Page 68 of The Captive Knight
“To Paris? On winter roads swarming with thieves?”
“Inconvenience isn’t an excuse.”
Laurent’s jaw tightened under the split skin now bleeding from multiple puncture wounds. She battled to pat the blood away so she could see what she was doing, though she suspected her sight was impaired as much by tears as blood.
“I gave myself to him,” she blurted. “With a willing heart.”
“I know you did.”
A flush as hot as flames climbed up her cheeks, a blush she knew the flickering light of the sconces wouldn’t hide.
“The shame falls on him, Ally, for letting his ambition rule over love.”
“Ambition has nothing to do with it.”
“On the contrary. He wanted to have you and whatever fortune the prince is offering to him through a marriage to someone else. In the end, he got both.”
Her throat went tight. “I won’t listen to this.”
“If you refuse to face the truth, then you’re no longer the sister I remember.”
“You’re twisting everything.”
She slipped the needle through his skin for the last stitch, pinching off the guilt as he sucked in a breath through his clenched teeth. After tying off and cutting the thread, she returned the needle, thread, and scissors to the wool bag in which she stored them.
“I’ll bring you a Bible,” she said, gathering the bloodied linens. “Maybe in those pages you’ll discover your folly fighting for a woman who does not want to be saved.”
“Don’t be angry with me, Ally.”
“I had a choice.” She balled the linens tight in her hands. “I could go to a convent, take a dangerous journey into the court of a stranger, or be wife in all but name to a man I love. So I seized the future I wanted—the one within my reach.”
“I had a choice, too,” he said, “when I roamed half-starved upon the hills.” He stood up so fast that the stool scraped back against the flagstones. “I chose to fight for the honor of my most beloved sister. Would you have me choose otherwise?”
Yes.
No.
Yes.
“Why didn’t you do it?” she blurted, her heart pounding. “If you hate Jehan so much, why didn’t you kill him?”
“You’re wrong on both points.”
She shook her head, not understanding.
“I don’t hate him, Ally.” He hiked his hands to his hips. “And I didn’t come here to kill him.”
Her head ached trying to make any sense of his words.
“I expected him,” he said, “to kill me first.”
