Page 56 of The Court the Fae Forgot
And they were anything but friendly.
“Happy to see me, wife?” Rayner, the stablemaster I’d hoped never to see again, asked. He bent down over me so I could see his face better in the darkness, before straightening up to stare down at me from above.
Arnold, the farmer with the wandering hands, sneered down at me from the darkness at his side. There was nothing harmless now about the way he looked at me, the front of his shirt soaked wet from where he’d held me, spluttering beneath the spicket.
But it was the sight of Rayner that truly made my heart still.
Rayner, who I thought I’d finally been freed from.
“How … how …”
“How am I here? I have two feet, haven’t I?” he asked, leaning back down, his knees crackling as he moved to settle just above eye level with me. “And, it seems, I’ve luck on my side, too,” he said. “Here I was, drinking away the loss of my bride, stolen by the fae, when who do I stumble upon other than the verybitchherself?”
He shared a glance with his companion before the two of them broke out in a dark chuckle. “And here I was, thinking that bastard father of hers had been lying. We might owe the old man an apology, Arnold.”
The sound of their laughter only made my stomach knot tighter.
Rayner turned his attention back to me, and the look I saw in his face made me sicken. There was no kindness in his eyes, no sign that he looked at me as anything other than an object he’d already paid for. I belonged to him, still, and—from the way his hand shot out to grab my hair, pulling my head back with a cry—he had every intention of claiming what was his.
“You know what I have here, in my pocket?” he asked me, his other hand lifting to pat the outside of his jacket. Papers rustled inside, the sound of them like scraping nails upon a board. “That marriage license your father was all too happy to sign before he sold you off to someone else, instead. Tell me, wife dearest, did the fae also draw up a contract for you?”
I was panting, my lungs still half-drowned and spluttering for enough breath not to die, let alone enough to make so much as a sound. I’d never been good at hiding my thoughts, however. Rayner grinned as he read my face, finding what he’d already known to be true.
“That’s what I thought,” he said, patting his pocket once more before he glanced back up at his sneering companion. He nodded once toward the door leading out of the tables, his hand already tightening its grip on the back of my head.
“Watch the door, Arnold. I don’t want anyone disturbing me while I finally take what’s rightfully mine.”
Death would have been preferable to what Rayner had in mind for me.
I was no stranger to the image of a man I loathed reaching for the buckle of his belt, but I knew it was not the belt I had to worry about. I struggled against him, but the more I pulled away from his grasp, the tighter he held me.
“You can’t run away from me this time,wife,” he snarled. “I’ve bought and paid for you, and I’m going to get every cent’s worth.”
My hands, useless against his size, went for his face instead. I dragged my nails across his cheek until he snarled out a swear, his other hand trying to bat away the fingers now searching out his eyes.
“Arnold, get back here. Hold her down for me.”
Spittle peppered my face as I fought back, no matter how futile I knew my fight was.
“You really want to make this harder than it has to be?” he crooned at me. “Fine then. And here I was, more than willing to play nice.”
But no sooner had Arnold turned back to help, then something dark appeared in the doorway behind him. The moment the shadow fell over us, both men stilled.
“Get out of here,” Rayner snarled at the figure. “There’s nothing to see here but a dispute between a man and his wife.”
He hadn’t realized his mistake, yet. But I had.
Even before Shiel’s voice rumbled out, low and dripping with danger, I knew what was coming. Never before in my life had I been so happy to see a fae.
“Let her go, now.”
“Or what?” Rayner snapped back, his hand jerking my head back again until I let out a gasp.
Shiel stepped forward until the light of the lantern the men had brought with them finally illuminated his face. Only then did I feel Rayner’s grip on me slip.
“Or I’ll make your deaths far more painful than I already plan to.”
For all their bravado before, Shiel’s words were all it took to make Rayner’s hands begin to shake. I took the opportunity to yank myself free of him, my knees scraping along the stable floor as I tumbled out of his grasp at last.
