A Kingdom of Dreams

Chapter Seventeen

The storm that had been gathering strength for two days blew in with a vengeance, causing the sky to remain almost black for two full hours past the normal time for dawn. Rain pounded down on their heads and lashed their faces, bending stout saplings almost in two, and still the band moved doggedly onward, keeping to the protection of the woods whenever possible.

With his shoulders hunched forward, Royce let the rain pelt his back, irritated that his posture was also providing a sheltering barrier against the rain for the exhausted woman who was responsible for all of this and who was now sleeping fitfully against his chest.

With the sun completely vanquished by the dark clouds overhead, it seemed as if they'd been riding through a perpetual dawn. Had it not been for the rain, they'd have come upon the place he sought hours ago. Idly, Royce patted Zeus's shiny neck, well pleased with Thor's son, who carried his double burden with the effortless ease of his sire. The slight movement of his gloved hand seemed to stir Jennifer from her slumber, and she snuggled closer against the warmth of Royce's body. Once, not long ago, that same slight movement would have made him want to cuddle her close against his chest, but not today. No longer. When he had need of her body, he would use it, but never again with care and gentleness. He would permit himself to feel lust for the scheming little slut, but nothing more. Never. Her youth, her big blue eyes, her touching lies had fooled him once, but never again.

As if suddenly realizing where she was and what she was doing, Jenny stirred in his arms, then she opened her eyes, looking about her as if trying to understand what had happened. "Where are we?" Her voice was deliriously husky with sleep as she spoke the first words she'd said since he lowered her down the castle wall; it reminded Royce of the way she'd sounded when he awakened her to make love to her again during that endless night of passion they'd spent together at Hardin.

His jaw hardened as he coldly rejected the memory, and he glanced down at her upturned face, noting the bewilderment that was currently replacing her normal hauteur.

When he remained silent, she persisted with a weary sigh, "Where are we going?"

"We're moving west by southwest," he replied uninformatively.

"Would it be too terribly inconvenient to tell me our destination?"

"Yes," he bit out between his teeth, "it would."

The last numbing traces of sleep vanished, and Jenny straightened as the full realization of his night's work descended upon her. Rain hit her in the face as she moved from the shelter of his big body, her gaze flying over the cloaked figures hunched over their horses, moving stealthily through the woods beside them. Stefan Westmoreland was riding on their left and Arik on their right. Aunt Elinor was wide awake, sitting erect in her saddle, peering at Jenny with a reassuring smile and an expression on her face which made it obvious she was pleased to be anywhere but the dower house. Last night on the raft she'd managed to whisper to Jenny that she'd tricked the duke into taking her along, but beyond that, Jenny knew nothing. In fact, her gag had not been removed until after she'd fallen asleep.

"Where is Brenna?" she gasped, her mind snapping into sudden focus. "Did you release her?"

Now, when Jenny least expected an informative answer, she received one. In a tone reeking with sarcasm, Royce Westmoreland replied, "I never had her."

"You bastard!" Jenny hissed furiously, then gasped in alarmed surprise as his arm coiled around her like a striking snake, squeezing the breath from her as he hauled her sharply against his chest. "Don't ever," he said, enunciating in an awful voice, "use that tone or that word to me again!"

Royce was about to say more when he caught sight of a long stone building nestled against a hillside ahead. Turning to Stefan, he raised his voice to be heard above the slackening rain. "That looks like the place." As he spoke, he dug his spurs into the stallion, sending the animal into a ground-devouring gallop. Beside and behind him the band of fifty men followed suit, and a moment later they were all galloping down the rutted road with Aunt Elinor's protests about the jouncing she was receiving rising above the hoof beats.

He drew up before what was unmistakably a priory and dismounted, leaving Jenny to sit there and stare at his back in angry curiosity, longing to know her fate and trying to eavesdrop as he said to Stefan:" Arik will stay here with us. Leave us the spare horse."

"What about Lady Elinor? What if she can't withstand the ride?"

"If she can't, you'll have to find a cottage and leave her there."

"Royce," Stefan said with a worried frown, "don't be more foolish than you have been. Merrick's people could be right behind you."

