Boyett-Compo Charlotte - Wind Tales 01 (14 page)

again, so do for her now what you can before it is too late."

“Too late for what?” he whispered, suddenly fearful for his lady's safety.

“She cries for you, Kaelan!” Elga said with annoyance. “I have already explained that to you. We can

not have her mourning you.” She pointed a finger at him. “For one thing, you are not worth it; and for

another, she is so furious at you for abandoning her."

“I did no such thing!” he bellowed. “It was you who tore me away from her!"

“So furious, I fear she will never trust another man,” Elga continued spitefully as though she hadn't heard

him. “How can she allow herself to love again if she does nothing but wail over you?"

Kaelan was stunned to hear himself say: “She'll get over it."

“Will you?” Elga shot back, pleased with the intense pain that shot through her former lover's eyes.

The young prince laughed sardonically. “It can not be said that Elga Cree does not cut right to the heart

of the matter. You know I won't!"

“Tell me what to do for her, Kaelan,” Elga snapped. “How to explain your leaving in terms she will

accept."

“You mean other than telling her the truth you are incapable of telling?” he threw at her. “Or which isn't

in your best interest to tell?"

Elga glared at him. She would have to make doubly sure this man was sent as far away from Tempest

Keep as they could get him. “Do you wish to have the flesh removed from that strong back of yours!"

“Nothing you do to me can hurt even a fraction as much as losing Gillian!” he spat. “That is an agony far

worse than any physical pain you or that hateful brother of mine can inflict!"

“Care you to see if we can not inflict a much greater pain upon you, Kaelan Hesar?” she challenged.

Kaelan snorted. He drew his feet up onto the cot, circled his legs with his arms and simply stared at the

woman, hating her with every fiber of his being. “I wish you joy of Duncan, Elga,” he chuckled. “You are

two of a kind."

“Just answer me!” she hissed, stamping her velvet-clad foot. “What do I do to make Gillian happy

again?"

“Let me out of this wretched place and let us leave!” he threw back at her.

“Out of the question,” she told him through clenched teeth.

“I suppose it is,” he sneered, “since you won't make any money off that, you conniving harpy!"

“Gillian is crying herself to death because of you!” she flung at him. “She has not eaten since night before

last! The Healer worries for her health. Do you not care at all?"

“And who is the cause of her despair, Elga?” he growled.

“Ultimately you are, you selfish little bastard!"

When he just sat there—continuing to glower at her-she threw up her hands. “This is useless! You care

not one whit for that poor girl's health. She is making herself sick and all you can do is throw epitaphs of

hate at me!” She went to the cell door and kicked it. “Guard!"

“Tell her I'm a bastard,” she heard him say softly and turned around to look at him.

Kaelan lowered his forehead to his raised knee. “Make me out to be the villain you've no doubt already

have.” His shoulders slumped. “I'll not challenge what you say."

“How do we make her believe us?” Elga demanded. “Nothing we've said has worked."

Hot, burning grief washed over Kaelan's soul. “Tell her,” he said, having to stop when his voice broke,

“tell her that it was never my intent to ask her father for her hand. Tell her I only wanted....” A wretched

sob came from deep within his aching chest. “Tell her I only wanted to bed her."

A gleam of victory glinted in Elga's eye. Kaelan had no way of knowing those had been Duncan's very

words to the girl. “And you'll not deny the explanation?"

It was on the tip of his tongue to take back all he'd said, but he knew he couldn't. One way or another,

he would do all he could to protect Gillian. He would never be allowed to have her to wife; Duncan

would make damned sure of that. As long as Gillian was spared the danger of becoming Rolf de

Viennes’ mate, nothing else mattered.

“I'll not deny it,” he whispered, “on one condition.” He lifted his head and stared into Elga's eyes. She

was stunned to see bright tears in the depths of his brown gaze.

“What condition?” she asked, suspiciously.

“That when you choose a mate for her, he be a man of honor. One you know will love and cherish her

as you would have yourself loved and cherished, Elga Cree.” His gaze pleaded with her for help. “A man

as unlike Rolf de Viennes as there is to be found in the Seven Kingdoms."

