“Sir James shall come,” Martin shouted as he struggled against the men who held him. “And when he does, he shall kill every one of you.”
Give her a blade, and Linnet would help him. Gladly. “We shan’t be seeing Sir James this night,” the alderman said in a self-satisfied tone. “I sent him on a fool’s errand miles outside of London.”
Linnet’s spirits plummeted like a boulder down a cliff.
“Bind him,” Pomeroy ordered.
Poor Martin! He fought like a young lion, but there were a half dozen on him and soon they had him bound.
“It appears we have our blood sacrifice after all,” Pomeroy said.
God no, not this sweet young man.
A burst of righteous fury burned through Linnet as two of the devil-worshippers tossed Martin’s trussed body on the ground next to her as if he were an animal carcass. She wanted to rip these masked devils apart with her bare hands.
Martin landed with his face just inches from hers. She looked into his wild eyes and wished she could pull him into her arms and comfort him.
She waited to speak until their captors began their chanting again. “Hold still while I work on your ropes. They must believe I am still asleep from the drug they gave me.”
He nodded a fraction to show he understood.
The fools had tied his hands in front of him. She felt for an end of the rope and began to work it loose.
“You must close your eyes and ears if they take me,” she said. “Whatever they do to me, they do not intend to kill me.”
“Sir James will come,” he whispered. “I know he will.”
“That is why you must wait to act, no matter what you think they may be doing. Do not risk wasting your chance before Jamie comes… unless they come for you.”
She stared into his eyes until he gave her a reluctant nod.
The chanting grew louder, making her head throb as she worked feverishly on the knots.
“Goddess! Goddess! Goddess!”
The new chant sent frissons of terror through the taut nerves of her body. Soon they would come for her.
Finally! The first knot came loose, and she began to work on the second. She nearly had him free when Martin hissed between his teeth, “Lady Linnet.”
Just in time, she stilled her hands and closed her eyes. Her heart thundered in her chest as arms draped in animal skins grabbed hold of her. She moaned and let her head flop to the side as the two men in smelly furs lifted her.
“Goddess! Goddess! Goddess!”
By what perversion did they think her goddess?
The tops of her bare feet scraped on the rough dirt floor as they dragged her to the center of the circle. All about her, the voices shouted, “Goddess! Goddess! Goddess!”
Linnet awoke, dazed, lying on her back on the table at the center of the circle. They must have held the cloth to her face again. She struggled to shake off her grogginess and sit up, but her hands were tied to the table. When she tried to move her legs, she found that they were tied, too, so that her knees were bent.
A current of cool air touched her skin…
It could not be so. She slit her eyes and saw her own bare breasts, the nipples erect with cold. She closed her eyes.
The Virgin protect her. They had her naked. Never had she felt so vulnerable. Even when she and Francois were children and cornered by rough soldiers in an empty house, she had not felt this helpless. Or so utterly alone.
She fought to keep her features smooth, though she wanted to wail and weep in her despair. From beneath her lashes, she watched Pomeroy refill the bowl from the steaming pot on the brazier. The others were doing their mad dance around the circle again, their eerie shadows playing on the cavelike walls behind them. Their chanting filled her head, pounded through her veins.
God give her strength! She remembered the rest of the ceremony all too vividly. She recalled precisely what the wolf-man had done to Margery while she lay on the altar table. But Margery had been a willing participant in the play.