Page 4 of A Lover for Lady Jane (The Welsh Rebels #5)

Chapter Two

“ S o?”

Griffin settled himself in the chair opposite Geraint and tried not to wince at the sight of his beard shiny with the juice from the roasted goose leg he was holding. The man was eating with as much delicacy as a dog gnawed at a bone.

“So the lady refused to name the father of her child.”

“There’s a surprise!” Cynan growled through his mouthful of pie. “And naturally, you didn’t insist, allowed her to avoid answering and simply walked away. But why would you cause her a moment’s discomfort, hey? You’re English as well!”

“Only half-English,” Griffin corrected, helping himself to a slice of suckling pig. He’d heard the slur enough times that he knew how to handle it. It hadn’t lost its sting, exactly, but he now managed to appear unaffected, thereby denying his tormentors’ satisfaction. It was all that mattered.

“Only! That’s one half too man?—”

“As I was saying, she did not divulge the baby’s father’s name.

She did, however, let slip that he is a powerful lord with men and means at his disposal.

She is convinced he will mount a veritable expedition as soon as he notices her disappearance.

Which is why, I think, she is so intent on hiding his identity.

She doesn’t want you to know where you will be hit from,” Griffin added as inspiration struck.

“She wants you unprepared when he finds you.”

“You should have insisted,” Cynan barked. Really, the man’s resemblance to a beast was uncanny. All this gnawing, growling, and barking… Was he surrounded by a pack of snarling dogs? It seemed so. “There are ways to make her talk.”

Griffin swallowed his mouthful of meat without tasting it. Did he mean torture? Rape? Nothing would surprise him coming from the man. “I will not hurt or even consider intimidating her into?—”

“Fair enough. If you’re not man enough to do it, then I will.”

The giant stood up; intent written all over his face. Before Griffin could protest, Geraint stood up in turn, blocking his friend’s way. “No. I will not have her damaged. She is to reach her father intact. Hywel’s orders, you will recall.”

“Why? What difference does it make?”

“Sheridan is hardly going to surrender himself for a woman already half dead, is he? It would hardly be worth it.”

“I don’t mean to damage her!”

“No. But I know you,” Geraint was not so easily convinced. “You might not mean to but that’s what you’ll do. You can’t control yourself when your blood is up, for whatever reason, and having a beautiful lady under you will definitely make you lose all restraint.”

Ice replaced the blood in Griffin’s veins.

He put his knife down, knowing he wouldn’t be able to eat other thing tonight.

Jane was in even more danger than he had supposed if Cynan intended to go to her.

With his bulk and his rough manners, the bastard would hurt her if he touched her, whether to punish her for her defiance or bed her for his selfish pleasure.

Silence descended into the room, heavy as a shroud.

“There’s only one thing for it,” Geraint eventually decided. “We’ll have to take the wench back to Wales. If her father won’t come back to her, then we’ll take her to him.”

The men around the table looked at one another in consternation. Evidently, they had not thought this mission would end up being so fraught with complications. In their mind, they would capture the lady on the Monday and be rid of her and in possession of her father on the Tuesday.

“Wales? You mean, we’ll have to take her all the way from whence we came?” The look in Osian the miller’s eyes made it obvious he was hoping to have misunderstood.

“That was not part of the plan,” Tomos the farmer’s son added.

“No. But it makes little difference in the end. Hywel wanted us to bring him Lord Sheridan, and we will. Only, instead of traveling with a dangerous, captive warrior in our midst, we will have a more easily controlled female with us. I say it is even better, all things considered.” He nodded, as if satisfied, sat back down and reached to another goose leg, which he attacked in much the same way he had attacked the first one.

“Yes, it is the best solution. Going away will also have the added advantage of making it a lot harder for the father of her brat to find her—and us. We leave at dawn.”

Griffin was aghast. His and Jane’s plan had failed, spectacularly. Far from deciding she was not worth the trouble, Geraint had concluded he was better off with her than with her father.

“You cannot mean to take a lady with child all the way to?—”

“Listen, you English half-breed, and listen well,” Geraint snarled, leaning across the table.

Behind him, Cynan snorted, no doubt delighted to see him put back in his place at last. “You leave the decision-making to me. You’re only here to relay my words to the woman and hers to me.

Don’t forget it or you might end up on the end of my sword.

I will not tolerate rebellion from anyone, least of all you, who I only met less than two weeks ago. Are we clear?”

“Of course.”

There was nothing else to say. Though his appetite was well and truly gone, Griffin picked up his knife and urged himself to calm. He could not protect the lady Jane if he was dead. And protect her he would. Or at least, as much as he could.

Later that evening, Geraint and two of his men came back to the blue chamber, accompanied by Griffin.

Jane had been bracing herself for the confrontation and she decided not to stand up from the chair or even turn to face them when they entered the room.

Let them make what they would of her scorn.

They didn’t deserve anything less, and that way, her stomach would be concealed from view.

She was not convinced it was quite the shape it was supposed to be, so it was better the men didn’t get too many opportunities to scrutinize it.

Fortunately, they didn’t seem to take issue with her act of defiance and only Griffin came to stand where she could see him. The look on his face was enough to tell her their plan had failed. Geraint had not come to announce he would let her go. Quite the contrary.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” the rebel said, before starting to expose his change of plan.

