Page 80 of Second Chance Prince
Tomas nodded miserably and glanced at the other man, who was so obviously in charge. Niki hoped he was seeing Freddie in a new light, that he was a man to be proud of rather than whatever Tomas had previously thought of him. When this was over, he would speak to Matilda, he would make things right, but first, he needed Roberta safe again in his arms.
Bleakly, he asked himself why he had not told her how much he loved her. What did it matter if she didn’t love him? He should have told her and held her close while he could. Please God that he would still have that chance.
Roberta stumbled again. The coat they had given her was far too big, dragging on the ground and tripping her up. It had been hanging in the stables, and it smelled like hay and horses, but to her that was comforting. And she supposed she should be grateful they had bothered to give her something to keep out the cold. Maybe it meant they weren’t going to harm her after all? But the hopeful thought barely lightened her dark fears.
She would have liked to tell Chamberlain Francis what she thought of him, just as Tomas had done, but she kept quiet. All her hopes were on the boy—that he would bring her help—and if she upset the chamberlain, he might decide todealwith her before she could be rescued.
Before Niki came for her. Because she had to believe he would find her; it was too heartrending to think this was the end of what was supposed to be their long and happy life together.
As they rode through the night-black forest, she clung to the man in front of her. He was a poor rider, and she knew she could soon outdistance him if she had the chance to take his horse, but again, it would be risky, and she wanted to stay safe. For Niki.
The strange thing was, this felt like the dream she had been having off and on for months. The night in the forest and her feelings of desperation. Except that in her dream, she had believed it was Niki who was in trouble, but it turned out it was Roberta.
“This way!” The chamberlain was a very good rider. Roberta wondered again if his infirmities had been a pretense. Or perhaps now that he was finally doing what he had planned, taking over Holtswig, it had given him a new lease on life.
The man she was clinging to attempted to turn his horse tothe left, following his master. The animal refused, throwing up its head, but he dragged at the reins and made matters worse. Now the horse was rearing up on its hind legs, and Roberta felt her captor struggling to stay in the saddle. All that was needed was one hard shove to the side to send him to the ground. Roberta scrambled forward until she was astride the animal and held on tightly.
She had not meant for this to happen, but now that it had, she had no choice but to make the most of it. Only a weak fool would sit and wait to be recaptured and led meekly to her slaughter. Despite her hopes, Roberta had no illusions when it came to Francis’s plans for her future.
She dug her heels into the animal’s flanks, and it galloped off along a different track, leaving the chamberlain and his henchmen behind.
She could hear them shouting, but as she put distance between them, their voices faded. Ahead of her, the track was leading steeply upward, and she could see more of the sky, glimmering with stars. She must be lightheaded because she almost felt as if she could fly up into it, like Pegasus. When she dared to glance backward, there was the flicker of torches through the trees, but they were too far below her to be the chamberlain.
Her breath caught, and she knew. It was Niki. Could he reach her in time, before the chamberlain and his men?
A moment later, she burst through some shrubs and discovered she was on top of a bluff, overlooking the castle. The many windows were lit up, as if everybody was awake. Roberta knew where she was then. This was the favorite place Niki had brought her to on their first ride together. She turned her mount, circling the small area, looking for another way out, but there wasn’t one.When she reached the cliff’s edge, she could see the riders with the torches, and they were getting closer. But behind her came the dull thud of hooves and the muffled voices of her pursuers.
They were closing in, and she had nowhere to go.
And then she remembered.The High Wire. That narrow track that Niki had once traversed, so dangerous he had not wanted to tell her how to get down onto it. But he had told her, and now she made her way to that spot and looked over the edge.
There was a narrow ledge leading down from the top of the bluff, so narrow it barely looked wide enough for a horse and rider, but it must be. Niki had done it. The ledge went on until it was some twenty feet from where she was now, clinging perilously to the face of the bluff, while on the other side was a dizzying drop. Roberta glanced behind her again and knew she had only minutes to make up her mind.
Roberta urged her mount forward. The animal was not happy, but she reminded herself she was good with horses. She could do this; she could. She spoke softly, encouragingly, and it took the first step onto the narrow ledge, and then another, and they were moving forward. She pressed as close as she could to the cliff face and did not look at the drop below. And a moment later she heard Francis calling out to her.
“Roberta! Come here! You have nowhere to go. We might spare you if you come to us now.”
Mightspare her? The chamberlain needed to work on his persuasive skills.
Roberta kept moving, slowly, quietly. One step at a time. She had traveled some distance now, around the front of the bluff, until she was on the other side. A glance showed her that theledge continued on until it rejoined the forest some way ahead, but hadn’t Niki said something about a gap? She needed to keep going. If the chamberlain knew of the High Wire, he could easily ride down to where it ended and trap her. Roberta knew she could not go back from whence she’d come; it was impossible.
Behind her, up on the lookout, she heard Francis’s furious shout. And then he said something in the old tongue that sounded like a curse, and Roberta shivered. Whatever happened next, she knew she had done the right thing by escaping from that madman. Even if she did not make it over the gap and fell, even if she never saw Niki again, he would know she had tried her very best to get back to him.
Chapter Forty
I don’t understand.”
Tomas had insisted on coming with them, despite his mother’s pleas. He was angry but confused too. He looked from Freddie to Niki, as if they might be able to explain what was, to Niki’s mind, inexplicable.
The man who had taken the place of his grandfather, who he had trusted and relied upon all these years, had betrayed him in the worst possible way.
Niki found his voice. “Men do terrible things for good and for bad. No doubt, the chamberlain thinks he is doing them for good, but he is mistaken. The country would not thank him if he turned back the clock to a world that is long past. And his betrayal would eat away at him. I know it.”
At least, he hoped he did, that Francis had some humanity left in him. But when he remembered the new faces in his council, he guessed that Francis had been working toward his downfall for some time.
Freddie added his thoughts. “What the prince says is right. Evil men do not prosper. They may gain material riches, but inside, they are hollow husks.”
Niki wasn’t sure that was always the truth, but it sounded like something Tomas needed to hear.
