Free Vengeance 02 - Trust In Me by Lana Williams

an older man. Crefton – Nicholas recognized him immediately from his visions.
    “Aye, Lady Elizabeth,” Nicholas said. “Why would you want to hide your father from me? What game do you play?” He kicked the door shut behind him.
    Her stunned expression gave him a brief moment of pleasure.
    “Lady Elizabeth, I fear – ” Robert grunted in pain as Nicholas adjusted his hold on him.
    “No need for you to speak, Robert,” Nicholas advised.
    “What is the meaning of this?” Crefton stood and took several steps toward them. “Who the devil are you?”
    “Father,” Elizabeth said as she moved to stand in front of the old lord, “this is Lord Trisbane, one of our...guests.”
    Nicholas shook his head, amazed at her composure. She’d play her lies through to the end it seemed. He cursed himself for the burgeoning affection he’d felt for her.
    Shoving Robert aside, he returned his knife to its sheath and grasped the hilt of his sword. “I repeat: why do you want your father to remain in his chamber? Would you hide him from me?”
    Her soft brown eyes darted from his face to the hand on his sword and back again. Worry mixed with fear in her expression. “I don’t understand.”
    “Stop pretending you don’t know who I am.” He moved toward her and the old man, certain the steward was no threat.
    “He is Lord Nicholas de Bremont, my lady,” Robert said.
    Elizabeth gasped, seemingly horrified. Her face flooded with color.
    Crefton glanced at Elizabeth, but otherwise showed no reaction to Robert’s declaration. The old man held the bluff much better than his daughter.
    “William...is he...all right?” Elizabeth’s halting words refueled Nicholas’s anger.
    “Nay, he is not all right . You left him half dead at the gate of my keep!”
    Guilt flooded Elizabeth’s face, erasing the remaining doubt that plagued him. She glanced at Robert, and Nicholas had his answer as to who had accompanied her to his holding to deliver William. Robert’s expression mirrored hers – guilty.
    She stepped back to take her father’s arm. “Lord de Bremont, I am – rather we – are sorry for William’s ill health. We were certain he’d be better off in your hands than – ”
    “Silence!”
    She flinched.
    “Do you think an apology makes any difference after what you’ve done? It means nothing. I will not listen to your lies. You have deceived me since my arrival.”
    “That’s not true,” she protested, her eyes wide with fear.
    “Who is this William he speaks of?” Crefton asked Elizabeth, his brow knitted with confusion.
    Nicholas’s hand clenched the hilt of his sword. He wanted to draw it and run the man through. “Is your memory so short that you’ve forgotten the name of the man you nearly killed? My brother. Held in your dungeon without proper care – ”
    “Nay!” Elizabeth cried out. “We cared for him as best we could.”
    “It wasn’t good enough. Add that to the fact that you tried to seduce me to distract me from my purpose.”
    She gasped at his words, color high in her cheeks.
    “Do you deny it?” He moved to stand before her, perhaps to prove to both of them that he could be near her without lust coloring his actions. The scent of roses drifted up to taunt him, reminding him of the kisses they’d shared. A sharp pain filled his head as a vivid scene swamped his senses.
    Elizabeth’s soft, warm body moved beneath his.
    Her long brown tresses fanned over the pillow.
    Passion – with a hint of something more – glowed in her face.
    Her soft cry of release undid him.
    He fought against the vision and the desire it brought forth. As his mind cleared, he tried desperately to convince himself that what he’d seen and felt was only his misplaced desire, not a vision. It had to be .
    Damn his unruly mind. Damn Crefton for what he’d done to William. Most of all, damn Elizabeth for making him want things he wasn’t meant to have. “You knew who I was from the moment I arrived,” he