than I? What is it you prefer about that woman? Her enormous breasts? Her gargantuan backside?”
Aleck’s eyes narrowed. “Curb your vulgar tongue, woman!” Faster than the strike of an asp, he slapped her face.
Reeling back, Helen drew her fingers over the stinging cheek, blinking in rapid succession to clear her vision. “How dare you raise your hand against me?” Gracious, he’d hit her so hard, her teeth wouldn’t meet as if he’d knocked her jaw out of alignment.
He closed the gap. Helen turned to flee, but his arm clamped around her midsection. He tugged up her skirts. “I’ll show you who is lord and master in this castle.”
Shrieking, Helen twisted and fought to flee, but he held her in a viselike grip. The arm around her waist clenched so taut, she could scarcely draw a breath. With a gasp she threw all her weight against him. “You think I am daft?” she screamed.
He grunted against her writhing attempts to burst free. But that did nothing to allay his powerful grip around her waist while he savagely tugged up her skirts.
Regardless of his oafish brutality, her tongue would not be quelled. Helen would speak her mind and damn the consequences. She twisted enough to manage a deep breath. “You would prefer to be whoring with a vindictive, immoral wench?”
Alex dropped her skirt. Fastening his fingers around her jaw, he twisted her head to face him. He pressed his lips to her ear. “Mary was my leman long before you arrived at Mingary.” His tone took on a deadly growl. “You have no right to speak ill of her. The widow went through hell after she lost her husband.”
Hit with the ominous shock of the depth of her plight, Helen stopped struggling. Her head swooned. “You have been intimate with that woman throughout the duration of our marriage?”
He released his arm and spun her around, sinking his fingers in to her shoulders. “That is none of your concern.”
By his deadpan glare, Helen knew he had never been faithful to their marriage bed. He sickened her. Though her face throbbed from his slap and his unyielding fingers dug into her flesh, she could not refrain from her tirade. “Even though I am able to conceive again, you’ve chosen to consort with that whore rather than your wife.” She stamped her foot. “Worse, you openly show your lust for that woman. Do you know how much your actions humiliate me? And yet you refuse my request to retire to a nunnery?”
His grip clamped tighter. “Must I repeat?” He shook her until her teeth rattled. “You are mine. I will use you as I please and you will be staying at Mingary.”
I hate him.
Helen closed her eyes and forced her mind to go to a place of serenity. “The position you have placed me in has become untenable,” she uttered in a low voice. “If you cannot at least make your advances toward your leman subtle, I’ll have no recourse but to take Maggie and head to the sanctuary of Iona.”
She didn’t even see the next slap coming, it was delivered with such vehement force. Her face instantly hot, pain seared across her face and Helen blinked in rapid succession as tears stung her eyes.
“You will not threaten me. I’ve an alliance to make with the lass,” he growled, giving her another teeth rattling shake. “If you attempt to take my daughter from Mingary, I will hunt you down and kill you.”
Helen’s tongue slipped to the corner of her mouth, met with the iron taste of blood. He had not only broken the code of chivalry, he was the vilest man she could imagine. So now he threatens murder? She shuddered.
He leaned into her with a sickly sneer stretching his lips. “But it won’t be an easy death. I’ll make sure you suffer for a very long time.”
A sense of calm precluded her panic. She looked from his right hand to his left. “Release me.” Her voice was lower than she’d ever heard it. “Lest you give me cause to seek an annulment—”
“A woman, appeal to the Pope?” he bellowed with a hideous laugh, but his grip eased.
Helen jolted from his steely fingers and darted for the door. “Guard! Help!” She flung it wide and hurtled into the passageway.
Grant ran toward her, his sword drawn. “M’lady—”
“Do not let him touch me.” Helen picked up her skirts and dashed past the guard.
“You were brought to Mingary to increase my wealth and to produce my heir! And