Forbidden Legacy by Diana Cosby

Author:Diana Cosby [Cosby, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2016-06-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

The thud of stone sliding into place overhead plunged through Katherine like a dagger to the heart. The torch nearby flickered in a mad dance and then calmed as she fought to breathe. Stephan couldna die! Please God, allow him to live. If anything happened to him—

A gentle hand touched her shoulder. “Lady Katherine,” Thomas said, his voice grim.

Fighting panic, she caught his shoulders. “Do-do you think they have killed him?”

Troubled green eyes held hers. “I am unsure.”

She willed away her fear, the anxiety that threatened to tear her apart. Stephan needed her; now wasna the time to crumple.

Katherine refused to ponder her husband’s face swelling and battered with bruises, the blood staining his mail. She focused on memories of his patience, wit, and strength. The traits of a man she was coming to know, to care for deeply.

Within the flicker of the torchlight, Aiden’s troubled gaze held hers. “My lady, Stephan has fought many a battle with the odds far worse.”

“Far worse?” she forced out, floundering to accept such a horrific thought.

Thomas shot Aiden a warning look, then faced her. “Stephan is a seasoned warrior. If he still lives, he will find a way to survive until we reach him.”

“But the English will know we will try to rescue him,” she rushed out. “They will torture him; they will . . .” If she had listened to Stephan and returned to the ship, her husband and his men could have focused on their attack. Instead, lost in her need for vengeance, she’d placed Stephan and his knights’ lives at risk. She shook her head. “This is my fault, every single bit of it. I should never have disobeyed him. I—”

“You were trying to help him, Lady Katherine,” Thomas interrupted, his tone firm. “Dinna worry. We will reach him.”

“Odds are,” Rónán said, “they have taken him to the dungeon.”

“Aye,” she agreed, focusing on hope. “And there is a tunnel the English know naught about that will lead us there.”

Pride warmed Thomas’s eyes. “That is it, lass. First we free him and then we plot the best way to reclaim Avalon.”

A short while later, with a strategy devised, Katherine opened the hidden tunnel leading to the dungeon. She lifted her candle to shoulder height and nodded to the men. “Follow me.”

The drip of water echoed from nearby as they made their way down the dank confines. A putrid smell tainted the air as they moved deeper.

Thomas wrinkled his nose. “’Twould seem we are nearing the dungeon.”

“ ’Tis a short way now.” Agonizing minutes later, Katherine held up her hand. “The dungeon is around the next turn,” she whispered. On edge, she crept forward.

Ahead, torchlight streamed through the slits between the stones and illuminated the tunnel walls.

Katherine prayed they’d find Stephan alive.

Thomas squeezed beside her, gestured toward the crevices. “Can you see the entire dungeon through the openings?”

“Aye,” she replied.

“Wait here.” The warrior’s boots scuffed against stone as he crept forward. Paces away, he peered through a gap; light fragmented into a tangle of shadows.

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