The Beast of Renald (The Northern Knights) Read Online Free Page B

Kelbie.
    Caroline stayed rooted to the spot. She needed to retrieve her son.  ‘Not without my son.’ 
    Her hard, firm words were not lost on the leader. Something flickered in his blue gaze. Was that admiration? Nay, his look was one of loathe as surely as was hers. Again the moment seemed to stretch an eternity, then he nodded or at least she thought the brief movement of his dark head was a nod.
    He strode past her, his long muscular legs and big stride had him at the cart which held her son in seconds. Caroline opened her mouth to call out to him to tell him which one he was when he turned. She was left speechless that he had Kelbie already in his arms. 
    As they came closer, her son, pale as a ghost squirmed in the man's arms and wailed at the top of his lungs.
    The lieutenant dropped him quickly to the ground and Kelbie's little legs carried him the rest of the way to her skirts. Caroline hugged his trembling little body tight, her eyes never leaving the lieutenant.
    He stood over them. This time she was not mistaken in what she read in his eyes, pain and hatred. The look was masked as she heard voices come up behind her. She straightened and stood, Kelbie latched onto a thigh as she tried to quiet him. She accepted the woolen cloak that Mildred held out to her and wrapped it around them both. The fires had cut a strong blanket of heat through the chilly winter day but the chill seeping into her bones came from a different direction.
    The lieutenant clasped both his hands behind his back and made a slight bow. Caroline’s insides turned liquid again and coldness seeped into her bones. Nay!
    She turned and William and his small retinue stopped before her.
    ‘Tame this scrap, boy.’ William’s booming voice drew a gasp from her just as she reached out for something to hold onto before her shaky legs made her fall at his feet. At the same time a monster sized Norman behind the king moved to snatch her son. William called this man a boy? The man’s massive hand wrapped around her son’s small arm and sent her into a panic, and she forgot herself.
    ‘Nay’ Caroline cried out and shoved the man’s arm aside roughly. ‘Do not touch him!’
    ‘My lady, calm yourself lest you find yourself and your son imprisoned or worse. William only has so much mercy.’ 
    Caroline’s eyes shifted to the lieutenant in surprise at his hushed warning. She looked back to see if the king had been close enough to hear her outburst. If he had, he made no indication that he had as he’d his ear bent to one of his guards before he turned his attention back to the lieutenant.
    ‘You have proven your valor, Darc Renald time after time and I can but only reward your triumphant victory again. Seeing the Lord of Westlan home and now…routing out this treasonous and coward filled stronghold.’ A genuine smile lit the king’s lips and gleamed in his hard eyes. ‘Come, my friend.’ 
    Caroline wanted to die!  Darc Renald. That name was well known and feared in these parts, but it came with another word attached. 
    Beast.  
    All knew by now how William sought power, wealth and order and ruled with an iron-like fist of unyielding power.  He’d many acquaintances, but there were very few he called friends.
    She did not like the look in the kings’ sharp eyes as he clasped a beefy hand on the scarred beast’s broad shoulder as he glanced over her briefly.  The painful and long silence had her holding her breath. Then he turned away and the two spoke rapidly in their Norman French tongue.
    Caroline caught snatches of key words here and there. Favor. Death. Marriage. Woman. Child. With haste.
    Every nerve ending inside her screamed as she forced herself not to turn to look at the lieutenant as the king smiled wide at him.  But she lost the battle.
    Her eyes traveled down the scar lining the whole left side of Darc Renald’s face and she let out a tight breath. Anything, anything but marriage to another monster. To this, this