The Velvet Promise (49 page)

for him to forget you. For in truth he loved her long before he even met you. Theirs is a
true
love match—not one of estates, as is your marriage.

Now my Lady Alice is a wealthy widow. She too can bring vast lands to the Montgomery family."

Judith sat quietly and watched Ela knitting. The old woman had a contented look on her face. There were many questions Judith would like to have asked—such as how Alice planned to free Gavin so they could marry. But Judith wisely didn't put any more questions to the maid. It would have been useless.

All through the hard and fast ride to the Chatworth manor, Gavin was silent. He couldn't believe he would find Judith held prisoner by Alice. He knew of Alice's deception at court and what others said of her, but he truthfully could find little wrong with her. He still considered her a sweet-natured woman driven to great lengths through her adoration of him.

The front gate was standing open. Gavin gave Alan a glance of triumph.

This was no place that held an heiress captive.

"Gavin," Alice said as she rushed into the inner bailey to meet him. "I hoped you would come to see me." She was exceptionally pale in a blue silk gown that matched her eyes.

Gavin dismounted and held himself stiffly away from her. "Is my wife here?" he asked coldly.

Alice's eyes widened. "Your wife?" she asked innocently.

Alan's hand swept out and grabbed the woman's upper arm. "Where is she, you bitch? I haven't time to play your games!"

Gavin gave Alan a vicious shove and knocked the young man against his horse. "Don't you touch her again!" he warned. He turned back to Alice. "I want an answer to my question."

"Come inside," Alice began, then stopped when she saw Gavin's face.

"She is not given to visiting me."

"Then we must leave. She is taken captive and we must find her." He turned to mount his horse again.

"No! Gavin, don't leave me," she cried as she flung herself at him.

"Please don't leave me!"

Gavin turned to set her aside.

"Your wife is here."

He turned to see Ela standing in the doorway.

"The woman is kept here, safe now, but she won't be so safe if you spurn my Lady Alice."

Gavin was next to the fat woman in seconds. "Do you threaten me, old hag?" He turned back to Alice. "Where is she?" he demanded.

Alice's eyes spilled over with great, lovely tears. She didn't speak.

"You waste time!" Alan said. "We'll tear this place apart to find her."

Gavin took a step toward the manor house.

"You won't find her!"

Gavin whirled. The voice was a distorted version of Alice's—high and screeching. Her little mouth was pulled back in a snarl, and he saw that her teeth were badly crooked. Why hadn't he seen that before?

"She is where you nor any man will find her," Alice continued, for the first time dropping her facade of sweetness before Gavin. "Do you think I would give that whore my best room? She deserves only the bottom of the moat!"

Gavin took a step toward her, disbelieving the drastic change in Alice.

She didn't seem even remotely kin to the woman he once loved.

"You didn't know she gave herself to many men, did you? Did you know the child she lost was not even yours, but Demari's?" Alice put her hand on his arm. "I could give you sons," she leered, her face and voice a caricature of the woman he thought he knew.

"This is what you have neglected Judith for," Alan said quietly. "Can you see now what everyone else does?"

"Yes, I see it," Gavin said in disgust.

Alice backed away from the men, her eyes wild. She picked up her skirts and turned and ran, Ela following her.

When Alan started in pursuit, Gavin said, "Leave her. I would rather have my wife back than punish Alice."

Alice ran from one building to the next, hiding, skulking, furtively looking about. Gavin had looked at her as if she repulsed him. Somewhere in her mind she knew Ela followed her, but her mind didn't seem to be able to think of more than one thing at a time. Right now all she could think of was the fact that another woman had taken her lover from her.

Quickly, she climbed the tower steps making sure no one was after her.

Judith looked up at Alice as she stood in the doorway. The woman's hair was disarranged, her veil askew.

"So!" Alice said, her eyes glinting wildly. "You think you will get him back?"

Judith cringed against the ropes, her throat raw from calling out. But the walls were too thick for her to be heard.

Alice swept across the room grabbing a pot of hot oil from the brazier.

A wick floated on top of the oil, ready to be lit. Alice held the oil carefully as she walked toward her prisoner. "He won't think you are lovely once this eats away half of your face."

"No!" Judith whispered and drew back as far as she could.

"Do I frighten you? Do I make your life hell as you have made mine? I was a happy woman before I knew of you. My life hasn't been the same since I first heard your name. I had a father who loved me. Gavin worshiped me. A rich earl asked to marry me. Yet you have taken them all away from me. My father hardly recognizes me now. Gavin hates me. My rich husband is dead. And all because of you."

She moved away from Judith and buried the pot of oil deeper into the coals. "It must be hot, very hot. What do you think will happen when your beauty is gone?"

Judith knew it was impossible to reason with the woman, but she still tried. "What you do to me won't bring back your husband, and I don't even know your father."

"My husband!" Alice sneered. "Do you think I want him back? He was a swine of a man. Yet he once loved me. He changed after he went to your wedding. You made him believe I wasn't worthy of him."

Judith couldn't speak. Her eyes stared at the heating oil.

"My lord," Ela said nervously. "You must come. I'm afraid."

"What is it, you old hag?" Gavin demanded.

"My lady. I fear for her."

Gavin would have gone to great lengths to keep from hurting a woman.