Elga tucked her bottom lip between her pearly teeth. He would never know, she thought, what mate she

would choose for Gillian. She would make sure Duncan sent him to the farthest reaches of the realm and

kept him there for as long as he lived.

Out of touch with the Court and away from anyone who could tell him differently. She smiled, gently,

went to him and laid a placating hand on his stooped shoulder.

“I swear it on my love for your brother,” she said. “I'll give her into the keeping of a man who will take

as good a care of her as you, yourself, would."

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Chapter Eighteen: Holy Dale Manor

“I had given my heart into Gillian's keeping,” Nick listened as Kaelan explained. “And I knew it would be

hers alone ’til the day I died. If she was to ever know happiness again, I had to set her free of me. What

I did, I did for love of her."

“So it was not your intent to simply bed me without benefit of vows."

Nick jerked around, not having heard his sister return. He frowned at her sarcastic tone. “You are very

rude to eavesdrop on a private conversation, Gilly. How much did you hear?"

“Of course, not!” the prince stated, ignoring Nick. “I meant for us to Join. I told you as much."

“What of the money?” she sneered.

“Money?” was Kaelan's echo.

“And the ransom."

Kaelan's brows drew together. “Ransom?” he echoed again.

“What are you talking about, Gillian?” Nick challenged.

“The money you stole from the Depository!” she threw at him. “The ransom you planned to seek from

my father for my safe return after you'd had your fill of me! The ransom with which you were going to

replace the money you took so the Tribunal would not send you to prison!"

“WHAT?” Kaelan gasped. His face had drained of color only to become suddenly infused with a scarlet

rush of rage, as perfect understanding took hold of him. His eyes flew to Nick. Kaelan saw full realization

of what must have happened already forming on Gillian's brother's face and clenched his hands into fists.

“SON-OF-A-BITCH!” he exploded.

“Oh, Gillian,” Nick mumbled. He ran a hand over his tired face. “Dearling, they lied to you."

“He did not meet me at the bridge!” Gillian protested, already beginning to have suspicions of her own.

“He couldn't” Nick sighed. “Obviously you didn't hear the entire conversation else you'd have learned

where he was and why."

“Who told you I took money from the Depository?” Kaelan growled, his gaze snapping with burnt

amber fire.

“Both of them,” she answered. She looked from Nick's sad face to Kaelan's enraged visage. “Elga and

Duncan."

“And just why was I supposed to have taken this money?” When she explained to him, Kaelan's face

became even more livid with fury. “And you believed this?” he questioned so softly his words were

nearly inaudible.

“You were not where you said you would meet me!” she defended. “When I got there, Duncan came

not long after. What else was I to think? He knew of our meeting place. How else did he know if you

were not the one to tell him?"

“What exactly did my loving brother tell you that night?” Kaelan demanded.

Gillian could not look at him. Her voice was tiny and filled with shame. “He said when he caught you,

you were running away to Serenia to keep from being charged with the theft of the money."

“I was running away so we could be together!” the Viragonian prince shouted at her. “So I wouldn't be

forced to marry another woman!"

“I didn't know where you were,” she said lamely.

“I was in a dungeon cell,” he grated. “Placed there until Duncan could sell me, like the breeding stock

you once named, me to the highest bidder!” He clung to the footpost of the bed. “I stayed there until you

sailed for your homeland, milady! I was on the battlements, watching the Windlass take you out of my

“They lied to you, Gilly,” Nick stressed, “for their own evil reasons."

“But why?” she cried, swiping at the tears that were beginning to fall.

“To eventually do what Elga swore to me they would not: hand you over to Rolf de Viennes!” For as

long as he lived, Kaelan would hate Duncan Hesar, if for no other reason than that. And for no other

reason than that, he vowed then and there to take de Vienne's life.

“I would never have Joined with de Viennes,” Gillian whispered. “You had no reason to be concerned

that I would."

“And I was to know this?” he asked. He came limping around the foot of the bed. “I gave up my life to

keep you out of that bastard's hands, only to have Duncan hand you over anyway!"

