Rowan's Lady Read Free Page B

marriage. Two weeks. Fourteen days. Survive
fourteen more days and ye’ll be free.
    But the child’s shrieks grew louder. The grumbles
were turning into shouts and bellowing. The angrier the child grew, the angrier
the men grew.
    Something was very much wrong below stairs. As the
moments ticked by, caution and the desire to survive fell to the wayside.
Though Lady Arline had never been blessed with a child of her own, something
instinctively maternal kicked in. It tugged at her conscience, her heart,
urging her forward.
    Before she realized it, she had left her room and
was quietly stepping down the stairs toward the grand gathering room.
    Her heart nearly stopped at the scene before her.
    A great commotion was taking place. Garrick and at
least ten of his men were standing in the middle of the gathering room. One of
them, whose name she didn’t know for they’d never been formally introduced,
stood near the fireplace holding a red-faced cherub of a child!
    Long auburn ringlets tumbled over the child’s
shoulders. The poor thing wore nothing but a nightdress. No shoes, no robe, no
cloak. Lady Arline’s earlier assessment that the child sounded angry had been
correct. Her little face was red with fury, her hands balled into fists as she
wailed and screamed at her captor.
    “Stop that screamin’!” Garrick shouted toward the
child. “I swear, I’ll beat ye senseless if ye do no’ stop!”
    Arline knew it was not a threat, but a promise.
Her husband was nothing if not honest.
    Without thinking, Arline flew down the last few
steps, raced into the gathering room and grabbed the child from the man’s arms.
He responded with mouth agape before his expression changed to one of relief.
    Arline bounced the child in her arms as she
whispered soothing words into her ears.
    “Wheesht, babe, wheesht,” Arline said as she
pressed the child close to her breast.
    Some time had passed as Arline became oblivious to
the men surrounding her. She continued to offer soft, soothing words. It wasn’t
until the child began to calm that Arline became aware that all eyes in the
room were on her.
    When her eyes fell to Laird Blackthorn, she knew
she had made a terrible mistake. He was beyond angry. He looked positively
livid.
    It was no longer a matter of surviving the next
two weeks. It was now a matter of surviving what remained of the night.
    “I’m sorry, me laird,” she whispered as she
continued to pat the child’s back. “She sounded so distressed. I wanted nothing
but to help calm her before she drove any of you to madness.”
    As soon as the last words left her mouth, she
realized she may have not phrased them correctly. Her husband’s jaw worked back
and forth, and she could see the vein in his neck throb. Two weeks had turned
to two hours, but now, she wondered if it weren’t but a matter of moments she
had left to walk the earth alive.
    The babe thrust her thumb into her mouth and
hiccuped. Arline felt the child begin to relax in her arms and decided that she
had made the right decision. Even if it meant angering her husband to the point
of murder, she could not allow an innocent child to be harmed.
    When Laird Blackthorn next spoke, his words were
clipped and teeming with fury. “Give the child to Torren. Now. ”
    Every fiber of her being screamed for her to do as
her husband demanded. Her heart, however, begged to comfort and calm the bairn.
She hesitated a moment too long.
    Laird Blackthorn was before her in three fast
strides. Without a word, he yanked the child from Arline’s arms and thrust her
into Torren’s. The child began to cry out again, her little arms outstretched
toward Arline.
    “I warned ye before, do no’ defy me. Ever. ”
Blackthorn spoke through gritted teeth as he grabbed Lady Arline’s by her
forearms.
    She gasped with surprise the moment he took hold
of her arms. His fingers dug in to her flesh, squeezing tightly before giving
her a good shake before tossing her to the floor.
    “I’m