Devil's Dominion (38 page)

Allaston nodded firmly. “Your only choices,” she confirmed. “In fact, if you....”

She was cut off when he suddenly grabbed her, slanting his warm mouth over hers. Allaston was startled, initially a little scared, but she quickly succumbed to his hot, seeking lips. He suckled her lower lip gently, running a tongue over it, and Allaston shuddered. Fueled by her response, Bretton’s onslaught grew more intense and his arms tightened around her.

Although the initial grab had been rough and tactless, the kiss was searing, speaking of untapped desire. Bretton had never kissed a woman in a manner that wasn’t pure lust or physical need, so this was something quite different to him. He was kissing her because he wanted to, because it seemed like the right thing to do, and because doing so somehow satisfied something deep inside him. She was warm and luscious, and so very soft, her body against his. He was losing himself in the kiss, letting himself go, when Uldward the cook suddenly came through the doorway. The next thing Bretton realized, he was standing about five feet away from Allaston with his heart pounding in his ears.

Allaston looked a bit startled as well. She gazed at Bretton, wiping at the moisture on her swollen lips. As Uldward bustled around in the kitchen yard on a hunt for something he evidently needed, she eyed the man, knowing he had seen them in a passionate embrace. Her cheeks began to flame as she struggled to pretend that Uldward hadn’t seen any of it.

“What do you intend to do about de Lohr’s missive?” she asked, simply to move onto another subject far away from the heated kiss. “Will you respond to him?”

Bretton had the back of his hand to his mouth. He could still taste her on his flesh and he wanted to keep that taste as long as possible. He could smell her, too. She smelled like flowers.

“It is none of his business,” he said. “De Lohr has no cause to interfere in something that does not concern him.”

Allaston’s head was still swimming from his kiss so she wandered back over to her stool, next to the pea basket, and sat heavily.

“I find it quite surprising that my father asked him to broker my release,” she said. “As I said, my father has no allies. He keeps to himself.”

There was something in that statement that caught Bretton’s attention. “Then the question is
why
he would involve de Lohr,” he said thoughtfully. “Why ask someone you do not know to mediate a conflict? There must be a reason.”

Allaston began shelling the remainder of the peas. “Maybe he did not want come himself,” she said. “Mayhap he was fearful of what would happen if he did. I’m sure he fears that you will harm me. Mayhap he believed that de Lohr can better negotiate my release given the fact that you are not angry with de Lohr.”

Bretton looked at her with a cocked eyebrow. “I wasn’t angry with him until he sent his missive,” he said. “No man will stand between me and Jax de Velt, and especially not Christopher de Lohr. De Lohr had better be careful that I do not kill him in order to get to de Velt.”

Allaston said nothing. Her focus was on her peas. She wasn’t going to argue with him about his vengeance towards her father any more. He knew how she felt about it but he was determined to go through with it anyway. At least, he said so. She could not give up hope that she could change his mind. She could only hope that God would work a miracle in her favor.

“When you reply to his missive, will you tell him that I wish to remain here?” she asked. “I am sure he will not believe you, but you will make sure to tell him, won’t you?”

Bretton’s gaze lingered on her. “It is your father I want,” he said. “I will make sure de Lohr understands that. Your purpose in this situation has been pre-determined from the beginning. You are to draw your father to me.”

She looked up. “Is that what you will tell him?”

Bretton drew in a long, pensive breath. “I will tell him that if he wants to negotiate, then he must see me face to face. That is the only way I will conduct business with your father or with de Lohr.”

Allaston looked down to her peas. She didn’t have much more to say to that so she let the subject die. Bretton seemed preoccupied, anyway, now thinking of de Lohr’s missive and not of the heated kiss they had shared. As she sat there and harvested tiny green peas, Bretton walked over to her, gathered her dirty right hand to kiss it gently, and then promptly turned and headed out of the kitchen yard. Before he could get away completely, Allaston called after him.

“Bretton?”

He paused, turning to look at her. “Aye?”

Allaston looked up from her peas, her green-eyed gaze swallowing him whole. “Please consider burying the dead of Cloryn,” she said. “If it was your father up there, you would want someone to bury him. That man of mercy... let me catch a glimpse of him today. It would mean a great deal to me.”

Without another word, Bretton left the yard. Allaston wasn’t sure her request had much impact with him simply from the stubborn expression on his face so she went back to her peas, hoping that someday he might have more respect for her requests.

Within the hour, the army of the dead outside of the walls started to come down.

℘

By the evening meal, the smell of burning bodies filled the air, mingling with the smell of roasting meat. The pig that had been butchered a few days prior was now being roasted over an open flame, creating a stench with the burning dead that truly had to be experienced to be believed.

Although Allaston has asked him to bury the bodies, Bretton had decided to burn them and bury the ashes because there was very little left of the bodies as it was. It was easier to burn and bury the ashes. As Allaston stayed to the kitchen to make sure the food was amply, and properly, prepared, Bretton was in the keep in the entry-level room that he had claimed for his own.

Sitting at the head of the long, scrubbed table, he had a quill in his left hand as ink and sand sat off to his left within easy reach. A piece of vellum was spread out before him, a section he had torn off from another missive he found at Cloryn addressed to the former commander. He was scribing a missive to de Lohr, basically telling the man to stop protecting de Velt and send the man to him. He proceeded to tell de Lohr, under no uncertain terms, that Allaston’s life would be in danger until de Velt presented himself. He was just finishing up the missive when he heard boots approaching, glancing up to see Grayton, Teague, and Dallan approach from the keep entry.

