The Prisoner Bride

“Hurry, Dina,” Glenys said insistently as they made their way out of the building where Master Fairchild kept his banking business. A servant held the large wooden door open for them, bowing as they passed. “I want to be home as soon as we may.”

Picking up her skirts, she hurried out to the street toward their waiting carriage. Dina’s rapidly following footsteps spurred her on, and Glenys barely cast a glance at their manservant, John, as he opened the door, lowering his head and tugging his forelock.

Despite the brief exchange, Glenys knew at once that something was wrong. But she had already stepped into the carriage before her body responded to what her brain had told her—that John wasn’t that tall or well-muscled.

“Dina,” she said, turning to step back down again, only to have Dina shoved so forcibly inside that they both fell against the seat. Dina screamed loudly in Glenys’s ear and clutched at her tightly in panic, making matters worse.

Everything happened so quickly that by the time Glenys had righted both herself and Dina, it was too late. The imposter who’d taken John’s place had lifted himself easily into the carriage and shut the door behind him, and the carriage had been set into motion.

“What—!” Glenys uttered.

The man sat in the seat opposite them, pulling a long, sharp, shining knife from beneath the folds of John’s tunic—for he wore it over his own clothing—and held it up.

“Be quiet for now, mistress,” he said in a calm but commanding tone. “Have no fears, for if you do as I say, no harm will come to you or your maid. If you refuse to obey, I’ll make you insensible. And her, as well.” He nodded at Dina, who made a gargled, choking sound and promptly fainted on Glenys’s shoulder.

“We have no money,” Glenys told him, pushing Dina upright with both hands to keep her from sliding to the floor. “I’ve brought nothing from the bank.”

The fiend merely smiled at her—in a ridiculously charming manner that Glenys felt belied the situation entirely.

“I’ve no care for your money, Mistress Glenys,” he replied. “Now heed me, and keep quiet. We’ll be at the city gate soon, and then you’ll have enough to say. Once we’re safe out of London, I’ll explain the matter most fully.”

“At the city gates, I’ll have you—and whoever is driving our carriage—arrested,” Glenys vowed angrily. “What have you done with John and Willem? For that is surely not Willem atop. He’d never—”

The stranger held up a staying hand. “They are both well and unharmed. A little tap to the head, I promise you, is all they suffered. I’ve already arranged for them to be found and safely returned to Metolius. Have no fears for them, but for yourself and your maid. I dislike harming women, but I will do so if I must. We will get through the city gates, either with your aid or without, though you’ll far prefer the outcome if you freely lend your assistance. Understand me well, Mistress Glenys, for I mean what I say. I’ve killed a great many men in my life, and adding two London guards to the number will mean very little to me. I suspect, howbeit, that you would prefer not to be the cause of such bloodshed. Nay, be still.” He held up the knife. “You may speak as much as you like…later.”

Chapter Three

Glenys folded her arms across her chest, leveled her gaze directly at her abductor and stared. He stared back with that same charming smile on his face, seemingly content to remain silent and match her in a contest of wills.

Glenys’s eyes narrowed. He was just the sort of man she despised. Handsome and so assured of his own charms that he thought a mere smile could make a woman melt in adoration. Especially an unattractive female, such as she was. Well, he was handsome, she would give him that, perhaps the handsomest man she’d yet set sight upon—and probably as charming as could be—but that mattered for naught. If he believed Glenys would fall prey to such foolish tricks, he was far, far wrong. She’d learned very well how to protect her heart. Ill-favored girls learned that early on, and very quickly.

His eyes were stunningly blue and very clear against the light golden-brown of his overlong hair. His face was aristocratic and finely boned, with a long, aquiline nose and high cheekbones. His mouth—well, Glenys wouldn’t let herself dwell upon that particular feature too long. It was purely sensual, especially smiling at her in that certain manner. He must have used that smile to great effect in the past. How foolish he was to think that Glenys was as simpleminded as so many other females, though she admitted, grudgingly, it was…rather unsettling to be looked at just so. She’d never been smiled at in such a way before, not by any man, least of all one so well-favored as this thief.

They were well out of London now, several miles, at least. She’d meant to cry out for help at the city gate, God’s truth she had. But Dina still lay so limply against her, so entirely vulnerable, and the knave had secreted his knife with such obvious meaning that she’d decided it would be best to do as he said for now and deal with getting rid of him later. Once he realized that she had no money and that her relatives wouldn’t begin to know how to ransom her—for they had little practical knowledge of the world, and no knowledge of how to access their own fortune—he’d let both her and Dina go. There could surely be nothing else he wanted, unless it was from Dina. Glenys knew herself to be thoroughly undesirable, despite the practiced smiles the rogue was yet sending her way.

