God Bones, he had no idea where he was, how he got here, or even what day it was. He thought back to his very last coherent memory and he could recall leaving Edinburgh after seeing Josephine. He could also recall his encounter with Ridge de Reyne. Then, he came back to the tavern, but after that… nothing.
Clearly, something terrible had happened if he was tied up in a small room with a gag in his mouth. He didn’t even remember the fight that put him here. Maybe that was why his head was hurting so badly. Someone, or something, must have hit him in the head.
But that was all he knew.
So, he lay there, staring at the ceiling, realizing that he had to piss very badly. Along with the aching head, it was a most uncomfortable feeling and the minutes passed as he lay there, wondering if he should simply piss his pants and be done with it. He had no idea if he’d been left here to rot, or if someone was returning for him. Minutes turned into hours. At least, it felt like hours. As Andrew lay there and seriously considered his next move, the door to the chamber shoved open and someone entered.
Esme appeared in his line of sight and he looked at her with some shock. He knew his reaction must have appeared in his eyes because she looked at him with equal shock. Then, she smiled thinly.
“Are ye finally awake, then?” she said. “I’ve been wondering if ye ever would.”
Andrew didn’t answer; he couldn’t with the gag in his mouth. Esme bent over him, her big bosom spilling out of her bodice and the rank scent of her body odor filling his nostrils.
“Can ye understand me?” she asked. “Or did the knock on yer head scatter yer brains?”
He stared at her for a moment before nodding, wondering what in the hell was going on. Nothing was making any sense and Esme wasn’t someone he was particularly glad to see.
“I’m sure ye’re wondering what ye’re doing here,” Esme said, reaching out to untie the gag. “If I remove this, ye must promise not to shout. Otherwise, I’ll keep it on for good.”
Andrew was quickly coming to realize that Esme had something to do with his circumstances. Until he could figure out what, exactly, was going on, he’d have to play along with her. He spit out the gag as she pulled it away.
“Now,” she said. “It seems that I have ye where I want ye. ’Tis yer own fault, ye know.”
Andrew licked his dry lips; his tongue, everything was dry. He struggled to speak. “What happened?” he asked hoarsely. “Where am I?”
Esme only smiled, but it wasn’t a warm or humorous smile. It was something decidedly hard. “I’m going to keep ye,” she said firmly. “Ye toyed with me, Andrew, and that wasn’t right. Ye should never have used me as ye did. I have every right to seek vengeance for having been wronged.”
So that’s what this was all about? She felt used because he’d seduced her to gain information? There was no use in denying it because he had, but he didn’t think she’d taken it so seriously. Evidently, he was wrong.
“What did I do that was so heinous?” he said, playing somewhat dumb. “For whatever I did, I am very sorry.”
Esme cocked her head, her lustful gaze moving up and down his long body. She reached out a hand, laying it gently on his groin.
“Ye had yer way with me and then ye wouldn’t speak to me,” she said, beginning to rub his crotch through his leather breeches. “This is all I wanted and ye wouldn’t give it to me. Now, ye’re going to. And I will have it any time I want it.”
Andrew’s mind was working quickly. So she wanted a slave for sex, did she? Even now she was rubbing his groin and it wouldn’t be long before, physiologically, he started to respond to her. He wouldn’t be able to help it. Tied up as he was, she could remove his breeches and mount him, and he wouldn’t be able to stop her. He’d already tugged on the ropes that bound him and they were strong. He didn’t want to have intercourse with the woman, so he had to think quickly.
“Is that what you think?” he asked as if incredulous. “That I would not speak to you any longer? Why, that is not true. I have simply been very busy on business for the king. I have not had time for anyone or anything other than my duties. I was not ignoring you in the least.”
Esme’s expression changed somewhat, doubtful of his words. “I tried to talk to ye, but ye would run off when ye saw me!”
