Read The Dragon Lord's Daughters Online
Authors: Bertrice Small
The Dragon Lord's Daughters (36 page)
Simon moved swiftly to the door, and slammed the bolt home. He heard his father laugh knowingly outside in the hall, and then his footsteps moved away. Turning back to Junia he enclosed her in his arms.
“Did you have to hit me so hard?” Junia said.
“Did you want him to beat you? It would have been far worse if he had, and he would have given you twenty blows, Junia. You know I am sorry,” Simon told her. “Let me find some salve for your welts.”
“If you hadn't suggested beating me in the first place . . .” Junia said irritably.
“I didn't think he would want to watch,” Simon replied. “I thought I would beat the bed and you would howl while he listened outside the door.”
“Considering how I was violated, Simon,” Junia told him tartly, “you might have realized he is a man who enjoys watching pain.”
“Bend over,” he told her. “I'll put the salve on you.”
“Ouch! Oww!” she cried as his fingers rubbed the ointment over her wounds.
“I'm sorry, Junia. Oh, damn! All I wanted to do was to love you, and to wed with you. How did it come to this nightmare we are both living?”
“No more,” she told him, straightening up, and she took his face between her hands. “I feel the same way, Simon. I just wanted to be your wife. Nothing more. Now there will be war again between our families, and we cannot stop it.”
“He's a greedy man, Junia, and Lord Mortimer made a strong case for ransom,” Simon noted. “Who is the man with him? Lord FitzHugh.”
“My sister Averil's husband,” Junia said. “I would speak with Rhys if I could. Have you seen my brother today?”
“Aye. He is in remarkably good condition considering he has been denied sustenance these last few days. Father gave him a good hiding with his favorite leather strap yesterday, but your brother is still strong,” Simon told her.
“He has always been a brave lad,” Junia remarked.
“Junia,” he said low, pulling her close.
“No,” Junia said. “I cannot bear it. I am sorry, my love, but you must give me more time. And I am truly sore from the beating you have given me. I think I will not sleep in my chemise tonight. I don't want to get the ointment on it.”
He sighed, and let her go. “You will have to sleep on your belly, I think,” he told her. Since that terrible day at Mryddin Water they had not coupled. Junia claimed she could not bear to be touched, and he understood, although he longed desperately for her. He knew to have her again would be but to dishonor her further. Junia was not his wife, and unless a miracle occurred she would never be his wife. How his father would have laughed him to scorn, but he still remembered the look on her lovely face when he was forced between her spread thighs that day. Her cry of pain when he shattered her maidenhead would remain in his memory forever. He could not force her again. He knew she still loved him. He saw it in her eyes. But if Junia would not have him as a lover, then he must abide by her decision. He joined her in his bed, turning away from her so as not to disturb her.
In the morning Hugo de Bohun met again with Lord Mortimer. “I will make an agreement with you,” he said. “You may have the lands bordering your own, but I want everything else, including Dragon's Lair. If Merin Pendragon will agree to that, I will return his children to him.”
“Alive and well,” Lord Mortimer said sharply. “You will not damage them.”
“Alive and well,” Hugo de Bohun agreed, “and I will not damage them.”
“That means you feed the boy, and release him from his dungeon,” Lord Mortimer pressed his companion.
“I will feed him, but he stays in the dungeons until I have his father's word,” de Bohun countered.
“And his sister can see the boy,” Lord Mortimer said.
“Why not?” Hugo de Bohun laughed.
“Then we are ageed?” Lord Mortimer said.
“We are agreed,” Hugo de Bohun replied.
“I will return to the Dragon Lord and tell him of your wishes,” Lord Mortimer said.
“He will not agree,” Hugo de Bohun answered.
“I think he will,” Lord Mortimer responded. “He loves his children well.”
“Then he is a bigger fool than I have always believed,” the lord of Agramant said. “Have some breakfast, Mortimer. Where is your companion?”
“He wanted to check the horses before we depart. I think my beast got a stone in his shoe yesterday. Rhys said he would look at the animal's foot, and remove the stone,” Lord Mortimer replied without hesitation, but he wondered where Rhys FitzHugh was.
The lord of Everleigh was with Junia in Simon's chamber. He had been brought to her by Cadi, and Simon had left them alone to speak.
“My father is coming?” Junia said.
“Aye, he will come, but it will not be an easy or a simple thing to breach the walls of this castle. Why the hell did you disobey your father and meet with young de Bohun that day, Juni? Have you any idea the troubles you have caused with your willful behavior? You've been raped, and are now without honor, lass. What are we to do with you when we get you back? Not even a convent will have you now.”
“I only went to say good-bye,” Junia said. “And I hoped that his father would have been willing to end the feud between our families.”
“Your lover is a good lad, but a weakling, Junia. He did not protect you from his father and his father's men. He allowed Brynn to be captured. He is afraid of his father, and frankly I'm not surprised. Hugo de Bohun is a monster. It would take a very strong man to stand up to such a beast, and young Simon has not the courage or the fortitude to do so.”
“But he did protect me, Rhys. He is the one who had my maidenhead. No one else. And we have not joined our bodies since. He loves me, and he wants me for his wife. He was forced to take me by his odious father who threatened to have me himself, and then pass me on to his men. Simon did what he could under the circumstances, and as for Brynn, there was no way to aid him. He jumped down into the midst of de Bohun's men, wounding one, and then immediately going after the master.”
“I will tell your father what you have said, but the problem still remains that we are going to have a hell of a time successfully storming Agramant to rescue you and your brother,” Rhys replied.
“I know another way into the castle,” Cadi, who had been sitting in the shadows, said as she arose and came forward. She curtsied to Lord FitzHugh. “But if I tell you, my lord, you must swear to me that old Elga and I will be spared the Dragon Lord's wrath. We have done our best to help the lady Junia, and keep her safe.”
