Exile’s Bane by Nicole Margot Spencer Read Free Book Online

in? Did it never occur to you that I also care deeply for Tor House?”
    “Is it so selfish to want what belongs to me?” someone asked. In my terror, I grasped that it was my own voice.
    He looked down at his clenched fist. The hand dropped away.
    “We have spoken of this before. Why can you not be useful,” he went on, suddenly, inexplicably calm, “and accept this marriage? It will assure my hold on the isle. I will be able to control the man.”
    “You intend to keep Tor House for yourself,” I stated, aghast at my own conclusion.
    “Tor House is only suitable for an English lord.”
    “But Tor House is my dowry portion. What was this betrothal based upon, if not my position as heiress of Tor House? Besides, Edward Gorgon is no English lord.”
    His dark eyebrows went up, and his face tilted in surprise. “Wise little girl. But no, I have given Gorgon other incentives for your hand.”
    He strolled back to the table, and I followed, trying to understand why he would do such a thing.
    “You cannot do that, Uncle. Father settled Tor House on me as a freehold estate for life unless I marry; and then, it passes to my husband. A jointure, he called it.”
    “Ah, yes. He did, my dear.” He nodded, somehow pleased.
    He must have changed his mind, for he bypassed the table and went on to the record cabinet. I remembered the top two shelves of the cabinet as open-shelved and full of neatly piled record books. But they lay now hidden behind doors and a locked iron bar, which extended to the bottom of the cabinet. He unlocked the bar and searched among the sheaves in the bottom section of the cabinet. Finally he pulled out the long deed I remembered, with all its seals and ribbons.
    “I was witness to his signing,” he said. His dubious cheeriness grated on my nerves. He turned with the deed, held it out for me to see. “The only witness. It has never been seen by anyone else. And so . . .” He strode across the room and threw it on the fire.
    “No!” I cried, running after him. I bent and reached around him to pull the smoking deed from the flames. His fist entered my peripheral vision. Pain exploded in my head. In agony, I brought my hands up, and a whirling vertigo claimed me. The next thing I remembered was the rough carpet against my cheek. Arms snaked under my armpits and lifted me, positioning me to watch the last black fragments of the deed crumble into dust atop the lowering fire.
    “It never existed. Just a figment of your questionable imagination,” he rasped in my ear. He withdrew his arms.
    I dropped to the floor, narrowly missing the stone edge of the hearth. I struggled to unsteady feet, grasped the hearth mantel, and pulled myself upright. The room whirled around me. I tried to focus on the old battleaxe mounted above me.
    When my strength returned enough for me to look around, I found him studying me out of dark, deadly eyes.
    “You have no rights,” he said, his voice as hard as the steel of his rapier, aimed for my heart. “Tor House belongs to me as sole surviving male heir. You leave at first light tomorrow for the Isle of Man where you will marry Edward Gorgon.”
     

Chapter Four
    In my teary-eyed stupor, I did not know where my uncle was or how he had summoned Wallace. I only knew it was Captain Wallace who gathered me up, led me out of the library, and down the long corridors toward the back of the house. My anger slowly returned and with it, my resolve.
    “Let me go, Captain. I have to get away.” If I stayed, I would be forced to leave and marry Gorgon on the isle. I would never see my home again, and that terrified me more than my uncle’s wrath.
    But Wallace ignored me, and we continued on. He stopped at a little used doorway set deep in the stone wall. He turned to me, face alight, his mouth set in a bitter line.
    “Through this door and along the passageway, you will find yourself outside near the stables. I go now to release Mistress Carey. Wait for her.” My look of