Page 66 of Heart of the Hunter (Band of Bastards #3)

A nora paced from one end of Edmund Payne’s private bedchamber to the other. It made her skin crawl to be in the room where the despicable man slept.

The man who had killed her mother for the few coins he thought to fetch from the stolen jewels.

She’d long suspected it had been him, but in the deepest part of her heart, she had hoped it wasn’t true.

When he put the ring on her finger—the ring her father had lovingly made for her mother—she’d wanted to rail and scream.

Edmund had tainted it when he tried to make it into a symbol of their union, but she would not let him.

She touched the place under her tunic where the ring hung on a leather thong.

She refused to wear it on her finger where it constantly reminded her of the man who killed her mother.

Instead, she wore it close to her heart where she could remember the strong, willful, beautiful woman her mother had been.

She stopped in front of the hearth and held her hands out toward the flames to warm them, then turned to put her back to the heat.

Her gown was smeared with mud, but it was nearly dry, and she’d stopped shivering from the cold and wet that had penetrated to her skin during the midnight ride from the priest’s hovel to Castle Whyte.

They’d been closer than she realized to the baron’s fortress, and had arrived just before the sun rose.

Unable to stand still, she started walking back and forth across the room again.

She was going to wear a hole through the floor with her pacing, but she was too angry and restless to stop.

Each time she turned, she looked down at Tommy asleep on the rug in front of the hearth.

He was only a boy of ten, but his presence made her feel less alone or afraid.

The need to protect him fueled her bravery.

Without him here, she feared she may have given in to her despair.

Baron Payne had tried to separate them, but both Anora and Tommy had clung to each other and put up such a fuss that he finally shoved them both inside his chamber and locked the door.

From the moment they arrived at Castle Whyte, his men forced him to perform his duty as commander—there were preparations to be made to fend off any attempts of a rescue.

Thankfully, the demands on Edmund meant he did not get any time alone with Anora to consummate the sham of a marriage.

Her stomach grumbled but there was nothing to eat in the room—she’d looked. To her amazement, Tommy didn’t complain once about being hungry. Though to be fair, the boy was still so skinny that she thought he must only eat once every other day.

He must have felt her looking at him where he slept on the floor because he suddenly opened his eyes and sat straight up. He looked around the room in confusion, but then his face cleared when he saw Anora.

“We are safe for now,” Anora assured him. “But the baron will be back eventually.”

Tommy reached under his threadbare tunic and drew out a dagger that looked huge in his scrawny hand. She recognized it as the one Donald had held against his neck and pulled from its sheath to threaten Tommy each time Anora did not comply with the baron’s demands.

“I’m ready for ’im,” he said boldly. And a little too cheerfully.

“Where did you get that?” Anora hissed in a loud whisper. “ How did you get that?”

Tommy beamed with pride. “Pretended to trip and fall into the ugly one. ’E ne’er noticed that it was gone.”

Anora sighed but couldn’t stop the smile of appreciation that curved her lips.

He was called Tommy Cutpurse for good reason: He’d been a thief living in the streets of Oswestry, stealing from unsuspecting strangers in order to survive for far too long before Hunter took him under his wing and brought him to Hawkspur to put him to work with the blacksmith there.

“Put that away before anyone sees it,” she chided gently. “And don’t show it to anyone. Keep it hidden until you absolutely need it.”

“I wanna’ stick the baron wit’ it.” His expression was so earnest and serious that Anora wanted to wrap him in her arms and hug him for his determination and bravery.

“No, Tommy.” She hated to disappoint him, but Edmund would fend off scrawny little Tommy like he was nothing more than a pesky fly. “That won’t work. I’ll let you know when you should take it out.”

He squished his face in annoyance but returned the knife to its hiding place under his tunic. “I hafta piss.”

Anora pointed to the chamber pot on the floor. “You can use that.”

Tommy started to open his breeches but then looked up at Anora, suddenly shy and embarrassed. “I’m not s’posed to piss in front o’ ladies anymore.”

“I can turn my back,” Anora said, but Tommy had already picked up the porcelain pot. He crossed the room and tucked himself behind the tall wardrobe chest against the opposite wall, neatly out of sight.

