Read Samantha James for Free Online Page B

embarrassment, her voice was naught but a hoarse croak.
    “Are you all right?”
    “Aye,” she said, this time more firmly.
    “That’s a good lass. Now, there is a knife in my right boot. Can you get it for me?”
    Glenda blinked, but knelt and quickly did as he asked. Slipping her fingers beneath the soft leather, she encountered a cool metal handle. She pulled it from its berth. Weighing it in her palm, she started to hand it to him, but he shook his head. “’Tis not for me, ’tis for you.”
    Glenda blanched. What was this! Would he have her use it on Robin? Saints, but she could not! “Egan,” she said faintly. “Please! I cannot.”
    Robin of Chadwick’s eyes had bulged.
    One corner of Egan’s mouth turned up. Throughout, his gaze had yet to stray from Robin’s face. “Nay, not that, lass. I would have you fetch the sheet from the bed. Use the knife and cut it into strips for me.” With a nod he indicated the chair. “You, sir, may sit.”
    Hurriedly Glenda gathered up the sheet and dropped it on the floor. Robin sat. Several times while she worked, Robin’s gaze darted toward the door, but Egan barred the way. Though he glowered, he made no attempt to escape.
    At last she was done. She glanced uncertainly at Egan. “Will this do?”
    “Aye. Now lay the strips before him.”
    Glenda did as she was bidden, then stepped back.
    Egan had already tied Robin’s hands behind his back. “If he dares to move,” came the grim order,“gut him.” Only then did she realize she still clutched the knife.
    A flick of the wrist and Robin’s tunic fell away. Glenda’s jaw dropped as well. What on earth…?
    His chausses followed in short order. His boots were tossed out the window.
    He was left completely naked.
    Too astonished to avert her gaze, Glenda could only watch as Egan proceeded to truss a naked Robin with the strips of the sheet so that he could not move. His legs were bound snugly to the wooden legs of the chair, his arms behind his back, his torso to the high, straight back of the chair, as well as to the seat.
    Robin cursed. “You will not get away with this! By all that is holy, I shall—”
    Whatever threat he might have made was crammed back in his throat. Egan shoved a wad of cloth in his mouth, then tied it with another.
    “Are you primed with ale or primed with lust, I wonder. Mayhap a little of both. Either way, you are lucky you yet live. Luckier still I’ve decided you may yet sire children”—Egan drew the tip of the dagger down his belly to his navel—“so let this be a lesson to you, Robin of Chadwick. The next time you would bed a lady, make certain you procure her consent as well.”
    Robin’s eyes blazed. Garbled sounds came from deep in his chest. Glenda had no doubt that were he not so tidily trussed, he would have sprung straight for Egan’s throat.
    Egan paid no heed, but drew Glenda from the chamber. Closing the door firmly behind them, he held a finger to his lips.
    “We must hurry lest we run afoul of the men of the keep. I know now what they will do when he is discovered—with luck that will be well into tomorrow. If they decide to follow, I think it best that we are as far away as possible.”
    There was a note of urgency that demanded both silence and compliance. Glenda nodded.
    Mercifully, there was another entrance to the bailey that did not demand they pass through the great hall. They crept noiselessly past, keeping their heads ducked low—though from the sound of the revelry within, no one would have noticed their passage.
    In front of the stable, Egan rose to his full height. “We’ve decided to journey through the night,” he told a sleepy stableboy when he asked that their horses be readied.
    Glenda marveled at his calm. Her heart seemed to crash against the walls of her chest; her stomach churned so that she feared she would lose the contents of her earlier meal.
    He repeated the very same to the guard at the gate.
    Once the tower was out of sight,