And so, resigned to at least obey the man until she was able to reason with him, Glenys had repeated exactly what he’d told her to say to the guards, and they, recognizing her, had opened the gates and let them pass. Almost immediately thereafter Dina had begun to come to her senses, and Glenys had been busy dealing with her maid’s incoherent fears and fits of weeping for the next quarter of an hour. Only now had Dina subsided, reassured by Glenys—and also by the stranger, though Glenys had bid him to the devil when he’d spoken—that no harm would come to her. The younger girl sat, dazed and frightened, with her hands folded in her lap, sniffling and wiping away silent tears. Glenys, certain that she could at last now deal with the matter at hand, crossed her arms over her chest and prepared to reason with their captor. His insolence had held her silent, daring him to speak first, but now that several stubborn moments had passed between them, she at last gave way.

“You will have no money from this venture, I promise you,” she told him. “Indeed, you will be fortunate if your only recompense is escaping a fitting punishment at the hands of the king, which would be, most like, nothing less than being drawn and quartered. But you will escape that fate only if you cease this venture now, sir. If you do not, I can make no promise that you will evade your just due.”

He appeared to be entirely amused at her pronouncement, and nodded at her regally.

“You are kind to think on my safety and well-being, mistress,” he said, “but I fear I cannot put an end to this…venture, as you term it…even for the sake of my own life, and that of my companion. I have already accepted payment for the deed and, having done so, I cannot now give way for the sake of my honor, as little of it as I possess.”

Glenys’s eyes grew round with surprise. “Someone paid you to kidnap me? Who was it? And to what purpose? I tell you there will be no ransom, even if you should threaten to kill me.”

His eyebrows rose at this. “Your family holds you far more dearly than you think, mistress. I’m certain they would pay well indeed to secure your return, and most especially to make certain of your life. But you have not been taken for that purpose, for the sake of a ransom. I was hired by your lover, Sir Anton Lagasse, to secret you away and keep you safe in a place where your—”

“Sir Anton!” Glenys cried, interrupting him.

Beside her, Dina groaned out loud and said, “Oh, no!”

The stranger regarded them with bemusement. “He isn’t your lover?”

Glenys had set a hand to her forehead in distress and briefly closed her eyes. She opened them now and said, far more loudly and irately than she’d meant, “Nay, you God-cursed fool! He’s my direst enemy. The very man who means my family naught but ruin and misery.”

The knave at last lost his smile. “I’m very sorry then, for ’tis clear that he lied to me about his intentions. But I thought it might be thus, for he seemed a feckless knave. Still, I have taken you as I agreed to do, and will hold you captive until he comes to fetch you.”

“Hold me? Until he comes to fetch me for what? What lies did he tell you?”

“Sir Anton told me that he is your lover, but that your family refuses to recognize his request for your hand in marriage because they deem him unsuitable. Howbeit, he is shortly to become both landed and more highly titled, and believes that your relatives will thereafter find him acceptable. He fears, however, that you will be forced to marry another before he can attain this goal, and therefore hired me to secret you away at his keep in York, safe from your family, until he can come to claim you in all his splendid glory. I have already admitted that I found the story foolish,” the stranger said without shame, “but I had reasons of my own for accepting the task. For those same reasons I will see it through, and we must both set our minds to it.”

“He must have paid you well,” Glenys said with disgust, “for, in truth, he has good cause to want me out of his way. And what a fine jest to make himself out as my lover. He must have known you would realize the truth once you set sight upon me.”

To his merit, the thief didn’t laugh, as she’d expected him to do. He gazed at her with measured calm and replied, “If this was indeed his thought, then he was far mistaken. I understand what it is that you say, mistress, but you merely prove once more that you realize very little of the truth.”

“I realize perfectly well that no man would claim me as his love unless in jest,” Glenys retorted angrily, furious that they even spoke of such things. “Many, however, might be willing to make such a claim for money, and as that is the heart of this matter, then I pray we speak of it now. Clearly and plainly. Sir Anton paid you well, but I can pay you far more. What amount will you require to stop this foolishness and release us? I vow, upon my honor, that I’ll make payment and let you go peaceably on your way. I’ll say nothing of the matter to anyone, and will make certain that John and Willem are silent, as well. Only stop the carriage now and we’ll speak terms.”

