Page 73 of The Warrior's Innocent Captive

‘I...’ she said, but her words got stuck in her throat.

By returning to Borwyn she’d hoped to understand Erik’s motives, but she’d never given any thought to what might happen afterwards. Hadn’t dared to believe that what had occurred between them had been any more than him using her for his own needs. But now the look in his eyes, the hope and light that shone in their depths, had her heart racing.

Erik swallowed. ‘I thought maybe...’

His gaze locked with hers and she couldn’t look away.

‘What did you think?’ she whispered.

‘I thought, maybe... I hoped that...you didn’t go through with it because of what you said to me.’

‘I...’ She inhaled deeply, trying to find the words.

There was a sickening thud and Linota screamed as Erik’s solid body pitched forward into hers.

Linota tried to save them both, but Erik was a wall of muscle and there was little she could do to stop them crashing to the ground. Her head hit the floor with a resounding crack. Her stomach roiled with nausea. She tried to move to her side, but Erik’s weight pinned her down.

The world swam around her. She tried to suck in a breath, but she couldn’t get enough air to her lungs.

Above her loomed a dark shape. She squinted, but the world was still spinning.

There was a grunt and muffled cursing. Erik stirred above her and then his weight disappeared. There was another sickening crunch of something hitting bone and Erik stopped moving completely. She reached out to touch him, but he was pulled away from her.

‘No,’ she shouted, scrambling to hold on to him.

Another curse and then pain exploded in her head as she was backhanded across the face. While she gasped she heard the sound of his body being pulled across the floor and then dumped to the ground with a solid thud.

She tried to push herself to her knees, but her body wasn’t co-operating. The room was swirling alarmingly.

Her breath came in hurried pants as footsteps moved towards her.

She was powerless to stop the meaty hands that grabbed her arms and bound them behind her back. She tried to resist, but she was dragged, on her knees, across the floor and dumped next to Erik’s body. The footsteps moved away again.

‘Please don’t be dead,’ she muttered as she tried to turn towards Erik’s body.

Without her arms and with the world spinning violently it was difficult to move. After several long moments she managed to face him, her head twisted at an awkward angle to her body.

He did not look good. Blood rushed down the side of his face from a deep cut in his forehead and his skin was an alarming shade of white, but...she squinted to make sure and...yes, he was breathing.

Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked rapidly to stop them falling. She couldn’t afford to be blinded right now.

‘Erik, wake up,’ she hissed.

Her heart leapt as he moaned deeply.

‘Wake up,’ she said, louder this time.

‘It won’t do either of you any good if he does wake, Mistress Leofric.’ Linota closed her eyes. Surely it couldn’t be de Bevoir? Not after all this time. What did he hope to gain by this madness? ‘It’s no use trying to get closer to him either.’

Linota cried out as de Bevoir’s fingers bit into her arm. Worse still, Erik didn’t stir at the sound. How badly had de Bevoir hit him? Without Erik’s strength, how could she stop de Bevoir from doing whatever he wanted with her?

Chapter Seventeen

Erik’s head pounded. His eyelids were so heavy. He tried to crack them open, but he only managed a tiny slit. Wherever he was there wasn’t much light. He tried to search his memory as to how he had ended up with his head pounding but he couldn’t remember drinking too much ale. He licked his top lip and tasted blood.

There was a rustling to his left and a slight whimper. His heart stilled as the sound registered: Linota.

He fought the instinct to call out her name. Something bad had happened and he’d been knocked out cold, but he couldn’t quite recall what had caused him to be lying in a heap.

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