Painful groans marked his words. “More will come for you and your wife.”
Wife.
Fury raged through him at the shock that not only was Bliss his wife but that she now was in tremendous danger not only from whoever wanted to kill him but from the curse as well. One of those he could protect her from, the other he couldn’t, and that infuriated him even more.
“WHO?” he demanded, knowing the man had little time left.
The man coughed, blood spewing from his mouth. “I know I am soon to be a dead man. You are a dead man and don’t even know it.” His laugh turned into a cough, then he gagged struggling to breathe until all breath finally left him.
Rannick looked the man over to see if there was anything that might hint at where he had come from, but he found nothing. He grabbed the man by the arm and dragged him into the woods. He retrieved his dagger from the other man’s chest and dragged him into the woods as well. He returned to Bliss, gripped her by the arm and with strong steps, she hurried to keep up with, rushed her back to the cottage.
The sky turned bleak as if in response to the deadly incident and Bliss shivered from the sudden rush of cold air that hit her just as they reached the cottage. He shoved her through the door he kicked open and she stumbled and hurried to put the table between them as he shut the door tight.
“Please let me explain,” Bliss said, hoping that somehow, she could make him understand and miraculously repair the damage her confession had caused.
He slammed his hands flat on the table and it trembled from his strength. “My father forced you to wed me?”
“Nay,” she said, shaking her head. “I chose to wed you.”
“In exchange for what?” he demanded. “Since no sane woman would do such an insane thing.”
“To keep both my two sisters from being forced to wed. Lawler planned to wed my sister Annis to Lord Brogan. I offered to wed you,” —she shut her eyes briefly— “and get with child in exchange for their freedom to choose their husbands.” She continued, her stomach churning. “You frightened me so much when I first met you that I thought it was better I did not tell you the truth.”
A fiery fury ran through him, and he had all he could do to contain it. “Instead, you lie and trick me into getting you with child?”
“That seemed to be the most sensible plan, otherwise you would have sent me away, and I would have failed, leaving my sisters vulnerable. But the burden of my lies has been far too heavy to bear. I could carry it no more, though my confession does not change the fact that I am your wife.”
Rannick pushed himself away from the table. “Not one of my three wives, unlike the foolish fourth one, wed me of their own accord and for a good a reason—the curse.”
“I wed you of my own accord knowing full well what marrying you meant,” she insisted.
“You are willing to die for your sisters?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Would you not die to protect those you love?” she asked.
“I have no love in me, just a cold, bitter heart.”
“I do not believe that,” Bliss said.
“More the fool you.”
“Or are you the fool for refusing to admit the truth?” she accused and jumped back when he lunged forward and brought his fisted hand down on the table with tremendous force cracking one of the boards.
“Watch your tongue with me, woman, or you will lose it,” he warned.
His threat came from anger, but she would not test her theory. She held her tongue.
“You did not think this through enough. If you do not keep your end of the bargain, my father will not keep his. He will see your sisters wed to men of his choosing, most likely Lord Brogan and Lord Odran, something neither of my friends want.”
“I had little time to think on it with the impending nuptials of Lord Brogan and my sister, something she was not in favor of either. And I worried over my sister Elysia, she is too kind and sweet to be caught up in a marriage with one of the cursed lords.”
“Yet you believed yourself capable of dealing with the worst cursed lord of the three?” He shook his head. “You are beyond foolish.”
“I have hope of a better outcome for our union,” she argued. “Without hope I could never heal. Sometimes it is the only thing left to me to offer someone or to cling to myself.”
Hope. The very thing the curse had taken from him and the very thing he longed to feel again. But he knew the mistake in thinking that way.