielle looked at the captain
with little tolerance. “Ah, the fearless Captain le Cor,” she said with a hint
of sarcasm. “Three knights against one small lady? That hardly seems fair.”
    “What are you doing out here, my
lady?”
    She lifted a well-shaped eyebrow
defiantly. “As I have told your henchmen, it is none of your affair.”
    Lucius scratched his chin. He
knew the earl would be angry if he simply left her out here, alone. He already
suspected they were well beyond the negotiating stage. He looked at Kenneth,
his nose bloodied, and sighed with resignation.
    “Take her.”
    Kenneth grabbed her again before
she could run. She screamed and yelled, struggling as Kenneth mounted his
charger with Everett’s assistance. At one point she tried to flip herself off
the horse, kicking Kenneth in the side of his helmed head in the process. 
Stoically, Kenneth maintained both his temper and his grip on her. She kept
fighting, and he kept holding.
    It was thus the entire way back
to the castle.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    The door was locked and there was
little chance escaping. Aubrielle had spent a long time pouting, alternately
sitting in the only chair the chamber had to offer and stomping about the
floor. When she would grow weary of one, she would do the other.
    Night was falling and still, her
mother had not come to tell her farewell. She knew that it had been her
mother’s intention all along to leave her with her uncle, though the woman had
camouflaged the truth in the guise of a family visit.  Soon her anger gave way
to disappointment, and then sadness. As the sun set, she knew that her mother
was never coming. Disappointment gave way to tears.
    Aubrielle’s tears eventually
faded and she wiped her eyes, trying to be callous to the fact that her
weakling mother had abandoned her. She consoled herself with the knowledge that
she would have escaped Kirk also had it not been for the big blond beast that
had caught her.  Her mind wandered to the knight they called Kenneth; all she
had been able to see of him was his eyes, so blue that they were nearly silver.
He had thick blond lashes, too. His body was enormous, much larger than any man
she had ever seen, and he had easily used that strength against her. The more
she had struggled against him, the easier it seemed to become for him. He’d
never raised a sweat or uttered a word of pain in all of the struggles they had
been through.
    She was singling out a particular
hate for him at the moment. Mostly, she was feeling hurt and abandoned and
needed someone other than herself to blame. Rising from the chair, she paced
over to the hearth, watching the embers burn low. The night would be cold; she
could feel the breeze passing through the lancet windows. Glancing around her
chamber, she noted that it was a large room with a big bed. It was then she
noticed her trunks in the corner. Her tears sprang fresh, realizing this place
was to be her prison.
    Her foot was sore where she had
kicked the big knight. She sat on the bed and removed