Read Online Forever His by Shelly Thacker - Free Book Online Page B

getting it by war, he will be equally happy to obtain it by treachery—using her as his weapon.”
    “I am not so sure, Gaston,” the King replied. “Lady Christiane, how did you come to be here? Where is the rest of your traveling party?”
    “I ... I don’t know. I don’t know how I got here or anything else.” She raised her head, tears sliding down her cheeks. “Except that I’m not who you think I am. I’m not Christiane. My name is Celine Fontaine. Please, you must believe me. I’m from ... from a place that’s far away and I have to get home.”
    “Hmm.” The King raised one eyebrow. “Gaston, there is a possibility you have not thought of. Mayhap it was not the snow that delayed her arrival—their caravan might have encountered some misfortune along the roads. She acts most like one whose memory has been affected by a blow to the head.”
    Gaston’s expression revealed what he thought of that idea. “If that is true, sire, how did she find her way here alone? Nay, she must have had someone instructing her.”
    The King sighed heavily. “It is no matter. The bride is arrived and the wedding will proceed.”
    Celine inhaled so sharply the cold air hurt her lungs. “No! I can’t—”
    “My liege!” Gaston protested. “You cannot ask me to marry her now! Knowing that there is at least suspicion—”
    “It is mysterious how she came to be here, aye. But there is no point in delaying. You are here, your betrothed is here, does it matter how you came to be together?”
    Celine blushed furiously and Gaston grimaced at the King’s choice of words. “But, sire, surely we should await Tourelle’s arrival to have the truth of the matter.”
    “The truth of how she came to be here will not change what I have decreed shall be,” the King replied hotly. “All is in readiness and I must return to Paris this day. Before I leave, I would see peace assured. The wedding shall take place as planned this morning.” He turned to go back to bed.
    “My liege!” Gaston said in a rough-edged voice. “I will wed this girl as you command, but I vow to you again that I will not consummate the marriage. I will expose Tourelle for the murdering bastard he is—and then I will have an annulment. I will not rest until I have both vengeance and justice. At any cost!”
    The King spun on his heel, his eyes full of fury. “You tread upon the limits of my patience, Varennes. One step more and I will call it treason! The cost of your vengeance may be all that you hold dear.”
    “Excuse me!” Celine finally managed to interrupt the masculine bluster. “But you both seem to be forgetting something. I am not going to marry anybody.”
    The two men turned to her with looks of surprise, as if the chair or the table had just spoken.
    “Milady, you have no voice in the matter,” the King stated in a patient tone one might use with a child. “The decision has been made by your overlord.”
    “By my—my—” Celine stuttered, a wave of feminist pique overwhelming the fear and confusion and everything else she felt. “For the last time, I don’t have any overlord! I’m not Christiane and I’m not going to marry him!”
    “I would not force the lady against her wishes,” Gaston offered gallantly.
    “You will both do as your King wishes! We shall end this foolishness once and for all. Go, both of you, and garb yourselves properly for your wedding.”
    ***
    She never had a chance to get away.
    No chance to run.
    And she wasn’t sure where she would run if she did. Into the forest? In the snow and freezing cold? She had no idea how many miles it might be to the nearest town. How would she survive? She had never exactly been the L. L. Bean type. Her family had always teased that Celine’s idea of roughing it was a hotel without cable TV.
    And even if she could get away, what kind of people might be out there? What might they do to a woman found alone?
    Those thoughts chased round and round through her head as she