Rowan's Lady Read Online Free

sorry, me laird!” Arline squeaked out. “I
meant only to comfort the babe.”
    “I do no’ give a damn what ye meant to do. Ye go
back to yer room and ye stay there!” he ground out as he angrily threw her to
the floor.
    The child cried louder, inconsolable, and afraid.
Her cries were too much for Arline’s heart to bear.
    “Please, me laird,” Arline begged. “Let me help,
let me help ye with the bairn!”
    Laird Blackthorn loomed over Arline. In one swift
motion, he bent at the waist and gave her a harsh, heavy slap to her face with
the back of his hand.
    Arline fell backward as blood filled her mouth.
The shock of being hit overwhelmed her. She was stunned, too stunned to cry. No
one had ever hit her before. Not even her father, cruel as he was, had ever
laid an angry hand on her.
    Blackthorn hauled her to her feet by her arms. “That
was the last time ye beg me fer anythin’, including yer life.”
    As Garrick angrily shoved her away, two of his men
caught her, each grabbing an arm. With a quick nod from Blackthorn, the two men
dragged Arline away. As they hauled her up the stairs to her room, she didn’t
know which hurt worse; her broken and bleeding mouth, her arms where the men
grabbed her, or her heart as she listened to the wailing babe she was forced to
leave with her furious husband.
    Arline had been unceremoniously and quite rudely
tossed into her room. As much as she wanted to cry out and curse the ground her
husband and his men walked on, she did not possess such boldness or bravery.
Instead, she poured cold water from a pitcher into her washbasin. Her hands
trembled so much that she had a difficult time holding the washcloth. After
several attempts, she took a few deep breaths and somehow managed to clean the
blood from her face.
    A little more than a year had passed since she’d
arrived at Blackthorn Castle. Her hatred for her husband had grown with each
day that had gone by. But these last four months had been the worst of her
life. After the events that took place below stairs, Arline doubted a word had
been created yet that would describe the absolute and intense hatred she now
felt for Garrick Blackthorn.
     After washing her face she started to pace in
front of her fireplace. Tiny beads of sweat clung to her upper lip, her stomach
felt as hard as stone, her nerves a jumbled mess as she waited for her
husband’s punishment to be meted out. Without a doubt, she knew she had signed
her own death warrant the moment she took the babe into her arms. Garrick would
kill her for her transgression, for defying him in front of his men.
     While she knew her death was imminent, she worried
more over the babe than for her own wellbeing.
    Garrick would not be swift in killing Arline. Nay,
he would make sure that she suffered first. Horrible. Painful. Brutal. Laird
Blackthorn had made that promise on more than one occasion over the past year.
There was nothing in their history together that would prove otherwise.
    The image of the terrified little girl pulled and
twisted Arline’s stomach into knots. Such a beautiful little cherub with auburn
curls and big blue eyes, or she could have been had she not been crying and
frightened.
    She knew not to whom the babe belonged and decided
it didn’t matter. Chances were the child had been taken from her parents to be
held for ransom. Garrick Blackthorn was just that kind of man. One who would
take a child from the loving bosom of its family for a bag of coins.
    Prior to her father-in-law’s death four months
ago, Arline’s stay had been comfortable albeit boring. She had been allowed to
visit the chapel every morning and to take walks around the keep. At night, she
would sit next to her husband at the evening meal, pretending to enjoy herself
and married life.
    Richard Blackthorn’s death had changed all of that.
    Now, she was kept secluded in her room, with the
door oftentimes barred from the outside. She was no longer allowed her daily
visit to the chapel,