Page 116 of Ironling
“Are you negotiating for my hand, my lord?”
“I’m making veiled threats, in fact.” Smiling, he stood to hisfull height. “My men have orders that should they not have sight of me, or should I be harmed or detained in any way, they have permission to begin looting the city.”
Bayard tried to kiss her hand again, but Aislinn snatched it back. Damn propriety.
Standing herself, Aislinn spat, “This is low, Bayard. Even for a snake like you.”
He merely shrugged. “Perhaps. But think of your people before you say anything too insulting.”
Tears stung her eyes, and panic clutched her throat. A fit loomed at the fringes of her mind, accelerating her pulse until she heard it thrumming in her ears. She’d long since lost feeling in her fingers and clutched them into fists to hide how they shook.
She had to get rid of him before he saw her like that. She wouldn’t allow him to have that to use against her.
Aislinn wouldn’t let her fits be her downfall.
Through tight lips, Aislinn said, “I will consider your offer. Nothing can be officially decided until my father returns, though.”
“You’re a brilliant woman, Lady Aislinn. I’m sure you can make a decision before then.” Executing another perfect bow, he turned for the doors. “I insist that I stay until you decide. You and Dundúran need the protection.”
He left Aislinn shaking in his wake, her rage almost as visceral as her terror.
Fia caught her when her knees gave out, helping ease her back into the chair. “Oh, milady, what will we do?”
With a trembling hand, Aislinn opened the letter from Jerrod.
She hoped against hope that it was fake. A conceit to color his ruse. Such a scheme certainly wasn’t beneath Bayard—nothing was.
But as she read the message, written in Jerrod’s familiar sloppy scrawl, her heart sank. The writing was his, the words were his.
The information was sparse; he could be overstating his numbers to tempt or terrify the nobles to his side. The promise was clear, however—join and be rewarded, stay out and be left alone. Retribution for supporting Aislinn was implied with every boastful word.
And it wasn’t just Jerrod’s message to Bayard that proved it was all true.
Over the coming days, more of her vassals sent alarmed letters, telling her of similar proposals from Jerrod.
The pile on the desk in her father’s study grew ever higher.
But the letters she waited for never came. Nothing from Connor or her father.
Aislinn had never felt so alone, surrounded by guards and staff and barracks full of Bayard’s knights.
Her corner was growing smaller, and…no ideas came to her. No brilliant solution presented itself. Her mind skipped over the problems again and again and…nothing.
She could make Bayard wait for a few days, but then what?
Aislinn had to hope that by then, that elusive solution would come to her.
Otherwise…
She couldn’t stomach the thought.
27
“Can I expect to see you at luncheon?” asked Bayard from the study door.
With all his airy smiles and good humor, few would suspect he was blackmailing Aislinn. Since outlining his ploy, Bayard had been nothing but courtesy and charm, as if to prove that he could be tolerable as a husband.
Aislinn knew otherwise.
