At least then, there would be no more pain. Yet his little Rose would never live a comfortable life. He would not be there to give coin to Emma for Rose.
He tested the rope around his wrists behind his back. He twisted his arms attempting to free his hands, but it held tightly. He glanced across the yard at the inn.
The wooden structure was dark beneath the night sky. Warm, flickering light shone from a broken beam near the bottom of the inn door.
Guillume must be furious at having had the book in his hands and then losing it. That made Marcus smile for a moment, but disappointment quickly swelled inside of him. How could he have been so wrong about his cousin? They were family! He bowed his head again. Apparently, “family” meant nothing in Guillume’s pursuit of power.
He had been so wrong.
Sage had known.
At least she had got away with the one thing that meant so much to her—the book. Lord, he missed her. He missed her insatiable curiosity and focus. He missed her warm lips and her curvy, soft body. He had given her everything he could. Freedom and that damned book. Regret filled him at the lost possibilities. He wondered what the future would have looked like if they were together. He wondered if she would have traveled the world with him. He wondered if she would have spent her life with him.
He heard footsteps entering the stables and looked up. Were the soldiers coming for him? Already? He’d thought he would have until the morning to think about his mistakes, to lament for his lost future.
But no one came forward.
He struggled to glimpse the soldiers that had been guarding him in the yard. But he could no longer see them. There had been two. Had they moved positions? Maybe he hadn’t heard footsteps after all.
He peered into the shadows of the yard, but as he twisted, agony flared up from his stomach where he had been beaten. It was to no avail anyway; dusky silhouettes stretched across the yard and filled the stable. He could barely make out the tree in the yard.
A horse in one of the stalls whinnied.
Then, a shadow separated from the black wall and came forward, blade gleaming in the light cast from the inn.
