Chapter Eleven

CHAPTER ELEVEN

S omeone was singing softly.

Elisiana was gradually aware of singing, of a horribly aching head, and when she opened her eyes, it was dark but for a taper next to the bed.

The bed.

She recognized it.

Emitting something between a grunt and a roar, Elisiana propelled herself off the bed and onto the floor. Whoever had been singing screamed at the action, and as Elisiana tried to crawl away from her childhood bed, her mother was suddenly in her path.

"Lisi, nay ," her mother begged, putting her hands on her daughter and trying to soothe her. "You have been injured! You must not exert yourself!"

Elisiana yanked herself away from her mother, kicking at the woman as she scrambled away. But the room was rocking and there wasn't another way out because she could see that she was in her childhood bedroom. There was one way in and one way out.

She was trapped.

She was home.

Cowering against the wall, Elisiana kicked at her mother again when the woman tried to come to her aid.

"Leave me alone," she spat, kicking again. " Leave me alone! "

Sybil de Norbury de Verra did exactly that. She stopped. Wide-eyed, she looked at her daughter with something between fear and sorrow in her expression. In fact, her daughter favored her a great deal in her beauty, except that Elisiana had inherited an ancestor's pale blue eyes and Sybil possessed brown eyes.

Brown eyes that were full of turmoil.

"You are not well, my darling," she said softly. "Please… please let me help you to bed. You must rest."

Elisiana was becoming a little more lucid and along with that lucidity came anger and panic. "Where is Papa?" she demanded. "Where is he?"

"He is—"

She wouldn't let her mother finish. "I want to see him now !"

She was practically shouting, and Sybil opened the chamber door, sending a hovering servant running for Adriano. Meanwhile, she tried to keep her daughter calm.

"We have been so terribly worried for you, my darling," she said. "Téo said he found you in a tavern. A tavern , Elisiana! What were you doing in a tavern? Is that where you have been all this time?"

Elisiana was starting to feel sick, mingling with her anger. "Téo hit me," she said. "If I ever see that bastard again, I will kill him!"

"You must not say such things!"

"I do not care," Elisiana said. "He hit me. He hurt me! Do you not even care?"

Sybil didn't know what to say. "He was saving you, Lisi!"

"Saving me from what ?"

" Mi hija! " Adriano was suddenly in the doorway. "What happened? Did you fall?"

He rushed toward his daughter with the intent to help her off the floor, but Elisiana began kicking at him, too. He came too close and she smashed him in the shins, causing him to stumble back in pain and confusion.

"What is the matter with you?" he demanded. "Lisi, what is wrong?"

Elisiana exploded. "What is wrong ?" she cried. "Do you ask that question seriously? What is wrong is that I am here and I do not wish to be here. If I wanted to come home, I would have come home by myself! You had no right to bring me here!"

Adriano wasn't sure how to answer. He considered her statement, looking at his wife for support, but she was as fearful and baffled as he was.

"This is your home, Elisiana," he finally said. "This is where you belong."

Elisiana was struggling to her feet, using the wall for support. "I do not belong here," she said. "I found a place where I belonged and you sent Téo to brutally rip me from my chosen home."

Adriano wasn't exactly sure what he'd expected when his daughter regained consciousness. Her brother had said she had fought against him and he'd had to knock her on the head, twice he'd said, so she would be no trouble for the ride back to Fremington. Perhaps Adriano had been hoping for a tearful reunion, apologies from his errant daughter, and a genuine desire to do what her parents wished for her to do. He'd expected anything but what he was receiving, and that was a furious daughter who was declaring her hatred for her own home.

He was genuinely shocked.

"Then tell me what is so terrible about this home, mi hija ," he pleaded. "Tell me why you left us. It has been agonizing not knowing what happened. Were you taken from us? Did you run away? What happened?"

Elisiana had made it to her feet, but she was feeling so horrible that she staggered back over to the bed so she could sit down. "You know what happened," she snapped. "You forced Adolph upon me. You force him down my throat like the most foul-tasting medicine, positive I would simply accept him without question. But he is a vile, mannerless man who asked me to touch his genitals once we were alone. I am certain he did not tell you that."

Sybil gasped in horror as Adriano looked outraged. "He did not," he said. "He said that he was speaking with you in the garden and someone struck him. When he came out of the pond, you were gone. He thought you might have been abducted. Servants saw you in the stable with your horse, alone, but we thought that you were forced to leave us somehow. We did not know."

Elisiana rolled her eyes. "I was not forced to leave you," she said, marginally calmer. "And I am not surprised that Adolph did not tell you the truth. I kicked him and pushed him into the pond, and then I ran. I ran as far and fast as I could because I will not marry the man. I will commit myself to a convent first."

Adriano sighed heavily. "Why could you not have come to tell me all of this?" he asked. "Why did you have to run?"