"He'll lose most of today trying to convince Hastings and Dugal he's innocent of the plot, then he'll have to guess our direction whenever he loses our tracks. That should cost him plenty of time. If not, our men know what to do. You ride for Claymore and make certain all is in readiness for a possible attack."

With a reluctant nod, Stefan reeled his horse around and rode off. "Plot?" Jenny demanded heatedly, glowering at her uninformative abductor. "What plot?"

"What a cunning little liar you are," Royce snapped, grabbing her by the waist and hauling her from the saddle. "You know what plot. You were a party to it." He caught her by the arm and began dragging her forward toward the door of the priory, heedless of the heavy weight of Jennifer's sodden mantle. "Although," he added bitingly, his strides long and angry, "I find it hard to imagine that a woman with your hot-blooded nature would actually commit herself to life in a cloister rather than marry a man-any man, including me."

"I do not know what you are talking about!" Jenny cried, wondering wildly what form of new terror a peaceful priory could possibly hold-particularly one which looked quite deserted.

"I am talking about the abbess from Lunduggan who arrived at the castle during our feast last night escorted by a small 'army' of her own, and you damned well know it," he snapped, lifting his fist and pounding imperatively on the heavy oaken door. "They were slowed by the rain, which was why your pious Friar Benedict was forced to pretend to an illness that would delay the ceremony."

Her chest heaving with indignation, Jenny turned on him, her eyes shooting sparks of ire. "In the first place, I've never heard of Lunduggan or an abbey there. Secondly, what difference would it make if an abbess arrived? Now," she ranted "you tell me something: Am I to understand that you dragged me out of my bed, flung me down a castle wall, hauled me across Scotland in a storm, and brought me here, because you didn't want to wait a day longer to wed me?"

His insolent gaze roved down her bare, wet bosom, making Jenny mentally cringe at his look of distaste. "You flatter yourself," he said bitingly. "It took nothing less than the threat of death, added to the threat of impoverishment to make me agree to have you in the first place."

Lifting his arm, he pounded with impatient vigor on the oaken panel, which swung open, revealing the polite face of a startled friar. Ignoring the friar for the moment, Royce glared contemptuously at his future bride. "We're here because two kings decided we were to wed with all haste, my sweet, and that's what we're going to do. You aren't worth starting a war over. We're also here because the prospect of being beheaded offends my sensibilities. But most of all, we're here because I find it irresistibly appealing to thwart your father's plans for me."

"You are mad!" she snapped, her chest heaving. "And you are a devil!"

"And you, my dear," Royce imperturbably replied, "are a bitch." With that, he turned to the horrified friar and unhesitatingly announced, "The lady and I wish to be wed."

A look of comical disbelief spread over the pious man who was garbed in the white robes and black mantle of a Dominican friar. He stepped back more from shock than courtesy, allowing them to enter the hushed priory. "I-I must have misheard you, my lord," he replied.

"No, you did not," Royce said, stalking inside, and hauling Jennifer with him by the elbow. He stopped, pausing to thoroughly inspect the beautiful stained-glass windows high above, then he lowered his gaze to the paralyzed friar and his brows snapped together impatiently. "Well?" he demanded.

Recovering from his earlier shock, the friar, who appeared to be about twenty-five, turned to Jennifer and said calmly, "I am Friar Gregory, my child. Would you care to tell me what this is all about?" Jenny, who responded automatically to the sanctity of her surroundings, dropped her voice to a more suitable hush than Royce's imperative baritone, and shakily and respectfully said, "Friar Gregory, you must help me. This man has abducted me from my home. I am Lady Jennifer Merrick, and my father is-"

"A treacherous, scheming bastard," Royce snapped, his fingers digging painfully into Jennifer's arm, warning her to be silent or risk having her bone broken.

"I-I see," Friar Gregory said with admirable composure. Lifting his brows he gazed expectantly at Royce. "Now that we've discovered the identity of the lady, and the supposedly tainted circumstances surrounding the birth of her sire, would it be too presumptuous of me to inquire as to your identity, my lord? If so, I believe I can hazard a guess-"

For a split second, a glimmer of amused respect replaced Royce's anger as he gazed at the undaunted young friar, whom he towered over, but who as yet showed no fear of him. "I am-" he began, but Jenny's angry voice cut him off. "He is the Black Wolf! The Scourge of Scotland. A beast and a madman!"

