Angie Arms - Flame Series 03 (18 page)

“We shall see.  I have ordered him to Normandy with me.  So, you see I do need you with me.  Perhaps this time I will make you his commander.”

“I do believe strongly it is here I can do you most good.  John is after all staying.”

“I have my brother under control.”  Richard stopped and studied Garrick
, and a scowl creased his face.  "Is there nothing I have not promised you I did not give?" the King's voice held all the man's fury as he turned to look out the darkened window, staring out at the blackness of the night.  "I made you," he said, turning back around.

"I have served you well for allowing me to keep the lands I have taken."

"You have served me far better than I could have ever imagined," a wry smile crossed the powerful man's face.

Garrick took no pride in exceeding a king's expectations at being a killer. 

"Together we can be undefeatable."

"I have a wife and a family I must begin."

"A wife I gave you!" the king burst forth in a yell, and took quick steps to stand before Garrick. 

"She was not given without a price.  I had to kill Lenox to get her."

"I could have had you hung for such a thing.  I could have had you hung long ago when you first poked your head from that dirty little shack your mother took her men to.  I met your mother once, but she was too filthy and used for my tastes.  Says something about a woman when she's not good enough to fuck.  Must be quite the embarrassment to walk around a village wondering which man could be your father."  The King paused, then tisked.  "No, my apologies.  It must be embarrassing to walk among armies and wonder which of the hundreds who rutted between your mother's legs is your father.  She is dead now is she not?"

"I do not know,” Garrick said
with irritation.

"That's right," the K
ing replied as if giving his question some thought.  "Your own mother did not want you.  How low of a vermin does that make you, that a whore as low as your mother, looked down upon you.  Quite the contrast to where you are now.  I think I would be nice to me if I were you."

"I have grown too powerful for even a king to take my lands."

Richard stepped forward, his tall height was intimidating, his title of supreme ruler of the land even more, so but Garrick refused to be cowed.  He fought too long and hard to let it go now.  "Do you remember Helthpool?"  The King laughed a wicked sound.  "Of course you do.  That was so noble of you to kill all those women and children so Marcus and his woman would not have to.  I do believe you are growing soft."

"What is your point?" Garrick asked, his voice did not portray the rage and grief he still carried with him.

"You have spoken to no one of what occurred there, but I had a man that went through those places after you did."  The King tisked again, shaking his head in reproach.  "What was done to those poor innocent souls gave my man such nightmares he eventually killed himself.  Couldn't live with the vision you left inside his head.  True story you know."  The King walked past Garrick to pause by the table, where he picked up his tankard of ale.  He took a long swallow before sitting the mug carefully back down.  "Those women and children just weren't killed, what was done to them was an abomination."

Outwardly Garrick waited patiently, but to hear this man speak of it brought the horrible visions back to him.  The same visions that gave him nightmares.

"Now I know you only killed those in the tower.  They died mercifully, far more mercifully than the traitors deserved.  I know you did that.  But those others.  How could you let a man do such a thing?"

Garrick raised his head a notch, his jaw clinched.  If only he had known then it would be far easier to have killed all those women and children himself
, than to turn his back on them and let Wade do it.  The man was depraved, and Garrick lived every day with the knowledge he had let it happen.

"He took his time.  What were you doing?  Surely you must have heard their screams.  He raped the youngest g
irls, did you know that?"  The King laughed, "Of course you did.  You also know he cut out some of their tongues to quiet them.  You know he cut some of their eyes out so they would not see him.  Cut the hands off the mothers so they could not help them.  Killed them all so it took time for them to bleed out.  Watching each other die.  I'm told the blood was deep in that chamber where he took them all, covered the walls.  Tell me, did you help take them in there?"

Garrick was near the point of rage.  He had taken some of the women and children to Wade
, because he had been weak and could not do it.  But in order to get his bride he had to do what the King asked of him, which was to destroy the families of those who had betrayed their king.  The man before him had brought it all on.

"I know you killed Wade afterward.  Not a nice thing to do to the man who bailed you out and paved the way for you to get your lovely wife.  Such a shame.  I know I can find another to take his place."

"Who deserves such a thing?" Garrick asked, forcing strength into his voice so he did not sound as debilitated with his memories as he felt. 

The K
ing smiled his ruthless grin.  "The wife of another traitor.  You may be right, you have gotten more power than I can just snap my fingers and take from you.  But I can snap my fingers and have the same thing Wade did at Helthpool done to your countess.  How would you ever live with yourself?  More importantly, wouldn't that make all the deaths these past two years unnecessary?  All those women and children.  That would be a shame.  Think of that before you give me your final answer.  I will expect you.  If you are not a part of my soldiers leaving with me, I will destroy you and I will begin with your bride.  Leave now and contemplate your future.  You can retrieve your sword and dagger in the hall."

"It is a coward that threatens a man's wife while ensuring he has no weapons to defend her with.  I will not go on Crusade, it is a fool's mission.  You only hunt for your own glory.  If you send anyone who threatens my wife I will see you die.  Make no mistake of it."

"We will see," he said with confidence that can only come from a man called a king.  "Must I call in my guard to rid my presence of you, you whore's bastard."

Garrick turned and left, knowing a battle of words would not k
eep Ryann safe, and knowing the King had men just outside his door.  If he did not, he would have killed King Richard with his bare hands.  As he fled back toward Kinsey the visions of what had occurred at Helthpool chased him.  Only it was not the faces of strangers that were covered in blood, their faces twisted in pain and horror, but Ryann’s .