Even seeing Alice as she truly was, he couldn't demand that she tell him where Judith was. Now he grabbed Ela's arm. "What are you saying? I grow tired of this game of hide-and-seek. Where is my wife?"

"I meant no harm," Ela whispered. "I only tried to get you back for my lady. It was what she wanted so much. I always try to get her what she wants. But now I'm afraid. I wish the Lady Judith no harm."

"Where is she?" Gavin demanded, tightening his grip.

"She has locked the door and—"

"Go!" Gavin said and pushed the woman. He and Alan followed her across the courtyard to the tower. Please, God! Gavin prayed, let nothing happen to Judith.

At the first pounding on the door, Alice jumped. She knew the bolt wouldn't hold long. She took a long, sharp knife from her side and held it to Judith's throat as she untied the binding ropes. "Come," she said as she grabbed the oil in the other hand.

Judith felt the blade at her throat and the heat from the pot of oil near her cheek. She knew that the slightest movement could startle the nervous Alice and release the oil or push the knife into her throat.

"Up here!" Alice commanded Judith as they slowly made their way up a narrow wooden stairway to the rooftop. Alice stood back, away from the edges, her arm around Judith, holding the knife closely to her neck.

Gavin, Ela and Alan burst through the doorway seconds later. When they saw the empty chamber, they followed Ela up the stairs. They all froze at the sight of the wild-eyed Alice holding Judith.

"My sweet Lady Alice—" Ela began.

"Don't you talk to me!" Alice said, tightening her grip. "You said you'd get him back for me. But he hates me—I know he does!"

"No!" Ela said, taking a step forward. "Lord Gavin doesn't hate you. He protects his wife because she's his property. No other reason. Now come and let's talk. I'm sure Lord Gavin will understand why this has happened."

"No!" Alice sneered. "Look at him. He despises me! He snarls at me and looks as if I were the lowest form of life. And all for this red-haired slut!"

"Do not harm her!" Gavin warned.

Alice cackled. "Harm her! I will more than harm her. See this?" She held the pot of oil aloft. "It is very, very hot. It will scar her face. What will you say when she's no longer so lovely?"

Gavin took a step forward.

"No!" Alice screeched. "Get up there!" she commanded Judith, pushing her closer to the edge near a chimney pot.

"No!" Judith whispered. She was very frightened but her terror of heights was even greater.

"Do as she says," Gavin said in a low voice, realizing finally that Alice was not sane.

Judith nodded and stepped up on the edge of the roof. In front of her was the upward thrust of the chimney. She grabbed it, her arms tightly rigid.

Alice began to laugh. "She fears this place! She is a child, and you wanted this bitch over me. I am a true woman."

Ela put her hand on Gavin's arm as he started forward. The two women were in a precarious position. Judith's eyes were glazed with fright, her knuckles white as she held onto the bit of brick in front of her. Alice waved the knife and the pot of boiling oil about wildly. "Yes," Ela said. "You are truly a woman. If you will come down, Lord Gavin will soon be sure of that."

"Are you trying to trick me?" Alice asked.

"Have I ever tricked you?"

"No," Alice said and smiled down at the old woman for a moment. "You are the only one who has always been good to me."

The momentary lapse of concentration caused Alice to stumble. Ela grabbed frantically at her beloved mistress, catapulting her body from the slate roof of the manor. Alice grabbed at her maid at the same time as Ela pushed her mistress to safety. Ela fell over the side of the house, taking several seconds before she hit the stones below. Alice fell backward, away from the edge, thanks to the sacrifice of her maid. But the pot of oil in her hand fell with her, spilling across her forehead and cheek. She began to scream horribly.

Gavin made one leap across the roof to where Judith still clung. Her extreme fear of heights and her resulting iron grip on the chimney had saved her life.

Alice's screams filled the air as Gavin pried Judith's fingers loose from the brick. He held her close, feeling her body tighten, her heart pounding.

"Look what you've done to me!" Alice screamed through her pain. "And Ela—you have killed my Ela! She was the only one who ever truly loved me."

"No," Gavin answered, looking at Alice's mutilated face with great pity.

"It was not I nor Judith who has harmed you, but only yourself." He turned to Alan as he picked Judith up in his arms. "See to her. Don't let her die. Perhaps that scar will be a fitting reward for her lies."

Alan looked with distaste at the cringing woman, then walked toward her.

Gavin took Judith down the stairs to the room below. It was some moments before she was able to relax. "It's over now, my love," Gavin whispered. "You are safe now. She will harm you no more." He held her very tightly.

Alice's screams, now little more than hoarse groans, came closer. Gavin and Judith watched as Alan led her below. She stopped and gave Judith one last vicious look, then turned away when she saw the sorrow in Judith's eyes. Alan led her from the room.

"What will happen to her now?" Judith asked quietly.

"I don't know. I could give her to the courts, but I think perhaps she's been punished enough. No longer will her beauty ensnare men."

Judith looked up at him in surprise and studied his face.

"You look at me as if you're seeing me for the first time," he said.

"Maybe I am. You're free of her."

"I have told you before that I no longer loved her."

"Yes, but there was always a part of you that was hers, a part I couldn't touch. But now she no longer possesses you. You are mine—totally and completely mine."

"And that pleases you?"

"Yes," she whispered. "It pleases me greatly."

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