“Because I had no time to talk,” he said, knowing that if he was going to save himself, he would have to speak sweetly to her like he did the first time he met her. She was stupid and pliable. “Esme, my love, it had nothing to do with not wanting to talk to you. I had planned to return to you when my business was done. But now you may have ruined those chances. I have business for the king that cannot wait, and I must return to him. How long have you kept me here?”
A spark of uncertainty flashed in Esme’s eyes. She was becoming increasingly uncertain. “I brought ye here,” she said. “When ye returned to yer room that night, two of my stable servants were waiting. They hit ye over the head and brought ye here.”
“Where is here? Esme, you must untie me. I must return to the king.”
Esme stood up from the bed, confusion clouding her face. Clearly, she was mulling over his words.
“Then why did ye ignore me so?” she demanded. “Why did ye not tell me ye intended to return to me?”
He feigned exasperation, which wasn’t so much feigned as it was real. He was truly exasperated with the situation.
“Because I did not have the time,” he insisted. “Had I known you felt this way, I would have made the time, but I did not know. And you… you abducted me because of it? Untie me this instant, Esme. If I do not return to the king, he… he will think I have abandoned him. He will send men out to execute me. Is that what you want?”
Esme was quite distressed over the situation now. Had she done wrong? She was a bold woman, but she wasn’t a smart one. She had no idea that Andrew was giving her an untrue story simply to get her to untie his bindings. He seemed so very sincere and, being that she lusted after him, she was willing to believe everything he told her.
“Then… then ye will not leave me?” she asked.
He shook his aching head. “I will not,” he said firmly. “I told you I will return when my business is finished, and I will. Untie me!”
Esme sighed heavily, feeling scolded and sad. After a brief hesitation, she moved timidly to the bed, pulling a small dirk from the belt at her waist to cut off the bindings. Andrew felt the first one fall away with the greatest of relief.
“All of them, love,” he told her with as much gentleness as he could manage. “Now, tell me how long I have been here.”
Esme cut the bindings from the left wrist and bent over to cut them from the right. “Three days.”
That brought a strong reaction from Andrew. “Three days?”
She nodded. “My men hit ye very hard,” she said. “I did not know if ye’d ever awaken.”
No wonder his head was killing him and he felt groggy. He probably had a broken skull on top of everything. As the bindings fell away, he realized his arms were numb from having been tied up over his head and he struggled to bring some feeling back into them. As Esme went to cut away the bindings on his legs, he sat up, very slowly, and noticed his possessions were crammed into the corner of the chamber. He even saw his broadsword propped in the corner, but what he didn’t see was Demon Slayer.
“Did you bring all of my possessions in here?” he asked as he rubbed at his wrists, trying to bring the blood back into them.
Esme nodded. “Everything that was in the chamber.”
Not everything, he thought. “Is it all there? My coinage and everything?”
Guiltily, she shook her head. “I gave some of it to my stable servants for helping me,” she said. “I gave them some coinage for keeping their mouths shut.”
It seemed to Andrew that she intended to keep him here, as a prisoner, for a very long time. As the last binding fell away, he swung his big legs over the side of the bed and sat there, trying to orient himself.
>
“Three days,” he muttered. God, he was in a panic to get out of there and make it to Josephine. Given how long he’d been away, she surely must have thought he’d run off and left her. “Where am I, Esme?”
She stood over him, looking worried. “At the inn,” she said. “This is a room the servants sometimes use to sleep in. Are ye angry with me, love? I wasn’t trying to be cruel, but ye wouldn’t speak to me… I wanted so very much to talk to ye.”
Was he angry? Of course he was. He was damn frantic and furious. But he was afraid if he demonstrated any of that, she’d call her stable servants or whoever happened to be in ear shot and he’d have a fight on his hands that he wasn’t in any shape for. He wanted to get to his former room and see if Demon Slayer was still where he left it, and then he needed to get to Josephine. It made him sick to think of what could have happened to her in three days. But instead of snapping at the woman, he forced a smile.
