Linda Needham (23 page)

“You’re such a beautiful liar, Talia. There isn’t a man, woman, or child within leagues of Carris
ford who wouldn’t offer up their lives for you. Including me, God help me. Because I love you.”

A horrible, howling sob tore out of her. “Oh, Alex, please don’t—”

“Damn it, Talia, why couldn’t you have just believed in me. You couldn’t just trust me to protect you?”

“Alex, there’s nothing you can do. It doesn’t matter who holds Carrisford, or how good his intentions or how much I love you; it’s the way of war. And it’s killing us, little by little, year after year. And for what? For this tired old castle, who’s done her finest and deserves her rest. Oh, God, Alex, it hurts me so much to think about what I have to do.” He’d never seen her so defeated, grieving as though she’d lost someone dear to her, her whole body wracked with howling sobs. “But I can’t stand to see any more suffering.”

“Talia, what the devil are you saying?”

She turned away from him to stare out the window. “Carrisford stopped being a place of strength and security sometime ago, and I was just too blind to notice.”

“To notice what, Talia?”

“That if it weren’t for the castle itself, the village would be safe, and my family, too.” She leaned against the wall, sobbing, hugging herself, looking so alone. “No one would pay a moment’s attention to the little valley that rolled peacefully down into the ocean.”

“And?”

“And so I realized that if the castle weren’t sitting here on the rise above the bay, like some pitiful prize, then the war and all the trouble would just pass us by unnoticed. And so”—she lifted her teary eyes to him—“I set about tearing the walls down from the inside.”

“You did what?” The woman was mad.

“Excavating our way from the tower cellars and strategically along some of the walls. I thought you must have realized that already.”

“My God, Talia, you weren’t just going to burn me out—”

“If you’re going to try to live here after I’m gone, Alex, then you’ll have to do quite a bit of shoring up. And remove the fuel from the cellars—I’m afraid they’re quite a danger at the moment, but I thought we’d be done by now.”

“What do you mean ‘gone’?”

“The keystones are missing in most of the arches—”

“Dammit to hell, Talia, that was your doing? The wall walk falling in.”

“That was us. Me. I thought I had taken care of the possibility. I was terrified that someone had gotten hurt from my carelessness.” The sun stole in through the casement window, lighting the streams of tears that just kept streaming down her cheeks. “I’ve muddled everything.”

“You damn well have.” She’d turned his world
on its heel, this clear-hearted woman who loved so completely.

Who had defied a king and held off seven invasions.

Who had waited for him as long as she could.

She stood and crossed her arms over her breasts. “So, what are you going to do now, Alex?”

Damned if he knew
what
to do with a woman like this. Prepared to sacrifice her own life to protect her family. Confessing that she loved him just as deeply.

But she stood her ground in her plain brown kirtle, jutting her chin out at him, her face streaked with tears. “Whatever you choose to do, Alex, I doubt it will include me.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

“You obviously don’t understand yet. And I doubt you will. You have three choices. And I have but one; and that means leaving here.”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Yes, that’s one of your choices, Alex; making me stay here in a dangerous castle and forcing me to marry some fool husband of your choosing.”

Bloody hell!

“But I promise you, Alex, that I will escape him at the first opportunity and take the villagers and my family with me, because that would leave the castle standing and we wouldn’t be safe here.”

“You’ll marry no one but me, Talia, and we will
stay right here.” He didn’t know when he’d decided that course, but it made perfect sense. Though he’d have to keep a guard on her.

“That’s your second of three choices, Alex: force me to marry you and live in the castle.”

“That’s not a choice, madam, that is fact.”

“Well, then I’ll escape you at the first opportunity and take the villagers and my family with me.”

Her hair had come free of its circlet. She was beautiful in her cobwebs and bits of straw, in her pacing and methodical finger waggling.

“Your third choice, Alex—”

“—I don’t need a third choice—”

“—is to marry me and help me tear down this dear old place. So the village will be safe. And the orchards will thrive, and our children will run free in woods and we can live in one of Father’s old manor houses—”

“Enough, Talia!”

“We’ve two manors to choose from, and stolen goods stashed all over the estate.”

“Stolen from whom?” She studied her fingertips, a confession if he’d ever seen one. “From
me
?”

She nodded. “And strangers, and the king. And lots of things from that Gloucester fellow.”

“The earl?”

Another nod.

“Christ, in heaven, Talia.”

“Those are all your choices, Alex. Oh, but…
you have more, don’t you?” She frowned, and held out her wrists. “Arrest me and charge me with treason and let Stephen take care of the rest.”

“You plan to live in an old manor house.”

“Just beyond the orchards. It isn’t much, but it’s never been touched.” Her eyes filled with tears again. “And I love you, Alex.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help myself.”

“God help me, my love, I know what you mean.”

Her eyes brightened with the teetering kind of hope he’d seen dozens of times but had never recognized.

Trust and love and all of her dreams.

What the beautiful woman didn’t realize was that choosing between her love for him and the grandest title, the largest castle in the world was the simplest thing he’d ever done.

Talia watched Alex with every part of her, hoping that he didn’t hate her, not knowing quite what to make of the smile that came over him.

Or the way he was stalking toward her, looking perfectly pleased with himself, reckless.

“Well, Alex, what did you decide?”

Instead of answering, he lifted her high into his arms, then kissed her madly and everywhere. Doubtless to disorient her and try to influence her determination.

“You’re a very stubborn woman, Talia.” He
started toward the door with her, his fingers spread indelicately across her bottom.

“What have you decided, Alex?” She pushed back off his shoulders.
Stubborn.

“Duck down, my love.” He covered the top of her head as they passed through the doorway, and started up the stairs.

His love!

“Where are you taking me?” And where the devil was he going with his other hand riding up her leg? “Alex…oh!”

He was going
there.

And so she let him, sighing all the way up the stairs, and into her chamber, all the way to the bed and its sprinkling of flower petals, carrying her all the way back against the pillows, certain, without even asking what her magnificent husband-to-be had decided.

“Do you suppose, my love,” he asked, smiling his kisses against her mouth as he gathered her into his arms, “that we have time enough before we light that blaze to save our marriage bed?”

She would have answered sooner, but she was humming to his delicious music and crooning against his ear.

“Oh, Alex, and time enough to be married, too.”