The Beast of Renald (The Northern Knights) (6 page)

The coldness of his order only incensed her further. His blue eyes in the bright light that filled the room looked to be flecked with green specks, tore into her. One of his large hands outstretched and the scar on the side of his face pink and the skin taut with his lips thinned in anger. 

‘Nay. He stays with me. I shall be ready in time.’ Caroline angrily shot back at him. 

He made a sound with his tongue and stalked past her. Kelbie screamed at the top of his lungs when he saw the large man coming for him. 

Darc stopped dead in his tracks. Kelbie’s little legs brought him to her skirts and he tried to hide in them, his tiny voice shaking as he cried. ‘Don’t let the monster take me, Mama. Don’t let the monster take me!’ 

Caroline flushed with embarrassment despite her anger as her eyes shot to the dark lord. She thought she glimpsed pain in his blue depths, but she must have been mistaken for nothing but hatred and disgust burned her skin now.  

‘My lord, he didn’t mean-‘

His arm slicing through the air between them cut her off and caused her to cower and hunch herself over her son in a protective manner for the expectant blow.

Her frightened gasp ripped a hole in Darc's gut. She thought he moved to strike her?  He lowered his hand back to his side with a sharp jerk, stunned.  He’d only been about to reach for the boy. He stepped a safe distance away and met her wary gaze.

His tone came out angry and harsh. ‘He is too young to be crying at your skirts. He will grow up to be weak.’ 

‘He is just a boy! He does not know any better. He’s only five.’

Her angry sob filled outburst only sickened him more. ‘Fine. Keep him with you. But I warn you, be ready in the half hour or we
will
take vows in this room.’ 

Darc did not wait for a response. He needed to get away from them. From her.  Away from the hot fragile look in those honey-colored eyes that did something to him he did not want to look at further.

She had believed him capable of striking her! The very notion made him ill. Never had he laid a hand on a woman. Not even when a lesser man would have done so with his first wife, Adelay. The darkness of his past stirred at the edges of his mind and he pushed it back down. Something in him tightened and he stalked down the hall.   

Caroline was ready in the half hour and carried Kelbie down the stone steps when the maids came for her. Her steps felt leaden from the weight of what was to come.

Lord Halvard and their wedding night had been horrific, an unforgettable nightmare. What would it be like with this man? She tried to will herself numb with each step she took to those gallows as she was led to the small chapel neatly built on the far side of the castle. 

Her fear and weariness before had cost most of those years to be spent in that dreadful tower. That solitary had nearly driven her mad and not only had it left an impact on her but upon Kelbie. She would not, could not live out another nightmare as she had done with Halvard. She refused to.

With their vows exchanged again, they were rushed back to the inside of the keep. It was all a blur to Caroline. 

She did not know which of them had shaken more, her or Kelbie. She had held him throughout the entire brisk ceremony and vaguely remembered signing the marriage contract. Darc had been none too pleased, yet he’d said nothing nor did he kiss her when the moment came. He’d done naught but grunt and insulted her further by walking on ahead of them out of the chapel.

Tears had stung her eyes then. And surprised by why his action hurt, Caroline tried to push the feeling aside and tried to focus on her anger. Her vow to be numb was not working. 

She pushed the platter away and tried to coax Kelbie to eat more from his own trencher, but the little boy seemed not to want to do aught other than sulk with his thumb in his mouth and sit in her lap. 

Although he had not uttered a single word to either of them after the vows were spoken, her husband watched them like a hawk. 

She was glad he had not pressed her for conversation for she did not think she could muster up a single word. The lump of despair in her throat was too large to swallow. 

Around them, she noticed that there were actually more than a handful of servants about. 

The servants, a few of his soldiers and the maids who had come to her room earlier occupied the dimly lit Great Hall. All three of them huddled in a corner watching her and Kelbie with their sharp eyes. Only a few trestle tables had been set up and sat empty.