Now that the rush of fear and anger was draining out of her, Elisiana was feeling nauseated and weak. "Because you would not listen," she said. "You have never listened to me."

"That is not true."

"It is," she insisted. "I could have told you about it, but you would have probably told me to forgive him and make peace with him. Well, I do not want to forgive him. I do not want to make peace. Papa, I deserve a husband who respects me and behaves kindly. I do not deserve an animal who asks me to touch his manhood."

Sybil gasped again at the mention of the offense, putting her hand over her mouth in shock as Adriano rubbed his temples. He was starting to get a headache.

"Of course you deserve the best," he said. "I agree with you, mi hija . But Adolph… He seemed very concerned that you were gone. Is it possible… possible you misunderstood him?"

Elisiana looked at the man in exasperation. "Of course I did not misunderstand him," she said, growing agitated again. "I am not stupid, Papa. He behaved horribly and I refuse to marry him. If I ever see him again, I will kick him again where I kicked him before. Do no t send him to me. Is he still here? Never send him to me unless you want a battle."

Adriano held up his hands to ease her. "Ease yourself," he said. "He is not here. He is home near Launceston. After we did not find you right away, he returned home and has been there ever since."

"Good," Elisiana said. "Keep him there. I've no desire to see the man ever again."

Adriano glanced at his wife, who was watching her daughter with sorrow. Everyone was upset so it would do no good to argue with Elisiana tonight, but the truth was that she could not have everything she wanted. She'd been brought home for a reason and whether or not she wanted to marry Adolph was immaterial. She was going to pay the price for Adriano's debt and there was nothing she could do about it.

The sooner she realized this, the better.

"It is late, mi hija ," he finally said. "Your mother will bring you some food and then you will sleep. We will continue this discussion in the morning."

Elisiana didn't reply immediately, so Adriano turned for the door. He was almost through it when he heard her voice, soft but unmistakable.

"Papa, I was happy where I was," she said. "I do not want to stay here."

He turned to look at her. "We will discuss it tomorrow."

Elisiana turned to look at him. "Nay, we will not," she said. "I will tell you now that you took me away from a place where I felt needed and respected and loved. You took me away from simple people who extended friendship to me in a way no one else ever has. And you took me away from a man I very much want to marry. I am going back to him, just so we understand one another. Neither Adolph nor you will stop me."

Adriano stood in the doorway, his gaze drifting over his daughter, who seemed to have changed a good deal over the past six months. She still looked the same, mostly—her beautiful face, her beautiful hair—but there was something in her voice that suggested maturity. Somehow, she'd grown up a little. But he wasn't hard pressed to admit that he was displeased to hear that his daughter had met a man she wanted to marry.

"If you are married to Adolph, you cannot marry another man," he told her. "You have a betrothal contract with Adolph. You are his, by rights and by law. Who is this man you wish to marry?"

She shook her head. "Someone who is greater than you could possibly imagine," she said. "A descendant of a Bernician princess. A great man who is greatly respected. And he means the world to me."

"Then the refusal to marry Adolph is because of this man?"

"It is because I hate Adolph. He is unworthy."

"He is your uncle's wife's son."

"That does not mean he is worthy, nor does it mean he is family. He is nothing."

Adriano sighed sharply. "Your time away has taught you to be disrespectful to me," he said. "Is that what it has done? Taught you to behave shamefully to your own father?"

"It has taught me to defend myself."

For lack of any real answer to what he considered an exhaustingly ridiculous statement, Adriano shook his head and quit the chamber, heading back down to the hall. That left Sybil still standing at the foot of the bed, watching her daughter with concern.

"I will send for some food, my darling," she said. "Would you like to bathe? I can have a bath brought up right away."

Food and a bath sounded wonderful to Elisiana. She was angry, and stubborn, but that only went so far. Food and a bath were things she very much wanted, something to settle her stomach and something to wash away the dirt of her abduction. Looking down at herself, she saw she was still wearing the lavender dress she'd put on for Sinclair.

Sinclair…

The man had fought to help her but, in the end, he hadn't been able to. She could only imagine the torment he was going through. The uncertainty. In truth, she had enough uncertainty of her own because her relationship with him was so very new. They hardly knew one another, and now this. She wondered if he'd gone back to Blackchurch only to decide she wasn't worth the trouble. That he didn't want to get mixed up with a woman whose father was a Castilian count and his cousin was a pirate.

Sweet, beautiful Sinclair…

She wouldn't have at all blamed him if he decided she was too much trouble, but that didn't mean she didn't plan to somehow win him back. She was going to return to the Black Cock and she was going to work hard to bring him back to her. To hell with her parents.

To hell with Adolph.

Elisiana was already planning her escape. But while she was planning her return to Exebridge, Adriano was in his solar, scratching out a missive to his brother-in-law. He was doing exactly what his daughter didn't want him to do.

Elisiana is home. Send Adolph right away.

The wheels, for both father and daughter, were in motion.