“I’m sorry to be so disobliging, Mistress Glenys,” he said, “but no amount of gold could cause me to turn this task aside. Apart from Sir Anton’s desires, I have reasons of my own for taking and holding you, as I have already said. Mayhap we should begin again. Let me introduce myself to you. My name is Kieran FitzAllen, and I am pleased to be known to you, Mistress Glenys and Mistress Dina.” He sat forward and regally bowed his head.

Glenys wished she had something to bash him with in that vulnerable moment, but there was nothing to be had. She threw her hands up in the air, instead, in a gesture of the fury she felt. “I care not who you are, idiot knave! How can I make you see reason? Sir Anton will not come to fetch me. He has sent you on a fool’s errand only to keep me out of his path.”

Kieran FitzAllen’s gaze sharpened.

“Then why would he hire me, if not at least to try to force you to wife? Even if he is not your lover, do you not think it likely that he desires your fortune?”

“’Tis no fortune of gold that he desires,” Glenys told him, “but a treasure that rightly belongs to the Seymours. He seeks to find this treasure, which has been lost to us, before I can do so.”

“Ah,” her kidnapper said with sudden understanding, “the Greth Stone. Is that what we speak of?”

Glenys was so surprised he knew of it that she was momentarily stunned into silence. Beside her, Dina stiffened and whispered fearfully, “He knows, m’lady! He’s in league with Sir Anton!”

“Nay, that I am not,” Kieran FitzAllen said at once, directing his attention to Dina as he strove to allay her fears. “Sir Anton’s reasons for having your mistress taken and held are as nothing to me, though I admit they provided me with the opportunity for doing so. I know of the Greth Stone because he warned me that Mistress Glenys would resist being taken for the sake of her own quest to regain it.” He looked at Glenys. “In this matter, at least, ’tis clear he spoke the truth.”

“Not the truth, but cleverly enough,” Glenys admitted, her spirits sinking by the moment. Each sentence that passed in their conversation set an ever increasing distance between them and London. The carriage rattled along at an alarmingly brisk pace, and the sky grew ever more dark with storm clouds. Her aunts and uncles would begin to worry if she didn’t return soon. Or perhaps not, she reasoned, as they seemed to have known that she would not be returning to Metolius anytime soon. The memory of their parting made Glenys inwardly groan. Why couldn’t they just tell her outright when these things were going to happen? Why did everything always have to be such a mystery?

“Please,” she begged, “listen to me, sir, and understand what I say. The Greth Stone is naught but a very old ring, passed through many generations of my family, from as far back as Roman times. It bears no great value save to the Seymours, and only for the sake of sentiment. But there are some who say that it possesses mystical powers, and despite the foolishness of such a claim, there are many more who believe it. Sir Anton is among them. The ring was stolen from our London home, Metolius, while we were gone to our family estate in Wales from Michaelmas until Twelth Day. The man who stole it is…well, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I know who he is, and ’twas my intention to set out next month in order to search the thief out and reclaim the ring. Sir Anton knew of my plans and has clearly determined that he must stop me.”

“He means to find Caswallan before you do, eh?” Kieran FitzAllen asked. Again, Glenys was stunned.

“He told you of Caswallan?” she asked, utterly amazed. “God’s mercy, but Sir Anton Lagasse must be a greater fool than I had believed.” She looked at her captor more closely. “You are in league with him, aren’t you? You must be, to do his bidding in this fruitless matter.”

“I am only concerned with Sir Anton because he hired me to kidnap and hold you, mistress. There is nothing more. I have no interest in your Greth Stone, whether it exists or has magical powers.”

“Of a certainty it has no magical powers,” Glenys said, scoffing. “’Tis naught but a very old ring of little value. But I will not allow Sir Anton to hold aught that belongs to my family. He sees himself as a conjurer, possessed of great skill, and believes the Greth Stone will make him the more powerful.”

At this, the knave finally laughed, throwing his head back and showing teeth that were white and even. Glenys noted, much to her aggravation, that even in mirth he was almost too handsome to look at.

“Sir Anton!” he declared, grinning widely. “A skilled conjurer? I vow, ’tis too much to bear!” He laughed again, fully amused. “By the rood, he seemed more like a well-dressed mouse than so powerful a man.” He laughed all the harder.