The man laughed.
“Get out!” she shouted at her men. “All of you! Out!”
When they were gone, she didn’t spare Will a glance but rushed to the bed.
“Captain, I do not want to kill you. I love you.”
He shook his head. “Ye dinna love me, and I dinna love ye.”
She smiled, looking as serene as a windless loch. She was mad and spoiled to the point of no return.
“Captain,” she purred, pulling back his fur covering with her finger. “If I cannot have your love, let me at least have your body.”
He pulled and tugged on his bindings as she exposed him.
He was flaccid, sickened by her and the death of his friend, concerned only for Silene.
She lifted her skirts, ready to mount him.
“Cecilia!” he said in a commanding voice. “Ye will get nothin’ from me this way.” He knew what she wanted to hear. “Untie me and I will show ye what bein’ chaste fer six years has done to me.” He’d already showed his wife, but Cecilia didn’t know that.
He saw her shiver. She attempted to climb atop him but he bent his legs. If he had to kick her into the hearth fire, he would.
“Untie me, Cecilia.”
She blinked and smiled. “You are like a sorcerer, Captain.” She patted her flush face.
“Cut me loose. If havin’ my body is what ye want, I will let ye do to me as ye will.”
She pressed her index finger to the dip in his hip.
He clenched his teeth, not wanting her to touch him. “Cecilia—”
“Shh. I’m cutting,” she whispered, leaning up over him and cutting his binds.
The instant his hands were free, he cupped them around her nape and smashed his forehead into hers, making her reel. “Next time, I will crack open yer skull. Now, tell me where my wife is.”
“Men!” she croaked out. They came running. The first reached him in an instant, before he had any time to plan an attack. It didn’t stop Galeren from snatching Cecilia’s knife and jamming it into his opponent. The one who killed Will. He looked into the man eyes and twisted the blade.
Galeren let the man go and took an instant to ready himself for more, then flung the bloody blade into the neck of the second man.
A third and fourth rushed toward them. Galeren fought them, ducking and stepping out of the way of their blades. He punched one and knocked him out, grabbed his sword and cut the last man down in two brutal swings.
Without pause, he rushed to his hose and boots and put them on.
Cecilia screamed in horror. Blood spurted from a deep gash in her throat, “Galeren!” she cried out. She’d been cut in the fighting.
He lifted her in his arms. She would be dead soon. There was nothing he could do. “Where did he take her, Cecilia. Where is she?”
“She is all…you…care about.” Cecilia managed, growing weaker.
“Aye. She is all. Tell me what I wish to know.”
Tears filled her eyes and they closed. “The steward…told me to meet him at Laggan.”
Galeren looked down at her and shook his head. “Ye shouldna have come here, Cecilia.”
She did not answer.