“Why do you think we ran away in the dead of winter?” she beseeched him. “There has never

been—nor will there ever be—another man save you for this woman, Kaelan Hesar!” She was growing

angry at the disgust she was viewing on his hard face. “I had made a vow never to marry if it was not to

be you who would be my mate!"

“Really?” he flung back at her. He hobbled toward her, mindless of the agony in his thigh. “You heard of

Marie's death, did you not, Gillian?” He snaked out his hand to grab the footboard. “That was five years

ago. Did you write me a letter of condolence expressing your sorrow? Did you send a messenger to see

if I was still alive?"

Nick was watching him with a dark scowl. There was something odd about the way Kaelan was

standing-or trying to-braced against the foot of the bed.

“I didn't know where you were!” she shouted.

“The hell you didn't!” Kaelan bellowed. “The entire realm knew where I'd been exiled, Gillian Cree!"

“Actually, we were told you had left Virago,” Nick said, catching a look of annoyance at his interruption

as Kaelan's glower flicked over him for a brief moment.

“They said...” Gillian began.

“WHO SAID?” Kaelan thundered at her.

“DUNCAN AND ELGA!” she gave him right back.

“And what lies did they tell this time?” Kaelan scoffed.

Gillian didn't reply. She was already feeling immensely guilty for having listened to Duncan and Elga, to

those at Court who had always resented Kaelan Hesar and wished him ill. Deep in her heart, she knew

he'd been terribly wronged by them all and she had added most to his misery.

“What did they tell you, Gillian?” Kaelan pressed.

Nick cleared his throat, gaining the prince's attention. “That after you buried Marie, you had gone to live

in Rysalia, to breed horses with Ben-Alkazar,” he answered for his sister.

“And?” Kaelan questioned, squinting dangerously, suspecting more.

“That you'd taken three Hasdu women to wife,” Gillian answered, watching the incredulous, stunned

expression settling on Kaelan's ashen face as he turned to stare at her. “And you believed that nonsense,

too?” he whispered.

“How was I to know any differently?” she asked. When he continued to stare at her, the emotions

crossing his face alternating between hurt and anger, she flung out a dismissing hand. “At that time, I

thought you capable of just about anything, Hesar!"

Kaelan flinched, but his words were steady and filled with sadness. “What a despicable bastard you

must have always thought I was, Gillian,” he said.

“I thought no such thing!” she shot back.

“No?” he guffawed. “To have believed me capable of such perfidy, there had to have been suspicion of

my honor there in the back of your empty little head in the first place!"

“My empty...?” Gillian shot up from the cot. “How dare you say such a thing to me, Kaelan Hesar?"

“Calm down, the both of you,” Nick said, getting up from the chair. He was still frowning heavily at the

way Kaelan was standing. “Did you hurt your leg when you fell into the pond, Kaelan?” He put out a

hand to the prince.

“What difference does it make?” Kaelan snarled. He shoved past Nick, lurching toward the door,

almost falling. “Who cares about what happens to me anyway?"

Nick reached out to stop him, but Kaelan flung the door open and staggered through. “Damn it, Kaelan!

Come back here!"

“Let him?” Gillian cried. “He'll only resent us the more if you go after him, Nick."

“He's hurt,” Nick protested. “Did you see the way he's limping?"

“He'll not stay long below; it's freezing down there,” she said in a tired, forlorn voice. She sank down on

the cot and curled into a ball.

“Can't you hear him coughing?” Nick fumed, his eyes glowing with anger. “The man is close to having

lung fever."

“Leave him be, Nicholas,” Gillian pleaded.

Nick slumped to the bed. “How could things have gone so wrong?” he moaned.

Gillian began to sob and turned her face into the pillow so her brother would not see or hear. She was

so ashamed of herself for having taken what Duncan and Elga had told her as truth. Not to have given the

man she loved the benefit of the doubt was bad enough; to have actually believed the lies told about him

was worse. He would never forgive her and she wasn't all that sure she would ever forgive herself.