Midnight Eyes by Brophy, Sarah (well read books .TXT) 📕

“How many teeth did the man have after he told you that?”

“I left him his teeth. I broke the fool’s nose instead. Next time he sees a lady in distress, I can guarantee he will make further enquiries.”

Gareth suddenly had a horrible thought and he swallowed loudly. “You haven’t mentioned it, but did Imogen tell you anything important last night?” he asked earnestly.

“I fail to see what was said last night has anything to do with this,” Robert ground out, not wanting to think about the happiness he had found last night, not now.

“Damn! She didn’t, did she? If she had, you would see only too clearly what I am trying to ask.” Gareth took a deep breath. “Robert, Imogen is pregnant.”

Robert suddenly stood still, transfixed.

“How…?” he started stupidly, struggling to get his mind to function properly.

“The usual way, I suppose,” Gareth said with faint amusement.

Robert suddenly slumped down on the bed. It was too much for his mind to deal with rationally.

“I didn’t tell you about that to make this harder.” Gareth placed a hand on Robert’s shoulder. “But as you’re going after them, you need to be prepared for anything you might find.” He dropped his hand and stared into the distance, his voice filled with self-recrimination as he continued. “Coming all this way exhausted her, no matter how hard she tried to hide it and even before that, well, you know she had been struggling. I don’t know how much more stress her body can take. To be put through this now…” Gareth shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “I just don’t know.”

For a moment Robert hid his face in his hands, then he lifted it and he stood up, his face scrupulously free of any expression as he finished dressing.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Gareth asked quietly.

“No!” Robert cleared his throat uncomfortably. “No, this is personal. I will hunt him down myself. What I do need you and Matthew to do is to get your sorry hides up to Shadowsend as quickly as possible. Gather up the men there and get them ready for war.”

“What war?”

“If I don’t find Imogen within a fortnight, I will go to Shadowsend myself, get the men and then tear this island apart stone by stone till I have found her,” Robert said grimly.

“William is not going to like that.”

“His likes and dislikes are no longer any concern of mine.”

Gareth nodded his head. “Well then, my friend, I can only wish you good hunting.”

Chapter Eighteen

Imogen couldn’t escape him. He was everywhere. He had effortlessly consumed her entire world till all that existed for her was his touch, his smell surrounding her with cold menace. He held her in front of him on the horse, like she was a child, enclosing her ruthlessly in his world so that she knew there was no escape.

Her hands clenched together tightly and she drew a deep, stilted breath, trying to close herself off from reality.

If she didn’t exist, then she would no longer have to feel the body that pressed hard against her back, trying to absorb her. But she did feel it and nothing she did was going to make it go away.

A shiver of revulsion raced through her body before she could stop it. He felt it and she knew sickeningly that he enjoyed it. He pressed her so close that she feared she would shatter and be merged into him forever, the very thought making her shiver again.

And that excited him more.

She could clearly feel the heat of his erection where it throbbed against her hip. His arms tightened painfully around her.

“Was that a shiver of anticipation? Can’t wait till I have you completely either? Well, we will just have to try and be patient. I have plans that I won’t let you ruin with haste,” he whispered insinuatingly near her ear, and chuckling deeply as she instinctively tried to move her body away from his. “Imogen, dearest, this is a saddle. There is nowhere for you to go.”

He casually dragged her back ruthlessly against him. “You will have to stay right here. With me.”

She struggled not to throw up as she felt him burning against her once more.

A single tear slid down her face and she hoped that he couldn’t see it. The last thing she wanted was for Roger to know of her weakness. If he knew, he would only get stronger, be able to destroy her outright.

Worrisomely, she wasn’t as frightened of that as she should be. If she let her body die, her spirit would be released from this dark world, but even as she longed for it, she turned her back on the peace it offered. She couldn’t give up, not this time. There was too much at stake. She didn’t move, fearing that Roger would guess her secret, but mentally she wrapped her arms protectively around her baby.

For the sake of Robert’s child she must survive this terror.

Every time the babe moved, Imogen held her breath, afraid that Roger would sense that movement, afraid that if he knew of its existence, then nothing on earth would stop him from tearing it from her.

He hadn’t yet noticed and she would do everything in her power to keep it that way, she thought fiercely. She would let nothing harm her baby, even if that meant her own desires had to be ignored.

Robert’s child kept her alive just as she kept it alive, and she smiled faintly as it occurred to her that already the child was taking after its father. It seemed that the pair of them were both conspiring and plotting to protect her in their own ways.

Her throat tightened painfully as memories of Robert filled her, and with those memories came guilt. She had left him while he was in danger. Roger had taken great relish in telling her that while he might have fallen from royal favor a little, Robert had never had any favor to start with. Roger had laughed