“Again,” she managed, just before she lost herselfonce more in the heat of his mouth, spinning away into the wonder that she’d discovered in his embrace.
“Noble?” Ulfr’s voice in the distance cut through her haze of pleasure. “Mistress Christiana? Where are you? Answer me!”
Though the moment was entirely ruined, she had discovered what she’d set out to learn.
She had indeed found her porridge.
OceanofPDF.com
Twenty-five
PUT YER TEETHtogether and come along with me quietly if you want to live.”
The warning hissed in her ear halted Brie’s struggles and she dropped her fists against the big man’s chest. She didn’t trust him, but every good warrior knew there was a time for battle and a time to assess your enemy’s strength.
This particular enemy was stronger than most men she’d encountered.
Around them, the throngs of men jeered and laughed, many yelling out their disgusting suggestions of what he should do to her. He hoisted her to his shoulder without any sign of effort and strode from the great hall.
Much, much stronger than any man she’d encountered before.
Torquil was nowhere to be seen. Like the coward he was, he’d disappeared from the great hall as soon as he’d pronounced his verdict upon her fate.
As she’d attacked the MacDowylt, something hideousand terrifying had encased her, restraining her knife and blinding her vision, as if a blanket through which she couldn’t even breathe had been dropped over her head.
She’d seen the eyes, though. Seen them clearly before her world had gone black. Red and glowing, as if hounds from the depths of the seven hells dwelled inside Torquil’s body. She’d seen her own death promised in that glow.
“Be still,” the big man muttered as a shiver wracked her body.
He moved quickly out of the keep and across the bailey.
She heard the door of the old tower slam open and a moment later he dropped her unceremoniously on her backside, cutting off the trickle of light by kicking the door shut when she made a move in that direction.
“Don’t even think of it,” he growled. “His men would take you down before you made the outer bailey.”
He was likely right. All things considered, she wasn’t exactly working from a position of strength at the moment. It was her wits she’d need to count on now.
On hands and knees, she felt her way to the wall and followed it to a corner, where she huddled. At least here he couldn’t come at her from behind.
A thud sounded somewhere in the inky black of the small room, and the big man muttered a curse at the dark just before the flames in the fire pit came to life.
She watched him, wary of what he might do next, as he lit two large candles and set them upon the mantel.
When he turned, his face was a stern mask, his hands upon his hips.
“What do you plan to do with me?” she demanded, putting as much bravado into her words as she could muster.
“Plan?” He all but spat the word. “Of all the plans I’ve considered, none of them included a nameless shrewling who’s too witless to see her own way through the Mortal world.”
His burst of anger reignited hers.
“I’m neither nameless nor witless, you great hulking fool,” she countered, feeling much more comfortable cloaked in anger than in fear. “Both charges I’d turn back upon you, a beast of a man who’d toss a helpless woman over his shoulder to carry her off and ravage her.”
Her verbal thrust and parry might have held more weight had she been on her feet towering over him while he cowered in the corner, rather than the other way around, but she didn’t quite have the wherewithal to rise to her feet just yet.
The big man laughed, making his way over towhere she sat. “A helpless woman, is it? Well then, by all I hold dear, rest assured, woman-child, I’ve no intent to claim your virginity this night.”
“For a fact you’ll no be doing any such thing. I’ll see to that my ownself,” she shot back.
