Glayer Felsteppe’s eyes narrowed and one red brow arched. “Really.”
“I am sorry,” Reg began with a sincere expression. “We are very much in love. Have been for some time. Well,” he looked at Dori with tenderness, “at least I have been for years.”
Dori felt a tenderness in her heart for the young man as she tried to return his smile. But then she looked back at Felsteppe and saw the priest, Simon, standing in the shadows of the room.
It was just as well that there was a witness to the final blow she was ready to deal.
“I’m carrying Reginald’s child. We shall be married as soon as we return to England.”
Now the surprised look returned to Felsteppe’s face and he huffed a shocked laugh. “I see.” He uncrossed his legs and recrossed them in the opposite direction, adjusted his seat in the creaky, woven chair. He laughed again as he looked at both of them in turn. “You don’t say.”
“Truly. Very sorry,” Reg insisted, and Dori had the urge to shout at him for his polite apologies.
“The king knows of this, then,” Felsteppe inquired.
“No,” Reginald admitted. “We wished to inform you first. Save you the embarrassment of a scandal.”
A smile crept across Felsteppe’s face as he cocked his head at Dori’s cousin. “Remarkably courteous of you. I can scarce believe you would think to spare me so.” He looked to Dori briefly and then stood. “Well, far be it for me to stand in the way of true love,” he said to Reg and held forth his hand. “I wish you both all the happiness you deserve.”
Reginald stood with an audible sigh. “Very relieved at your taking this so well, Lord Felsteppe.” He gripped the man’s hand enthusiastically. “God bless y—”
Felsteppe thrust the knife into Reginald’s ribs so quickly that the movement was little more than a blur to Dori. She screamed and shot to her feet as Reg gave a weak cry and a grunt, collapsing forward onto the table.
Felsteppe jerked the blade free, letting loose a thick red stream of blood that splashed onto the floor.
Dori flew to his side, slipping in the growing crimson pool as she went to her knees, gripping his young, handsome face in her hands. “Reg! Reginald! Answer me! Reg!Reg!” she shrieked.
But his eyes were already rolling away, glassy, empty.
“No!” she screamed. And then her cry was wordless and she felt herself being lifted to her feet by her hair.
“You thought you’d be so clever,” Felsteppe gritted through his teeth as he dragged her from the alcove toward the main part of the chamber. “Steal what was rightfully mine and give it to some ninny of a pup. You think it concerns me that he thrust into you first? Naaaay, milady.” He flung her onto the bed, and Simon moved toward her.
“Simon,” Felsteppe warned, and the priest froze in his tracks. He looked back to Dori and seemed to consider her, shaking his head. “No. It’s not you I wanted in the first place—it’s Thurston Hold. And I will have it. You’ve done me a great service by coming here in your attempt to ruin me. Ha!”
He reached toward her, and although Dori screamed and held up her hands to shield herself, Felsteppe still managed to grab a fistful of her hair through her veil.
“Get up. Get. Up!” He dragged her to her feet and shook her.
Dori kicked at him, swung her claws, raking his face and arm.
He hissed in pain and then punched her in the face, causing her cheek to explode in agony, white starbursts flashing behind her eyes.
Dori heard the sobs being wrung from her body. Reg was dead. Dead! And she was alone in a foreign land with this . . . thismonster.
“Simon,” she heard Felsteppe say. “Marry us.”
“What?”
“I saidmarry us.Are you deaf?”
Dori struggled to free herself once more. “I’ll never marry you. Never! Never!”
Another blow to her face made her ears ring, and Dori could do naught but hang by his grip for a moment, trying to clear her vision.
“You’ll do exactly as I say, from this moment forward,” Felsteppe hissed, straining to pull her face up to his. “For if you don’t, I will take yonder knife which I used to dispose of your erstwhile suitor and cut out the little fish that wriggles inside you. Do you understand? I will gut you and then feed your innards to the hyenas that roam outside the walls.”
Dori could only whimper.
