Nay...
She started to go outside and demand they free him, but she knew the folly of such an act.
Besides, they wouldn"t listen to her. She was only a woman and they were men determined to take him to the local lord.
"What on earth?" Julia asked from her side.
Cat stepped back into the tent. "We need to find Simon and Stryder." Grabbing her cloak, she covered herself before she headed toward the lists, with Julia one step behind her.
Sure enough, Lord Stryder was in his tent. She ignored the guard as she went inside without a single announcement.
Stryder was bare from the waist up as he washed himself in a large barrel.
Cat gasped at the sight of all his tawny skin before she turned around and forced Julia to follow suit. "Forgive me for interrupting you, my lord. I should have knocked or waited to be announced."
A deep laugh rumbled from behind her. "I take it you have something of great import?"
"Aye."
"Then turn around. I"m clothed now."
Cat did and saw that he now wore a simple linen tunic. The laces of which were left untied so that even clothed, there was no hiding the fact he held an extremely well defined body. Not that she was attracted to his body, she just wasn"t blind to it.
"They"ve arrested Lord Lochlan," she announced without any kind of preamble.
He scowled at her. "They? Who is they?"
She paused as she realized she didn"t really know. "I know not. They didn"t say."
He took two steps toward her. "What are his charges?"
"Again, they didn"t say."
He narrowed his gaze on her as if considering her nonanswers. "Interesting. Give me a moment, my lady, to finish dressing and we"ll go to the castle to see what"s going on."
Grateful for his help, she gave a quick curtsy. "Thank you, my lord."
Cat returned to where Val stood with a knowing grin on his face.
"Another moment, my lady, and he"d have been naked."
"You could have told me that before I entered," she snapped at the man, who was all but a giant.
"I tried, but you were h.e.l.l bent to see him. Who am I to argue with a lady?"
"You"re a wretched excuse for a guard," Stryder said from inside the tent.
Val shook his head. "I"ll be glad when old age takes that man"s hearing. It"s far too sharp for my tastes."
Cat laughed before she sent Julia back to their tent and waited for Stryder to finish.
Stryder came out of the tent with a glare on his face that could have quelled the devil as he finished lacing his surcoat. "Remind me again why I tolerate you?" he asked Val.
"I saved your a.r.s.e more times than you can count."
"Are we not even yet?"
"Nay. The day we become even you"ll most likely kill me, so I intend to stay one step up."
Growling at him, Stryder headed for the castle. "Follow me, my lady, and let us see what this matter is over."
Lochlan stood in the empty great hall before the count of Rouen, who was an elderly man with gray hair and sharp brown eyes. His gaze was filled with contempt as he stared at him.
"What do you wish me to do with him, Oswald?" he asked the n.o.ble who"d confronted Lochlan earlier.
"Hold him hostage until his father comes for him."
Lochlan scoffed. "That would certainly be quite a wait, my lords, since my father is dead."
Oswald didn"t hesitate in his venom. "Then punish him in his father"s stead."
Lucky for him, the count seemed to have better sense. "I can"t do that without just cause. He"s a Scottish lord."
Oswald stiffened as if that offended him to the marrow of his bones. "And I"m the cousin of a king. I demand justice, Reginald. His father destroyed my sister. He took her honor, her virginity, and her tongue. For that, I want his b.a.s.t.a.r.d son"s neck in a noose."
Lochlan ground his teeth to keep from protesting his innocence in this. It wasn"t as if they didn"t know. The problem was, Oswald didn"t care.
"I can"t hang a man for a crime his father committed."
"Then flog him for it."
Reginald gave Lochlan a measuring stare. "How do you feel about that?"
He had to ask? Was the man daft?
"I protest it. Greatly. I"ve done nothing to warrant such punishment."
"Nothing he"s been caught for," Oswald sneered. "But mark my words, he"s guilty of something.
The apple never rolls far from the tree."
In this case, it most certainly did.
Lochlan heard the door behind him open and close.
Reginald scowled as he focused his gaze over Lochlan"s shoulder. "Lord Stryder. To what do I owe the honor?"
"I heard my friend had been arrested and so I came to see why."
Lochlan turned to meet the earl, then froze as he realized Catarina was with him. He hated for her to bear witness to this event. If anyone were to recognize her, she"d be in even more trouble than he was.
"This doesn"t concern you," Oswald snapped at Stryder. "This is between us and as the highest- ranking n.o.ble present, I demand the MacAllister"s flesh. I want twenty lashes."
Reginald let out a long sigh before he nodded. "So be it. Guards!"
Lochlan growled as the guards came to take him. He grabbed the first one to reach him and knocked him back. As he reached for the other, he heard a soft cry of alarm.
"Cease!"
No one moved.