This paled in comparison to the lavish feast Lord Halvard had thrown, which had lasted for seven days as was the usual Saxon custom, but Caroline knew it would not be that way this time. He was a Norman and besides she did not wish it.  

Nothing in the past week had been the usual or norm. The sooner this eve was behind her, the better.

Her eyes fell on her husband as he swallowed down another goblet of wine. He’d all but polished off the ewer in front of him. She found herself fascinated with the corded muscles working in his strong neck. From where she sat she had an unobstructed view of him and she took full advantage, taking her fill. Why the Norman mesmerized her and riled her temper so she did not know but each time she looked away her eyes were drawn right back to him.

Darc swallowed the contents of his goblet in one full gulp. The bitter wine was taking too long to numb him. He could feel her large doe eyes burning into the side of his face.  He shook with his anger over the last week’s events. When the week had started out, he’d no idea it would end with him taking a wife. 

Another wife. 

This one was not as tall or as buxom as his first wife had been who had been of Norman blood. Nay, this one lacked in several areas.

She was short, small of stature and frail looking. Her lips and eyes the largest parts of her face, yet, striking features nonetheless in a unique way that had drawn his gaze to her face more times than he cared to count.  Her torso was long, and dipped in the back to a shapely bottom that he had found his eyes drawn there too, again, more times than he cared to count. She had bitten her bottom lip so much, unconsciously during the vow taking that she’d drawn droplets of blood. 

He had also found himself struggling not to reach out to the little boy that she had yet to let go of since they had come into his home. 

She was a protective mother, like a mother bear to her cub. She held onto the boy as tightly as he clung to her. It spoke volumes to Darc, yet he refused to look deeper into it.  It was enough the boy feared him.

He would have a fight on his hands this night when the boy was taken from her. And he would be.

 For he’d every intent to see that this union was consummated this night before William’s arrival on the morrow with Halvard’s cousin in tow. He set the goblet back down on the table.

He wanted nothing more than to get it all over with so he could quickly return to searching for and tracking down his demons. Right the wrongs done by his own blood, then and only then could he make his escape and return to Normandy

Could he perform on demand? He turned back to her and their eyes met briefly before she dropped her gaze. Darc swore under his breath.

Aye, he could. She was just a woman.

If that were so then why did his heart beat so rapidly? Disgusted with his thoughts, Darc shoved away from the table and strode from the hall.

CHAPTER SIX

He’d known his wife had plenty of fight and strength in her.  She fought tooth and nail when he tried to take the boy from her.  He’d thought it be easier being that he’d waited until the boy had fallen asleep. 

‘Do you wish to wake him and make this harder, demoiselle? For it will be and trust me, this marriage
will
be consummated tonight.’ 

He stood so close to her he could smell her clean scent.  She heaved in shallow breaths, fight burning in her eyes. They stood just inside the chamber door.  She looked like a wild animal with the boy clasped to her chest like an anchor. 

Her big eyes never left his all the while she gripped his wrist in her small hand.  He did not think she would relent and would wake her son after all. 

But, finally she said through gritted teeth.  ‘Any harm comes to one hair on his head and there will be hell to pay,
Norman husband
.’

Her threat was true. He saw it in her eyes and once again he found himself admiring the strength and backbone that he’d glimpsed at Halvard’s which lay within this woman despite her fear.

He answered her calmly with an arched brow, his voice low but firm. ‘You do not wake him and let him be taken to another room, no harm, I promise you will ever come to him under my roof,
Saxon
wife
.’ 

He knew she did not like his words, but she had started it first by insulting him. He knew it was just her protectiveness that had her so riled and of what was to come. He watched her throat work as she swallowed, their gazes warring with another.

Finally she released him and turned away, but not before he saw the sheen of wetness fill her eyes. 

Caroline did not see Laur take the boy with the utmost of care from Darc’s arms and coo softly in her son’s ear before she exited.