Friar Gregory's eyes widened at her outburst, but he remained outwardly calm. Nodding, he provided, "The duke of Claymore."

"Since we've all been properly introduced," Royce told the friar curtly, "say the words and have done with it."

With great dignity, Friar Gregory replied, "Normally there would be formalities to be met. However, from what I've heard at this priory and elsewhere, the Church and King James have already sanctioned it. Therefore there is no obstacle here." Jenny's spirits sank, then soared crazily as he turned to her and said, "However, it appears to me, my child, that it is not your wish to marry this man. Am I correct?"

"Yes!" Jenny cried.

With only a momentary hesitation to gather his courage, the young friar turned slowly to the powerful, implacable man beside her and said, "My Lord Westmoreland-your grace-I cannot possibly perform the marriage without the consent of the-" He broke off in confusion as the duke of Claymore continued to regard him in mocking silence, as if he was calmly waiting for Friar Gregory to recall something-something that would leave him no choice but to do as he'd been bidden.

With a start of dismay, the friar realized what he should have considered from the very first, and he turned back to Jennifer. "Lady Jennifer," he said gently, "I do not mean to distress you with what must be a most humiliating circumstance, however, it is known to all that you were… with … this man for several weeks, and that he-and you-"

"Not of my own will," Jenny cried softly, consumed again with guilt and shame.

"I know that," Friar Gregory soothed gently. "But before I refuse to perform the ceremony, I must ask you if you are certain you did not conceive as a result of that er… time you spent as his hostage? If you are not certain, then you must permit me to perform this marriage for the sake of any possible child. It is a necessity."

Jennifer's face turned scarlet at this totally humiliating discussion, and her loathing for Royce Westmoreland escalated to unparalleled heights.

"No," she said hoarsely, "there is no chance."

"In that event," Friar Gregory said, courageously addressing the duke, "you must understand that I cannot-"

"I understand perfectly," Royce said in a silky, courteous voice, his grasp on Jenny's arm tightening painfully. "If you will excuse us, we'll return in about a quarter of an hour, and you can perform the ceremony then."

Panic exploded in Jenny, and she stared at him, rooted to the floor. "Where are you taking me?"

"To the hut I saw right behind this place," he replied with implacable calm.

"Why?" she cried, her voice rising with fear, trying again to free her arm from his grasp.

"In order to make wedding us a necessity."

Jenny had no doubt whatsoever that Royce Westmoreland could, and would, drag her to a hut, force himself upon her, and then haul her back in here so that the friar would have no choice but to marry them. Hope for reprieve died along with her resistance, and her shoulders drooped in defeat and shame. "I hate you," she said with deadly calm.

"A perfect basis for the perfect marriage," Royce replied sarcastically. Turning to face the friar he ordered curtly, "Do it. We've lost too much time here already."

A few minutes later, bound by unholy matrimony for all eternity, with hatred instead of love or affection as the basis for it, Jenny was hauled out of the priory and tossed up onto Royce's horse. Instead of climbing up onto the spare horse, Royce turned and spoke rapidly to Arik, who nodded. Jenny couldn't hear what orders Royce had given the giant, but she saw him turn and begin walking purposefully into the priory.

"Why is he going in there?" Jenny cried, remembering that Friar Gregory had said he was alone in the priory today. "He can be no threat to you. He said himself he was only stopping at the priory on a journey."

"Shut up," he snapped, and climbed up behind her.

The next hour was a blur, punctuated only by the pounding of the horse against Jenny's backside as they galloped headlong down the muddy road. As they neared a fork in the road, Royce suddenly reined the big horse into the woods and then stopped, as if waiting for something. A few minutes passed and then a few more, while Jenny peered down the road, wondering why they were waiting. And then she saw it: galloping toward them at a breakneck pace came Arik, his outstretched hand holding the reins of the spare horse, which was running beside him. And bouncing and jouncing upon the animal's back as if he'd never ridden before, hanging onto the pommel for his very life was-Friar Gregory.

