Page 242 of The Daughters of Avalon
Four
Rhiannon’s guards did not return.
She stood alone, listening to the distant echo of Cael’s footsteps, ebbing swiftly as he made his way belowstairs.
She could leave, she realized.
Go!
Flee!
As though to emphasize this truth, her wrists burned with new awareness of the enchanted metal that bound them.
The key in her palm seared her flesh like a burning ember.
Until this instant, she hadn’t had any inkling there were varying degrees of “alone.” Alone without companions or visitors, and alone without guards were two wholly different things. Once Cael was gone, silence rang in her ears—an endless silence that left her confused.
No shuffling of feet outside her door.
No sniffles.
No quiet laughter.
No idle chatter.
No taunts, or jeers.
Although, truth be told, these past two years of her confinement, they had all begun to treat her with a modicum ofrespect. And, of course, she understood why: After all this time, they must assume she and Cael were lovers.
After all, why wouldn’t the lord of Blackwood avail himself of the woman who was meant to be his bride?
The simple fact that Rhiannon had never once wept nor shouted against his advances could easily have been because she’d welcomed his hands and his lips upon her body.
Except she had not, and Cael never once afflicted himself upon her person—not once.
To be sure, the man was a conundrum.
He was her enemy, in truth, but he was also her friend—and never was she more aware of this dichotomy than she was now.
Morwen was here.
How in the name of the Goddess could she face her mother after all Morwen had done?
How could she pretend for even an instant?
Now that she possessed the key, how could she maintain these shackles upon her wrists when her hands ached to squeeze her mother’s throat?
Two of her sisters were dead because of Morwen, and there was nothing anyone could do to remedy that fact, nor bring Morien or Arwyn back, though she could leave here at once and make certain her living sisters remained safe.
She blinked down at the key.
Aye, it was true. She could take off the shackles… here and now. Be free of this cruel binding. But Cael had asked her to bide her time…
Dare she trust him?
Aye… she did.
The lord of Blackwood might be many, many things—a villain, perhaps, no less than her mother—but Rhiannon had never once witnessed him to be a liar.