Caroline struggled to compose her emotions. Her arms felt empty. She did not think she would be able to go through with the rest of the evening after all. How was she going to bear it? She did not know what to expect. As it was, she’d been claimed as the spoils of war and power, a wrong done unto the king.

She was shaking so badly, the light headedness threatened to overcome her with her blood pounding so hard through her veins. She felt him come up behind her. She closed her eyes and a single tear rolled down her cheek.  His warm breath fanned over the back of her neck.

‘Come. We will retire to my chamber.’  Darc saw her shoulders stiffen, but she did not protest and he was glad. He was tense enough.  ‘Do you wish for a maid to attend you before we start?’

Her reply came hoarse and quick. ‘Nay. I am capable of seeing to myself.’ 

He gave her an odd look, then turned on his heel and did not wait to see if she followed him or not.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Once inside his chamber, Caroline felt what little numbness she had wear off, yet her legs still felt like they would give out any moment.

His room was double the size of the one she and Kelbie had been given. His bed larger too and looked like a curtained prison on the raised wooden dais. Sheeting hung from the four large pillars that fashioned its frame. It was the centerpiece of the room. So the deed would be done here. Just like that. Apprehension settled around her like a choking blanket.

‘Do not feign innocence with me, demoiselle. You have birthed one child already so you are more than aware of what happens between a husband and wife.’

Jarred by the coolness of his tone, Caroline’s gaze jerked from the bed to his, speechless.

Distant and cold.

On this she had no scathing retort and said nothing.  She was too nervous. She watched him remove his black cloak and toss it on top of the chest at the foot of the bed. His face darkened as he strode past her into the anteroom and waited there she supposed for his manservant.

Caroline turned away and went to one of the two hearths blanketing either side of the room. She removed her slippers first. Her tumultuous feelings caused her fingers to shake badly as she undid the lacing on the sides of the simple gown she’d worn of green as her wedding dress. It was the finest one she owned and the only one she had managed to grab in her mad dash to gather any of their belongings before they had been forced to leave their home. How befitting her doom.

She struggled with the lacings in the back and almost screamed when she felt his hands on her bare skin, his knuckles warm against her back as he took over the task. 

‘Let me help you.’  

His tone had lost some of its coldness and anger, but still Caroline could not take in an even breath. He’d spoken so softly in the too quiet room. She stood frozen until the gown pooled at their feet. She stepped out of the puddle but was unable to go any further for he held her in place by her long unraveling braid.

She stopped breathing and looked around in the dimly lit room for signs of his servant. There was no one. With a deep breath, Caroline turned and faced him and yanked her hair out of his grasp, and then she gasped.

He stood completely naked in front of her, an expression she could not read upon his face as his eyes slowly looked over her body.   

With the back of her hand pressed to her mouth, she let her eyes roam over him. The breadth of his chest and shoulders, made her throat go dry. He was thick and well-muscled it seemed all over and when he turned his back to her for a moment, she sucked in a deep breath at the sight of his tight muscled arse.

His large chest, riddled with old scars and nicks on one side stared her in the face. A spatter of dark hair sat in the middle of his chest and covered his nipples, then went down his flat stomach where it ended at that nest where his member lay softly. Even in his flaccid state he still appeared larger than Lord Halvard had been.  Her breath quickened when he faced her fully again. The muscles bulged and corded in is arms as he ran a hand through his thick hair.

Her wide eyes continued down over his muscular thighs and calves to his naked feet and toes. He had not one ounce of fat on him. His lean frame loomed over her and heat washed over her. His body was taut. Craning her neck to look up at him, her eyes stopped at his thick neck. She swallowed loudly, unable to look past his bearded chin for her own embarrassment she knew colored her cheeks. 

‘Come. We need to do what needs be done then we can go our separate ways. Lie on the bed.’ 

She walked stiffly to the bed in her thin shift and stood next to the bottom post, her hands burning from the wringing of her hands. ‘Can we not just talk for a moment first?’ She knew she was asking for much not knowing what this Norman was capable of.