Medieval 01 - Untamed

hers.”
    Simon looked dazed. “I wouldn’t have thought it of Meg. She fought for your life as though it were her own. Do you really believe she—”
    â€œI believe she isn’t here,” Dominic said in a voice that chilled everyone who heard it. “Do you believe otherwise?”
    Simon looked at the fear on the faces of the people of Blackthorne Keep. They had no doubt that disaster had come to them once again.
    â€œNo,” Simon said. “I believe she is gone. May God damn her soul to ever—”
    A single look at Dominic’s face cut off Simon’s curse.
    Eadith looked from one man to the other.
    â€œWaste no time, lord,” she said urgently. “’Tis true, Lady Margaret’s palfrey is old, but like as not Duncan will have a better horse waiting for her on up the road.”
    Dominic gave Eadith a glittering glance before he turned to the mounted men behind him andgave crisp, succinct orders. Men obeyed instantly, for none could meet their lord’s feral eyes. They had not seen him look so savage even when they had pulled him from the ruins of the sultan’s palace with the wounds of torture still fresh and bleeding on his body.
    Within moments a long-tongued hound came dancing from the kennels. When shown the tracks of Meg’s palfrey, Leaper took off immediately, following the horse’s trail. Simon and Dominic pursued at a gallop. The other knights remained at the keep, carrying out their liege’s orders.
    When Leaper finally came to the steep incline in the forest, she didn’t slacken her stride until she discovered the place where the palfrey’s tracks were churned and overlaid by the prints of other horses. In a tense silence, Dominic and Simon reined in their hard-breathing horses until Leaper picked up the trail in the forest. The men spurred forward between trees at a reckless pace.
    â€œI see it!” Simon called, urging greater speed from his horse.
    Dominic didn’t bother. He, too, had seen the palfrey. He had also seen that her rider was nowhere in sight. Eadith had been correct.
    Someone had waited in the forest with a fresh mount for Meg.
    Barely able to leash his savage temper, Dominic looked back to the road where the tracks of many horses had churned the earth. There was no way to tell which horse Meg rode now. Nor was there need. Only one thing lay ahead on the cart road. Duncan of Maxwell’s new estates.
    The palfrey trotted toward Dominic. The golden chiming of bells followed every step the old horse made. Dominic spurred his mount forwardand grabbed the palfrey’s reins. Tied to the saddle was a rolled piece of parchment and a note written in a priest’s fine hand.
    Dominic read it with a single, consuming glance. When he looked up, Simon sucked in his breath. It took no great wit to realize that Dominic would sooner kill than speak at the moment.
    â€œBack to the keep,” Dominic said flatly.
    Simon asked no questions. He simply followed his brother to Blackthorne Keep. No sooner had the horses clattered over the drawbridge than Dominic began looking into the faces of everyone who ran out into the bailey.
    The face he was searching for was not there.
    â€œSend for Eadith,” Dominic demanded.
    A stirring went through the gathered servants, but no one spoke until Old Gwyn stepped forward.
    â€œEadith is gone to the Reevers.”
    Though Dominic had expected as much, he couldn’t prevent the icy rage from vibrating in his voice.
    â€œDid she leave a message?” he demanded.
    â€œAye. If you don’t wish your wife to become whore to the Reevers, you will deliver the ransom by moonrise tomorrow.”
    When Dominic neither moved nor spoke, an uneasy murmur rose from the people gathered in the keep.
    â€œDo they have her, lord?” Gwyn asked.
    Dominic’s clenched fist opened, revealing fragments of the golden jesses his own small falcon had once worn around her ankles.
    â€œAye, old woman. She is taken.”
    â€œWhat price?”
    For an instant Dominic’s eyes closed. When they opened, the people closest to him stepped back,instinctively seeking to widen the distance between themselves and the man whose eyes promised all Hell let out for holiday.
    â€œThrice her weight in gold and jewels,” Dominic said distinctly.
    â€œGod’s blood,” Simon said, stunned. “He can’t mean that. It would beggar Blackthorne