Jenny gaped at the rather comic spectacle, unable to believe her own eyes until Friar Gregory was so close she could actually see the stricken expression on his face. Rounding on her husband, sputtering in her furious indignation, she burst out, "You-you madman! You've stolen a priest this time! You've actually done it! You've stolen a priest right out of a holy priory!"

Transferring his gaze from the riders to her, Royce regarded her in bland silence, his utter lack of concern only adding to her outrage. "They'll hang you for this!" Jenny prophesied with furious glee. "The pope himself will make sure of it! They'll behead you, they'll draw and quarter you, they'll hang your head from a pike and feed your entrails to-"

"Please," Royce drawled in exaggerated horror, "you will give me nightmares."

His ability to mock his fate and ignore his crime was more than Jenny could bear. Her voice dropped to a strangled whisper, and she stared over her shoulder at him as if he was some curious, inhuman being beyond her comprehension. "Is there no limit to what you will dare?"

"No," he said. "No limit whatsoever." Jerking on the reins he turned Zeus into the road and spurred him forward just as Arik and Friar Gregory galloped abreast. Tearing her eyes from Royce's granite features, Jenny clutched at Zeus's flying mane and glanced sympathetically at poor Friar Gregory, who bounced past, his fear-widened eyes clinging to her in mute appeal and terrified misery.

They kept up the breakneck pace until nightfall, stopping only long enough to rest the horses periodically and give them water. By the time Royce finally signaled Arik to stop, and a suitable camp had been found in a small glade deep within the protection of the forest, Jenny was limp with exhaustion. The rain had stopped earlier that morning, and a watery sun had put in its appearance, and then shone with a vengeance, causing steam to rise from the valleys and adding tenfold to Jenny's discomfort in her damp, heavy velvet gown.

With a tired grimace, she tramped out of the thicket she'd used to shield herself from the men so that she could attend to her personal needs. Raking her fingers through her hopelessly tangled hair, she trudged over to the fire and sent a murderous glance at Royce, who still looked rested and alert as he knelt on one knee, tossing logs onto the fire he'd built. "I must say," she told his broad back, "if this is the life you've led all these years past, it leaves much to be desired." Jenny expected no answer, nor did she receive one, and she began to understand why Aunt Elinor, who'd been deprived of human companionship for twenty years, had missed it so much that now she eagerly chattered away at anyone she could find to listen to her-willingly or no. After an entire night and day of Royce's silence, she was desperate to vent her ire on him.

Too exhausted to stand, Jenny sank down onto a pile of leaves a few paces from the fire, reveling in the opportunity to sit upon something soft, something that didn't lurch and bump and jar her teeth, even though it was damp. Drawing her legs up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them. "On the other hand," she said, continuing her one-way conversation with his back, "perhaps you find much pleasure in galloping through the woods, ducking tree limbs, and fleeing for your life. And, when that becomes tedious, you can always divert yourself with a siege or a bloody battle, or an abduction of helpless, innocent people. 'Tis truly a perfect existence for a man like you!"

Over his shoulder, Royce glanced at her and saw her sitting with her chin perched upon her knees, her delicate brows raised in challenge, and could not believe her daring. After everything he'd put her through in the past twenty-four hours, Jennifer Merrick-no, he corrected himself, Jennifer Westmoreland-could still calmly sit on a pile of leaves and mock him.

Jenny would have said more, but just then poor Friar Gregory staggered out of the woods, saw her, and stumbled over to sink gingerly onto the leaves beside her. Once sitting, he shifted experimentally from one hip to the other, wincing. "I-" he began, and winced again-"have not ridden much," he admitted ruefully.

It dawned on Jenny that his entire body must be racked with aches and pains, and she managed to smile at him in helpless sympathy. Next it occurred to her that the poor friar was a prisoner of a man with a reputation for unspeakable brutality, and she sought to allay his inevitable fears as best she could, given her animosity for the man who'd captured them both. "I do not think he will murder you or torture you," she began, and the friar looked at her askance.

