Free The Pleasures of Sin by Jessica Trapp

choice did a woman have in this world of men’s power and men’s wars?
    Montgomery stood there, axe poised. “Offal is worth more than your word.”
    She swallowed, holding her breath. No words came to her to fight his claim. Pressing her forehead into the wooden block, she closed her eyes and began to pray again despite her fury towards God for making her a woman. She would not beg Montgomery again.
    Slowly, he lowered the axe until its blade rested just on the nape of her neck. The sharp, cold metal chilled her to the marrow.
    Moments ticked by.
    Apprehension rose higher and higher, banding her stomach, squeezing off her breath. She opened one eye, angry he drew out the moment, that he stood there so calmly while she trembled on her knees. Pressure built inside her seeming to fill all her being until she felt she would burst. The fear, the terror overwhelmed her. If she must be a woman, why could she not be a fainting one?
    “Zwounds! Just get it over with, man!” she cried out when she could take no more.
    The axe twisted, raking to one side and nipping her skin. Her taught nerves registered it as strongly as a deathblow and her whole body convulsed. A stinging line burned her neck.
    Another wave of terror went through her that it might please him to saw her head off slowly rather than lop it off all at once. The edges of her vision blackened and the voices of the castlefolk faded. Her head swam.
    Mayhap she was the fainting sort of woman after all.

Chapter Six
    “Awaken, Brenna. We must make plans. They are making talk of taking Father to London.”
    “Huh?” Midmorning sunlight streamed over the mattress in long yellow streaks as Brenna opened her eyes and blinked sleepily, trying to fathom what had just been said. “Am I dead?”
    Adele hovered over her, shaking the bed. St. Paul paced back and forth across the pillows while Duncan licked her nose. “Get up, Brenna. We must rescue Gwyneth and Father.”
    At that, Brenna came full awake. Outraged, she threw back the covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “Gwyneth and Father? It’s their bloody fault that I nearly had my head chopped off!”
    Adele and Panthos jumped backward as Brenna lurched off the bed.
    Ignoring her stinging back, she scrambled to find the pack that Montgomery had emptied and refill it. “I’m leaving before the beast comes to finish his deed of beheading me.”
    “I do not believe Montgomery still intends to slay you.”
    Brenna remembered the hush of the crowd, the cool wood against her cheek and the terror in her heart. Her pulse sped, and she felt dizzy at the memory. “You are daft.”
    In sharp contrast to Brenna’s panic, Adele calmly scratched the dog’s head. “Panthos likes Montgomery.”
    “Panthos!” ’Twas the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. The world had gone mad. “Most likely my faint took the joy out of murdering me. Killing me isn’t enough for a man like him—he could have done that here in the chamber.” Her tirade rose in tone and pitch as she grew more and more determined to quit the castle. She accented her words by racing around her chamber, tossing random items for her journey into her pack. “He drew the whole process out to terrify me and probably sees my swooning as thwarting his plans. He may want to send me to the rack or worse for the mishap.”
    Panthos gazed curiously at her, ears upward as if he understood every word and thought she had lost her mind.
    “Nay, Brenna, you must speak to Montgomery, see if you can lessen his sentence on Father. Both Gwyneth and I have been lock—”
    “Father be damned! ’Tis his idiocy that caused this!” The thought of even seeing Montgomery made her queasy. In her mind she could see the red mote in his eye that bespoke vengeance. “And Gwyneth is as much to blame as him! Save yourself.” Plucking her wedding garment from where it lay flopped over the trunk Montgomery had locked her painting supplies in, she flung it into the hearth.