Free Castle of the Wolf by Margaret Moore - Castle of the Wolf

peace.
    “That would be as difficult as convincing John to give up the throne.”
    “I can try,” she replied, even though she suspected Rheged was right about her chances of persuading her future husband to be more merciful. Nevertheless she clung to the desperate hope that she could help the people of Dunborough, as well as save Mavis. “I’ve spent years trying to please and appease an uncle forced to take me in. Surely I can have some influence on my husband, especially if I give him children.”
    Although thinking about what she had to endure to make that happen made her feel sick again.
    “Bearing Blane children will more likely only bring you more pain, to say nothing of what they might suffer with such a father. Blane delights in setting one child against the other, lest they conspire against him. He’s so determined to keep them at each other’s throats that he won’t even tell his twin sons who is the elder.”
    That had to be a lie, or idle gossip. “Surely someone else would know.”
    “The twins’ mother died giving them birth. Shortly after, the midwife slipped and fell on some stairs. Her neck was broken and she died before she could tell anyone what she knew of the birth. So now only Blane knows for certain who is the eldest, and his sons are constantly at war. Nor should you think a daughter will be any safer. Blane will use her as your uncle’s using you, selling her to the highest bidder or the man with the most influence at court, regardless of his reputation.”
    The more terrible a picture Rheged drew of Blane and his sons, the more Tamsin knew she had to prevent Mavis from taking her place as the bride. “I have given my word that I’ll marry Blane and so I will, if he’ll still have me. You must take me home in the morning. If you don’t, I’ll see that you’re arrested and charged with abduction as soon as I’m able.”
    Rheged’s eyebrows lowered and his frown deepened. “Have you heard nothing of what I’ve said?”
    “Nothing you’ve said—or will ever say—will make me break my word.”
    “Then I hope your stubborn pride and sense of honor will give you comfort in the long years to come, for your husband certainly won’t.”
    “Nor shall I expect it of him. So will you take me back to Castle DeLac, or will you prove yourself an outlaw?”
    “I’ll return you to Castle DeLac when it’s light.”
    * * *
    As dawn broke in the eastern sky, Mavis stared at her father slumped in his large chair on the dais, a goblet in his hand and a wineskin on the table at his elbow. The fire in the hearth was nearly out. The candles and torches, too. All of the remaining guests and most of the servants were still abed, and even the hounds slumbered.
    Mavis hadn’t slept at all, and neither, apparently, had her father. Yet while she had spent the night restlessly pacing, fearing the worst for Tamsin, all he had done, it seemed, was drink.
    “Father, you must send your men to rescue her!” Mavis insisted, her voice rough with exhaustion. Although she hadn’t been able to hear the argument, the distraught servants had quickly told her the reason for Rheged’s return and how enraged he’d been. “It may already be too late to save her. She might even be dead!”
    “That Welshman may be a peasant and uncivilized, but he wouldn’t be stupid enough to kill the niece of Lord Simon DeLac,” her father replied, lifting the goblet for another gulp of wine.
    His declaration brought Mavis a little relief, but only a little. It was too easy to imagine what other terrible things might be happening to her beloved cousin.
    “It’ll be a ransom he wants,” her father muttered more to himself than to her. “Not the wench. Some sum he thinks he deserves. Fool!”
    Mavis knelt before her father, trying to get him to look at her. “But you’ll pay whatever he asks, won’t you, Father?” she pleaded.
    Lord DeLac sniffed. “I won’t pay a ha’penny for her. She’s ruined. Worthless. No