Page 53 of The Sword and the Damsel

“Now I’m afraid I must leave you for a moment, my dear, to make sure the halls are clear.”

He disappeared out the door and she lay on the floor, tears streaming down her face, wondering what she could do to fight him off. She looked around for anything that could help her, and she saw Victor’s old swords in the far corner. If only she could scoot over there, maybe she could slice open her bonds.

She inched across the floor, ignoring the abrasion of the rough stone and her screaming ankles and wrists. Relief was across the room. She only had to reach it. As she wriggled her way forward, she said a silent prayer that Victor would come back and find her before Robert succeeded in his plan to carry her away.

To her amazement and relief, she reached the swords propped up in the corner, sat up, turned her back, and began to saw, praying they were sharp enough to cut through her bonds. Then the door opened.Please let it be Victor. Please let it be Victor.Robert walked through, and she couldn’t stop a new burst of tears from rolling down her cheeks.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said, yanking her away from the swords, then lifting her and tossing her on the bed. He added another length of rope to the bonds around her wrists, making iteven tighter than the last. “You know, you’re turning out to be far too much trouble awake. I’ll need to knock you out before I move you. But first, I have to lay my trap.”

His trap? What did he have in mind?

Victor, please save me. Come through the door right now and run Robert through with your sword. I take back what I said about not killing him. I will not regret his loss one bit.

Sir Robert took a strip of parchment from his pouch and placed it on the bed. She couldn’t turn to see what it said.

“That should do what I need it to,” he said, with an obnoxious, self-congratulatory grin. Dear Lord, she wanted to run him through with a sword herself.

“And now to take care of you.”

She shrank away from him, but it was no use.

Crash!

Everything went black.

Chapter Twenty

When Victor turnedinto the hallway with his bedroom, he sensed immediately that something was wrong. The bedroom door was wide open. It seemed unlikely Alais would have gone anywhere on her own. He turned into the room, and she was gone. There was a broken piece of crockery on the floor beside the bed and several drops of blood on the pillow. There was also a note on a thin strip of parchment resting on the pillow.

“I took her. R”

His blood ran cold. The food and wine crashed to the floor, and he grabbed his sword and a heavy cloak. He ran down the hall, down the stairs, and stopped momentarily in the great hall to tell his father. “Robert kidnapped Alais. I must find her. I’m going after them. Search the house to see if anyone saw them.”

“What?” His father started to rise from his chair, but Victor didn’t pause to talk to him or say anything else. There was no time to waste. Instead, he ran out of the castle to the stables and saddled Socorro before the groom even realized he was there, and he went riding out into the night.

It was too dark to gallop, but he trusted his horse to see where he couldn’t and he did it anyway, knowing the road so well he could walk it blindfolded. He was headed for Hastings. It was possible Robert would have taken another route, but Hastings was his most likely destination. And anyway, there was no way he could track him in the countryside in the dark.

Victor guessed Robert would be headed home. He wouldn’t want to stop at an inn with a kidnapped noblewoman in tow, and camping out with Alais wasn’t a practical choice either. The mill would be Victor’s second stop if he didn’t find Robert at home.

The sound of his horse’s hooves thundered in his ears in the otherwise silent night. A fog descended, hiding the moon and stars, and giving the air a close and stifling feel, forcing him to slow down when he was desperate to race ahead. When he’d been traveling for half an hour, a group of three unsavory-looking men blocked his way forward, and another three closed in behind. Those were the ones he could see. He suspected more were hidden in the trees on either side of the road.Oh, for God’s sake. The last thing he needed right now was a delay fighting with brigands.

“Well met, good sir,” said the largest of the bunch in a low voice oozing with threat.

“I’m in a hurry. Delay me at your peril,” Victor replied with a cold certainty that made several of the men shift uneasily.

“Now, now. It isn’t polite to hurry. We’re only getting acquainted, and there are so many of us you haven’t met yet.”

One of the men tried to grab Socorro’s reins. His horse tossed his head and danced away, giving Victor the opportunity to draw his sword in a flash and slice a deep cut in the man’s wrist with a swift sweep. The injured man staggered off into the woods wailing and bleeding heavily. “I said I’m in a hurry. Move now or die.”

“Hear that, boys? He thinks he can threaten us.”

Apparently, the leader of the group hadn’t noticed that Victor had nearly sliced off the hand of one of his men. “It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.”

There was a rustling in the trees, and the outline of a rider emerged and turned to face him. “I told you idiots to take him by surprise. It’s going to be so much messier this way.” There wasno mistaking that voice. Robert. “It was far too easy to lure you out, Victor. She’s pretty, and by God, she’s a good fuck, but is she really worth all this?”

Victor’s vision went red, and there was a roaring sound in his ear. It was a lie. It had to be. But the words still filled him with horror. “If you’ve touched her, you piece of shit, I’ll—”

“Now now, cousin. I’d watch my tone if I were you. You wouldn’t want your wife to come to any harm.”

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