Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 95326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“Did you agree to this marriage with me?”
“Aye, I did. My da’s old age does not wear well on him. He is an ill man and does not have the strength to lead the clan. When your da, Lord Philip, proposed the arranged marriage, my da sought my counsel and realizing the benefits to our clan, I immediately agreed to it.”
Cavell was blunt with his next question. “Were you made aware of my scarred face?”
“Aye, gossiping tongues carried the news to us, but I am no beauty for you to look upon, so we are equal when it comes to that. Besides, with some care to those wounds many of them will fade with time and your fine features will return to you. My features will not change. Does that matter to you?”
“You’re not bad on the eyes,” he said, her soft blue eyes capturing his attention along with her long eyelashes that were a shade darker than her light brown hair and framed her eyes perfectly, and the way her eyebrows, the same color of her eyelashes, arched slim and graceful above her eyes.
Elsie couldn’t hide her shock. “Never has anyone complimented my features.”
Only someone who never received a compliment on their features would know that was not much of a compliment and he felt something he had thought he’d lost long ago… empathy. He dismissed the thought, thinking it would not serve him well.
“There is a place where we can shelter until you learn if you are with child,” he said, the thought troubling him. He wanted bairns, a slew of them, but not before he had a good place—a home and wife of his choosing—to raise them properly.
“We cannot wait to rescue my sisters. I will not leave them to suffer any longer,” she argued. “Did Brother Emanual bother to show you how he treats the captives he keeps there in the pretense of helping them?”
Cavell felt her upset with the way her body tensed in his arms and he eased her a bit closer against him. “He did and it was disturbing, but how many there actually do need help?”
“Not as many as you would think, but I know for certain my sisters should not be there and I fear that—” She stopped, tears threatening her, and she did not want to show weakness in front of her husband.
He could hear in her voice that she was on the verge of tears. His training as a Gallowglass warrior had taught him to be impervious to a woman’s tears, so why with his wife, with not a tear shed and only on the verge of tears, did it disturb him?
“The way they treat my sister Sky is horrendous. They keep her chained and with a hood over her head. She cannot last much longer. I must free her.”
Cavell recalled seeing the woman. “Brother Emanual claims she is possessed by a demon.”
“No demon possesses Sky. She is the sweetest person you would ever meet, and she has the kindest heart, and she is the most beautiful woman you would ever lay eyes on.”
And yet she was chained to a wall and a hood kept over her head. There was something about her sister she wasn’t telling him, and how did he know if the woman was truly his wife’s sister? If she was that beautiful, then why was Elsie so plain featured?
“And what of your other sister? There was a woman who begged for help to free her, and Brother Emanual assured her she would be freed once she got well.”
“Leora would never beg. Out of the three of us, she is the most strong-willed one. She would have reasoned with you to convince you to help her. That woman who begged was probably Edith. She does not know why the chieftain of her clan sent her there, but without his permission she will never be freed. I will not let that happen to my sisters.”
“That is the problem for us,” Cavell said.
“How so?” Elsie asked, worry in her voice and unshed tears lingering in her eyes.
“I am your husband and that makes me not only responsible for you, but it also permits me to make any and all decisions for you, not so your sisters. Your father is the only one who can get them released. So, if your plan is for us to go to the abbey and demand their release, it will end in defeat.”
“I did not think Gallowglass warriors ever accepted defeat,” she challenged.
“We don’t, but we also don’t ride into battle blind. We get to know our enemy and often use what we learn about them against them.”
Elsie shook her head. “I didn’t even know we had an enemy.”
“Presently, your enemy would be the person who sent you to the abbey.”
Elsie shook her head again, more strongly this time. “My da is not our enemy. He is a good and loving father. He would suffer before he would see any of his daughters suffer.”