Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

A va lifted her head. It felt heavy, as if it was no longer attached to her body, but some great heavy iron ball she had to drag around with her. Placing her hands to the back of her head, slowly, she raised it from the floor, sitting up and looking around her.

There was something around her ankle. It cut in deep, making her wince in pain. She looked down, seeing it was a rope. She was tied to a bed.

Horrid thoughts entered her mind. She ran her hands over her body, but she was still fully clothed in the nightgown she had worn the night before. A robe had been fastened around her body too. She was not sore, leading her to believe no one had forced themselves on her in the middle of the night.

She reached for the rope, pulling at it frantically and trying to untie the knots. As quickly as she worked her fingers around one knot, she found another. Whoever had tied these binds had made certain she would not be getting out.

A door banged open.

Ava’s head jerked up. In the doorway of this foreign bedchamber stood Laird Grant. He was clearly tired after his kidnapping activities in the night, with heavy shadows under his eyes. In his belt was a long basilard that he rested the palm of his hand on. The threat was explicit, without him having to say a thing.

“Why take me?” Ava hissed. “What good can I dae ye now?”

“I dinnae like tae lose,” he said simply, his lips pressed firmly together. “Ye gave me yer word, and now ye will keep tae it. Ye will marry me today, Ava.” He walked forward, reaching for the ties at her ankle. “I willnae be made a fool.”

She scurried back, trying to get as far from him as possible, though the rope was tight so that was only so far that she could go.

He took hold of her ankle and dragged her back toward him, so that she fell beneath him on the bed. She thrust her hands up to his chest, halting him from dropping his body down on hers.

“Ye willnae force yerself on me,” she said with disgust. “Ye willnae take me.”

“Nae yet .” His words made her blood run cold. “We will be married first.”

“Ye cannae marry me. I will stand in that church and yell me refusal. I will scream it so every woman in the Highlands will hear me.”

“Ye willnae say nay.”

“I will!”

“Let me show ye why willnae refuse me in that church.” He moved abruptly, bending down and grabbing the basilard from his belt.

“Nay!” she cried, fearing he was about to stab her with it, but he only used it to cut through the ropes instead. Then he grabbed her wrist and hauled her to her feet. “I am nae yer dog tae carry around!”

“Ye will be.” He dragged her out of the room.

She pulled against him, digging her heels into the floorboards as she looked around herself, trying to figure out where they were. It didn’t take any great leap of imagination to realize.

This was a castle. The room she had been in was a bedchamber. The staff walking the corridors were not just guards but maids too.

Ava was pulled down another corridor, then into what appeared to be a minstrel’s gallery, overlooking a great hall.

“Where are we? What is this? Where are ye taking me?” Yet none of her questions were answered.

Ava’s waist was grabbed as she was pushed toward the edge of the gallery. She gripped the balustrade hard, terrified she was about to be thrown over when she saw who was down in the middle of that great hall.

Kai was kneeling on the ground. He had his wrists bound behind his back, his face and body dirty. The side of his face and head was dappled with blood where he had suffered a head wound, and behind him stood three men, including Peters. Each one had a sword pulled on Kai, showing what they would do if he dared to move an inch.

Slowly, Kai lifted his chin, his eyes meeting Ava’s.

“Nay,” she whispered in horror, feeling as if her heart was shattering into pieces.

“Poor, poor lovesick pup,” Laird Grant said, leaning on the balustrade beside her. His hand caressed her waist. She tried to lean away from him, but he took hold of the robe she had been put in and dragged her back to his side.

Ava caught the disgust on Kai’s face, the fury in him right now. He would have taken a sword and run Laird Grant through if he could have.

“This is why ye will marry me today,” Laird Grant declared, loud enough for Kai to hear. “Or yer poor little lover down there is dead. Ye understand me?”

Peters moved forward with his sword and placed it threateningly on the back of Kai’s neck. Kai didn’t even flinch, but his face contracted as Laird Grant moved closer to Ava, whispering in her ear.

“He had ye, didnae he? He was yer first.”

Ava said nothing. She was doing her best to ward off tears as her hands gripped the balustrade tightly.

“That will be a distant memory soon enough.” He gripped her back, possessively. “I will mark ye as me own after the wedding.”

“Tae marry ye –”

“Ye will dae it,” he cut her off tersely. “Unless ye wish tae watch him die?”

“Dinnae dae it, Ava.” Kai called up to her. “I dinnae care what happens tae me, just dinnae say ye’ll marry –”

“I’ll dae it.” A tear slid down Ava’s cheek. “I’ll marry ye, if ye vow once we stand up in church that Kai will be released, unharmed.”

“Then we have an agreement.” Laird Grant’s malicious smile made Ava’s heart tremble in her chest.

