Chains of Revenge (8 page)

‘No need. I’ll sleep here with you. This looks like a comfortable chamber.’ He grinned at her like a devil. ‘Come, My Lady. Sleep. Tomorrow is another day.’

He stretched out on her bed and motioned for her to lie next to him. She hesitated and he snapped his fingers. Fury rolled in her belly as she stretched out beside him. He turned to her and pulled her to him, spooning against her back. To her astonishment, he fell asleep immediately.

She lay in the circle of his arms and pondered her next move. Shifting slightly, she eased out of his embrace and sat up. She could either sleep elsewhere or pull the warm blanket at the foot of her bed over them. Staring down at him, she shrugged and pulled the blanket up. Settling herself back down, she stared into the night.

‘Good choice, My Lady,’ he muttered, pulling her against him again.

She sighed. Tomorrow was indeed another day.

Lissa’s day commenced with the slide of a hard, throbbing cock into her pussy, while probing fingers rubbed her plump clit. Barely awake, her orgasm was a slow, billowing release unlike the frenzy of the previous night. Her groan was more a sigh. She smiled to herself as Devadas continued his slow stroke, coming with a grunt of satisfaction. He pulled out of her and she turned to face him.

She kissed his sleepy smile then entwined her legs through his, all the time making contented humming noises as he idly toyed with her breasts. At some point during the night she had a vague memory of him taking the chains off her. Her breasts were certainly now free from their harness of gold.

Devadas bent his head and took the tip of her breast into his mouth and sucked. She arched her back and sighed, then moaned as he caught her nipple between his teeth and pulled. He pushed her onto her back and lay over her, tasting and tormenting one breast then the other. He plumped them both up with his hands and swirled his tongue around each nipple, driving her mad.

Then he stopped and pushed her legs open with his. He was hard again and ready. She braced herself for a deep, forceful plunge into her cunt, but was disarmed when he slowly, tantalisingly slid into her, all the time staring intently into her eyes. She wrapped her legs around his waist and held onto him as he rocked into her.

The despairing hurt was still in his eyes even through his desire. She held his face and kissed him, deeply. She wanted to draw him out of himself, take him to a place where despair didn’t exist. He kissed her back, making a sound in his throat like a sob. As his mouth became hot and more demanding, igniting a flame of craving within her, his stroke intensified, became harder, deeper, faster.

Soon she held onto him as he thrust into her, his face buried in her neck. It was as if he was a life raft that she clung to in a tempest-tossed sea.

‘Lissa,’ he muttered. ‘Lissa.’

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘Yes. I’m here.’

Maybe she was the life raft.

With a final mighty thrust, he lifted his head and with a look of painful ecstasy, emptied himself within her. He slumped onto her and nuzzled her neck, drifting into a half sleep.

Lissa lay, stunned. He wanted her, seemed to need her. But would he let go of his other need to punish her? A thump on her door made Devadas jerk in her arms. His head shot up and he looked around disoriented.

‘Devadas?’ a deep voice called from outside the door. ‘Are you awake?’

Lissa watched as he sat up and scrubbed at his face with his hands.

‘Yes, yes, I’ll be out in a minute.’ He shot a glance at her and climbed out of the bed. Stalking to the table, he grabbed the clothes she’d left out for him.

‘You’d better get up,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘If I know my brother, he’ll be plotting and planning. We have a big day ahead of us, My Beloved.’ His voice dripped with amused contempt.

Had she dreamed their delicious early morning tryst? From the way he avoided her eyes, she hadn’t. She threw off the blanket then raised herself, leaning on her elbows with her legs open.

‘What are your plans?’ she asked.

He turned to her while buttoning his shirt, then let his gaze rest on her. His face was impassive but Lissa noticed the slight tremor in his hands and the fast beating vein in his neck. She smiled seductively. He turned away from her.

‘To see to the fortifications. You’d do well to check on your own work, My Lady. Our wedding will be later today. No doubt our subjects would like to celebrate.’

She sighed and climbed out of bed. ‘You don’t have to tell me my duties. I’m well aware of what my people need. Father was mostly off making war and financially crippling us,’ she said with rising irritation. ‘I know what it takes to keep Horvald going.’

‘Excellent.’ He stared at her as she started to pull an old dress over her head. ‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ She frowned at him.

