Charlotte Hawkins The Tempest (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He would not allow her to hang…not when he could save her.At the cell door, he held the torch aloft as the guard turned the key in the lock.Ducking into the dark room, he held the torch up as he searched the chamber.There she lay on the narrow bed, on her stomach, her long waves of black hair splayed down her back.He wondered why she did not stir.Surely she did not sleep well on the night before her execution.Going to the bed, he kicked the side of it to shake her out of her slumber.“Marian, wake up.”She lay still.Too still for his liking.He called her name again, feeling a nervous knot forming in his belly.Something was not right.He could sense it, and drawing closer, he reached down to shake her shoulder.His voice grew more demanding.“Marian, wake!”Nothing.No sound, no response.Shoving the torch into a holder on the wall, he reached down to grasp her shoulders, turning her over…and he saw before him her blank stare.Her green eyes, once so sparkling and beautiful, were dull and lifeless.He grasped her with both his hands, shaking her in a desperate attempt to see some sign of life.He shouted her name, the sound an agonized wail tearing out of his soul.“Marian! Marian!” He held her in his arms, refusing to believe she was dead.When the door burst open and the guard rushed in, he shouted in agonized fury.“Fetch a physician! Now!”The guard only stared dumbly…as if he wondered what the concern was for a woman already condemned.Guy leapt to his feet and struck the man across the face.“DO AS I SAY!”With a petrified look, and a quick bow, the guard rushed out…and Guy turned back to Marian.With one arm he held her body.With the other he cradled her head, mad with the hope that somehow, she would respond when he called her name…*****With the coming of the daylight, the cause of Marian’s death was found in a corner of the room.It was there that a maid, sweeping out the now unoccupied chamber, found an empty vial.Poison had been her instrument of suicide.Marian of Leaford was dead…and with her had gone all hope of redemption for the fearsome nobleman she’d left behind.Chapter 2Late February, 1194The thunder of horse’s hooves trampled over the virgin snow.Leading his “men” once again…and he used the term loosely…Guy felt the cold in his very bones, despite the heavy cloak that covered him.He pulled the fur collar closer around his neck, but it did little to provide him warmth…and nothing to calm his temper.Briwere be damned, he thought.Sending me out on another chase.All he wanted was to stay hidden in his bedchamber at home, numbing himself with darkness and drink.But Robin of Locksley had thwarted the law once again.And once again, the one giving chase would be the Master at Arms, not the Sheriff.He could picture his fair-haired master sitting before a blazing fire,pping spiced wine as maidens tended to his every need.There was no need for him to brave the cold when he could send his right-hand man out to do his bidding.And this search would likely end as all the others had…in failure.Despite the bare trees that left virtually no place to hide, it would be just like Hood and his gang to go to ground like the filthy animals that they were.The outlaws would slip through his fingers again…slinking, slippery little ferrets that they were.And he, Sir Guy, would go crawling back to Nottingham with his tail between his legs.Humiliated in defeat, and then to be made a fool of by a lord to whom he was irrevocably bound, who saw nothing of value in him…who found great joy in his sorrow and humiliation.It was enough to drive any man to madness.How many times had he lain awake at night, asking himself why he didn’t just end it all?Only his mad desire for self-punishment kept him alive.He knew he deserved this fate…this living purgatory.For all the evil things he’d done, he wanted to be punished.And if death came to claim him in the meantime, he would accept it.The fiery pits of hell were where he deserved to be, for he had destroyed something pure, something innocent…he had destroyed the only woman he’d ever loved.And an eternity of punishment would never be enough to right such a wrong.In the distance, a movement caught his eye.Two figures were hunched over the carcass of a deer, preparing to hoist it onto the back of a horse.He knew the men before him.One was a tall, grizzled beast of a man.The other was slender and sandy-haired, garbed in dark green with a quiver of arrows across his back.The two of them paused for a moment, looking up.Hood.Guy’s eyes narrowed dangerously at recognizing his enemy…and he shouted the command forward.“Seize them!” Giving his horse the spur, he charged forward with his men close behind.The two criminals abandoned their kill, mounting the horse together and fleeing fast.Guy led his men in a mad dash across an open meadow, keeping the outlaws in sight.He was almost upon them when there came a dreadful sound from behind him.Slowing his mount, he turned his head to look…and saw the sickening sight of his men, one by one, sinking into the ground that wasn’t ground at all.It was ice, hidden by a layer of snow.There was a melee of screaming men and beasts as the entire band collapsed down into the frozen waters, and his eyes looked in horror as the cracks in the ice came zigzagging fast in his direction.He urged his horse to flee, but the frightened animal suddenly reared up violently…and his foot was tangled in the stirrup as he was thrown off.A violent twisting of flesh and bone, his ankle being broken, made him scream in agony.Then the ice gave way beneath him [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne