Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
He was a good man for a mercenary and that got her wondering over a question she never got to ask him.
“Why are the mercenaries so frightened of you?” she asked, watching him fill a tankard with wine from a jug on the table and he filled one for her as well.
Mave.
She had left it, thinking Dru would need it to see the deed done.
Knox pulled out a bench from beneath the table and sat. Then he took a swallow of wine before responding. “I beat Phelan senseless and a few of his men who tried to stop me, then I demanded that he release me of all obligation to him.”
“What made you beat him?” she asked, drifting away from the hearth toward him.
“I was angry.”
“At Phelan?”
He shrugged. “At life.”
Dru shook her finger at him. “The truth.”
Knox reached out quickly and hooked his arm around her, spreading his legs apart to draw her in between them. “Truth and trust. I want both in our marriage.”
She nodded, knowing there was no way she could give her word. “So, what is the truth?”
“I found a young lad he had purchased a few months prior beaten badly. Phelan did that to all the young ones he got, to break them, make them fearful of him so they would obey without question. That day I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t stand to see another young lad broken, left without hope.”
He eased her down on his leg to sit, running his hand gently along her hip and across her stomach to rest there. It sparked a pleasurable sensation, sending tingles racing throughout her and she quite enjoyed it.
“So, you went after Phelan?” she asked, needing to get her mind off how she was feeling.
“I did,” he admitted. “And when I found him, I didn’t say a word, I swung, and I didn’t stop swinging even when others tried to stop me. My hatred for him overwhelmed me and that I did nothing while he continued to do what he did to me to others… enraged me. I needed revenge for myself as well as other innocent lives he had ruined.”
He paused and Dru handed him his tankard of wine and he drank before he continued.
“Phelan was covered in blood when I finished, his nose and one arm broken. Five of his men lay scattered around him. I hadn’t even realized how many I fought. I told him I was leaving and taking the young lads with me and if I ever heard that he abducted or purchased another young lad again I would finish what I started and see him dead. He hasn’t taken a lad since then.”
“What happened to the lads,” Dru asked. “Did they go home?”
“None wanted to. They were too fearful their parents would sell them again. I knew some good people. Farmers who needed help with endless chores and who would treat the lads decently. I stop now and again to see how they are doing, and I’ve been pleased to see how happy they are in their new homes and how pleased the farmers are to have such hard-working lads.”
“Of course they would work hard,” Dru said. “They’re probably still fearful of being returned to Phelan.”
“Aye, they are, no matter how much I tell them that will not happen.”
“You are a good man, Knox,” Dru said and ran her hand slowly down the side of his face and his eyes drifted closed as he turned his face into her palm.
She caught her breath at the way his lips grazed her palm before he kissed it, and it sent an unexpected but pleasurable shiver racing through her.
“I like your touch, wife. It excites me and I look forward to properly making you my wife.”
She rested her brow to his, for the first time realizing what her mum meant about how dangerous it could be to love a man. She could easily surrender to her desires, to him, but she couldn’t, not if she truly loved him.
“I apologize ahead of time for disappointing you,” she whispered, hoping he would recall her words when he discovered her gone.
He eased his brow off hers to look bewildered at her. “You can never disappoint me, Dru. I do not know love—how it feels—but if what I feel for you is love then it is the most wonderful feeling I have ever known, and I never want to lose it—lose you.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “I know love and I know that I love you more than anything in this world. And I will do anything to keep that love safe.”
He smiled softly as he brushed the tears off her cheek. “We will keep our love safe together.”
She kissed him with lingering strength, knowing it would be the last time she ever kissed him. Then she hurried off his lap, leaving him smiling while her heart continued to break.