"I have already been tortured to the full limits, by that horse," he stated dryly, then he sobered. "However, I shouldn't think I'll be killed. 'Twould be foolhardy, and I don't think your husband is a fool. Reckless, yes. Foolish, no."

"Then you aren't concerned for your life?" Jenny asked, studying the friar with new respect as she recalled her own terror at her first sight of the Black Wolf.

Friar Gregory shook his head. "From the three words that blond giant over there allotted me, I gather that I'm to be taken with you to bear witness to the inevitable inquiry that is bound to take place on the matter of whether you are well and truly married. You see," he admitted ruefully, "As I explained to you at the priory, I was merely a visitor there; the prior himself and all the friars having gone into a nearby village to minister to the poor in spirit. Had I left on the morn, as I meant to do, there would have been no one to attest to the vows you spoke."

A brief flair of blazing anger pierced Jenny's weary mind. "If he"-she glanced furiously at her husband, who was near the fire, his knee bent as he tossed more logs onto the blaze-"wanted witnesses to the marriage, he had only to leave me in peace and wait until today when Friar Benedict would have married us."

"Yes, I know, and it seems odd he didn't do that. 'Tis known from England to Scotland that he was reluctant, no, violently opposed, to the idea of wedding you."

Shame made Jenny look away, feigning interest in the wet leaves beside her as she traced her finger on their veined surface. Beside her, Friar Gregory said gently, "I speak plainly to you, because I sensed from our first meeting at the priory that you are not fainthearted and would prefer to know the truth."

Jenny swallowed the lump of humiliation in her throat and nodded, cringing inside at the realization that everyone of importance in two countries evidently knew she was an unwanted bride. Moreover an unvirginal one. She felt unclean and humiliated beyond words-humbled and brought to her knees before the populace of two entire countries. Angrily she said, "I don't think his actions of the past two days will go unpunished. He snatched me from my bed and hauled me out a tower window and down a rope. Now he's snatched you! I think the MacPherson and all the other clans may well break the truce and attack him!" she said with morbid satisfaction.

"Oh, I doubt there'll be much in the way of official retaliation; 'tis said Henry commanded him to wed you posthaste. Lord Westmoreland-er-his grace, has certainly complied with that, although there's bound to be a bit of an outcry from James to Henry over the way he did it. However, at least in theory, the duke obeyed Henry to the letter, so perhaps Henry will be merely amused by all this."

Jenny looked at him in humiliated fury. "Amused!"

"Possibly," Friar Gregory said. "For, like the Wolf, Henry has technically fulfilled the agreement he made with James to the very letter. His vassal, the duke, has wed you, and wed you with all haste. And in the process, he evidently breached your castle, which was doubtlessly heavily guarded, and snatched you right from your family's midst. Yes," he continued more to himself than to her, as if impartially considering a question of dogmatic theory, "I can see that the English may find all this highly entertaining."

Bile surged in Jenny's throat, almost choking her as she recalled all that had happened last night in the hall, and realized the priest was right. The hated English had been wagering amongst themselves, actually wagering in the hall at Merrick, that her husband would soon bring her to her knees, while her kinsmen could do naught but look at her-look at her with their proud, set faces, as they bore her shame as their own. But they were hoping, depending upon her, to redeem herself and all of them by never yielding.

"Although," Friar Gregory said more to himself than to her, "I cannot ken why he would have put himself to such risk and trouble."

"He raves about some plot," Jenny said in a suffocated whisper. "How do you know so much about us-about everything that's been happening?"

"News of famous people flies from castle to castle often with surprising speed. As a friar of Saint Dominic, 'tis my duty and my privilege to go among our Lord's people on foot," he emphasized wryly. "Whilst my time is spent among the poor, the poor live in villages. And where there are villages, there are castles; news filters down from lord's solar to villein's hut-particularly when that news concerns a man who is a legend, like the Wolf."

"So my shame is known to all," Jenny said chokily.

" 'Tis not a secret," he admitted. "But neither is it your shame, to my thinking. You mustn't blame yourself for-" Friar Gregory saw her piteous expression and was instantly consumed with contrition. "My dear child, I beg your forgiveness. Instead of talking to you about forgiveness and peace, I'm discussing shame and causing bitterness."

