Pain slashed her heart as the pieces emerged, painting the brutal picture of the truth. She glared down at the man who was her husband. She had wondered about the dichotomy of his character, of how he seemed to be two men at once.
Fury built, roared within her until she trembled with outrage. “And h-he is loyalto the Bruce?”
“Aye.”
Like an anvil to her chest, the remembrance of how she and Bróccín had kissed, of how he’d touched her, and how she’d begged him to take her to bed crushed her until she struggled to breathe.
Bróccín?
Nay, Aiden.
A stranger, a man she did not know.
“We were never married?” she hissed, struggling against the ultimate lie, that he’d allowed her to care, and how she’d foolishly givenhim her trust.
Expression grim, Cailin slowly shook his head. “Nay, my lady, ’twas all a ruse.”
Chapter 12
Fury slammed through Gwendolyn, blurring her every thought until rage took on its own life. The entire situation; her betrothed’s arrival, their rushed wedding, allbased on lies.
Bróccín—
Nay, Aiden.
Had lied.
Had used her for…
Her outrage shoved up another notch against her ultimate humiliation. She was unsure of his exact motives. She had suspicions, but given the way he had helped to destroy the hard-won fragments of the life she’d forged since her father’s death, she deserved to know the specific reason.
She scowled at Cailin, a man she’d foolishly believed she could trust, though he had been naught but part of the deception. “Why were you in Latharn Castle,” she demanded, “and my marriage toAiden allowed?”
“An explanation that,” Sir Quentin interrupted, “however interested I am to hear, will have to wait. Aiden’s injury needs tending, and with Comyn’s men about, we must return to camp posthaste.”
Eyes dark with concern, Cailin scoured the landscape, nodded.
Fists clenched, she glared at every man. “I hope Comyn’s men find us. ’Twould give me immense pleasure to watch them cut out your wretched hearts.”
With a sharp tug, Sir David secured a cloth over her mouth and then bound her hands before her waist with rope. He swung into his saddle and hauledher before him.
Seething, Gwendolyn remained silent. Let the fools believe that trussing her up and surrounding her with a contingent of knights would squelch any thoughts of rebellion. ’Twould give her the advantage when she made hermove to escape.
She narrowed her gaze as they bound Aiden’s gash, then lifted him to lean against Cailin on his mount.
Cailin shot her a frustrated glance. “You will be given dry garb oncewe reach camp.”
With a cool look, she angled her jaw. Like Aiden and Rónán, he’d deceived her. But however inexcusable, Aiden’s sin was worse. With his vows uttered to God, he’d crossed a sacred boundary and allowed her, along with those who’d witnessed the event, to believe they were wed. Having given his pledge using Bróccín’s name nullified their wedding, their bond of marriage naught but a myth.
She stifled the ache that ripped through her soul.
Mouth tight, Cailin waved the men forward, then kicked his steedinto a canter.
Sir David’s grip on her firm, he nudged hismount forward.
Twigs snapped beneath the horse’s hooves as the men riding in company enveloped her within their protective circle as they rode through the forest.
Each knoll they crested she covertly scoured the surroundings, noted the distance of the stream to the north, the mountains, and other details that would aid her once she was free.