A moment later, the door rattled as the key was placed in the lock and turned, then Edmund pushed it open and took one step inside the door. “Come with me,” he said to Anora, his voice gruff with irritation.

She hurried toward him and followed him from the room, silently astounded that he seemed to have forgotten about Tommy as he grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her down the spiral staircase.

He hadn’t even shut the door to his chamber behind them when they left.

She said a silent prayer that Tommy would have the good sense to get out of the room and find a hiding place until help arrived.

Payne’s chamber was on the top floor of the tower, with three more below it, but he only descended to the next floor down before turning and dragging her out onto the wall walk and into the rain.

She cursed him for being an oaf because it had taken her hours to dry, and now she would be soaked through again.

He stopped and tugged her roughly toward the inner wall to look down into the castle yard. “Tell your lover that you are a married woman.”

Excitement prickled over Anora’s skin as she searched the bailey for Hunter, but the bile rose in her gullet when she saw him.

She squinted through the rain to better make sense of what was before her eyes.

“Good Lord,” she exclaimed on an indrawn breath as she realized he was bound and stripped naked from the torso up.

“Does this cause you distress, lady wife?” Edmund asked with a sarcastic drawl. “He means to bargain for you. But as you can see, he doesn’t have much to bargain with.”

Anora’s heart was in her throat as she tried to inspect Hunter for injuries, but she was too far away to see clearly through the downpour.

From what she could see, he stood with his back ramrod straight and his chin high.

His legs were braced apart, and he stared at some spot high on the tower wall.

She turned to see what he looked at and realized it was the narrow window of Edmund’s chamber—the chamber she had just escaped.

“I haven’t decided what to do with him,” the baron said.

“Perhaps I’ll leave him there as a fixture in the castle yard.

” From the corner of her eye, Anora saw him turn his head and look directly at her.

“It will be a constant reminder that any man who touches your or even looks at you in a way I do not like will suffer the same fate.”

Anora could not take her eyes from Hunter, though it pained her to look at him in distress. He must have felt her gaze because suddenly he turned his head and looked directly at her; her breath caught in her throat.

His mouth opened and she saw his chest heave as he yelled, but whatever he said was lost on the wind. She watched his chest expand as he breathed deep again, but this time she heard the baron’s name carried on the wind in an angry bellow.

“Let’s get a closer look, shall we?” Payne taunted as he grabbed Anora’s hand and dragged her back into the tower stairwell and down to the lower level.

He pulled open the door to the bailey and dragged her out into the yard.

A guard stood sentry next to the outer wall of the tower and Payne ordered him to follow as they stalked toward Hunter.

A pathetic whimper escaped Anora’s lips as they drew closer to him, her heart aching at the sight of him bound and shivering even as he stood tall, his face a mask of indifference.

His gaze darted to her when she reacted to seeing him this way and she saw the flash of concern etched across his face.

She quickly composed herself and put on a brave face.

She knew her distress would be Hunter’s weakness and detrimental to either of them leaving there alive.

“You fucking cur!” Hunter bellowed when he saw Anora’s face. “I’ll kill you!”

She lifted her fingers to her cheek, touching the tender skin. She’d forgotten about the bruise Payne had left on her cheek when he’d struck her the night before, and she imagined it had gotten especially dark and angry looking in the time that had passed since it happened.

Payne shook his head and tsked mockingly.

“I can’t have another man pining over my wife, Hunter.

” He released her hand and took a step toward Hunter, but before Anora could follow him, she felt a meaty hand clamp down on her shoulder.

She’d forgotten about the guard behind her. “You will never have her.”

“Only a coward feels threatened by a woman, Payne,” Hunter said. “That’s why you like to torment harlots and subject them to your twisted games, isn’t it?”

Anora yelped when Payne raised his hand and swung it in a wide arc.

The back of his hand smacked against Hunter’s face with a resounding clap.

Tears stung her eyes as she watched Hunter shake his head and move his jaw back and forth.

He spit blood out onto the ground, then looked Payne in the eye in a show of defiance.