Kai knelt at the end of the church aisle, with Peters still standing behind him, a sword at his back. More than once, Kai had tried to undo the ropes that bound his hands together, but it was no use. He had been tied up too well and each time he shifted, those ropes cut a little deeper into his skin.

He was being forced to watch a nightmare.

Before the altar stood Ava and Laird Grant. Ava had been placed in some gown, a dress that she never would have worn herself. It was heavily black, ornate, with gold fringe. Even her blonde braid had been tucked up into a coif and hood, the kind she never wore.

He is making her intae the woman he wants.

Kai’s glower shifted to Laird Grant.

The man stood tall before the altar, beckoning to the dithering priest.

“Begin,” he ordered.

“Me laird.” The priest’s voice shook just as much as his body did. “Is this legal? We need witnesses.”

“We have witnesses.” He nodded at Peters behind Kai, and also the two guards which stood off to his right. One pulled a sword, making it plain that if the priest objected much further, he would be wounded for his troubles.

“Aye, aye, there are.” The priest swallowed nervously, his pitying look falling on Ava. “The bride is crying…”

“She is overwrought, that is all.”

“Ye think so, Laird Grant?” Kai found his voice. “Maybe she is crying because the man she actually wants tae marry is at the end of a sword!”

“Be quiet!” Laird Grant spun around, his eyes flashing in fury. “Or ye will be run through in this church.”

“Blood… spilt in a house of God?” The priest trembled, gripping to his bible hard. “Me laird!”

“He willnae dae it,” Kai assured the priest. “Kill me now and ye lose yer leverage over Ava tae make her marry ye. Ye willnae kill me… yet.”

His added word made Ava turn to look at him from the altar. Her cheeks were indeed very tear stained. Her lips trembled with the effort to try to stop them.

When Kai had touched him briefly before he had been struck, he had read the emotion in Laird Grant as if it was a beacon of flames.

Murder is in his heart. He intends bloodshed.

The moment they were married, Kai believed Laird Grant would advance toward him, probably take the sword from Peters and run him through there on the flagstone floor before Ava’s eyes.

A look of understanding passed between them. Ava nodded, ever so subtly, but Kai didn’t know what else to do. Even if going through with the charade of the wedding bought them time, Kai still had no way out of this. He couldn’t break the binds holding his wrists together, and if he did, Peters would surely strike him down.

“Let us begin,” Laird Grant said again, waving a hand at the priest.

Clearly, this time, the priest didn’t see the point in arguing. He shot an apologetic look at Ava but began.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…”

Kai kept his gaze on Ava. She didn’t look at Laird Grant but stared at Kai. Growing impatient, Laird Grant took hold of her chin and forced her to look at him. She pointedly closed her eyes, refusing to.

“Wife, look at me!” he hissed, talking over the priest who just continued on with the opening prayer, doing his best not to shake and drop the bible.

“I am nae yer wife yet,” she spat back, still keeping her eyes firmly closed.

“Give us the vows,” Laird Grant ordered.

As he repeated the vows given to him by the priest, Kai looked away.

Through the nearest stained-glass windows, he saw a figure move. Was that a child peering in through the glass to watch the laird’s ceremony?

Nay. Nay child is tall enough tae look through that glass.

Yet Kai didn’t know who else would be foolish enough to come to this church when there were clearly guards outside warning all to keep clear.

“Me lady, it is yer turn,” the priest said delicately. “Repeat after me.”

“Of course, she takes me,” Laird Grant cut in.

“We have tae hear her say it.”

“I dinnae–”

“She does take me. She takes me in sickness and in health, all of it. She takes me, now move on.”

“That is nae what she said.”

“Give me the rings!” Laird Grant snapped to one of the guards nearby, grabbing it from his hand and turning back to face Ava.

There was movement once again beyond the stained-glass window. The sunlight flickered off something metal, shining like a bright star. Was that a sword?

It cannae be…

Then Kai heard it. Someone dropped to the ground. There was an almighty slap of skin, someone being thumped before the heavy thud of the body falling.

Peters clearly heard it too, for he flinched at Kai’s side. He clearly didn’t want to risk interrupting his laird though at such an important time, so he just silently turned to face the closed church door.

“I now pronounce ye… husband and wife,” the priest said miserably.

“Nay,” the word broke free of Kai as Ava sniffed loudly, not bothering to hold back her tears.

Kai looked toward the pair of them, no longer interested in what was happening outside that church door as Laird Grant took hold of Ava’s face and tried to force her to kiss him. She bent down, pushing her hands in his chest and trying to force him off her.

“Ye’re mine now,” he hissed.

Then the doors burst open. Kai’s head whipped around as Peters turned with the blade, unsure now where to point that weapon.

“I thought I told ye nae tae force a kiss from me daughter, demon.”