Chapters (76)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- PART I
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- PART II
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- PART III
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- INTERLUDE
- PART IV
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- INTERLUDE
- PART V
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- PART VI
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- INTERLUDE
- PART VII
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- PART VIII
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- EPILOGUE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
When she came to a stop, she was in front of the guest room William had kept before he took the sheriffcy. He had made promises to her there, just like his promise a lifetime ago that he would return for her. If only she could whisper to herself here and be someway heard in the past, to warn herself. Or to tell her younger self to never fall for the man in the first place. Would that such a thing existed.
“Hello, Arable.”
She turned, and her heart froze in midbeat. In a single white moment, all her hopes poured into this one possibility. William had come to find her, to apologize, to take her in his arms and keep her safe. He had been walking the castle in the same milk-sopped daze as she, and found himself here as well.
The man who should have been William crashed forward and shoved her violently into the room, far more careful to shut the door silently behind him.
“I’ve had a hell of a week,” Gisbourne snarled at her, “so it’s about time I get something I want.”
Her skin curled.
He struck her across the face so hard her entire body went numb. Ears ringing, she landed on the bed. She couldn’t see. She scrambled, tearing at its sheets to get over and away from him, to get something, anything, between them.
“You make any noise and God help you,” his growl, “you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
Down on the floor, on the other side of the bed. Fingers scratched at the wood, to find something. At the door, his belt clattered to the ground with a riot, his breeches untied.
“Get back on the bed or I’ll hurt you.”
Air left. Her neck wrought itself. She didn’t move, she couldn’t.
“What a day, what a hell of a day. Awfully easy for you, isn’t it? Just a matter of cleaning and scrubbing and laundry, you don’t have the first clue what a man has to deal with, and how could you? Get on. The fucking. Bed.”
Arable pushed away from her eyelids and hid at the back of her skull.
But her body, good God, her body slowly crawled on top of the bed.
“I’ve got these prisoners, these forest outlaws, who think they’re better than me. I know they can show me the way to their hideout, but they refuse to talk! Of all the gall, wouldn’t you agree?”
Arable bowed her head. If he was talking, it was better than him doing anything else. Her eyes moved but found nothing, nothing, there was an iron lantern on the wrong side of the room.