“Nay,” he said, reaching out to touch her hand. “I am not angry. But I must get to the king and try to explain why I have been missing for so long.”
He stood up unsteadily with Esme beside him, wringing her hands with worry. “But ye’ll return to me after?”
He nodded, almost throwing himself off-balance as he did. “I will return to you.”
“Promise?”
He didn’t hesitate. “I said I would. You will not doubt my word.”
Esme watched him nervously as he went to the corner and picked up his belongings, both saddlebags, another satchel, and his sword. For a man she’d fought so hard to abduct, she was letting him go rather easily, mostly because he was promising to return to her. She did so very much want his favor. As she watched, he started to look around as if missing something.
“Where is my mail?” he asked. “My mail was in that chamber. Where is it?”
Esme sighed heavily. “The stable servants…”
“They took it?”
She nodded.
He pointed to the door. “Go,” he commanded softly. “Get it back. I need it. I will meet you in front of the inn.”
Esme didn’t hesitate. She scooted from the chamber as Andrew lumbered out behind her, incredibly frustrated with what had happened. His head was killing him and he put a hand to it, feeling a massive lump on the right side of his head. Even after three days, it was still big and sore. No wonder he’d been unconscious for so long.
They were on the ground floor of the inn and heading straight into the kitchens from the little back chamber, where kitchen servants and wenches were looking at Andrew rather fearfully. The last time they saw the man, he was being carried between two of the big, burly stable servants.
But Andrew ignored them. He needed to make it to his former chamber. As Esme headed from the rear of the kitchens and out to the stable yard beyond, he made his way through the common room, which was half-full of patrons, and headed up the stairs to the level above.
There were three doors on this level and a sleeping loft. He and Sully had rented the room facing the street, and he went to the door and gave a shove, only to find that it was bolted from the other side. Stepping back, Andrew lashed out a big foot and kicked the door in, sending splinters of wood exploding.
Someone inside the chamber screamed, a woman’s scream, and he stepped in to find a man on his back while the woman was on top of him, his body embedded in hers. It was one of the many whores who called the inn home, making her money for the day, but Andrew ignored both her and her customer as he went to the bed nearest him, shoved up against the wall, and pulled up the mattress. He could immediately feel some weight to it and he knew Demon Slayer was still where he left it. He breathed a sigh of relief.
There was the cut in the mattress he’d made, and he dug his hand into it, feeling the end of hilt of Demon Slayer. Digging deeper into the mattress, he got a grip on the sword and the sheath, and drew them out. Straw from the mattress fell all over the floor, chaff floating in the still air of the chamber. He blew bits of straw off of the sheath, brushing at it, cleaning it up as he headed to the door, which wouldn’t close now that he’d kicked it in. But he didn’t care; he blew from the room without saying one word to the two occupants.
Rushing down the rickety stairs and through the common room, he emerged into the street beyond, a street he had become very familiar with. His attention immediately moved to the road that headed up to the castle gates, and the road was dotted with people, which told Andrew that it was sometime in the afternoon. By the location of the sun and the dampness of the air, he guessed it that a fog was rolling in as sunset approached, and he began to look around frantically for Esme. He needed his mail, but he didn’t want to wait around for it. He needed to get to the castle.
He was desperate to get to Josephine.
He waited all of two minutes before he began to walk, wondering how he was going to get through the gates without his apple man disguise, but it couldn’t be helped. Sully was inside the castle, presumably, so perhaps if he said he was with the party from Torridon, they might let him in.
As he quickly headed up the incline of the road, he passed by a man who was wearing a heavy cloak, long, with a hood to it, and he yanked it off the man as he continued to walk, slinging it up over his shoulders and pulling the hood up over his head. The man yelled his protest, but Andrew ignored him. He wanted to conceal his features somewhat and remain as incognito as possible, but he truly wondered if that was going to work. He probably should have thought his approach out better, but his urgency to see Josephine was clouding his judgement.
