Page 35 of One Knight
“No more stopping,” her brother said from atop his mount. “I’ll leave you both behind to face their wrath.”
And this time, Elisande knew there would be wrath. Henry would kill Alger for this. Of that she had no doubt.
“Come on, Eli. Climb up.”
He was as different from Henry as a man could be. He didn’t help her with anything, just tugged on the bonds tying her arms together as she put her foot on his. She landed in a heap across the horse and contemplated sliding off to slow them down even more.
“Clumsy woman. Useless,” her brother said.
“Come on, Eli. That’s right.”
Once she was seated before Alger again, her brother and his men took off at a trot before leaning into a full gallop.
He was afraid, Elisande knew.
“Aren’t you so glad we came to get you? Now, we can finally be together, and that filthy Norman will never lay a hand on you again.”
Elisande said nothing as Alger urged the mount forward. Her attention was totally and completely on the narrow path ahead that ran between a hillside on the right and a cliff’s edge on the left. If she could just roll off the horse and over the embankment, without pitching down the ravine, perhaps they’d be forced to leave her behind. She couldn’t be more than two days’ walk from the manor.
As they got closer, Elisande weighed her odds of survival. Somehow, Alger must have had an idea of what she was considering because he took her bound hands and looped the reins through them and tied them around her wrists.
“Wherever you go, we go together, Eli. Even if it’s over a cliff. I’ve waited a lifetime for you. I’m not going to let some other man keep you from me. Only death itself could do that.” His voice in her ear carried a note of fatalism she had never before heard from him.
As they rode along the narrow path with the cliff’s edge to their left, he kept whispering, “Watching him set up that tent outside the priory wall nearly killed me, Eli. Knowing what he was going to do to you—knowing what he was takingfrom me … if I hadn’t been on holy ground, I swear I would’ve killed them all.”
Elisande’s blood chilled, and her mouth went dry. He sounded insane, but she knew he meant every word. Alger had been in love with her for years. Hilda and her brother—as horrible as he was—had been a shield, protecting her from him, which she hadn’t been grateful enough for, clearly.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forget that when we’re together, Eli, but God knows I’ll try.”
The very notion of him touching her the way Henry had filled her with revulsion. She shuddered involuntarily, and there was no way he could miss it with her seated on his lap.
“Don’t worry; I’ll make sure you forget everything he did to you.”
In that moment, a rock tumbled down the hillside on their right. The horse reared, and Elisande grabbed for its mane to stay on.
The steed bolted, and Alger went flying. Only by the grace of God did Elisande manage to hang on to her seat.
When the horse cleared the treacherous section, Elisande swung a leg over the saddle and spun the horse around. Her brother and his men were galloping away over a hundred yards ahead.
Elisande would never willingly follow them, and she couldn’tnotcheck on Alger. She nudged the horse into a walk down the narrow cliff’s edge pathway she had just cleared.
But he was nowhere to be seen.
“Alger?” she called out, but got no response.
With her hands bound and twisted in the reins, Elisande leaned as far over the edge as she dared.
She saw no sign of him … until the horse took another step. There, at the bottom of the ravine, with his neck bent at an unnatural angle and his body limp like Hilda’s doll, she saw him.
With a rough, indrawn breath, she held the horse still, waiting for a few beats to see if he would move. He stayed motionless, and her heart plummeted.
“May you rest in peace, Alger. God have mercy on your soul.”
Elisande leaned forward, head low against the horse’s neck, and urged it in the opposite direction of her brother, as fast as she dared.
CHAPTER 19
“What is that up ahead? A rider?”
