“That was his order, but killing you right away would have been no fun, especially when I could do things in your name that was never permitted me as heir to my father’s title. I so enjoyed creating havoc in your name, watching people destroyed by what I did and not suffering a bit of blame or repercussion for it. But, alas, my father grows weary of me not finding you and seeing the matter settled. He threatens to send others after you and I can’t have him finding out what I did. So, unfortunately, my fun has come to an end and it’s also time for you to come to an end.” He shook his head. “I had hoped to trick your wife into bed, but she knows her husband far too well. So, I will give her a quick poke while you lay dying and before I kill her.”
“At least let me hold my wife one last time,” Slatter said.
Sterling laughed, shaking his head. “I know how sneaky you can be and what a liar you are. Actually, we’re not that much different. We think more of ourselves than others.”
“You obviously don’t know my husband,” Willow said.
Sterling laughed again. “I know enough to impersonate him.”
Slatter’s brow narrowed. “You don’t know everything about me.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Sterling challenged.
“I’m going to make sure that you know you’re dying and there won’t be anything you can do about it,” Slatter said with such conviction that the two men flanking him took several steps away from him.
“That will have to wait. The shout echoed around them.
Everyone turned shocked eyes on Tarass and his warriors as they poured out of the surrounding woods. All except her husband, he moved with speed and seeing the fear in his eyes as he rushed at her, Willow turned and threw her arm up as Sterling went to stab her in the chest. The blade caught her forearm, slicing it.
Slatter didn’t hesitate. He caught his wife with one arm as she stumbled from the blow and he swung with his other arm, his fist catching Sterling in the jaw and sending him tumbling to the ground.
Devin was on top of Sterling after that, tying the man’s hands behind his back before he came awake.
Slatter clamped his hand over his wife’s wound and he almost cringed when blood started seeping through his fingers.
“You have to wrap it,” Willow instructed, pain raced through her but she fought it, needing to keep focused to let her husband know what to do. “Rip the sleeve off before you do, then wrap it tight. Use my cloak.” She shook her head, a lightheadedness taking hold and she worried she would faint.
“You need to get her back to the keep,” Tarass said, hovering around them.
“You set a trap?” Slatter accused while doing as his wife had directed.
“I had to learn the truth for myself, since I wanted the actual culprit caught and made to suffer for his crimes. Now get your wife to the keep. I’ll see that Sterling and his friends are returned to Macardle land for now.”
Slatter looked to Devin.
“I’ll make sure of it,” his friend said with a firm nod.
Willow fought against the faint that hovered around her. She needed to stay awake, keep focused so she could instruct Eleanor how to tend her wound.
“You’re going to be fine. I’ll have you home soon,” her husband said before she was handed to someone while he mounted a horse, then she was up in is arms again.
He was worried for her and she was as well. She didn’t know the extent of the wound only that it bled and pained her. If it was a deep cut, it would not heal easily and there was always the chance of losing some of the motion in her arm.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight, forcing herself not to think about it, to think only on what had to be done to heal it.
“You’re in pain,” her husband said and he sounded as if he suffered along with her. “We’ll be home soon.”
She would have smiled if she wasn’t gritting against the pain. After a few moments, it became too much.
She opened her eyes and said, “Faint.”
“What was that?” Slatter asked, not having heard her.
She tried to repeat it, but there wasn’t time. She dropped into a dead faint.
Slatter’s heart pounded against his chest like a mighty hammer when his wife’s body turned lifeless in his arms. “Willow! Willow! Don’t you die on me. I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you. You’re my world now, Willow. Do you hear me? You’re my whole world.”
Willow came awake to the sound of worried voices and she felt herself being rushed up stairs. She was home.
“Wake up, wife, I demand it,” Slatter said, after placing her on the bed in their bedchamber.