Desired (61 page)

“No need to pledge me vows, Christian. I know your loyalty is absolute.”

Hawksblood turned his destrier and drew rein between Paddy and Ali. “I shall return as soon as I can.” He jerked his head in the Black Prince’s direction. “Guard his back as if it were mine.”

Joan was immensely relieved to find her chambers empty when she returned with Brianna. She hoped that Holland’s duties would keep him busy the rest of the day. Brianna’s presence gave her much needed courage and Joan vowed she would die before she would ever submit to Holland’s degradation again.

Brianna let Gnasher off his silver leash so he could explore his new surroundings, then she took her bag into the adjoining chamber and hung the clothes she had brought in the wardrobe. The girls talked as Brianna changed the sheets on the bed that the nurse had slept in. They spoke of their anxiety for the young princess and wondered aloud why the sweet one should fall ill, while the one who played merry hell with everyone went unscathed.

They admitted how much they hated their men continually riding off to war and that they prayed every night for a lasting peace. They talked of Adele and the baby she was expecting, and Brianna confided how much she envied Joan and Adele.

Joan’s eyes flooded with tears. “I didn’t tell you what Holland threatened to do with Jenna. He said if I didn’t send her to the nursery and banish the nurses so we could be alone, he’d twist her leg so she would be crippled or drop her on her head.”

“My God, the man is insane! How could Edward have married you to such a monster?” Brianna suddenly appreciated Hawksblood’s devotion.

“Edward has no idea and I never want him to find out. I wish Holland were dead! Why doesn’t he catch this damned plague and die?”

Brianna put her arm about Joan’s shoulders. “Life doesn’t work that way. My daddy used to say, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. And prayers can be very much like wishes, I’m afraid. Divine intervention is a rare phenomenon. Joan, there is good in the world and there is evil. If we combine our strengths and stand firm against Holland’s evil, we will defeat him. If we falter, we are lost.”

Joan nodded. “Brianna, I love you. How can I ever thank you for being my friend?”

“You have brought laughter and fun into my life. Things I would never have known without you. Your friendship is precious to me.”

“We can tell each other anything, no matter how dreadful, and know that nothing will destroy what we feel for each other.”

“We are blessed,” Brianna said, wiping away the last trace of Joan’s tears.

Queen Philippa could stand it no longer. Accompanied by her woman, Marie, she made her way to the large pink building where Princess Joanna’s large household had taken up residence. The guard posted at the door to enforce the quarantine fell back when he saw it was the queen, not daring to deny her admittance.

Inside, all seemed under control. Half a dozen women trekked from the kitchen to the upstairs sick room with boiling water, mops, and clean linen. The rest of the household were huddled behind locked doors in their own chambers. Glynis came out of the kitchen with a poultice she had just prepared. When she saw the queen she almost panicked. “Your Majesty, I beg you to leave!”

“Glynis, I will take the risk, as you do. I must see my little Joanna!”

Glynis did not want Philippa to see her daughter’s pitiful condition. Joanna had begun to vomit the most foul-smelling
bile, she was so fevered she was delirious and an ugly black swelling had risen in her armpit. Glynis was going to apply the poultice to try to bring it to a head and release the toxic poison that was in the young girl’s body. “Your Majesty, if you touch her you can carry the sickness to the king, to Isabel or the younger children. Perhaps even all of them! Joanna begged me to keep you away. She knows that you love her and she asks that you go to the chapel and pray for her,” Glynis fabricated desperately.

Philippa pounced upon the suggestion with fervor. “I will go immediately. Please tell her how much her father and I love her.”

When Philippa and Marie left, Glynis said to the guard, “Put the bar across the door. Let no one enter or leave.”

The king received more terrible news. A wounded messenger arrived with an urgent dispatch from Lancaster’s army. They had been defeated in a fierce skirmish with the French and had retreated back to Cherbourg. The French army outnumbered them and they would not be joining up with the Black Prince anytime soon.

When the king summoned a servant, it was the Steward himself who arrived. “Sir John! I thought you rode out with Prince Edward at dawn.”

“Er … no, Your Majesty, I thought the queen would have need of my services when the princess fell ill.”

“Thank you, Holland. It must be Providence that you stayed behind. I need to get a message to my son or Warrick. Lancaster’s army cannot get through. It will be disastrous for them to face the French alone. They must return to Bordeaux for the present.”

Holland cursed silently, while bowing to the king.

“Come with me now while I write the dispatch.”

Holland knew he must make it appear that he would deliver the message. Inside he began to rejoice that Prince Edward was about to go down to defeat. What a stroke of luck that the king had asked him to take the dispatch! Holland had a feeling that Destiny had just taken his hand. He would bid a fond farewell to his delectable young wife, then go for a pleasant ride along the river Garonne.

When Holland entered the apartment, the first person
he saw was Brianna. The bitch stood defiantly between him and his lawful wife. “What the hell are you doing here, she-bitch?”

“Making sure you keep your place in this household, you filthy cur!”

“If you think you are a fucking self-appointed guardian angel, you’ve got another think coming. You are nothing but a whore, perhaps even worse! Sleeping with two brothers, then luring one to murder the other!”

“That’s not true!” cried Brianna, launching herself at him to tear his ugly face with her nails.

Holland backhanded her so brutally, her head snapped back and she slumped onto the bed, unconscious. He picked her up, carried her limp body into the adjoining room and locked the door.

Joan stood rooted to the spot, white-faced, wide-eyed, trembling like a doe cornered by a wolf.

