Page 39 of Anice’s Bargain

Anice appeared over him with the dulled point of her blade hovering over his neck. “I told you.” She removed her weapon and offered her hand instead. “I’m not delicate.”

He clasped her hand but used his own body weight to stand lest he pull her down with him. Though in truth, the idea of having her on the ground with him held great appeal.

Mayhap the next battle could be hand-to-hand, a lot of rolling around together, bodies twisting against one another. The very thought made his blood to race hot.

She swept her long hair over her shoulder in a gesture far more like a lady than a soldier, and he found it equally appealing. Nay, she was not delicate, not in the ways that mattered, but there were parts of her that were fragile, vulnerable.

Like the secret she had tried to brush off and cover with lust. But he was a stubborn man and the more she tried to hide her secret, the more he wanted to know it. And he would find out.

* * *

The followingdays passed in a whirl of mock battle and stolen kisses. Anice enjoyed the time spent sparring with her future husband. Almost as much as the time spent alone in the dark corridor as she left him at his chamber each evening. Those intimate moments hadn’t been anything like the night of the feast, much to Anice’s disappointment, but they’d had the opportunity for several stolen kisses before James’s guard arrived.

Preparations for their upcoming nuptials had been slow moving until after the third calling of the banns, when everything fired into chaos.

There was the feast to plan with Nan, the flowers and herbs for decorations to coordinate with her sisters, the fine details to smooth over with Bernard regarding the wedding mass. Honestly, it was all too much. She didn’t want spectators there, casting their judgment on the union. Though she was marrying James to save her people, many saw the act of her wedding their greatest enemy as a betrayal.

It was all enough to make her head spin. She lay awake two nights prior to the wedding. Not with lust burning her thoughts as they had previously, but with the endless list of tasks. In truth, the only part of the marriage she anticipated had nothing to do with the vows said, or the finely sculpted marzipan flowers on a bit of pastry. It had everything to do with the consummation.

James still held back. She could sense it in the way his hands shook slightly when they kissed, in the restrained grip on the fabric of her dress. His kisses had stolen her breath and left her desperate for so much more.

Soon.

Desire swept away her other worries and replaced them with the steady pulse between her legs. Soon, James would peel away her gilded thread dress and she would enjoy the press of his body to hers, gloriously naked and aroused.

A scream sounded in the distance and obliterated all sense of lust. Anice leapt from her bed before her mind realized what she was doing. No sooner had she set foot in the hallway than the cry sounded again, pitched and mournful.

Anice spun in the direction it had come from and ran all the way to her sisters’ room with Piquette close behind her. There they found Ella and Cat beside Leila in their large bed.

Ella smoothed Leila’s dark hair from her face. “She won’t wake.”

“Leila,” Cat called. “Sister, you must wake.”

Leila jerked her head from Ella’s touch and swept back away from them all, her eyes wide with terror. “Mama.”

Anice flinched at the empty word. It had been used for their mother when she’d been alive. Leila, however, had never once spoken of her as ‘Mama’.

Piquette issued a sharp whine and nudged at Leila’s hand.

She did not so much as look down at the beloved dog. “Our Mama.” She shook her head vigorously, sending the dark tendrils whipping around her shoulders. “I don’t want to see. I don’t want to see.” She pushed her hands to her face and screamed. “Don’t make me see it.”

Anice lurched forward and caught Leila’s small body in her arms. “Look at me,” she said with force. “Now.”

Leila obeyed, her pupils mere dots in the sea of wide, panicked blue. “They took her.” Leila shook her head. “The Grahams. They took our Mama. She clawed the ground and her nails bent backward.” Leila’s hands curled in front of her face and she studied them with intensity. “They had no mercy.”

Anice’s heart slammed in her chest. She covered Leila’s eyes, as though she could stop the vision, and pulled the child to her chest. “Don’t, my sweet lamb. Don’t.”

“Is she well?” James’s voice came from the doorway. He wore only his leine and a pair of trews.

Anice turned to him and shook her head. She’d meant it as a way of telling him to leave, but he quickly made his way to her side. “What’s happened?”

Leila turned her frightened gaze up at James and began to tremble forcefully in Anice’s arms. “You remain in the company of men who commit vile offenses.”

James straightened as though he’d been struck.

Leila broke free of Anice with a strength she didn’t know the girl could possess. “I thought you were different. Better.” She launched herself at James and pummeled him with her small fists.

At first, James did not move. Lines of exhaustion etched his face and his eyes were bright and unreadable. He swallowed and carefully caught Leila’s hands, stilling her attack. They stared at each other for a long moment, both mute. It was as though something unsaid passed between them.

Leila’s shoulders relaxed suddenly, and she buried herself into James’s arms with a sob. He held her until the force of her tears ebbed, while the rest of them all looked on, helpless.

“It was so terrible.” Leila’s words were muffled against James’s chest.

He closed his eyes, his expression crumpled with pain. “I know, lass. If I had been there, I would have stopped them. I would have…I would have done something.”

Leila nodded against his chest. “Forgive me.” Leila leaned back to regard James with a long glance. Her brow furrowed and her mouth tucked downward with chagrin. She put her hand to her lips to stifle a gasp. “It will be a failure,” she whispered.

Graham or not, James had endured enough of Leila’s dreams. “Come, sister,” Anice said gently. “Getting some sleep will help.”

She guided her youngest sister from James and back to the large bed, where Cat and Ella waited with concerned expressions. It was never easy sleeping with Leila. Anice remembered the times when she’d had to sleep with her. The poor thing was plagued with terrible dreams and often woke up screaming: sometimes of people who had long ago died, other times of things that might come to pass, and still others of a man she referred to only as the lion, while shuddering in fear.

Leila shook her head stubbornly, as she climbed into the large bed. Anice tucked the blankets around her youngest sister and wished she could as easily put a shield around the girl, to dispel the horror of her dreams.

“Shush now and sleep.” Anice kissed Leila on the brow, then Cat and Ella, though they were both far too old for such endearments. The dreams had always left them rattled, regardless of their ages. Anice had taken over their mother’s former chambers after Marin left for Kendal Castle. That space of time had still not been enough that Anice had forgotten how terrible the after-effects of such nightly interruptions.

Leila set her steady gaze on James who stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, wearing only his hastily donned leine and trews, then turned her large eyes up to Anice. Leila sighed, the huff of air somewhere between exasperation and sadness. “I mean, the marriage will be a failure.”