The Hellion (The Lady Knights of Barony Book One ) (13 page)

With no weapon at her disposal, her greatest asset was surprise. Simon wasn’t prepared for the leg that swept him right off his feet or the swift twisting of his arm behind his back as Ava pressed her knee between his shoulder blades. With her free hand, she slid his dagger free from his belt. Grabbing a fistful of his hair, she lifted his head and pressed the blade to his throat.

“Where did Julian agree to meet Dorian?” she hissed against his ear.

“I take it last night didn’t go well?” Simon asked, his voice calm and steady and tinged with boredom. He seemed genuinely unruffled by Ava’s attack and did not even attempt to free himself.

“Where?” she asked again while applying subtle pressure to his jugular vein with the knife.

“A ship,” he answered easily. “It’s called
The Raven
.”

Ava released Simon and grabbed the dark horse’s reins. As she swung herself up into the saddle, Simon stood, brushing hay from his clothes.

“He’ll find you,” Simon said as he leaned against the empty stall. He folded his arms across his chest and stared up at Ava, the warning in his voice reflected in his eyes. “When Julian wants something he pursues it and he doesn’t let it go.”

“That’s just it,” Ava said as she steered the horse toward the stable’s exit. “Your friend doesn’t know what he wants. In time, he’ll forget all about me.”

As Ava snapped the reigns and sent the beast thundering from the stable, she faintly heard Simon’s voice behind her.

“No, I don’t think he ever will.”

Ava didn’t even want to begin to think about that possibility. Right now, she couldn’t afford to think of anything outside of finding Blake and making him pay for what he’d done. She did not know how much progress her ladies had made in the tracking down of their prey, but she could only hope that were close to Cardenas. It would be even better if they’d already arrived. Ava prayed that she would meet them along the way.

Meanwhile, she had a full day’s ride until she reached Cardenas’ border and even then, it would be hours before she reached the docks. The captured bandit had revealed that the ship was set to sail that day. She could only hope that Blake wanted her badly enough to wait.

Ava pushed the horse as hard as she could, careful to rest and feed him when possible. She stuck to heavily wooded areas, hoping to lose herself in the trees in case Dorian’s men were out and about or Julian and Simon had pursued her.

The long ride gave her ample time to ruminate over the events leading up to this moment. What was supposed to have been a memorable and passionate experience was now tainted by Julian’s matter-of-fact marriage proposal. While she hadn’t been hoping for a declaration of love, his ‘you-might-be-with-child’ angle had caused her blood to run cold. The fear in his eyes had been undisguised and his regret had been clear. He obviously wished the entire thing had never happened and that was the last thing that she ever wanted. For as long as she lived Ava would remember that night fondly. She couldn’t bear the thought of Julian seeing it as something to forget.

As she neared Cardenas’ border, Ava vowed to do everything that she could to forget too. She’d always been taught that a woman could do anything a man could do; it had been her father’s mission in life to make her understand this. It was a code she lived her life by, and it was why she did what she pleased.  Just as a man would after a meaningless sexual encounter, Ava would forget. She would soldier on as she always had and soon her night with Julian Vincent would be a distant and fuzzy memory.

Yet as she crossed the border in to Cardenas and began to make her way down familiar streets, she knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. Somehow, Julian had imprinted himself on her soul; somewhere within her was a piece of him, lodged so deeply that she could never hope to pry him out. Perhaps she would learn to ignore him and the pain would become a dull and nearly nonexistent ache. For now, it was the best she could hope for.

Hours later, Ava crouched beneath a first story window, peeking over the windowsill at one of the inn rooms belonging to Blake. Once in Cardenas, it hadn’t taken her long to learn that
The Raven
was still docked and its captain was renting rooms at The Gardenside Inn, a place that catered to people with money but without titles. Once she’d learned Blake’s location, she took half an hour to rest and eat one of the dry, mealy oatcakes Simon had packed for the journey. After that, she traded the rest of the cakes for a pair of boys’ boots. The boy, no more than sixteen, was more than happy to accept the parcel full of cakes. The bones showing beneath his pale skin beneath told Ava that the boy was practically starving.

Was that what Julian’s life had been like? Ava didn’t want to think of him that way, starving and helpless. It was just too hard to be angry with him when she remembered that he’d never known love in any form. It was no wonder he had no notion of how to go about proposing marriage. As she watched a woman with unnatural red hair moving about the inn room, Ava couldn’t help but wonder if she’d been too hard on Julian. At least one of them had
been thinking beyond their single night together. He had been the only one to consider the consequences of their actions.

Suddenly, a large hand was clapped over her mouth. A man’s arm came around her waist, yanking her up against a hard and familiar body. Ava cursed herself for becoming so distracted that she couldn’t even hear approaching footsteps. At the same time, her pulse raced as a pair of lips pressed hotly against her ear.

“If I were you, I’d think long and hard about what I’m about to do,” he whispered, his voice laced with anger. Ava could feel the restraint he used in his handling of her. His hands practically trembled with rage. “If you’re thinking of trying to escape me, think again. After that stunt you pulled with the chair I have no reservations against rendering you unconscious with my fist.”

His words, plus the fact that she still held the edge of surprise over Blake, caused Ava to go limp in his arms. She would not fight him…this time. Julian backed away from the window slowly, trying to avoid making too much noise. When they rounded the corner and were near the stables, Julian swung her around to face him. He never lost his grip on her, using the iron band of his arm to keep her in place against his body.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Ava stared up at him defiantly, trying to ignore the tremors of awareness that shot through her at his nearness. “Exactly what I told you I was going to do,” she said through clenched teeth. “Blake hasn’t left for
The Raven
yet and I intend to apprehend him before he does.”

His arm tightened around her waist, threatening to cut off her air supply. Ava could have sworn she heard a low warning growl coming from his chest.