‘The chains. You are my slave after all.’

He picked up the gold harness and slipped it onto her, tying it at the neck. ‘That’s better.’ He pushed her wild, curling hair away from her face. ‘You are so beautiful,’ he muttered, then gently kissed her lips.

She cupped his face in her hand. Turning, he captured her hand in his and kissed her palm.

‘Enough,’ he said. ‘There is work to do.’ With that he strode from the room barking orders to his compatriots.

He was such a strange, complex man. Full of emotions he couldn’t let himself feel. Well, it seemed he didn’t want to hurt her at least. Not physically anyway. For that she had to be grateful. No, not grateful. She would not let herself fall into that trap. She would demand her rights and respect. The gold harness she didn’t mind so much since, truthfully, she found it incredibly arousing, but she would not be led like a dog. He would need to understand that.

She pulled on her dress and made her way to the water room. After a quick sluice, particularly to the parts of her body that ached with unaccustomed use, an ache that was far from unpleasant, she dressed and made her way to the dining room. Devadas and his compatriots, Luc and Alain, were wolfing down food and talking about what Antos might plan. The women of the house were eating breakfast at the other end of the table.

Lissa notice some quick, knowing glances between Devadas’s two right-hand men and Ella and Xanthy. Well, well. Maybe they suffered from some pleasant aches this morning as well. The two young women giggled and murmured to each other.

‘Ella, Xanthy, I’ll need you to go through the stores with me today. Is Ris here? We’ll need to plan a feast for tonight.’

‘A feast?’ Xanthy said, a wide smile on her face. ‘That’s good news.’ Then her face fell as she glanced fearfully at Devadas. ‘At least I think it is ….’ she trailed away.

Devadas’s smile resembled a grimace. ‘Of course it’s good news, Miss Xanthy. Weddings are always good news, aren’t they, My Lady?’ She didn’t immediately answer him. Crossing to him, she held his face in her hands.

‘Yes, My Lord. This wedding is good news indeed.’

She kissed him gently then rested her forehead against his. He closed his eyes for a moment, a ghost of a smile on his lips.

Luc cleared his throat. Devadas opened his eyes and stared at Lissa. Gone was the despair, replaced with something that looked like ease. Acceptance. Hope for a future for them bloomed in Lissa’s breast. Maybe they could take their history and make it work for them. He stroked her arm as he turned away.

‘Come,’ he said to his men. ‘We need to do a tour of the town fortifications.’ As they pulled on their leather armour and checked their weapons, he frowned.

‘There is no need for you to go outside the town’s walls is there?’ he asked Lissa.

She shook her head. ‘Not today. There is too much to do inside.’ He grunted his approval and left with his men.

‘Now,’ Lissa said, turning to the other women, ‘we need to find Ris and make a plan.’

Lissa stared around the town’s storage hall and grunted with satisfaction. They had enough provisions to last them for two winters. The last harvest was a bumper crop which had enabled them to trade with merchants in the Southlands for other staples like oil and spices. As well as wheat, Horvald ran sheep, goats and cows which allowed them to make diary foods and weave their own cloth.

‘You should be proud of yourself,’ Ris said, standing beside her. ‘It’s because of you we are a prosperous town instead of a shanty relying on the spoils of war. Even your father saw the benefits of making strong roots.’

Lissa shook her head. ‘Everyone worked hard for this, Ris, not just me. You of all people should know that. And Father … I think if he’d lived he would have given up his warring ways. He was getting old and tired.’

Ris snorted. ‘Not him. Dying in the saddle was exactly how he wanted to go. He was too set in his ways. He thought bringing back booty would make us all rich.’

Lissa smiled sadly. ‘You have to admit, the time he bought back all those diamonds was a godsend.’

Ris laughed. ‘But he was furious you spent it all on building walls. Silly old coot,’ she said fondly. Lissa knew Ris missed him. He’d shared her bed every now and then.

‘He couldn’t admit that those walls saved us many times from raiding warlords.’ Ris sighed. ‘Would that they had done their job this time.’

‘It wasn’t the walls that failed us, it was Catiscal,’ Lissa said bitterly. She grabbed some newly weaved cloth and started folding it, hoping some common practical tasks would quieten her pounding heart.

