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“ ’Twas Alexander who told him to do it,” Jordan said. She was not going to cover up for the evil little man.

William went stiff with rage. “What did he say?”

She sniffed, wiping at her nose. She proceeded to tell him everything since she had arrived in the hall, everything Alexander had said and done. She was so frightened and angry and horrified at the soldier’s death that she wanted Alexander to suffer purely because he had provoked the man. She felt like a tattler, but she was not going to protect someone who had tried to do her great harm.

William was collected and unreadable as always when she finished. Except for one thing; she noticed the veins in his neck throbbing. She’d never seen that before and it puzzled her. He paused a moment after she had concluded, drawing in a deep breath before finally nodding. Then he kissed her forehead and released her.

“Is Alexander in his rooms?” he asked mildly.

“Aye,” she nodded, wiping away the remainder of her tears and touching her swollen lip.

He nodded again. He turned and stepped over his sword where it lay upon the floor and walked directly to Alexander’s door. Jordan watched him apprehensively, wondering what he was going to do. He seemed calm enough except for that wild pulsing at the base of his neck.

He tried the door to find that it was bolted from the inside. Jordan continued to watch him as he took a step back, as if he were contemplating the situation. She didn’t know what to think, for he looked thoughtful and sedate. Had his anger fled?

She doubted it. She had grown to know him well enough to know he would not have gotten over it that quickly. So what was he planning?

She was about to find out.

Like a flash of lightning, William lashed out a huge booted leg and rammed the door head-on. Jordan shrieked in surprise as the door gave, cracked, and finally swung open in a hail of flying wood and debris. Not only had the wooden bolt snapped, but he had separated the panel from the top hinge.

William was through the doorjamb before the door had even come to a final resting place.

Jordan clutched her throat in shock, running after him but pausing at the threshold, not sure if she should follow him in yet horrifically curious to see what he was going to do.

Alexander had been sitting at his writing desk at the opposite side of the antechamber when William had kicked his door in. He now stood, a long thin sword in his palm pointed right at William’s chest.

William was advancing on Alexander as if the man were not holding a sword. Jordan heard her breath coming in small, panicked gasps, knowing William’s sword lay back in the hall. She turned and ran for it, retrieving the heavy blade with all of her strength and dragging it back to the doorway.

“William. Yer sword.” she cried.

If he heard her, he did not acknowledge her. He walked right up to Alexander and batted the sword from the man’s hand as if it were nothing more than a toy. Alexander was terror-stricken; his pasty face was beaded with sweat and his whole body was quaking.

“Never point a sword at me unless you intend to use it,” William growled.

Alexander backed away from him. “Get out of here.”

William’s jaw ticked. “I understand that you encouraged the attack on Lady Jordan.”

Alexander’s eyes darted to Jordan in the doorway and back again. “I know of no attack.”

William lost his composure, then. He charged Alexander, grabbing the man by the collar and slamming him onto the flat surface of the desk behind him. Vellum scattered and ink spilled, wells clattering to the floor. The heavy oaken chair tipped over and William kicked it into the wall as it tried to fall on him.

His hazel-gold eyes were as murky as the depths of the sea. “You lying bastard,” he seethed. “I should have killed you last night when you all but admitted to me ’twas you who ordered the assassination attempt on Jordan, but I restrained myself although God knows why. You paid the Welsh archer and then killed him so he could not talk. You even planted your sister’s necklace on the man to throw us off your scent.”

Alexander was terrified, struggling against the vice-like hold, but William gripped his neck tighter. But William wasn’t finished yet.

“Now you give your blessing for a soldier to attack Lady Jordan?” he went on. “What in the hell is your warped mind thinking?”

Alexander was gasping for breath. “Let go of me or I swear to God I will have your head.”

William was grasping him so tightly that he knew the man was laboring for air. “Not until we have an agreement, but God knows I should kill you here and now for what you have done.” His voice was not quite as urgent, but the tone had become deadly. “You will leave Lady Jordan alone. You will not look at her, speak with her, nor even so much as think about her. If I hear you have so much as glanced in her direction, I will descend on you like the plague and I can promise that you will not survive. And you will watch every step you make, for I shall be watching you as well. One false move and The Wolf will strike.”

Alexander was white. His mouth was working, foam on his lips. “How dare you threaten me.” he rasped.

William smiled, cold and deadly. “ ’Tis no threat I give you, but a promise. One more transgression against Lady Jordan, however small, and I will kill you.”

Alexander began to spasm. “I wonder what my father will have to say about that.”