“You have got to be the most infuriating person I’ve ever known!” he hissed, his fingers flexing at her hip. “Yet somehow I couldn’t let you come and face him alone.”

“Why not?” she demanded, never breaking contact with his heated black stare.
Whatever it was that Julian was thinking it was certain not apparent to her. The onyx depths were more unreadable now than they ever had been and Ava gave up trying to figure them out.

“It wasn’t as if I didn’t make my motives very clear.”

“I don’t know Ava,” he said, exasperated. “Perhaps you can help me understand it, because God knows I just can’t. I should have left you to him, but for some reason I just couldn’t walk away without knowing that you would be all right.”

The edge of his anger melted away at the last few words and he heaved a sigh, resting his forehead against hers.

“What are you doing?”

His sudden change in demeanor shocked her. It was as if someone had stuck a pin into him and deflated him completely.

“I don’t know.”

Then he was kissing her and she was deflated too, falling limp against him and bringing her arms up around his thick neck. It made absolutely no sense, their kissing by the stable with the setting sun behind them, danger in the form of Dorian Blake only a few hundred yards away, but Ava couldn’t seem to find the sense to stop it.

A familiar voice shattered the moment, bringing Ava back to the present.

“Would someone like to tell me what the devil is going on here?”

Julian’s eyes widened as he turned to find one of the largest women he’d ever seen in his life. She was his equal in height and though he outweighed her by at least fifty pounds, her arms and legs were thick with muscle. She led a group of soldiers, mostly women, each wearing breastplates bearing Barony’s coat of arms. Beneath the armor, each wore a tunic in shades of red and gold, as well as form-fitting brown breeches. Ava ran forward and launched herself into the large woman’s arms with a cry of joy. It didn’t take much longer for him to realize that these women were from Ava’s regiment.

“Nell, I’m so glad to see you!” Ava cried as she embraced the woman.

“Thank God you’re all right,” Nell said at the same time.

Julian felt tension pulling at his shoulders as he felt the eyes of Barony’s soldiers boring into him. Just behind the woman named Nell stood one of the smallest women he’d ever seen. If at all possible, her hair was an even deeper shade of black than Ava’s. Her slanted eyes were narrowed and fixed on him with suspicion. That distrust was also reflected in the eyes of the blond man that stood at her side, his arms folded over his chest. Several other female soldiers and two other males rounded out the group.

“Where on earth have you been?” Nell asked, glancing back and forth between Julian and Ava. “We’ve been worried sick. After you disappeared, King Serge charged me with leading a party in search of you. I was sick to my stomach at the thought that Blake might have you in his clutches already. And here I find you, not captured and…”

Her eyes traveled to Julian and held, filled with silent questions. Julian cleared his throat, fumbling for an explanation, any excuse for what Nell and the others had just seen. Ava glanced at him over her shoulder with a grimace.

“This is Julian Vincent,” she said slowly, obviously thinking over her words carefully. “He…he is here to aid me in the arrest of Dorian Blake,” she finished lamely.

“We thought you captured,” said the Oriental woman, her soft voice barely more than a melodic whisper.

“I was,” Ava said. “Julian rescued me and because he knew Blake’s location, he agreed to lead me to him.”

Silence followed as both women continued to eye him with distrust.

“I was hoping to find you here and that’s why I didn’t return to Barony,” Ava continued, a pleading edge to her voice. She had every reason to call for his arrest and expose him for what he’d really done. Instead, she was lying to save him. The magnitude of what Ava was doing hit him like a splash of cold water in the face. No one had ever done anything like that for him. In that moment, Julian knew just how badly he wanted this woman.

Before, these feelings for Ava were elemental, something visceral that he couldn’t explain. What he hadn’t bargained for was just how deeply Ava would wedge herself into his heart. While he’d never felt anything but distaste where well-bred ladies were concerned, Ava was different. She was more a lady than any highborn woman could ever hope to be.

He pried himself away from his thoughts reluctantly, knowing that now was not the time to explore those feelings any deeper. For now, protecting Ava at all costs was his goal. “Where is Mudiwa?” Ava was asking when Julian finally forced his focus back to the conversation. Silence fell over the group and nearly every person avoided Ava’s gaze. Ava’s breathing accelerated, sawing in and out of her lungs noisily as she looked from person to person, begging silently for an explanation. Whoever Mudiwa was, it was clear she was important to Ava. He brought his hand gently but firmly to her shoulder and squeezed in a silent show of support.

“
Hanako!”

Ava’s forceful cry caused the Asian woman to raise her head, revealing eyes that had gone wide and were brimming with tears. Ava’s hand came up to her chest.

“Please tell me.”

“We split into two parties,”
Hanako said, her voice wavering with grief. “Nell led the search party and Mudiwa led the rest of us in search of Blake.”

She paused, but Ava’s nod prompted her to continue.

“It happened so fast,” Hanako said, her voice trembling now. “She left our group for only a moment to hunt for game. We are not certain, but we think that some of Blake’s men stumbled across her in the woods. We heard a struggle and her cries for help, but by the time we reached the area she’d been in, she was gone.”

Hanako
reached into a satchel tied to her belt and extended an object to Ava. It was a string of beads made of some sort of stone or shell. Ava cradled the necklace as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

“Besides three dead men, all we found was this,”
Hanako said as Ava tied the string of beads around her own throat.

“He has her,” Ava said, her voice heavy with the emotion Julian knew she was fighting to keep from her face.

Hanako nodded silently and Nell finally found the courage to look Ava in the eye. Julian watched in awe as Ava’s spine snapped into a straight line as her shoulders and chin rose into the posture of authority. Lady Longley was gone and Captain Longley stood in her place. Determination flashed, a silver streak of light that reflected in her eyes.