‘We will not!’
‘We have no choice. He cannot be allowed to let others know where we are.’
Her mind raced with some way to convince Cedric that he was wrong. Killing the Norseman would not be the right course of action. Her heart would not allow her to be responsible for another death. ‘They will know already. He claims that he has men out there. That he arrived with some and they will even now be wondering where he is. Perhaps they even know that he was taken.’
‘Do you believe his claim?’ he asked.
‘I have doubts. I have had the men looking all night and they found no one.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Then no one is here. Even if men do come later, they can prove nothing without the Norseman’s corpse.’
It was Cedric’s duty to evaluate threats and snuff them out. Perhaps that was the best thing to do in this case, but she could not allow it to happen.
‘Cedric, I cannot have another death on my head. Besides, I am certain he must have told someone—perhaps his brothers—where he was heading. Someone knows he is here.’
Cedric paused. He turned from his pacing where he had possibly been playing out ways to kill the Norseman and dispose of his corpse in secret.
‘Another death?’ he finally asked. She was so concerned with the Norseman’s fate that she had not realised what she had said.
She gave him a jerky nod, but found that she could not tell him about the Norsewoman’s death. It had been too horrific, too painful. There was no way that she could speak of it. ‘It was chaos. We had to fight our way out.’
Cedric raised a brow, but he did not ask again. ‘We cannot keep him down there indefinitely.’
‘I know.’ The words came so softly that she did not know if he had heard her until she felt his warm hand on her back.
‘I wish you would have confided in me earlier. I would have forbidden you to go to Maerr and none of this would have happened.’
She forced a smile in an attempt to return to normal. ‘You would have forbidden me to go and I would have left anyway.’ She had been so determined to avenge Grim, and so lost in grief for the child that was never to be, that nothing could have stopped her.
He gave a mirthless chuckle and put his arm around her shoulders. Warmth spread through her chest. Despite the heartache of her past, she was very lucky to have Cedric and Wilfrid in her life. The men had both filled the role of father for her in very different ways. Cedric was the one who listened and guided, while Wilfrid had always been the playful one. The one who had urged her to learn to fight and hold a dagger.
‘Death is the only way to end this, but since this is your mistake, you get to decide. But decide quickly what is to be done,’ he said after a moment. ‘We do not have much time.’
The thought sobered her instantly. Death was not something she would consider, but what other option was there? The Norseman was here and she did not foresee him leaving until his vengeance was satisfied. What could she offer him instead that would gratify him?
Chapter Four
Rurik had been a captive for almost a full day. His major discovery during that time was that if he craned his neck a certain way and looked towards the end of the corridor, he could make out a sliver of sunlight sneaking in through a gap between the stones. That light was fading now as the sun set, meaning he was no closer to getting himself free than he had been when they had carried him in. At least he was conscious and had suffered no ill effects from being captured. It was a minor detail for which he was grateful as it might mean the difference between life and death.
A thorough search of his cage had taken most of the day. He had explored every crevice and crack in the stone, only to discover there was no easy way out. The rocks were beginning to crumble in several areas and he had managed to use his chain to scrape away bits and pieces of old mortar. The stones were only a single barrier to the soil. Once a few were removed, it would be simply a matter of digging himself out, which meant that the cell would not hold him indefinitely. However, he did not have the weeks it would take for that particular escape route. Every day he stayed down here was a day closer to his eventual execution. He did not know why he was being kept alive. Perhaps they meant to ransom him to anyone who happened to come looking for him. One day soon, they would realise it would be easier to kill him and pretend that he had never arrived on their shores.
He paced his cell, unwilling to accept that he had failed. This could not be the end. He had not failed his brothers in bringing this murderer to justice. He would return to them with this triumph so that he would finally belong. Escape would simply have to come by some other, quicker means. Since the woman was the only person he interacted with, it would have to come through her.
He had no choice but to get her into the cage with him. If he could bind her in some way, then he could take the key from her. From there it would be a matter of locking her in—killing women, even those who took him captive, held no appeal to him—and then finding his way to wherever that coward Wilfrid was hiding. He briefly considered taking her along with him and using her as leverage, but decided that she would be too much work. She had proven herself to be feisty and not the least bit biddable.
