The Warrior's Forbidden Virgin by Michelle Willingham Read Free Book Online Page A

with pain.
    Let him be alive. For, God help me, I want to wed him.

Chapter Five
    The first few days, Katherine had prayed for a rescue. Surely her father would send men. But no one came for her, and even more time went by. Slowly, her fear and grief transformed into anger. John had chained her wrists and ankles to a stone wall within a storage chamber, and what little food she’d received was rancid.
    Lord Ceredys intended to use her as a lure for Honora. His obsession with her sister bordered on madness, and he spoke of nothing but bringing Honora back.
    As for Ademar, he was likely dead. A broken hollowness seemed to swallow her up at the thought. She had let herself become so caught up in trying to let go of her feelings for Ewan, she hadn’t noticed the way Ademar had slipped inside her heart. Strong and quiet, he had been both her friend and her lover.
    It didn’t matter that he struggled to speak. He’d needed no words to show her that he cared. Had he loved her?
    Katherine’s throat thickened, and she wished that she could go back and tell him of her own feelings. If somehow, by the grace of God, Ademar had lived, she could think of nothing else but being at his side.
    She wanted to wed him, to be a part of his life. Yet, it might be too late for that. Tears swelled within her eyes, but it would do no good to shed them. Right now, she had to find a way out of this prison.
    As if in answer to her plea, she heard a soldier’s voice ordering, “Bring her out.”
    A guard unlocked her chains, and Katherine struggled against his grip, trying to seize his dagger. He backhanded her, and she stumbled to the ground. With no energy to fight him, her hands were bound, each wrist by a separate rope. He jerked the two ropes behind her back, forcing her out of the storage chamber.
    Outside, the sunlight blinded her for a moment. Before she could get her bearings, the soldier lowered a hood over her head. She heard him mount his horse, and he took one of the ropes. A second soldier took the other rope, and they forced her to walk between their horses. Katherine struggled to keep from stumbling, unable to see anything.
    After a few minutes, she heard the screeching of seagulls and the rhythmic sounds of waves. Her heartbeat quickened. Was Lord Ceredys planning to drown her?
    The guards kept her a distance away, and she heard John’s voice, along with a woman’s. Oh sweet Virgin, it was her sister. She’d thought Honora had escaped.
    “Who is your prisoner?” Honora called out.
    And then John laughed harshly. “Someone who tried to rescue you. A fool.”
    A moment later, the hood was ripped away. Katherine blinked in the fierce light before she saw the terrified face of her sister.
     
    Ademar couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept. Though every instinct screamed for him to ride after Katherine, he forced himself to return to Ardennes.
    He’d narrowly missed his own death. When he’d seen John’s sword slicing toward him, he’d thrown himself to the ground, letting the blade cut through the top of his shoulder as he rolled away. His head had struck a rock, and he’d lost consciousness.
    Likely the damned stone had saved his life. When he’d awoken, Katherine was gone and his head was caked with blood. It had taken the better part of a day to reach Ardennes, but he’d recruited the baron and fifty of their best fighters.
    “If Ceredys has harmed her—” Nicholas of Ardennes began, his voice rigid with fury.
    “He dies.” Ademar kept up his pace, matched only by the baron.
    “You should have stopped Katherine from following you,” Nicholas continued. “Or better, you should have let Honora go.”
    “No woman should travel alone,” Ademar countered.
    Lord Ardennes turned crimson. “Honora has defied her responsibilities long enough. I told Ceredys he could bring her back to her dower estates. Never did I suggest that he kidnap her.”
    Ademar tried to separate from the baron, to ride ahead of the