They all smiled, as if they could picture their mistress doing just so. Alex went on as their smiles faded. “I gave Kevin a blow to the back of the head and rode to the doors.”

“What did you think to accomplish alone?” Greylen asked, though he knew he would have done the same.

“If I could get to her, and somehow free her, ’twould have been the best of it. Yet to at least be inside, I hoped to protect her and assess the countenance of the men who held her. I offered myself in return and was quickly disarmed before they led me into the great hall. Malcolm said nothing to me, but he ordered two of the men to bring her from below.”

“What was her condition?” Greylen asked.

“She’d been beaten already, though not with the blow that covers her eye as I’ve been told. Her hands were covered with dirt and blood as if she had dug to try to free herself. She stood proudly before them, sir,” Alex said. “She never took her eyes from Malcolm. Then he proposed a game of sorts…and laughed as he explained the rules.”

Greylen waited for Alex to continue, his control fading as he watched a tremor run through his man. “The game, Alex?”

“I was brought before her, and Malcolm instructed her to watch as they killed me bit by bit. He told her if she wished to show mercy at any time, ’twould stop the game. Mercy meaning she would willingly give herself to him.”

Knowing what Alex’s living form bespoke, Greylen swallowed the bile that crept up his throat.

“I told her never to give,” Alex shouted. “I made not one sound as they inflicted each wound, and my eyes, they never wavered from hers. I swear I showed her only strength.” Alex came out of his chair, clearly as shaken as he was then. He shook his head, running his fingers harshly through his hair before he finally sat again and continued, “Then they began dislocating the fingers in my right hand, one by one. ’Twas the sound of the bones cracking that made her give. She did, though I begged her not to. I didn’t see her again. They beat me unconscious as she was led away.”

“He didn’t take her, Greylen,” Guy said quickly. “She fought his attempts as I’ve never seen before. It seemed ’twas her plan to get him alone, for she still had a trick up her sleeve, so to speak.”

“How do you know this?” Greylen demanded, looking to him.