Champion of the Heart (22 page)

The poor child! The rape wasn’t her fault. Jordan sat heavily on the bed. No one to love her. No one to hold her. No one to see to her needs at all. “Who looks after her?”

“Mary Kate has learned to find food herself, to steer clear of trouble, to survive. Just as all of us have had to do over the years,” Fox informed her. “Our lives are not easy, Lady Ruvane.” He did not bother to disguise the spite in his voice.

Jordan overlooked his bitter tone, concentrating on the child. “The poor girl is all of maybe three!”

“Four,” Fox corrected her.

“Four?” She was so small.

“Is Mary Kate the reason you asked to see me?” he wondered suddenly.

Jordan had momentarily forgotten she had asked to see him. She had come up with a compromise. Well, she was sure Fox wouldn’t see it as such, but it was a desperate move on her part. She had decided she would marry him. She would risk her father and the king’s wrath. If only... “No,” she answered and stood, turning her back to him. Jordan chewed her lower lip, wringing her hands. She had no right to put demands on a forced marriage. But it was Fox, and somewhere beneath the Black Fox was her Fox. Desperation and hopelessness bloomed within her heart.

Finally, she turned to him. She lifted her chin and straightened her back, meeting his gaze. Her heart beat quickly in her chest and she forced her nerves to stay under control. “I will marry you,” she told him quietly.

Fox chuckled. “It wasn’t a request. I will marry you with or without your consent. By rights of my victory in the tournament, you are mine to do with as I please.”

Jordan scowled at his callous response and his brutish attitude, but continued undaunted. “I’ll marry you willingly... if you take me back to Ruvane village.”

Fox stared at her in disbelief. Slowly, his jaw clenched, and then true anger began to bubble hotly in his veins. “Do you take me for a fool?” Fox finally thundered.

Jordan’s face remained calm. “I’m asking a simple request.”

“If I take you there, your people will protect you and take you, and my chance for lands and title, away from me. I don’t think so.”

Jordan took a step toward him. “No! That won’t happen. I give you my word.”

Fox growled, rage churning inside him. “Is that the same word you gave me ten years ago? You said you would always be with me. I can’t trust you any more now than I could then.”

“Fox, listen to me. I’m not trying to trick you.”

“I’ve listened enough to you. I will marry you without any compromises.” He turned to leave.

Jordan raced forward, seizing his arm. “They’re my children. I have to reach them!”

Jordan’s children? Fox’s gaze dropped in shock to her flat stomach. Then his gaze narrowed and slammed back to hers. “Another lie. You have had no children.” He yanked his arm free and stormed for the door.

“Fox! Listen to me! I’ll marry you! All you have to do is take me to Ruvane village!”

***

Fox slammed the door on her pleas. Cursing, he moved through the hallway. She was not to be trusted. Not now, not ever. Children. She had no children.

But the image of her playing hide and seek with Mary Kate played again in his mind. The easy interaction between the child and her. Their laughter. She obviously had great experience with them. Did she have children?

And if she did have children, who sired them? Vaughn? The mere thought that Vaughn had touched her made Fox mad with rage.

“Fox!” his father called.

Fox faltered and clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to get his anger under control.

Frederick joined him in the hallway. “Are you quite sure Lady Jordan is all right?”

Fox ground his teeth. “Fine,” he answered shortly, wishing his father would find something else to concern himself with.

Frederick rubbed his chin. “Very strange,” he said thoughtfully. “I found this on my strolls through the wards.” He held a piece of parchment out to Fox.

Fox took it from his father. His eyes scanned the writing and his teeth ground even more. The piece of parchment read:

Help. I am a prisoner in Castle Mercer. Lady Jordan of Ruvane.

Fox let out a fierce howl of frustration.

***

Jordan sat at the window, gazing forlornly toward Ruvane village. Deep in her heart, she had been sure Fox would agree to her compromise. After all, she was promising to marry him. But she should have known he would see lies in her truth. He wouldn’t even let her explain. He wouldn’t let her tell him why she wanted to go back.

Suddenly, the door slammed open and Jordan jumped. Fox stood in the doorway, looking more like a demon than a man.

Jordan’s fingers tightened on the window ledge. She had never seen such explosive anger in Fox before.

He stalked toward her, his fists clenched tight. “I warned you about trying to escape again.”

Jordan backed away from him, racing around to the other side of the bed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Fox came up short opposite her, the bed acting as a barrier between them.

“No?” He held up the piece of parchment his father had found. “Then what’s this? Enough of your lies.” He raced toward her, moving around the bed, but Jordan skittered away, keeping the bed between them.

“How would you have me act?” Jordan demanded.

“Like a lady.”

“A desperate lady! Fox, let me explain.”

Fox held the note up in a clenched fist. “This is all the explanation I need from you.” Fox bolted around the bed, and Jordan raced away from him.

“I have to escape! The children –”

“You have endangered my friends and my entire home! For that you will be punished.” Fox leaped over the bed.

Jordan turned to flee, but he caught her from behind, wrapping his strong arms around her. As she struggled in his hold, he twisted, wrestling her to the bed, falling on top of her to pin her flailing arms above her. When he had her pinned, he growled, “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“The children need me!” she hollered back, struggling. “I will do whatever it takes to return to them.”

