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gone.
     

Four
     
     
     
                  Rowan opened the door to his chamber, fully expecting to begin the difficult task of soothing the angry beauty in his bed. He knew he'd bungled his announcement in the Great Hall but he wouldn't allow that to ruin this night that he'd waited so long for. He would gentle her with his hands and mouth… he felt the blood rushing to his loins as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
                  He was greeted by an empty room, with no sign of Emeline. He turned in a circle, dumbfounded. Surely she wouldn't willfully disobey him? She wouldn't dare… and yet, it seemed she had.
                  He stormed from his room and grabbed the first servant he could find. It just happened to be Peter, the guard. The last person he wanted to see at that moment. His jealousy came rushing back. He grabbed the guard's shirt and pulled him in close.
                  "Where is her room?"
                  The guard didn't flinch as Rowan hissed into his face.
                  "If you let me go, I'll show you."
                  He followed the guard down the hallway and through another chamber where things were stored. In the back of the room was the entranceway to a narrow stairway that led up the tower. Peter pointed to it.
                  "It's up there, my lord."
                  Rowan pushed past him and darted up the spiral stairs. He was already imagining ways to punish her when he found her. He would keep her from eating for two days. No, that might make her ill. She'd sleep without blankets. He envisioned her nude body shivering on his bed while he lay nearby, trying not to touch her. That would not work for the same reasons. He couldn't bear the thought of actually harming her. But he had to make sure she would be obedient. Starting tonight.
                  He climbed the spiral staircase thirty feet into the air before he saw the entrance to a parapet. He continued past it without pause. In another moment he was at her door. A heavy wooden door that locked from the inside.
                  He was about to pound on it when he realized it was open a crack. He pushed it and it swung open easily. He could tell immediately that few people had been inside this room. It was Emeline's own secret hideaway. The chamber was a perfect circle, with two high windows and a third entrance that led to a balcony. It was plain to see that the balcony empty. So was the room.
                  Where was she?
                  He couldn't resist the urge to look around her room. To touch her things. He tried to imagine her when she was just married to a much older man, spending her time up here where she felt safe.
                  Safe from what?
                  If she'd been in trouble, and he sensed intrinsically she had, why hadn't she sent for him? Even then, even after she had betrayed him, he would have come to her aide without a moment's hesitation. Hadn't she known that? Perhaps unconventional noble girls such as her had flirtations by the dozen. Perhaps he was the one who had taken their words of promise to heart without cause.
                  He stared at the small bed in the corner of the room. Up here, night after night, dreaming of… what? A better life? Maybe, just maybe, she'd dreamt of him every once in a while.
                  There was something on the far side of the room. He walked over to it. A pile of broken wood and fabric lay on the floor. He lifted it up and stared, suddenly feeling as if his chest was cracking open.
                  It was a finished tapestry, beautifully wrought. She'd been working on a this for a long time. It was a stylized version of their garden. The small corner of her father's estate where they'd meet behind a high hedge, hidden from view. It was