“I am your guardian, and you will obey me… be ready to depart right after your mother’s funeral tomorrow. We will be traveling to Gretna Green. For our wedding.” He gave her a leering grin as he dragged her against him, bruising her mouth in a slobbering kiss…
Tears streamed down her face, and she began to scream.
She could hear Gerald calling to her, but he was so far away.
“I have to get to Gerald… Gerald help me…”
“He…he killed my mother…”
As everything began to spin, she felt herself falling into some kind of dark abyss. She could hear his evil laugh. She heard Gerald’s voice call to her, but it was fading. Darkness was descending. But she had to find her mother and reach Gerald before he was too far. The roaring increased in her ears, becoming louder until she cried out in desperation. Gripping her head, she heard herself scream before everything went black.
~*~
Chapter Ten
Rose Point Chateau
Nottingham, England
That same day
“Grom, get the Hell in here.”
“Yes, my lord,” the lumbering giant of a man said in his usual guttural monotone.
“What do you mean you’ve spoken toeveryone, andno onehas any information on them? Liars, all of them! The first thing I’m going to do when I return from my wedding trip is raise the rent on all their properties. They’ll know I mean business when I ask for their help.Someone knows something!” Vern Stiles bellowed.
“They know nothing. And I believed them,” Grom countered.
“It’smy lord. I am Lord Percival Bowles. You address me asmy lord. Do you understand?”
“My lord, they know nothing. And I found nothing to make me believe otherwise. If you take out your vengeance on the people in the village, your coffers will dry up,” Grom said. “Then your ruse as Lord Bowles will dry up.”
“Nonsense! They are wastrels and have nowhere to go,” Vern spewed. But he worried Grom may have a point.
“As you say, my lord,” the hulking man said.
Suddenly, the room felt smaller, as if the walls were closing in on him. No one was doing as Vern said. He needed to show them he meant it, but first, he would find the girl. He had dreamed about that girl, and he would have her.
“We must find her. What did she take?” Vern demanded. It couldn’t have been anything of value. He’d had everything he could find of value taken from her room.
“We’d searched the room before locking her in there, so she had nothing of value,” Grom offered.
“Except her horse,” Vern muttered. “And a resourceful young woman would have saved some coin.”
“Search every nook and cranny. Send a maid to her room to search and have them bring me whatever they find.
“You’ve questioned the cook’s helper and the stable helpers?”
“I have. They saw nothing.”
They had to have seen something. They’re just not talking,” Vern groused.
“They aren’t loyal to no one, my lord. I offered them coin for answers, but they had nothing.”
“I see. And this coin you offered…where were you planning to get it?”
Grom stared at him with such intensity, it caused Vern to flinch.