“You have given away the only place where I feel secure. My friends are now in danger because of you.” He shook her hard. When she stopped her fight, he added, “That I will not tolerate. There is only one place where you will not be a threat to us.” He hauled her to her feet, holding her wrist tightly, pulling her through his room and out into the hallway. “A place where I should have put you from the beginning.”

His steps were large and quick and she almost had to run to keep up with him.

Until she realized where he was heading -- the dungeon. There could be no other place to put her. Jordan dug in her heels and began to pull against his hold.

“No,” Jordan pleaded. “Fox, no.” She tried to twist her arm free, tried to pull her hand out of his hold, but his grip was unrelenting.

“No!” she hollered as they neared the stairs leading down to the depths of darkness. “No! Fox!” Jordan tried to grab onto a suit of rusted plate armor that decorated the hallway, but it tumbled to the ground, the crash echoing hauntingly through the crumbling stone corridors.

Drawn by the clamor, Beau rushed down the hallway, followed by Scout and Frenchie. But no one moved to stop Fox.

“Fox!” Jordan screamed, tears rolling down her cheeks as Fox pulled her roughly forward. “No!”

***

“Noooo!”

Fox effectively silenced her pleas in his mind, steeling his heart and soul against her cries. If she dared to endanger his friends, then the dungeon was the only place to keep her.

He moved down the hallway toward the dark door at the far end. He refused to think of the condition the dungeons would be in, as they hadn’t been used for over ten years. But if Jordan acted like an enemy, Fox had no choice but to treat her as one.

As he moved, Fox noticed a dark figure standing in an open doorway. At first Fox thought the figure an apparition to be paid no mind, but as he neared he recognized the ghostly figure. Michael nodded at him in smug satisfaction.

Fox froze, faltering in his determination. He turned to look over his shoulder. Beau and Pick and Scout and Frenchie and Smithy were all standing in the dark hallway. They were all watching him silently, confusion and grim acceptance on their faces.

But it wasn’t his friends that caught his attention. It was Mary Kate. She stood just slightly to Scout’s right, holding a candle. Tears glistened in her young eyes and smeared down her cheeks. He hadn’t seen Mary Kate cry for a long time. The little girl turned toward Scout, lifting up her face, looking for some kind of comfort. Scout rudely pushed past her and marched off down the hall, leaving Mary Kate standing alone in the dark hallway.

What am I doing? Fox thought, appalled at what he was about to do to Mary Kate’s one true friend. Fox felt the bruising grip he had on Jordan’s wrist and turned his gaze to her. He could feel her trembling. Her face was tragic and scared. Tears glinted off of her cheeks.

God’s blood! I am destroying her. Horrified, repentant, he took a step toward her. “Jordan...” he began softly. But in the face of her agony, there was nothing he could say.

Ashamed, he released her arm. How could he hurt her like this? How could he treat her like this?

Fox took a step away from her, turning his gaze from her. He didn’t even deserve to look at her. “Beau, watch her,” he commanded and turned, moving down the hallway. He kept his back straight, trying to muster some form of dignity. But slowly his walk turned into a run.

F
ox hung his head. Around him, the branches of the willow trees housed him while a downpour of rain pelted the lands outside his rudimentary sanctuary. Wind lashed the branches, and the river churned with fury.

What is wrong with me? he thought. I almost threw Jordan into the dungeon. He ground his teeth. She is working strange magic over me, making me think emotionally instead of rationally. But she endangered my friends. How can I marry her without trusting her? How can I force her to do something she doesn’t want to?

Fox shook his head. The image of Jordan’s tearful face rose in his mind again, and her cries of desperation haunted his memory. How can I force her into marriage?

And then he thought of something he hadn’t before. What if he had taken Jordan just to be with her again?

The reality of the thought jarred him. He had wanted to see her for years after that fateful day, had yearned for her. They had been kindred spirits. There was nothing he could not talk to her about. But he had forced her from his thoughts, forced the memory of her from his mind, concentrating instead on taking care of his father and his brother and the welfare of his friends.

But when he’d seen her at the tournament, so regal, so statuesque, looking like a goddess, he knew her memory still burned brightly just below his conscious thoughts. It had taken the mere sight of her to rekindle it into a roaring inferno.

When he came across her in the hallway of Castle Ruvane, he acted impetuously, not thinking or caring about the consequences of his actions. He could have escaped the castle without her. That would have been simple. But when he saw her standing there with her beautiful eyes wide, he grabbed for her, clinging to her.

He had been compelled to grab her. He knew that now. There was no denying the powerful force still binding them together. Only now it was stronger. The attraction he had for her was unequaled. Part of her was permanently seared into his heart from their childhood. And now part of her was permanently scorched onto his memory as desire.

Thunder rumbled, and a sudden gust of wind parted some of the willow branches, whipping a blast of rain into the shelter. The cold water stung his face. He wiped at his eyes, clearing his vision of the chilling rain.

The icy gust sent his thoughts tumbling to his father, his brother. Men without lands, without titles, without honor. And then his thoughts grew darker, moving to the man who was the cause of their misery.

Evan Vaughn.

Vaughn had killed the baron. Vaughn took his father’s title and lands away. His title and lands. If he was not willing to give the lands back, then there was only one thing left to do.

Painful images flashed through his mind. He remembered his father standing tall as the heavy hammers slammed at his spurs, remembered him dropping to his knees as the sword split in two over his skull, remembered the sickening sight of blood trailing down his forehead into his eyes. Fox’s jaw clenched hard and tight.