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He’d never deny such a claim.
“You should be glad for it,” he added, moving back to her bag and lifting it from the ground. “For certainly no prudent man would allow himself to be blackmailed into marrying a stranger on the same day he proposed treason to one of the most powerful bishops in England.”
Striding toward the door, Guy waited for Sabine to join him.
“My lady?”
Instead of walking toward him, she stood, unmoving, in the same spot where he’d nearly kissed her. Dallying for such a purpose had seemed quite reasonable a moment ago. Now, as his mind shifted to the journey ahead, he wondered at his sanity. They needed to leave this place before the pursuit she expected materialized.
“Before we leave . . .”
With his hand on the iron handle of the door, Guy waited for her to finish her sentence.
“Should we not have a plan?”
“For?”
“You make for Noreham Castle to meet with the leader of Bande de Valeur?”
“We,” he corrected. “Unless you’d prefer to stay here?”
She shuddered.
“We’ve not spoken of what happens afterward.”
His grip on her bag tightened. “I assumed from the way you so deftly threatened to share my conversation with the bishop that you understood what might happen.”
She blinked.
“There may not be an ‘afterward,’ Sabine. ’Tis as likely Aceline de Chabannes will report me to the king’s men as he will turn tail and head back to France. If I leave Noreham Castle with my head intact, then we can indeed discuss the dissolution of this marriage.”
“You do not expect to leave Noreham alive.”
He shrugged. “If I do, it will be at the expense of alerting the king to our actions. Either way, you will more likely be a widow than find yourself divorced.”
“You expect to die?” she repeated.
He opened the door.
“Always. Sooner if you don’t come with me,” he said, ignoring the fact that it was he who’d first delayed them. Ignoring the fact that, aside from the order and their cause, he almost had something worth living for.
Almost.
For Lady Sabine was not his wife in truth, nor would she ever be.
Chapter 9
“They are dead. Both of them.”
Sabine didn’t believe him. Her father’s overlord was a hard man, but not so callous that he would deliver such news with so little emotion.
“Nay.” Her heart began to race, louder and faster until he could likely hear it too. “Nay.”
He touched her on the shoulder.
“Sabine?”
“Nay,” she repeated, over and over again.
