Beloved Abductor Read Online Free PDF Page B

going to play this waiting game. Perhaps his aim was to make her more amenable to his advances. She sat down again, determined to make him see that what he planned was just as wrong as what Philip had done to his mother.
    ‘Would your mother, whom you seem to have cared for so much, have wished you to seek revenge in such a way?’
    The directness of her question made him still as he took bread from a crock. Setting it on a platter, he began to cut it with the knife from his girdle. He stared at her, but did not reply. Since seeing her bruised and cut face, his previous plans had been overturned. She had looked so lovely that morning before she had ran from him.
    Felicia let out an infuriated sigh. ‘I am innocent of all the blood that my cousin has split on this manor!’ she cried, her hands clutching the edge of the table. ‘Why do you think I was struggling with that man? I was fleeing my cousin’s attentions. He wants Meriet, the manor that came to me after the Battle of Lewes last year. Vent your anger upon him!’ Her blue eyes flashed. ‘Otherwise soon it will be too late for you to do anything to him, for he has orders from the Montfort to go to Worcester. God willing, he will have little thought to spare for me then. A quick search of this manor, perhaps, and then he will be on his way. When Earl Simon calls, Philip goes. You know the way into the castle,’ she said rapidly. ‘Surely you could get in again? You could drug him and have him brought to justice!’
    ‘You talk foolishly!’ He pushed the platter across the table, and went over to a far corner of the room, bringing back a flask and two horns. ‘Even if it were possible, I have other plans.’ His brow furrowed. ‘Think, my fine lady. The castle would be no safe place now to try and gain entry. It will be teeming with men in search of us and our way out.’ He paused and took a gulp of ale, meeting her gaze and trying to work out if she disliked her cousin as much as she claimed. It was not unusual for lovers to fall out. ‘Besides, if I had wanted to deal with your cousin in such a way, I could have done so. By taking you instead, I sought to make your cousin suffer.’
    ‘Suffer? You think my cousin will suffer because I am missing?’ Felicia threw back her head and laughed, albeit a mite hysterically.
    ‘You think not?’ His voice was quiet. ‘They say he killed to have you.’
    ‘Have me? Aye!’ The laughter died in her face, and tears glistened in her eyes. Suddenly it seemed so unreal, talking to this man she barely knew, and who plotted revenge. She looked down into the liquid gleaming in the flask on the table and poured ale into a horn. Since morning she had gone thirsty. What was the point in trying to affirm her innocence. Let him think what he liked, this—abductor! She did not care.
    Edmund moved abruptly. He had expected her to deny again her involvement in the death of Philip Meriet’s wife, and was irritated that she had not done so. Taking a cloth, he removed the pot from the fire, setting bowls on the table, and spooning out the hash of peas, barley and onions.
    ‘Eat!’ he commanded, holding out a wooden spoon.
    She looked up then. Her shoulders sagged wearily, and the large bruise showed vividly on her face beneath its smear of salve. ‘I’m not hungry.’ She took another gulp of ale.
    ‘I said—eat!’ He took her hand and pressed the spoon into it. ‘We have a journey before us on the morrow, and there will be no hot food on the way.’ He sat down opposite her and took up his own spoon.
    Felicia looked at him. So they were not staying here, after all. Her spirits rose slightly, and she dipped her spoon into the food. ‘What direction do we take?’
    ‘We go south,’ he said, breaking bread and mopping his bowl with it.
    ‘South? Not to Chester?’
    ‘Didn’t I say so? Drink up, Mistress Meriet. There will be no more ale after this, and who knows it might help you to sleep, although I have not drugged