Lady Thief - By Rizzo Rosko Page 0,40
tell when someone was watching her, which had become quite often since she made Graystone her home. But his words rang true. She should have known better and felt humiliated for her own naivety.
Archer had seen what she had been trying to do and tried to stop her, but she rode around him.
“I was not trying to flee. I planned on returning.”
William’s grip did not go lax on her reigns, it tightened, and Marianne decided to keep quiet the rest of the way to the castle.
William was livid, she could see it in his face and hear it when he spoke to her again. “There are thieves and men willing to do dishonorable things to beautiful women like you. They hide in every forest in the entire world. Even the ones protected by the royal family themselves.”
Marianne turned to look back at the seemingly peaceful forest again, her mind conjuring men and monsters hiding and waiting for her. “Truly?”
He nodded. “Aye. What if someone watched you and you had been unaware and decided to go into the woods to pick flowers or some nonsense? Being murdered quickly and robbed of your fine clothes would be a blessing compared to what else you could have suffered.”
Marianne shivered. William said nothing more to her.
William nodded to the men waiting for him at the gates, shouted an order for them to close them behind him, and led Marianne and their horses back to the stables.
To Marianne’s horror, Blaise stood waiting in front of the barn doors, his arms folded and a familiar smug smile on his face. Archer and Clovis sighed their relief that she had returned in one piece, but she could hardly see past Blaise’s infuriating smirk.
Her jaw clenched but she refused to make a scene again. No doubt he had heard of her little fit and had run to see it like a child waiting to see the punishment of his most hated sibling.
Thankfully, he chose not to say anything in the presence of his father, no doubt having remembered what happened the last time he did so.
William was not blind. He could clearly see Marianne’s spine stiffen, and he searched for the source of her discomfort and found the smirk on Blaise’s face.
He waved him away and allowed Archer to take Marianne’s own mare after she dismounted. “Leave us,”
Marianne noted how Blaise’s back was the one to stiffen at the command, but after a brief hesitation he spun on his heel and did as he was bid.
William brought own his horse to the stall that belonged to Benedict, a beautiful and proud animal that overfilled its skin with muscle. Marianne now knew why both father and son preferred him.
Marianne could not relax the bones in her tight body, and she could only wrap her arms around herself while Archer quietly walked passed her with Clovis after Blaise had gone ahead of them.
The foolish emotion pumping through her was infinitely worse than any punishment he would give, and she wished he would just leave her with that.
She felt William’s eyes on her, but she refused to let him see her tears or her hand brush them away. She moved to the stall that now contained an old mare that Marianne recognized but had no name. The sight of her banished all thoughts of evil men lurking in forests from her mind, and refreshed the guilt that hid inside of her.
She had been so happy to see her father that she had not noticed how aged the animals were that carried his weight and his belongings. This mare was purchased to be worked until completely useless, then fed to the hunting dogs. If what she heard was correct, the only reason the mare still lived was because Ferdinand would not allow her father to keep any of the better horses.
She touched the old mare’s nose, and she came forth under the attention. Large hands, warm and gentle, slid to her shoulders and gripped like a tight cloth from behind her.
“What did you hear?” Marianne detected no hint of a sneer in William’s voice.
She was shocked. He was being patient, even though he had no need to be. She had disobeyed him and put her life in danger. Despite her frail emotions, he owed her about as much kindness as could be fit in her thumbnail.
Even still, she wished to wallow in her self-pity for a little while longer. “Enough.”
His hands slid from her shoulders and down her arms. He pulled her