Page 26 of The Splendor of Fire
“Don’t move a muscle or I’ll kill you.” The voice was low and deadly, growling from the deepest parts of a man’s being. Tears stung her eyes and something trickled from her chin. The missive. She couldn’t reach the missive.
The two guards from the front of the castle burst into the room and doubled over, winded.
The dark-haired man gasped for breath. “The man who’s …wi’ her …is sticking to the story she …knows Lady MacLean and is …here to give her herbs.”
The baby continued to wail. “Tis a lie, I’ve never seen her before.”
The giant jerked her off the floor and pinned her arms behind her back. She needed to reach the missive; she couldn’t let Léo down now. Summoning all her strength, she struggled against the giant trying to wrench her hands free.
“Stop struggling, I warned you. You come into my keep, threaten my wife and son, I’ll kill you.”
Threaten? Wife and son? By the saints. The Beithir.She stopped struggling.
The Beithir growled at her and hauled her up, shaking her. “Who are you?”
She shook her head and moved her mouth.I don’t have a…He turned away and she rolled her eyes.Why ask then?
The blond man recovered breath first. “The man down there says she’s a mute, Laird.”
“There’s one way to find out.” With two large fingers he grabbed a pinch of her flesh and twisted as hard as he could. Pain erupted through her arm and she lost her footing, tears cascading out of her eyes, a disgusting soundless rasp coming from her useless throat.
Lady MacLean rushed forward. “Stop it, Hector. Stop!”
He let go of the flesh but kept his hands on Moira’s arms and she struggled against him, angry now. One arm broke loose and she reached toward the top of her leine, but his hand grabbed hers again.
Fed up and longing to pay him back, Moira sank her teeth deep into his fist until he yelped and let go. Grabbing the missive, she thrust it in front of his face. He stopped and stared at her. She stared back into—into the same aqua eyes as her own. Breath rattled from her chest, and she waved it at him, exasperated.Take it, toad.
Behind him the two guards snorted in unison. Rolling his eyes now, the Beithir took it from her fingers.
Mission done, she collapsed to the floor, resting her head upon her knees. All that. To deliver a message for a man who didn’t care a thing for her. Her breath heaved and she sprawled out upon the floor spent.
“Léo?” The expression of every person in the room looked confused as they stared at the Beithir.
The woman rocked the baby back and forth and he quieted in her arms. “What about Léo?”
The Beithir stepped over her and yanked her up by her collar. She dangled, no longer needing to fight back. “How do I know this is from Léo and not some trick?”
Fixing her eyes on his and staring back, showing him he did not scare her in the least, Moira stuck her hand inside her leine and produced the necklace. The Beithir’s eyes went wide and he dropped her, her back banging against the wooden floor.
His voice wavered. “Léo is alive.”
The two guards rushed over, looking at the missive in the Beithir’s giant hands.
The blond man squinted at it. “It’s in French, I can’t read it.”
The dark-haired man pointed to a word. “I can read that. Moira. The man outside says she’s Moira Allen, daughter of a priest.”
Moira got to her feet, brushing tufts of spirally curls out of her face.
Beithir studied her. “You’re Léo’s Moira? His woman?”
His woman? No. Not at all.Judging from Léo’s enthusiastic apology, the man would rather kiss a pig than claim her as his own. Sheshrugged her shoulder and pointed to her name on the paper and mouthed,I’m Moira.
“How did you meet him?”
Moira held up her hands and felt invisible bars.
“Prison?”
