Court began, "Ethan, I need you to stay here with her." He caught Ethan's eyes, showing him how much he was entrusting to him.
"Aye. I'll bring in some men as well," Ethan said.
"If we doona come back, you must take Anna to Carrickliffe among the clan. Make them swear to her."
"It's done."
"And what of Olivia?" Llorente asked. "She must stay with Annalía."
Court swung a glance at him. "You can take care of Olivia."
"If you're hunting the Rechazados, I'm going as well." He ran a sleeve over his still bleeding lip.
"You stay here," Court said.
"That's my land and my people. I need to be there if you're going in."
"He's right, Court," Hugh said. "He'll just follow us down anyway."
Court shrugged. "You'll get in the way of what I'm after only once."
Llorente narrowed his eyes at that, then said, "And Olivia?" He didn't understand what he was asking for.
Hugh said, "Ethan, just agree to it. They'll need to be together."
Ethan hesitated for several seconds, then inclined his head. And with that, a man considered wicked by so many - often rightly so - would now risk his life for both of them. "Court, what do you know about the order?"
Court leaned forward, struggling to become cold, to focus on what they had to do. "They prefer to stay as a unified corps, dispatching smaller groups. If we could get close enough to where they camp, we could take them out at one time."
"There will just be new ones enlisted," Llorente said.
Court shook his head. "If you take out all of them, who's to pass on their orders?"
Hugh added, "I've read about them as well" - read about them, no doubt, in a thick dossier with the instructions "engage at will." "Even if you canna take them all, if you eliminate their leader, it's like cutting the head off a snake."
"But it won't matter if Pascal lives," Llorente pointed out. "He'll keep sending men. He's got an army of deserters wanting to rise in the ranks."
"Then we have to kill them to a man," Court answered, obviously surprising Llorente. Court gave him a look of disgust. "Did you possibly conceive that I would leave a single man alive who would hurt her?"
"You're talking about the Rechazados, the deserters and Pascal. In one campaign?"
"Aye."
Llorente nodded slowly. "We'll need more men."
Hugh said, "No' for the Rechazados, if they camp together and if we have the right...gear." Explosives. "So we'd need men only for the deserters. Court, can you contact your crew?"
"I've tried and have no' heard back. They probably went east with Otto."
"I'm no' sure they did." Ethan said. "Weyland and I have been working to get the deserters out of Andorra for months. Which was how I'd known you'd chosen...unwisely to ally with Pascal. Weyland's pressured the British ambassador, who's pressured the Spanish to raise the bounties on the deserters. Exponentially. If I know our cousin, Niall would've determined how lucrative it could be. With Court's crew, it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel."
"You think his mercenaries are in Andorra?" Llorente asked. "That's good news."
"Aye. Good for us," Court said. "Bad for your house."
Llorente raised his eyebrows. "Should I ask?"
Hugh quickly said, "No' if you've any sense."
Llorente prudently returned to the matter at hand. "I've studied the deserters and you know the Rechazados, but I don't know Pascal and know you don't either."
"No," Court admitted. "He alters routines, moves domiciles. I could no' find a pattern."
"Neither me."
Olivia coughed delicately. They turned to her, saw her admiring her reflection in a silver spoon. "But I have."
When the others had retired, and Court took his chair beside Annalía again, Llorente remained.
"You care for her. Obviously a great deal," he said, taking a chair on the opposite side of the bed to face him. "Why didn't you marry her before I got here to tell you no?"
"Because I care for her a great deal."
"You kidnapped my sister and forced her into a different country. Apparently, you took over my home - while I was rotting in a cell that you had put me in. You stole from me. You bloody broke my nose. It's hard to imagine that you could do much more."
"But I have."
"Yes, you have. She could be with child."
"She will no' be with child."
"How can you be sure?"
"Canna have bairn." Normally he would never have revealed this to someone like Llorente, but now it seemed so insignificant.
"I should believe that?"
"Aye, it's true, though I dearly wish it was no'." Odd that men always thought if they got a woman with child then they had to marry her. If Anna could be with child, Court would get to marry her.
Llorente hesitated, then said, "Is that why you wouldn't marry her? Not that I would let you anyway, but that's a plus in my mind."
Anna had said he'd lost his wife and daughter. Must've been childbirth. "No, that's no' the reason. Just leave it alone."
Llorente put his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor. "When we finish this I will have to go to Castile hat in hand and ask them to contract a sympathetic match for her. She will hate me for it, but it must be done."
Court gnashed his teeth at the thought. As if she sensed his anger, Anna turned in sleep. "Courtland?" she whispered. "On és ell?"
"She wants to know where you are."
Did Llorente not think Court could understand? Of course he didn't. Court was an ignorant Scot. "I can speak Catalan," he snapped under his breath. Then, dismissing Llorente, Court raised her hand to his lips to reassure her.
"T'estimo, Courtland," she sighed.
Llorente said in a dumbfounded tone, "Then you know that for some ungodly reason she just told you she loves you."
When he heard Ethan's men arriving near dawn, Court rose from his chair. Of course he hadn't slept - he'd taken every minute he could with her after Llorente hesitantly left them last night.
Court lightly touched her cheek, glad at least that her color was back and her skin was warm.
He wanted to kiss her and tell her how much he didn't want to leave, but if she woke and asked him what was happening, how could he answer?
I broke your brother's face last night; we're going to Andorra to stamp out anyone who would hurt you; and afterward, because I took your innocence, you'll be forced to Castile. We won't see each other again, though I'd intended to marry you.
If the Rechazados didn't kill him...
When he brushed her hair from her face, the bruise at her temple stood out starkly. He flinched and a coldness settled over him...enabling him to walk away. "Is tu mo gràdh thar gach nì," he murmured to her before he clenched his hands and left. I love you above all things.
Downstairs, he found Ethan preparing for war - Court had expected no less - with Hugh directing the packing of supplies. Both left him with nothing to work on.
So to gain strength for what he was about to do - abandon Anna - he stole into the study and retrieved the book. He'd never voluntarily touched it before, and hated the feeling of it now, but he wanted to read it, and curse it to hell where it belonged. He'd just turned to their page when Llorente walked in.
The timing. Court was really beginning to hate him.
"Ethan told me I'd find you here."
"Did he, then?"
"MacCarrick, I've thought about this all night, and I want you to marry Annalía before we go."
This was unexpected, but still..."No."
"For some inexplicable reason, she loves you, and she won't want to go to Castile. As much as it grieves me to even consider you, I must."
"No."
"Do you think this is easy for me? I'm a proud man and I despise you - the very idea of being related to you pains me. Remembering the prestigious suits I smugly turned down only to be asking you now appalls me. But I will swallow my pride to see her happy."
Maybe he didn't hate Llorente. Had to admire the man's doggedness. Broke his nose last night and Llorente was asking him to marry his sister the next morning. For her. Must be difficult as hell.
"She has her own fortune."