She kissed his mouth and stopped him from talking. Without either of their realizing it, they were starting toward the ground. Elizabeth’s fingers were buried in the fastenings of Miles’s clothes, while his hand
s roamed eagerly over her body.
“Unhand her!” came a deadly voice from above them.
It took both Elizabeth and Miles a moment to understand who was speaking.
Roger Chatworth held his sword on Miles.
Miles gave Elizabeth a hard look and began to stand. “She is yours,” he said to Roger, his chest heaving.
“Damn you to hell, Roger!” Elizabeth shouted up at her brother, grabbing a handful of stones and throwing them at his head. “Just once, can’t you stay out of my life? Put that sword away before someone gets hurt!”
“I will hurt a Montgomery if he—”
“You may try,” Miles sneered, drawing his sword.
“No!” Elizabeth screamed, jumping up to stand between the two men, facing her brother. “Roger, let me make this clear. Miles is my husband and I am going to return to his home with him, that is if he’ll have me after the fools you’ve made of both of us.”
“Some husband he is,” Roger sneered. “He doesn’t come near you for months, hasn’t even seen his own son. Is this what you want, Elizabeth? You’d give up the home I’ve provided for a man who cares nothing for you? How many women have you impregnated since Elizabeth, Montgomery?”
“More than you could in a lifetime,” Miles replied calmly.
Elizabeth stepped closer to Miles as Roger lunged. “If I had any sense I’d tell both of you to go to the devil.”
“Let me rid you of him,” Roger said, but when his sword tip touched Elizabeth’s cloak, he halted. “Have you no shame? Have you greeted this man like…like this?”
“Roger, you are a pigheaded fool who understands only what is pounded into your head.” With a swirl of velvet and mink she turned, stood on tiptoe and planted her mouth on Miles’s. Miles was beginning to understand that this time Elizabeth was choosing him over her brother. He caught her to him in a rib-crushing embrace and kissed her with promises of tomorrow.
Roger, fuming, so angry he was trembling, was unaware of the man sneaking up behind him. Nor did he hear the swoosh of air as the club came down on the side of his head. Silently, he crumpled to the ground.
Miles and Elizabeth would have been oblivious to the crashing of a tree but something made Elizabeth’s eyes flicker open. A club was coming down on Miles’s head. She pushed him to the left just enough so that the club struck her and not him.
Miles did not at first realize what had made Elizabeth go so completely limp. With one hand supporting her, he turned, but too late to avoid the blow that felled him.
The three men, dirty, burly men, stood over the two men and a woman on the ground.
“Which one is Montgomery?” one man asked.
“How would I know!”
“So which do we take?”
“Both!” said the third one.
“And the doxy?” a man asked, using his club to part Elizabeth’s cloak.
“Throw her in with them. The Chatworth woman said there might be a woman and to get rid of her, too. I’m plannin’ to make her pay for each body. Now, get that man’s clothes off while I tend to this one.”
The third man cut a long strand of Elizabeth’s blonde hair and tucked it into his pocket. “Come on, hurry up. The wagon won’t wait all day.”
When Elizabeth woke, the pounding, galloping pain in her head was so bad she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to wake up. Even the ground under her seemed to be moving. As she started to sit up, she fell backward, banging her head not on the ground but on wood.
“Quiet, sweetheart,” came Miles’s voice from behind her.
She turned to meet Miles’s intense stare. He wore nothing but his loincloth, his arms behind him at an unnatural angle, his ankles tied. Beside him, snoring, was Roger, also bound.
As Elizabeth’s head cleared, she realized her own wrists and ankles were also bound. “Where are we?” she whispered, trying not to let her fear show.