Page 307 of Historical Hotties
“I told you that it is,” he said. “Your husband rode out to defend Millford, but my knights killed him. Now we must speak about your future, Lady Stafford.”
Something happened to Caledonia at that moment.Thor is dead?She knew she shouldn’t believe her uncle, but on the other hand, the only way he would be here, in a chamber with her, was if Thor was unable to prevent it.
Dead.
My husband is dead.
And with that, Caledonia started to scream. Her hands flew over her ears and she sank to the floor, screaming loudly enough for the entire castle to hear. Knowing this, Rotri ran out to thelanding and locked the door at the top of the stairs to prevent anyone from entering to see what was amiss. It cut the floor off from the stairs. He didn’t need any do-good soldiers trying to rescue Lady Stafford or, worse, the woman named Nica, as Janet had described her, interfering. He needed Caledonia’s attention and was going to get it, because he had plans for the woman.
Finally, he had her where he wanted her.
“Callie, stop,” he commanded as she huddled on the floor and screamed. “Do you hear me?Stop!”
She heard him, but she couldn’t. She was in a quagmire of grief, deeper than anything she’d ever known, and her screams were meant for her husband to hear, wherever he was. Thor had to hear how badly she was taking the news because, in the short time that they had known one another, a love had been built that could not be broken. Not even by death. Perhaps her screams were meant to bridge the veil of death, to reach out to him to convey the depth and strength of the love between them.
He had to hear her.
But… oh, God… the pain.
Eventually, Caledonia fell over onto her left side and the screams faded to gut-wrenching sobs. Rotri had made his way over to her by this point, frowning as he gazed down upon her. He wasn’t very tolerant of emotions or weakness. Infuriated, he pulled up a stool and planted himself on it as he yanked her into a sitting position.
“What is the matter with you?” he demanded. “Why do you weep for a man you were hardly married to? A man who was forced upon you?”
Caledonia couldn’t answer him. She was leaning against the stone wall, her face turned away from him as she wallowed in grief.
“Answer me,” he said. “Why do you carry on so for a man who simply married you out of greed?”
Caledonia suddenly lashed out a foot and caught him in the face, sending him toppling off the stool. “It was not out of greed!” she cried. “You are the only greedy bastard I know, and that is exactly why you are here! Greed has driven you to persecute me for the past two years, you vile son of a whore. Get out of here and leave me alone!”
Rotri wasn’t bleeding, but it had been a good kick. Rubbing his sore nose, he reclaimed his stool and slapped her in the face when she tried to kick him again.
“Do not kick me,” he warned. “The next time, my response will be more painful, so stop behaving like an animal and listen to me.”
“Nay!” she shouted as she managed to squirm away from him and get to her feet. Sick, exhausted, and overwrought, she staggered away. “Get out of here, Rotri. I do not want to hear you.”
Rotri stood up, tracking her as she stumbled out of his reach. “You have no choice,” he said steadily. “You are going to listen to me because I have come to claim my due, something you have denied me since birth.”
“I haven’t done anything!”
Rotri cocked his head. “Untrue,” he said. “Constantine was the first. He is the one who truly stole my inheritance, but then you came along. You were a worthless female until your brother and father died, and then you became the heiress of everything that should have been mine.”
She was over by the hearth now, glaring at him with tears and mucus streaming down her face. “I did not ask for it,” she said. “I did not want it. If you want to blame someone, blame the king. Blame the laws. But do not blame me, because I never wanted it.”
Rotri rubbed his sore nose again. “Be that as it may, it is yours,” he said. “But I have waited long enough. You will marryCristano so he can assume the earldom of Stafford, and he will give me Tamworth. I shall have what blood right should have given me long ago.”
“Cristano?” Caledonia said with horror when she realized that was whom he intended to marry her to. “De Lucera?”
“Do you know another Cristano?”
“I will not marry that bastard and you cannot make me!”
“You will do as I tell you.”
As the tears fading, a sense of self-preservation took hold. If what he said was true and Thor was dead, there was no way out for her. She was to be pushed from marriage to marriage because of her value as an heiress and nothing more. She was, once again, a commodity.Déchet, Robert had called her. She was back to being rubbish. From the days of heaven with Thor, it was back to the endless hell she had always endured.
But she wasn’t going to endure it any longer.
“Nay,” she said after a moment. “I will not do as you tell me. You are not my lord. You are nothing to me but a greedy, conniving fool who has lived in the shadow of my father his entire life. You are worthless, Rotri. You will never have Tamworth because I am not going to let you have it. Once and for all, you will not have it.”
