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“Sian?” Ryan stepped over the moss-covered boulders and peered into the church that he knew was her secret retreat. “Sian? Are you here? Sian?”
He paused and tipped his head to listen, but the whole area had an empty feel to it. He doubted that if Sian had been there she had stayed for long. There was a gap in the canopy of the trees that allowed the rainwater to fall upon the now lethal stones. It made the usually quiet place cold and eerie.
“Now where could you be?” Ryan placed his hands on his hips and studied the area but couldn’t see anything untoward. Still, in case she might be hiding, or huddled up against the weather somewhere, he searched the area.
He was at the edge of the trees when he saw movement in the meadow beyond the trees and watched Cedrick stalk arrogantly across the field toward something in the far corner. Ryan squinted at it and knew immediately what it was. Racing for his horse, he vaulted into the saddle and went after it. He had an advantage over Cedrick because he could cover more distance on horseback and was the first to reach the thin shawl that had been caught by a rusty nail protruding from a decrepit fence. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the shawl’s owner.
“What are you doing?” Cedrick called breathlessly from several feet away. He was walking as fast as he could but was still unable to catch up with Ryan.
Ryan barely threw him a second look. “Go home, Cedrick. I think you and Wilhelmina have caused enough trouble, don’t you?”
“Sian is a little averse to marriage, that’s all,” Cedrick replied with a shrug. “I am sure that once the wedding is over, she will settle down.”
“And what would you know about Sian?”
“Well, no more than you, I expect,” Cedrick countered. “You are interfering in family business, Lord Carson. I suggest you go home and let me find my wayward fiancé. It is about time someone made her do as she was told. I am not going to allow my future wife to go running around this county like an errant child. She has to be curbed.”
Ryan threw him a filthy glare. “Why don’t you just hobble her while you are at it? You do know that she is a real person, don’t you? We are not talking about a horse.”
“Leave me to deal with my fiancé.”
“You really think you are going to marry her, don’t you?” Ryan snorted. “Over my dead body.”
“You are in no position to stop our union,” Cedrick warned. “I can assure you that Wilhelmina will do everything possible to block your interference.”
“Wilhelmina? Really? Her, an avaricious nobody, assumes to challenge me, a Lord of the Realm?” Ryan cried sarcastically, and with all the arrogant contempt he felt. “Might I remind you that I have more fortune in my little finger than you have ever had in your entire life? Might I remind you that you are, at this present moment, trespassing on my land? Might I remind you that I have a title and connections to the Royal Court, and some of the most influential land and business owners in the country as my friends. And you, a mere nobody, presume to threaten me?”
Ryan snatched Sian’s shawl off the nail and threw a glare at Cedrick before he wheeled his horse around to face away from the trees. He drew his mare to a stop inches from the smaller man, who stumbled back to prevent himself from being trampled on.
“Get off my land before I send for the magistrate, and don’t ever presume to threaten me again,” Ryan hissed menacingly. For good measure, he grabbed Cedrick by the cravat and yanked him up until he was teetering on tiptoe. “Moreover, stay away from Sian, or I will destroy you. You and that harridan you call a friend, and that is no idle threat.”
Before Cedrick could gulp an apology, Ryan released him with a violent shove, wheeled his horse around, and raced in the direction of the wind leaving a shaken Cedrick to stare after him.
Ryan immediately forgot the squat little man. He focused on somebody far more important: Sian. He knew she wasn’t at the ruins. The shawl being attached to the fence warned him that she had headed away from the house she called home, the sanctuary of the woods, and even his house. She had instead headed to the bluff, the highest and, in this weather, the most dangerous place in the county. A wild thought slammed into him with such force that he felt sick. Ryan tried to discount it was possible, but wondered if Sian might have felt so desperate that she might indeed be determined to carry through with her threat that she would rather die than marry Cedrick. Not that he could blame her. Marriage to a man like that squat little snake would be enough to make anybody want to end their days, but Ryan hoped and prayed that Sian had a little more backbone, and far more resilience to do something so foolish.
Still, the race through the countryside in search of her took far longer than he knew it ought. The rain continued to pour down upon him until he was soaked to the skin and the ground beneath his horse became too boggy for him to continue to ride. Dismounting, he dropped the reins onto the floor and left the horse to munch the lush grass while he continued his search on foot. For mile after mile he trekked, shouting and calling her name, but to no avail. Eventually, day turned into night, and it became almost too dark to continue his search safely.
Now desperate, Ryan fell to his knees as he battled the exhaustion that took hold. He was cold, tired, hungry, and so hopelessly frustrated that he wanted to rage at Fate for being so cruel as to take her from him.
“Ryan?” Norman sniffed and shook rainwater out of his eyes.
Ryan looked up and eyed Norman who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with several stable hands, and slowly shook his head. “I have checked everywhere.”
“We have searched the gardens, her gardens, and the surrounding land. The villagers have searched the village and are spreading outward, but light is against us, my friend,” Norman informed him. “Maybe she has been snatched?”
“She can’t have been,” Ryan whispered. “I found this.”
He held the shawl aloft but, when Norman leaned down to take it off him, Rya
n snatched it out of reach. It was his last hold on the woman he loved, there was no earthly possibility Ryan was ever going to release it.
“She has to be around here somewhere.”
“Have you checked the bluff?”
“Twice, but she isn’t there.”
“Maybe she fell. Did you check the cliff faces?” The groomsman immediately looked contrite when he realised how dire her situation would be if she had indeed slipped off the top of the bluff.