“Oh, Cadi!” Junia cried. “You must tell us!” She turned to her brother-in-law. “Rhys? Swear to me that Cadi and Elga will be safe from Da. They really have been very good to me. Cadi has helped me to see Brynn. We got a water skin to him, which he has kept hidden, and that is why even without food he can survive. Please! I cannot bear much more of this terror I face each day in Hugo de Bohun's custody. You must swear these two women will be safe!”
“Cadi, you have my pledge and my warrant that you and Elga will be kept safe from the Dragon Lord's revenge. I will tell him of your care of his daughter. But you must both remain by her side when the castle is taken else you be mistaken for the others,” Rhys explained to the girl.
“We two are the only women servants in the castle, my lord,” Cadi said.
He nodded. “Now tell me of how we may enter Agramant undetected.”
“There is a passage that goes from the dungeons beneath the walls and the moat. It opens out into a cave in the forest beyond,” Cadi explained.
“How do you know this?” Rhys asked her.
Cadi grinned. “My friend, who is stationed to guard the lad, my lady's brother, showed me a few days ago.”
“Why would he show you such a thing?” Rhys wanted to know.
“Well, my lord, I've been giving Davy certain pleasurings so that my lady can visit her brother. He finally wanted more than I have been offering, and so I told him to meet me in the forest where I would give him whatever he desired as long as my lady could keep on seeing the lad. Being a lusty fellow, he agreed,” Cadi said with a grin.
“ âMeet me in the dungeons,' he told me.
“ âI said in the woods,' I told him.
“ âTrust me, lass,' he said.
“So when the mistress and I snuck down into the dungeons two days ago,” Cadi continued, “he let her into the cell as usual, and then taking me by the hand led me around the corner and there, my lord, was a door in the stone wall. Davy selected a key from his warder's ring, and opening the door, let me through. He had taken a torch from the wall before we entered this tunnel, and so I could see more or less where we was going. It were a nasty place, but when we reached the end of it, there was another door that opened out into a cave. I was so surprised, and he laughed. After I'd given him his pleasuring I walked from the cave to discover I was in the woods just beyond the clearing. I could see the castle, and everything. We returned the same way we came.”
Rhys nodded slowly. He took the girl by her arm, and looked down into her plain face. “This is the truth, lass?”
“Aye.” Cadi nodded vigorously.
“You weren't told to tell me this, were you?” Rhys searched the girl's face for any sign of deceit or betrayal.
“Nay, my lord!” she told him. “I long for the day that Hugo de Bohun is slain. My sister was twelve when he saw her. She was a beauty was our Mary. He dragged her screaming from our hovel, and brought her here. And when he had finished with her he released her naked into the fields, and let his men hunt her down that they might take their pleasure of her. She died. And the same day he took her off,” Cadi said, “me da took his knife and cut my face so that I am scarred as you now see me. I was only nine years old, my lord. But where others then turned away from me, Elga took me and made me her helper. That, and the hope of revenge, has been my salvation, my lord.”
“Yet you are not a virgin,” Rhys noted.
“ 'Tis said all cats are black in the dark, my lord,” Cadi told him with a wink.
Rhys laughed softly. “You're a bold baggage, lass, but you have a good heart. I will keep my promise, and see that you and Elga are kept from harm. I suspect that the Dragon Lord will give you a home to reward you for your kindness.”
“Breaking into the castle tunnel at the forest cave should not attract anyone's notice,” Junia said, “but when you start beating on the door in the dungeons, they will surely hear you. You will lose the element of surprise.”
“I'll loosen the hinges of that door,” Cadi promised. “One light shove and the door will go down, my lord.”
“You must do it in the next day or two, lass,” he told her.
“That soon?” Cadi was awestruck.
“I'll ride today until I reach Dragon's Lair,” Rhys said quietly. “The Dragon Lord will be on his way in two days' time.” He turned to Junia. “You must tell no one. Not your Simon, and not Elga.”
“But Simonâ” Junia began.
“Simon is weak, lass. Charming, but weak. He will give us away without meaning to do so. Swear to me, Junia! Swear you will not tell him. If you do you will have the death of your father, your brother, and many good men on your soul. As for Elga, she cannot help but be protective of the lad she helped to raise. The child of the girl she raised. Cadi?”
“I swear, my lord! Elga has not the hatred for the de Bohuns as do I,” the girl replied.
“Junia?” He looked hard at her.
“I swear, Rhys, but you are wrong about Simon,” Junia replied.
“You had best go now, my lord,” Cadi advised.
Rhys nodded in agreement, and taking his sister-in-law into his strong arms hugged her, kissing the top of her dark head. “Be brave, Junia. Your deliverance is at hand, I promise you. And Cadi, I will not forget.” Then turning, Rhys moved swiftly from the chamber where they had been. He hurried down into the hall in hopes that he might gain a meal before they departed.
Lord Mortimer arose from the high board as he entered the hall. “Was it indeed a stone in my horse's shoe, Rhys? Did you get it out?”
“Aye, the front right hoof,” Rhys answered, catching on to the excuse Lord Mortimer had obviously offered to mask his absence. “Is there time for me to eat, my lord?”
“Best take what you want, and eat while we ride,” Lord Mortimer said. “We would reach Dragon's Lair in two days' time with the ransom proposal.”
Rhys reached for the loaf of fresh bread, and sliced himself two thick slices. He buttered the bread lavishly, and then lay the remaining strips of bacon, and slices of a hard-boiled egg between the two slices. He filled his flask with wine from the table carafe, and stood again, bowing to Hugo de Bohun. “My thanks, my lord, for your hospitality,” he said. “I am ready, Mortimer.”
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