Ris pulled the cloth from her hands and held them. ‘This marriage. Do you really think it a good idea? Is a vengeful ex-slave any better than Antos? We could help you escape. I hate to think you under the thumb of that man.’

Lissa stared at the rough, dear hands of Ris, pained to see the worry in her eyes. ‘I don’t know, Ris. He’s not all he seems. I think he’s a better man than Antos. I have to believe that. Otherwise we’re all doomed,’ she said with a despairing laugh. ‘One thing’s for sure, there is no love between the brothers.’

Ris grimaced. ‘There is that in his favour I suppose.’ She started folding the cloth, keeping her eyes on what she was doing instead of on Lissa. ‘Last night … the chain … are you all right?’

Lissa felt heat wash over her cheeks. ‘Yes, I’m fine. More than fine.’

‘You mean …’

‘I mean that whatever else he is, My Lord Death knows what he’s doing in the bedroom,’ Lissa said.

Ris grinned, a look of relief on her face. ‘Well, that’s good. You can never be too sure with those Catiscal folk. Too much denial and repression can make some of them a little twisted.’

‘That sounds more like Antos. Horrible man.’

A sudden yell from outside the storage hall had both Lissa and Ris running to see what was amiss.

‘My Lady! My Lady!’ Ella ran toward them. ‘There’s a fire in the southern wheat field. It’s moving to the stables.’

Lissa’s pulse quickened. A fire near their main stables could be a disaster. ‘Quickly, go and find Val. We need some people to set up a line with buckets leading from the river,’ Lissa said. ‘Ris, you find Devadas. We’ll need some of his men to help us. Now he’s King he’ll have to take on some of the responsibilities of his office. Quick now!’

Lissa followed a crowd of people through the main entrance to the town, all heading down to the field to fight the fire. It didn’t take long for them to see smoke and flames inching across the early growth. Not too bad, she thought, just a small outbreak. They should be able to get it under control quickly enough. She saw Val had already organised a small team of people to transfer buckets of water from the river to the fire. It was a fair way from the main stable.

Might be a good time to check and see if everything was as it should be. They planned to move these stables closer to the town walls and eventually enclose them as well. That was their major project for the winter months.

She crossed to the wooden structure, thankful she’d thought to pull on her work boots and wrap a woollen shawl around her neck and shoulders. The air was cold which made the fire a curiosity. Fires were not uncommon in summer, but unusual in the colder months. She had only a small amount of time to wonder about this when she entered the stable. It was empty and dark. That was strange. Maybe the guards were off fighting the fire.

Frowning, she stepped further in and was grabbed from behind by a strong arm while a leather-covered hand clamped over her mouth. Struggling, she tried to cry out.

‘Stop,’ hissed a voice at her ear. ‘Stop or I’ll slice you.’

She stilled when she felt the bite of a blade against her neck. Another man stood in front of her with a hood over his head, holding a knife. Holes in the hood revealed dark, furious eyes.

‘You’re coming with us to see your real husband. The laws of Catiscal will not be broken, especially by a traitor.’

The hooded man held the knife against her while the other bound and gagged her. They dragged her out of the stable, away from the sight of the townsfolk who were still fighting the fire. Two horses stood ready. She was bundled onto one with the hooded man behind her. Then they wheeled their horses around and thundered off in the direction of Catiscal.

‘Don’t worry, My Lady,’ the hooded man muttered into her ear. ‘You will still get your wedding. All is prepared.’

Lissa tried to stop dark despair leaking into her mind. Devadas would come for her. Or would he? He’d spent ten years hating her. One soft caress didn’t mean anything. Would he care enough or leave her for Antos? The horses thundered on. She would soon get her answer.

Devadas stood with Luc and Alain and watched as the last of the fire was extinguished. The townsfolk were well organised and made short work of what he saw immediately was a suspicious fire. The air was too cold for a fire to start without some help. Could it be someone after a bit of drama or was it what he most suspected – someone from Catiscal out to do some real damage? The stables were nearby. Perhaps they wanted to burn it down. Well, it was a stupid place for stables.

‘Why aren’t your stables inside the town walls?’ he asked Val. ‘They’re very vulnerable out here.’

‘We only had enough stone to enclose the dwellings. Our plan was to move them inside this winter after we built some more inside the walls. But there should always be at least two guards out here. Where are they?’