He could only pray.
Getting through the portcullis gate wasn’t difficult because all of the guards were over talking to two women, who were heavily flirting with them. Andrew was able to slip in and practically run up to the second gate, which posed more of a problem. There weren’t many people at that gate, but there were many guards, and Andrew knew he was going to have to make his story good or they would not let him in. Then, he’d have to try again in the morning with the apple man disguise. As he approached the gate, two guards approached him.
“Name!” one of them boomed.
Andrew came to a halt, holding up his hands to show he wasn’t holding a weapon. “I am with Lord Montgomery’s party from Torridon Castle,” he said. “The name is d’Vant. If you will ask Lord Montgomery, he is expecting me.”
The two sentries looked at him suspiciously, but a third sentry had heard him. He was an older man and he walked up to Andrew, peering at him curiously.
“Yer name is d’Vant?” he asked.
Andrew was certain his answer was about to get him in a good deal of trouble. He didn’t like the way the man was looking at him, but it was too late to lie about it now. With regret, he nodded his head.
“Aye.”
The older sentry’s gaze lingered on him a moment before he lifted his hand and motioned to him. “Come with me.”
Andrew did, quite certain he was about to be arrested. He followed the sentry through the second gatehouse as the two of them headed up the hill and into the main part of the castle. Andrew thought it was rather odd that the man didn’t arrest him immediately. Instead, he was clearly taking him somewhere, but all Andrew could think of was running off and finding Josephine.
But he didn’t run, mostly because he was fairly certain he couldn’t outrun or successfully hide from soldiers who knew the castle grounds. Besides… he wasn’t in any shape to run. He felt horrible with his throbbing head and lurching stomach, and something made him stick to the man who was in the lead. There was something decidedly strange about the man who hadn’t arrested him right away, and that had him curious.
When they reached the bailey where the ground leveled out and the garden Andrew knew so well was off to the east, tucked up against an outcropping of rocks, the older sentry turned to him.
“Ye’re Andrew d’Vant?” he asked.
Andrew nodded. “I am.”
“De Reyne has been looking for ye,” the sent
ry said quietly. “He said that if ye showed yerself, I was to bring ye to him.”
Well, at least he wasn’t going to be taken to the dungeons, at least not yet. Andrew simply nodded, and the man continued on to a big stone building that was directly in front of them. It was two-storied, with small windows, and soldiers seemed to be coming in and out of it. As Andrew and the older sentry approached, the sentry called out to those who were milling around the building’s entry.
“Do ye know where de Reyne is?” he asked.
One of the men pointed to the collection of buildings, including the great hall. “I saw him go that a-way!”
The older sentry turned in the direction of the great hall and began to run. Andrew picked up the pace and ran after him. They ran all the way to the great hall, entering the structure that was being prepared for the evening meal.
“There!” the sentry said, pointing.
Andrew caught sight of Ridge over near another door. There was no mistaking de Reyne’s sheer size, so the sentry began to run with Andrew right along with him. They ran across the hall, through the door that de Reyne had disappeared into, and out into a small courtyard.
“De Reyne!” the sentry shouted.
Ridge was about to enter another building attached to the courtyard on his way to join the king before the man went to dinner. He came to a halt at the sound of his name, turning to see a sentry over near the great hall door. But that wasn’t all he saw. He also saw Andrew standing there, looking haggard and pale, carrying baggage and dressed in a dirty cloak. His eyes widened as he rushed towards Andrew.
“D’Vant,” he hissed. “Where in the hell have you been? We’ve been looking for you for three days!”
Andrew sighed heavily, raking his hand through his dirty hair. “You would not believe it,” he said. “A wench at the inn where I rented a room decided I wasn’t paying her enough attention and decided to abduct me. I’ve been unconscious for three days, tied to a bed, and only just managed to escape.”