Holland was incensed that she had told her friend what he had done and that they had actually decided to defy him. Joan cried out in terror as he anchored one thick hand in the neck of her tunic and rent it down to its hem. The exquisite material fell in shreds about Joan’s delicate breasts and thighs. She shrank back from him, trying to cover her nakedness with her hair, but Holland thrust his cruel hand into the silvery-gilt mass and dragged her against him. His hand caressed her concave belly. “I want you to swell with my son. He’ll be the next Earl of Kent, thanks to me.”

In that moment Joan knew he had somehow murdered Edmund. She looked wildly about for something to hit him with in a vulnerable moment. Brianna couldn’t help her now; she’d have to help herself. Joan’s glance fell upon Brianna’s knife, which had fallen to the bed from its sheath when Holland hit her. Joan knew he would soon lead her to that bed. Knew he would remove his chausses so he could ravish her, and she knew what she must do!

As Brianna slowly regained consciousness, her hand crept to her jaw, which pulsated with excruciating pain. She felt as if she had been hit with a battering ram. When she
moaned, Gnasher pawed at her gently, knowing she was hurt; urging her to get up from the floor.

Brianna eased herself into a sitting position and looked about her, slowly remembering where she was. Jesu, how long had she been unconscious? Holland had Joan at his mercy in the other room and ravishing her was the least he would do to her! On her hands and knees she crawled to the door and being as quiet as she could, tried to open it. Brianna wasn’t surprised to find it locked.

She racked her brain trying to recall what Adele had once used to pick a lock. Her head was beginning to ache vilely from the violence of Holland’s blow. She put her hands to her head, willing the pain away. Her fingers dislodged a hairpin and immediately she remembered it was the very thing Adele had used!

Working as carefully and as soundlessly as possible, she worked the wire into the keyhole and after what seemed like an eternity, finally managed to click it open. Brianna held her breath, hoping he hadn’t heard, and after a minute she let out her breath and reached for her knife. Brianna had made up her mind to kill Holland! Stunned, she saw the sheath at her waist was empty. She looked all about the floor to see if it had fallen to the floor, but to her great disappointment, it was nowhere to be found. Refusing to be defeated, she took up an iron candlestick about a foot high and softly pushed open the chamber door.

Just as Joan hoped, Holland had her pinned to the bed now. The knife fit into her palm snugly, as if it had been especially designed for her small hand. She saw once again the obscenity of Holland’s genitals and lusted to slice off his thick purple phallus so it could never desecrate her again, but Joan knew she was fighting for her life and Brianna’s life as well, for assuredly Holland would have to kill Brianna to silence her.

As Holland plunged down upon her, Joan jabbed the knife into his throat. At that same moment Gnasher shot through the door, flashed across the bed, and fastened his teeth into Holland’s exposed nether region. A scream of agony erupted from his throat, cut off by a strangling noise as blood sputtered up and bubbled through the hole in his neck that Joan had gashed open. Brianna sprang after the
ferret, crashing the iron candlestick down on Holland’s skull with a sickening thud. He rolled from the bed in a pool of blood.

“Sweet Jesus, are you all right, Joan?”

Joan was on her feet, the knife in her hand dripping crimson drops. “Did I kill him?” she panted.

Brianna looked down at his caved-in skull. “I think I did,” she whispered.

A
s Hawksblood rode like a madman, he received continual flashes of the danger surrounding Brianna. Though his mind was powerful enough to see, he was powerless to intervene. Then suddenly the images ceased and he became frantic. Though he despaired of reaching her in time, he knew he must try his utmost, strive to the limit of his endurance, fight to get back to her with his last breath.

The two girls clung to each other desperately, horrified at what they had done, yet knowing they would do it again. Holland had left them no choice. It was a matter of kill or be killed; destroy or be destroyed!

One danger was past, but another now presented itself. Fear for the consequences of their actions almost paralyzed them. Brianna went to the wardrobe and took out a robe for Joan, then they took one end of the carpet and rolled it to cover the blood-soaked heap that was Sir John Holland.

They had no idea what they would do with him. They feared his body was too heavy for them to move, but they had little choice in the matter. “We’ll wait until dark,” whispered Brianna. “Perhaps we can get him as far as the orchard.”

When Brianna looked at Joan she saw she was ready to faint. She guided her to a chair by the window and sat her down. If Joan went to pieces on her now, Brianna would be lost. Panic arose in her breast; she felt as if she would suffocate, her clear thinking was becoming hopelessly muddied by the emotional trauma that threatened to overwhelm
her. A feeling of hopelessness gathered in her throat and threatened to erupt into a scream any moment.

His black destrier was lathered white as Hawksblood vaulted from the saddle and rushed into his house. “Where is she?” he demanded of Adele.

“She has gone to stay with Joan,” Adele told him, weak with relief, secure in the knowledge that Hawksblood would keep them all from harm.

Christian loped up the hill toward the palace. He vaulted a high wall into the orchard and took the stairs leading to Joan’s apartments three at a time.

When the door crashed open, Brianna screamed, and then miraculously she was in Christian’s arms. She began to cry and now it was Brianna’s turn to tremble. She needed him and he had come! It was that simple; it was that miraculous. Safe in Christian’s arms, she did not have to be strong anymore. She gave herself into his keeping.

Joan watched mutely as Christian Hawksblood enfolded his wife in his powerful arms, surrounding her with his love. She watched them look at each other, heard them speak in such an intimate way, their words were for each other alone.

He lifted Brianna’s tear-stained face with poignant tenderness. “I want you to be strong for Joan … I want you to be strong for me.”

Brianna nodded, trusting him totally. “How did you know?”

“I listened to my heart. Forgive me for not arriving sooner. I would have given anything to spare you the necessity of killing.”

Brianna clung to him. He was her bastion, her strength. “I had to do it, Christian—”

“No explanations. My love is absolute and unconditional.”

“Edward must not know that he violated Joan.”

“No one will know anything about this,” Christian said firmly.