Her insides tightened when he announced his intention to take her to Castell Esgyrn.

She had not imagined she would have to spend so long in the company of the rebels.

The more time she spent with them, the more likely it was they would realize she was not with child—and able to understand Welsh.

Being on her guard for days on end would be exhausting as well as dangerous.

She was not a guest, contrary to what Geraint had said, but a captive.

Who was to say they would treat her with respect?

Griffin seemed to share her consternation. Though he was doing his best, as agreed, to behave coldly toward her, she saw concern swirling in his blue eyes. She guessed he would have argued against taking her all the way to Wales and had been ignored.

“If your father won’t come to you, then we’ll go to him,” Geraint concluded.

“You say he cares not about you or the babe, but we’ll see what he does when we bring you in front of him and threaten to slice your belly open to remove his bastard grandchild from your womb if he doesn’t surrender himself. ”

Fortunately, Jane was sitting on her chair and looking out the window when he uttered the awful threat, for she knew she had gone the color of whey.

Griffin, the only one whose face she could see, arched a brow at her reaction.

Damnation, he was wondering whether she had understood what had just been said.

She had to be more careful. But how to remain impassive when they were talking about doing such things to her?

“He says your father will have no other choice but to surrender himself when he sees we have you captive,” he said eventually, his voice even deeper than usual. “He cannot be as indifferent to your fate and that of your child as you think.”

Though, in effect, he had told her what Geraint had said, he’d left out the part about slicing her open to get the babe out of her.

Jane would have been grateful to him for the intention if she had not been frozen in place by horror.

These men were even more dangerous than she had first supposed.

True, they had brought her to a comfortable room and had asked for a tray of food to be brought to her earlier, but they would not hesitate in hurting or even killing her to get what they wanted—her father.

Why? What did they have against him?

As if to answer the silent question, the men started to argue between them in a low voice, making it clear that this was not meant for her and Griffin was not to translate what they were saying.

“Should we send a message to Hywel to inform him about the delay?” a man with a nasal voice asked. “He’ll be expecting Sheridan to be brought to him within the week. Traveling with her will take longer than with him.”

“Yes. He should be told, though I can already tell you he’s not going to like it.” She thought she recognized the giant’s voice. He sounded mightily aggrieved.

“He will like it even less being kept waiting for no reason.” This came from Geraint.

“Aye. That’s true.”

From her place on the chair, with her back to the men, Jane didn’t miss a word from the conversation.

This Hywel was clearly the man who wanted her father.

Geraint and the others had only been sent to England to do his bidding, so as to ensure Lord Sheridan’s disappearance could not be traced back to him.

Who was he and what did he want with her father?

Hywel was too common a name for her to immediately identify him, even if at the back of her mind, something was niggling at her.

She had the impression she should know the man.

“When do we leave?” she asked. The sooner the better where she was concerned.

“Tomorrow at dawn,” Griffin answered without translating her question first. “I will ask for a fire to be lit in your room,” he added, eyeing up the empty hearth in disapproval. ’Tis too cold in here, you should at least wear your?—”

“What the fuck are you talking about now?” the giant interrupted. It was clear from the snarl and Griffin’s reaction that the two of them didn’t see eye to eye. No wonder. Jane couldn’t think of two more different people.

“I’m informing her that we will leave at dawn and telling her a fire will be lit for the night.”

“And who allowed you to make such a decision?”

“Didn’t Geraint say she should reach her father intact? That includes her health, I should think.”

“Methinks you’re far?—”

“Enough,” Geraint interposed. “Griffin is right. It’s too cold in here.

Tomos, come with me, we have preparations to oversee,” he added, making for the door before addressing himself to the giant.

“You will lock the room behind us. Stay here a while before you leave though. I should think a moment with you will be enough to convince the lady she had better not try anything foolish while she’s with us. ”

“Shall I stay as well?” Griffin asked, worry etched all over his face at the idea of her being alone with the man. Jane could not blame him; she was worried herself. “To make sure that whatever he says?—”

“No. She will understand well enough we won’t tolerate any trouble when she sees his face.”

Insisting would only have placed himself in danger, so Griffin had no choice but to obey.

After one last look at her, he left the room.

A moment later Jane was alone with the giant.

She stayed where she was, with her back to him, rigid with fright.

What would he do? She could tell he hadn’t moved yet. What did he intend to do?

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he made his way toward the chair. Then he bent over and started to talk, placing his mouth at her ear.

“The English pup won’t always be here to take your defense and Geraint will be made to see that there is no harm in me taking my pleasure with a hostage.

” A finger lifted the mass of her hair from her neck, grazing the flesh as it did.

She shuddered when he brought the lock to his nose and groaned in appreciation.

“Make no mistake about it, lady, I will have you under me before we reach Castell Esgyrn.”

Jane would have given ten years of her life not to understand the threat but alas, she did understand it, all too well.

How she managed not to react, she would never know.

She remained still, playing her role to the best of her ability.

Only when the door closed on the vile man did she allow herself to crumple.

Oh, lord. What mess had she gotten herself into?