Why would a father do that to his daughter? Reese didn’t know, and he didn’t care. The deed was done. Nicole was his primary worry.
Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door. Reese granted entrance, and a slim, elderly man entered the room. His haughty demeanor gave him the aura of nobility instead of the head castle servant he was. He wore a stylish sleeveless doublet of grayish purple and a white shirt beneath that. His leggings were black, and his leather shoes curled at the toes.
“James,” Reese ordered the man, “have Rogue saddled. I’m riding out to the borders to see if I can see my sister coming.”
“I suppose you’ll sleep out there, too?” James wondered in a disdainful, sarcastic voice.
Reese would take that arrogance only from James. The man had been with him since he was a child. He respected James. And liked him immensely. “If I knew the road they were taking.”
“If you don’t mind my saying, sir,” James said.
“That never stopped you before, why should it now?”
James’s eyebrow rose slightly. “Your wife awaits you in your chambers.”
Reese’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have a wife.”
James bowed contemptuously. “As you wish, m’lord,” he answered stiffly, and departed the room.
As soon as Nicole is home safely, I will right this entire fiasco, Reese vowed silently. He picked up the note he had begun earlier and scanned the words, nodding in satisfaction.
Chapter Three
Jayce changed into a simple gown of blue velvet and sat on the bed for a long time, wondering if Lord Reese would return. She tried to put her rebellious hair into a horned headdress, but without help she couldn’t get the dark strands beneath the metal. So, she settled for a braid wrapped about her head. She wondered if she was supposed to wait for Reese in the room.
So much for a happy marriage, she thought. He hated her. It was apparent her husband didn’t wish to have anything to do with her. But why had he chosen her then? Why had he picked her to marry? She glanced around the room. It was dark; if it weren’t for the candle burning on a table, she would not be able to see a thing. She picked the candle up and moved through the unfamiliar chambers.
Servants had arrived earlier to tidy up the room, making the bed, changing the water in the basin.
Jayce stared at the immaculate bed piled with warm furs and blankets. Thick red velvet curtains hung from the ceiling over it. She touched one of the curtains reverently, as if it would reveal the many secrets of her new husband if she coaxed it gently enough.
Lightning shot through the sky, making her jump. She dropped the candle and it hit the floor, rolling across its wooden surface. Ever since she was a child, storms had terrified her. Jayce’s mother had died amidst a horrendous thunderstorm. She remembered kneeling at her mother’s bedside, holding her cold, clammy hand while deafening claps of thunder attacked her ears and white-hot flashes of lightning assaulted her eyes. She remembered crying out for her mother and for the first time in her life not hearing her answer.
The large crack of thunder boomed in her ears, echoing in the room. Jayce glanced around the blackness, her eyes wide, her hands clutching at her elbows. Her father had stayed with her through storms such as these, but now he was gone.
Wind swirled in from the open window, billowing the red curtains around her like fingers stretching, reaching to grab her. She stepped away from the curtain and smacked her head on one of the bedposts.
The searching wind found the candlelight and extinguished it, plummeting the room into a terrifying darkness. For a moment, Jayce couldn’t move, could barely get her breath. The blackness clawed at her heart, threatening to drag her down into its bottomless abyss.
The wind continued to whip through the room. The curtains of velvet, now gloved fingers of doom, encircled Jayce’s flailing arms, her ankles. She fought her invisible foe, the feeling of entrapment embroiling her senses. She jerked free of its hold, pulling so hard she banged into the table, knocking it over. Glass shattered and she stepped away, blindly, until her back hit the cold stone wall.
Two bolts of lightning ripped jagged holes in the sky, bringing with them twin blasts of thunder.
Fear gripped her heart in a taloned fist, and Jayce slowly sank to the floor. She encircled her knees, rocking slightly back and forth. She whispered soothing words to herself, words her father had murmured to her.
She was terrified. Confused. She buried her face in the dress at her knees.
Abandoned.
Chapter Four
When Reese returned from the border patrols, he was soaked through to his skin and his mood was darker than when he had left. He had found no sign of Nicole, no indication that her return was imminent.