“As far as I know, no one did,” he said quietly. “My father was left on a pole for all to see and I do not know how long he remained there. Everyone knows that de Velt left his victims impaled for at least six months. But what he did with them after that, no one seems to know. More than likely, he threw the bones into a mass grave or into a river.”
Allaston sighed heavily. “But why do you leave them up?” she asked the same question she had asked before. “You are not hurting my father by doing this. You are not even sending him a message because he truthfully doesn’t care. I told you that the only way to truly hurt him would be to put me on a pole so he can see me when he comes to Cloryn, but you would not do it. I even gave you the opportunity.”
His expression was one of displeasure. “You were counting on the fact that I would not do it,” he said. “You knew I would not. You did it to bait me and to humiliate me in front of my men.”
Allaston shook her head. “I did not mean to humiliate you,” she said truthfully. “At the time, I truly meant what I said.”
“That may be, but you caused me some dishonor with your behavior. Surely you realize that.”
“Then tell me how I can prove my remorse?”
His attention focused on her, thinking of all the ways she could make good on her apology, but they were ways she would more than likely not agree to. In fact, she was quite likely to fight him on it because his ideas involved naked bodies. He had to think of something she would be agreeable to, something they would both find satisfaction from. He was on such unsteady ground with her, not knowing what to say, unfamiliar with the art of gentle conversation. He wanted to be polite and courteous, but it was utterly foreign to him. He simply wasn’t an eloquent man so he said the first thing that came to mind.
“No more peas,” he said, pointing to the basket she had set down. “I will eat carrots, but no more peas.”
Allaston grinned, turning to look at the basket he was pointing to. “I must prepare those or they will rot,” he said. “You will not have to eat whatever I make. Is that truly all you can think of to make amends? No more peas?”
He shrugged his big shoulders, eyeing her after a moment. There was a hint of mischief in his expression. “I might forgive you for a kiss.”
The statement had been spoken almost fearfully, as if he knew she was going to deny him even before he asked. It was an utterly innocent statement, too, coming from a man who had no more innocence. It had been taken from him long ago. But not everything in him was ruined. Allaston could see it in his expression. There was still something good and fair underneath. But he was also being a bit impish about it and she played along.
“Cheek or hand?” she asked.
He cocked is head. “What do you mean?”
She signed with mock impatience, as though he was an ignorant fool. “The kiss,” she said. “Where do you want it? Cheek or hand?”
He could see she was jesting with him. “You can plant it on my arse.”
Allaston shrieked in disgust, trying not to giggle as she did so. “I amnotkissing your arse,” she said. “It is the cheek or the hand.”
Bretton was fighting off a grin. “Those are my only choices?”
Allaston nodded firmly. “Your only choices,” she confirmed. “In fact, if you….”
She was cut off when he suddenly grabbed her, slanting his warm mouth over hers. Allaston was startled, initially a little scared, but she quickly succumbed to his hot, seeking lips. He suckled her lower lip gently, running a tongue over it, and Allaston shuddered. Fueled by her response, Bretton’s onslaught grew more intense and his arms tightened around her.
Although the initial grab had been rough and tactless, the kiss was searing, speaking of untapped desire. Bretton had never kissed a woman in a manner that wasn’t pure lust or physical need, so this was something quite different to him. He was kissing her because he wanted to, because it seemed like the right thing to do, and because doing so somehow satisfied something deep inside him. She was warm and luscious, and so very soft, her body against his. He was losing himself in the kiss, letting himself go, when Uldward the cook suddenly came through the doorway. The next thing Bretton realized, he was standing about five feet away from Allaston with his heart pounding in his ears.
Allaston looked a bit startled as well. She gazed at Bretton, wiping at the moisture on her swollen lips. As Uldward bustled around in the kitchen yard on a hunt for something he evidently needed, she eyed the man, knowing he had seen them in a passionate embrace. Her cheeks began to flame as she struggled to pretend that Uldward hadn’t seen any of it.
“What do you intend to do about de Lohr’s missive?” she asked, simply to move onto another subject far away from the heated kiss. “Will you respond to him?”
Bretton had the back of his hand to his mouth. He could still taste her on his flesh and he wanted to keep that taste as long as possible. He could smell her, too. She smelled like flowers.
“It is none of his business,” he said. “De Lohr has no cause to interfere in something that does not concern him.”
Allaston’s head was still swimming from his kiss so she wandered back over to her stool, next to the pea basket, and sat heavily.
“I find it quite surprising that my father asked him to broker my release,” she said. “As I said, my father has no allies. He keeps to himself.”
There was something in that statement that caught Bretton’s attention. “Then the question iswhyhe would involve de Lohr,” he said thoughtfully. “Why ask someone you do not know to mediate a conflict? There must be a reason.”
Allaston began shelling the remainder of the peas. “Maybe he did not want come himself,” she said. “Mayhap he was fearful of what would happen if he did. I’m sure he fears that you will harm me. Mayhap he believed that de Lohr can better negotiate my release given the fact that you are not angry with de Lohr.”
Bretton looked at her with a cocked eyebrow. “I wasn’t angry with him until he sent his missive,” he said. “No man will stand between me and Jax de Velt, and especially not Christopher de Lohr. De Lohr had better be careful that I do not kill him in order to get to de Velt.”
Allaston said nothing. Her focus was on her peas. She wasn’t going to argue with him about his vengeance towards her father any more. He knew how she felt about it but he was determined to go through with it anyway. At least, he said so. She could not give up hope that she could change his mind. She could only hope that God would work a miracle in her favor.