"You've no need to apologize," Jenny said in a shaky voice. "After all, you, too have been taken captive by that-that monster-forced, dragged from your priory, as I was dragged from my bed, and-"

"Now, now," he soothed, sensing she was teetering between hysteria and exhaustion, "I wouldn't say I was taken captive. Not really. Nor dragged from the priory. It was more a matter that I was invited to come along by the most enormous man I've ever beheld, who also happens to carry a war axe in his belt with a handle nearly the size of a tree trunk. So when he graciously thundered, 'Come. No harm,' I accepted his invitation without delay."

"I hate him, too!" Jenny cried softly, watching Arik stroll out of the woods holding two plump rabbits he'd beheaded with a throw of his axe.

"Really?" Friar Gregory looked nonplused and fascinated. " 'Tis hard to hate a man who doesn't speak. Is he always so stingy with words?"

"Yes!" Jenny said vengefully. "All he nee-needs to do"-the tears she was fighting to hold back clogged her voice-"is look at y-you with those freezing cold blue eyes of his and you j-just know what he wants you to do, and y-you d-do it, because he's a m-monster, too." Friar Gregory put his arm around her shoulders and Jenny, who was more accustomed to adversity than sympathy, especially of late, turned her face into his sleeve. "I hate him!" she cried brokenly, heedless of Friar Gregory's warning squeeze on her arm. "I hate him, I hate him!"

Fighting for control, she moved away from him. As she did so, her eyes riveted on the pair of black boots planted firmly in front of her, and she followed them the full distance up Royce's muscled legs and thighs, his narrow waist and wide chest, until she finally met his hooded gaze. "I hate you," she said straight to his face.

Royce studied her in impassive silence, then he transferred his contemptuous gaze to the friar. Sarcastically, he asked, "Tending to your flock, Friar? Preaching love and forgiveness?"

To Jenny's amazement, Friar Gregory took no offence at this biting criticism, but instead looked abashed. "I greatly fear," he admitted ruefully as he awkwardly and unsteadily came to his feet, "that I may be no better at that than I am at riding horses. The Lady Jennifer is one of my first 'flocks,' you see. I've only been about the Lord's work a short time."

"You're not very good at it," Royce stated flatly. "Is it not your goal to console rather than incite? Or is it to line your purse and grow fat on your patron's good graces? If the latter is the case, you'd be wise to counsel my wife to try to please me, rather than encourage her to tell me of her hatred."

At that moment, Jenny would have given her very life to have Friar Benedict standing here instead of Friar Gregory, for she would have relished seeing Royce Westmoreland receive the sort of thundering tirade that Friar Benedict would have launched at the insolent duke.

In that respect, however, she had misjudged the young friar again. Although he did not rise to the Black Wolf's verbal attack, neither did he retreat or cower before his daunting adversary. "I gather that you do not hold those of us who wear these robes in very high regard?"

"None whatsoever," Royce snapped.

In her mind, Jenny wistfully envisioned Friar Benedict in this clearing, his eyes bulging with fury as he advanced on Royce Westmoreland like the angel of death. But, regretfully, Friar Gregory merely looked interested and a little puzzled. "I see," he said politely. "May I ask why?"

Royce Westmoreland stared at him with biting scorn. "I despise hypocrisy, particularly when it is coated with holiness."

"May I ask for a specific example?"

"Fat priests," Royce replied, "with fat purses, who lecture starving peasants on the dangers of gluttony and the merits of poverty." Turning on his heel, he strode back to the fire where Arik was roasting the rabbits on a makeshift spit.

"Oh dear God!" Jenny whispered a minute later, without realizing she had started fearing for the immortal soul of the very same man she'd just wished to perdition. "He must be a heretic!"

Friar Gregory shot her an odd, thoughtful glance. "If he is, he is an honorable one." Turning, he stared at the Black Wolf, who was crouching near the fire beside the giant who guarded him. In that same preoccupied, almost amused voice, he said softly, "A very honorable one, I think."