He put his head back down, finishing his message, as his commanders entered the room. The strain between him and his commanders had been great ever since he had returned from Newtown and he wasn’t particularly in the mood to speak with them. He’d done enough of that earlier in the day when they’d had a fine yelling match in the great hall. As he continued to write, the three commanders sat down at the table, remaining silent as Bretton finished scribing. When he paused enough to make them think he was finished, Grayton spoke.

“Is that the response to de Lohr?” he asked.

Bretton nodded, his eyes on the parchment before him. “It is,” he said, unfriendly. “I have told de Lohr not to interfere in what does not concern him and to produce Jax de Velt on my doorstep or Lady Allaston will suffer. Grayton, prepare a messenger to send this immediately.”

Grayton’s eyes assessed Bretton. “I will,” he said, “but we must speak with you first.”

Bretton grunted sharply. “If you are going to fight with me about placing Lady Allaston in the vault again, then my answer is still no,” he said, finally looking up at them. “What else could you three possibly have to say to me beyond that?”

Teague, who was the most level-headed of the group, spoke. “The men are concerned, Bretton,” he said honestly. “Before the yelling started in the great hall, we were going to relay those concerns, so I will relay them now. Our next target is Comen Castle and we were supposed to be there now, as per your word. But it seems that you have grown complacent and Lady Allaston seems to be at the center of it. You must understand that perception is everything, Bretton, and she is perceived as having bewitched you with her wiles. The men grow increasingly suspicious and if you allow her to roam the castle freely, it is quite possible that her life will seriously be in danger purely because they believe her to be a threat to the dreams of wealth you promised them.”

So it was out. Now Bretton heard the real reason behind his commanders’ aversion to Allaston because earlier in the hall, they hadn’t been truthful about it. They had made it seem as if they, personally, wanted her imprisoned. The problem was that Bretton could see the logic and he believed every word Teague said. He knew how mercenaries thought. If they perceived something as a threat, they would stop at nothing to eliminate it. That being the case, it was time for total truth between Bretton and his men. Perhaps if he could make them understand his mindset, he could sway them to his side. Right now, they sided with the men. He could see that plainly. Rather than fight with them about it any longer, he decided to try reason.

“Their dreams of wealth have not been quashed, no matter what they think,” he said. “I am planning on moving on to Comen the day after tomorrow, which should give us enough time to prepare the army. As for Lady Allaston... I must be completely honest with you for I fear I have not been. I have treated her like a personal possession, a personal whipping post, and I have not let any of you get close to her. She represents all I hate and every reason behind our conquest of de Velt’s properties.”

Teague leaned forward on the table, his serious focus on Bretton. “There is more to it than that,” he said quietly. “We can all see it. When you tell us to take down the bodies posted outside of the walls, bodies you were determined to keep out there for six months, then we can only assume the lady has had some hand in this decision.”

Bretton’s expression was guarded. “Why would you assume that?”

Teague lifted his dark eyebrows. “Because we all saw her weep at the feet of the former lord and lady of Cloryn,” he said. “She was very upset about it. Must I really explain this, Bretton? It is apparent that you are doing it to appease her.”

Bretton shrugged. “Does it matter why I have ordered the bodies cut down?” he wanted to know. “I seem to remember a battle commander telling me that the smell was unappetizing. God’s Blood, I cannot seem to please any of you these days – if I cut the bodies down, I am appeasing Lady Allaston, and if I do not throw her back in the vault, then Grayton is furious with me. When did every command I make fall under such scrutiny? I grow weary of having to justify myself constantly.”

Teague nodded, glancing at Grayton. He had been at the head of the anti-Allaston campaign and had been speaking out the most against her. Teague also knew why and it was time to settle the matter once and for all because the conflict between them and their liege was growing unhealthy. It was time to air their grievances and hopefully solve them.

“You cannot blame Grayton for his concern over the lady,” Teague said. “The woman tried to kill you once. She could very well be luring you into a false sense of security with her feminine charms so you will trust her. She only needs to get a poker in her hand again, or worse, to do some real damage.”

Bretton shook his head as if the entire suggestion was ridiculous. “She will not kill me.”

Grayton couldn’t remain silent any longer. “She has tried once and she will try it again, but you do not want to listen to me.”

It was a struggle for Bretton not to become angry with him. “I will not repeat the shouting match we had in the hall earlier,” he told the man. “I appreciate the fact that you are concerned for my health, Grayton, but I will not put the woman in the vault so you may as well stop bringing the subject up. Besides, I do not believe that is the truth behind your grudge against her. I believe it is because you let her out of the vault and then she betrayed your kindness by assaulting me with the poker. If that is the case, then you need to move beyond that humiliation, which was no humiliation at all. I am not upset about it and you should not be, either.”

Grayton simply shook his head and looked away. Bretton watched the man, feeling remorseful with the situation between them because before Allaston had come into their lives, he and Grayton had been good friends. He trusted the man. Now, there was tension, and he was sorry. But he wouldn’t dwell on it. Still, there was more he had to say.

“I will, however, calmly address the subject of Lady Allaston,” he said. “Mayhap you feel as if I have left you out of my decision making process when it comes to her, and you could be correct. As I said before, she is my captive and she is my property, and I have considered the woman a great deal and how best to use her against her father. I believe I have a solution.”

Teague was the only one who didn’t seem guarded in his reaction. Grayton was still sitting there, his eyes averted, and Dallan was much more a follower than a leader. He was simply listening to what had been said. Therefore, Teague headed the conversation.

“Proceed, Bretton,” he said. “We are listening.”

So he had their attention. Bretton didn’t even know where to start. He didn’t want to come across as weak or indecisive or, worse, foolish. He decided to simply come out with it all but convince his men that there was less of his emotion involved in the situation than there was. It would be a struggle not to come across as emotionally invested in her because he was. He wanted his men to believe that she was a tool to gain his ends and nothing more.