Page 119 of Captured by a Laird
Alison.He could smell the faint scent of the lavender she wore, but his mind was playing tricks on him. He had drifted in and out of wakefulness since the last beating.
“Wedderburn!” Patrick’s voice roused him again from his stupor. “I want ye to see who I’ve taken from you.”
Alison could not be in this hellhole. But she had been with him in his heart all along, and he was holding on as long as he could to keep her there.
“Ye were willing to die for her daughters,” Patrick said, “and here she is to negotiate her next marriage before you’re even dead.”
David felt her presence even more strongly than before. His lifted his head, but it was too heavy to hold up, so he rested it against the stone wall behind him. One eye was swollen shut, but if he concentrated he could open the other one a slit.
And there she was. As lovely in his dream as the last time he saw her. The sight of her made him smile, which broke open one of the cuts on his lip.
“Alison.” David was not sure if he’d spoken aloud. It was her. He pushed himself up against the wall and staggered to his feet.
“Now you’ve lost everything ye stole from me,” Patrick said. “She’s mine now. Mine!”
“Nay.” David shook his head, though it sent shocks of pain through his skull.
Patrick pushed Alison out of the cell. Then he stepped closer to David, just out of the reach of his chains.
“I want ye to know that while ye lay here on the stone floor helpless and bleeding,” Patrick taunted him in a harsh whisper, “I’ll be in your bed with your wife, fooking her all night.”
“Nay!” A surge of rage made David’s body forget his injuries, and he lunged for Patrick. When the chains around his wrists jerked him back, the pain in his hand made him deaf and blind for a moment. Then, through the ringing in his ears, he heard Patrick’s laughter.
“It’s me she wants,” Patrick said. “It’s always been me.”
CHAPTER 48
Alison fought to gain control of her emotions before Patrick came out of the cell. She had known he would make David suffer out of sheer hatred. She had even counted on Patrick’s desire to give him a slow death to provide her time to free him. But seeing David so badly beaten left her shaken.
He was obviously too weak to leave his cell without help. Yet she could bear to leave him chained and wholly unable to defend himself.
David gave a sudden howl of pain that tore at her heart like a jagged blade. She told herself to keep her wits about her and to focus on her task. There was no room for error. Her timing had to be just right. She waited until the moment after Patrick said one last thing to David and began to turn toward her and the door.
She swung her arm and tossed the lock pick through the bars. She prayed she had thrown it far enough for David to reach and that he would find it.
After locking the dungeon door, Patrick pressed her against the opposite wall. Leaning into her, he examined her face in the torchlight with his hard gray eyes.
“What, no tears?” he asked.
“Nay, but I don’t like seeing any man treated that way,” she said in a cool, disapproving tone.
Patrick’s lips curved in a slight smile. Apparently she had passed his damned test. He tucked her hand in his arm and walked with her, showing the same thin veneer of courtesy he had shown earlier, as if nothing unusual had occurred.
David’s heart-wrenching bellows echoed off the walls as Patrick led her back through the undercroft. She prayed to God and all the saints that David would survive until the rescue tonight.
But she could not open the tunnel door with Patrick as her constant companion. Would he never leave her side? For the first time, she truly feared she would fail and that David would die in that pit of misery.
She had never felt so alone.
As they passed the kitchen, she caught sight of a familiar face. The cook had returned to the castle with the other Blackadders. Though his expression was as sour as usual, in the brief moment that their eyes met, he gave her a slight nod. He was only a cook when she needed an army.
But she had one friend in the castle.
***
David bellowed in frustration. His wife, the woman he loved, was in Patrick Blackadder’s hands, and he could do nothing to protect her. Though it was useless, he tried to jerk free of his chains until his wrists were raw and bleeding.
At least his rage had cleared his head.Why did Alison come to the castle?No matter what Patrick wanted him to believe, David did not doubt her. Alison must believe she could save his life. He wished to God she had not put herself in danger for him. But she must be part of a plan to rescue him. After the risk she took, he would be ready.