~ ~ ~ ~

Ryann rode through the gates and thundered toward the village.  Marcus had been so distracted by Alena
, he finally told her of Garrick's meeting with the king.  She saw the apprehension on Marcus's face when he shared this news with her, so she decided she would meet Garrick there, or join him on the way back.  Luck was on her side when Garrick trotted into view on the trail.  He brought the snorting Malik to a halt beside Fleet, and moved him in close so he was face to face with Ryann.

"Why do you not have men with you to protect you?" he demanded, his face looked furious.

"I was looking for you so you would protect me." 

"Never go about even one moment unprotected."

"Yes milord," she said with a smile, as she looked up at him.

His strong hands seized her by the shoulders and pulled her from Fleet smoothly onto his lap.  His strong arms secured her there as his lips claimed her
, making her heart stop for a fraction of time, before it started hammering as his arms tightened more, and he demanded she give up her defenses.  She did so gladly, Opening her mouth so his tongue invaded it, and a moan was torn from her.  She felt his response as he hardened beneath her lap.  She wanted her husband here and now, she did not care who would see, she wanted him filling her, claiming her.

He shifted her, his deft fingers sliding up the inside of her leg, growing anticipation.  She felt keen longing as his fingers moved back down, away from her thighs and beyond.  But shock
, and an even deeper yearning began within the pit of her stomach and spreading outward, when his other hand yanked her head back with his hand twined in her hair and nipped her lower lip, before he demanded again.  She moaned within his mouth and her legs fell open wider for her husband’s entry.  Slowly his fingers moved upward.  Frustration built again when he stopped, but his tongue was filling her mouth, flicking over hers, taunting it, until she advanced with hers and he deftly sucked it into his own mouth.  He groaned, and for a moment seemed to melt around her.  What a deep, gentle sound, his need that matched her own.  She claimed his lips as he did hers, sucking and stroking it as she pulled away.  Another moan, full of his need, escaped him before he pulled her back and plunging between her lips, making her melt into his arms.  The hand between her legs began upward again, redirecting her focus off her mouth for how many times she could not count.  Her mind was in a whirlwind.

Malik shifted beneath them and suddenly Garrick was stiff, his body and soul shut away from her quicker than a shutter could be closed.  He was turning Malik, his thighs beneath her giving the commands
, as she struggled to gather her wits back together.  "Ride," he said, lifting her, and for a moment she was suspended in air before she was in Fleet's saddle, her skirt hiked up around her waist.  She had no time to think, hearing Garrick's sword slide from his sheath and the command again, "Ride."  It was a command not to be argued with, and she did not hesitate to lay her heels to her horse's sides as she heard the roar of the attackers.  It was as if they reached for her, but Fleet lived up to his name and they were left in his dust. 

All the way to the walls of Fenton she raced, thundering into the courtyard she spied Roland first.  Skidding to a stop she ignored the roving eyes as they took in her bare legs.  "They've attacked Garrick."

The salacious smirk was off his face and he was reaching for the horse standing nearby.  "Send some men toward the village," he ordered the nearby stable boy, as he agilely swung into the saddle.  Together they thundered beneath the portcullis.  He was gone.  Garrick was gone, just as if he had never been there.  She looked overhead, at the spread of the branches.  Yes, this was the place, she could almost feel his lips upon her again.

"It was here," Ryann said
, in a near panic as she turned Fleet about. 

"Get back to Fenton.  Send the men on," Roland ordered her.

"No, I will help you search."

Defiance was not welcomed by this man either.  "Get your ass back where it belongs or I will gladly turn you over my knee and make that delectable mound red as a tomato."  His voice promised this retribution
, and his eyes promised so much more.  "Now go!"  He drove his horse on, leaving her sitting on Fleet in the middle of the road indignant.  The other men passed her with her waving them on.  Christopher stopped and escorted her back to the keep.  She was grateful for his silent company.

She spent the rest of her day pacing before the gates of Fenton.  Marcus and Halvor organized the search
, and turned every hovel within the village and beyond inside out.  Her goal of improving the food at Fenton went unaccomplished, for her mind could not escape the danger Garrick was in.  Was he already dead?  Her knees nearly buckled at the thought, and she grabbed a piece of the iron gate, and held onto it for dear life.  She squeezed her eyes closed, forcing the bleakest thoughts from her mind.  They would find him.  They had to find him.  If they did not find him, the King would send someone else for her to marry, especially now that she had so many properties he could just hand over to another man to manage.  But she wanted none other than Garrick.  The thought of another man touching her terrified her.  She could never care for another man as she did Garrick, even in their short time together. 

"Countess, the noon meal is waiting for you."

Ryann spun around and eyed Christopher standing before her.  He no longer looked like the dashing hero she remembered him being.  How could he be after she knew a man such as Garrick?  "Tell them to go ahead and serve the meal.  I cannot eat."

"But you have to eat," Christopher said
, severely overstepping his bounds in his concern.

"I cannot eat nor will I eat until I have word of my husband," she snapped at him.  He rose to his full height, his face no longer held concern
, but the impassive look of a soldier following orders.

"As you say my lady."  He turned and left her blessedly alone.  It seemed an eternity, or perhaps only moments, she could not say
, when torches were lit around the courtyard and dusk was settling upon it, and still no word came.

Ryann found herself sometime later staring out into the darkness.  It was such a dark night clouds blotted out the moon.  She wanted to cry for him.  Was he hurt?

"Ryann," Alena said, as she stepped out into the courtyard, Christopher following in her wake.  Her eyes narrowed on him.  She knew what this was about, and Christopher put her up to it.

"I heard you refuse to eat."

"I know what little birdie told you," she said, her ire rising at his meddling.  "But I will wait here until I hear news.  Besides, I am not hungry."