Catarina approached Reginald and Oswald slowly, then stopped directly in front of Reginald. "I"m afraid you"re mistaken, my lord."
"Mistaken how?"
She lowered her cowl so that they could see her beautiful face. "As a princess of France, I"m the highest-ranking n.o.ble present and I demand you release him. Immediately."
Chapter 10.
Reginald and Oswald, along with the guards, immediately bowed down before her.
Lochlan was too stunned by her actions to even breathe, never mind move. In order to save him, she"d just d.a.m.ned herself to return to her father"s custody.
Why would she do that?
"Rise," she snapped at the guards. "And remove the shackles from him. Now."
Lochlan arched a brow at her imperious tone. Not that he hadn"t heard it before, it just always surprised him when it was directed at someone other than him.
"You heard the princess," Reginald said, waving them toward Lochlan. "Do as she says."
Stryder glanced at Catarina as the guards rushed to obey her. He spoke in a low tone that only Catarina and Lochlan could hear. "Seems someone omitted a vital fact earlier when we met."
Catarina shrugged nonchalantly. "I didn"t think it important."
He laughed. "Aye, well everyone else does."
""Tis only a small birth defect that is often easily hidden. Were that this was such an occasion."
"Princess," Reginald said, rising to stand before her. "I shall have a room prepared for you immediately while I send word to your father to let him know you are safe and hale. I"m truly honored to have you grace me with your presence at our most humble fair."
Cat had to bite back her sarcasm at his words. It wasn"t his fault that she had no desire to be treated like royalty, any more than she wanted her father notified of her whereabouts. Lord Reginald was trying to be graceful and kind and so would she, regardless of the knot in her stomach.
"Thank you, my lord. I appreciate your hospitality." Just as she would appreciate someone knocking her against the head with a brick. She only hoped the smile she offered him didn"t appear as fake as it felt.
Lochlan approached her slowly. His grat.i.tude shone from the very depths of his pale eyes. That alone made this worth it to her. "You didn"t have to do this," he whispered.
She laid her hand on his cheek. "Aye, I did. I wasn"t about to let them hurt you after everything you"ve done for me. What"s a little confinement compared to a severe beating?"
"For you, I would think worse," he whispered. It was true, but she would never let him know that.
Lochlan couldn"t breathe as he saw the pain in her dark eyes. No one had ever made such a sacrifice for him. Ever.
He closed his eyes so that he could savor her touch before he covered her hand with his. Her skin was so soft, her hand so delicate and yet it set fire to him in a way no woman or touch had before. He brought her hand to his lips and placed a tender kiss on her knuckles. "Thank you, Catarina."
She inclined her head to him.
"Your Highness," Reginald said sharply before he forced them apart. "If you"ll come with me..."
Lochlan saw the reluctance in her gaze before she pulled away. He wanted to curse as he watched her follow the men from the room.
Stryder stepped forward and drew his attention from Catarina back to him. "Well now, here I thought I"d be the one to save your hide."
He scoffed. "I didn"t think anyone could spare me what they intended."
But one thing was certain, he was going to find a way to spare Catarina from her father"s plans.
Simon shook his head as he, Stryder, and Bracken stood in Stryder"s tent, across from Lochlan.
"You cannot break her out of the castle, Lochlan. That"s kidnapping...and suicide. They"ll hang you for it."
Those words did nothing to deter him from his plan. "They"ll have to catch me to hang me."
Bracken snorted. "He"s right about that and believe me, I know. But"--he cut a warning glare at Lochlan--"they will look hard and won"t stop. Trust me on that, too."
Stryder made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat as he moved to pour himself another cup of mead. "Bracken is absolutely right. You take her out of that castle while Oswald is there and you know he won"t rest until you"re dead."
And none of that mattered to him. All he cared about was keeping Catarina away from a marriage she didn"t want. "I made a promise to her and I intend to fulfill it."
Simon rolled his eyes. "While that is n.o.ble, is it really worth your life? For that matter, is it worth what they might do to your people?"
Lochlan paused. Oswald did know exactly who and what he was, and it was an enormous risk he was taking. But at the same time, he knew how much Catarina loathed being in their hands. How could he abandon her to that?
He looked at Bracken and remembered the story of her as a child, being beaten in order to force her submission.
Most of all, he remembered the way she"d looked when she"d handed him her gift.
And in that moment, his course was set in stone. "Aye, it"s worth my life. I"m a man of honor and I will not see her punished for helping me. Ever."
Bracken gave a reluctant nod. "You know I"m at your back...so long as we"re not heading to England anyway. I"d go with you even there if I didn"t have two people who depended on me for their support."
Lochlan could respect that. If he had any better sense, he wouldn"t be doing this either. He was about to go up against a king, swipe a princess, in the country that her father ruled, and try to take her to another against her father"s wishes.