My Rogue Lord

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter 23

23

Katherine held her stinging cheeks. Oh how she wished she could have left with good memories from her mother. But it seemed fate had other plans.  She often wondered as a child what had she done to have her mother hate her so? But as time passed she let go of that thought.  However, when her heartache was at its worst, that thought would often trickle back to her her.

The carriage came to an abrupt stop.

  "What is the meaning of this?" Savannah whispered to no one in particular. They were not to stop as yet. Why were they stopping?

  The door to the carriage opened and Lord Atkins entered.

"My lord? Is something amiss?" Savannah's frightened gaze shot to the window before returning to the man she had wed. Dear Lord! She feared they may have come across bandits.

  "Nay, my lady. I grew tired and wished to rest my eyes." Lord Atkins replied as he took a seat next to his daughter. He leaned over and tapped the wall of the carriage, signaling to the driver to continue driving.

Resting his eyes? Why couldn't he rest his eyes outside the carriage? Savanah seethed. She loathed seeing him.

  Lord Atkins smiled at his daughter. But that smile vanished the instant it came. "Katherine, what is amiss?" Edmund leaned over and tilted his daughter's reddened cheek towards his direction.
   The carriage grew very still. Fear so tangible it could be cut with a knife.  Leslie shrank back. Her ladyship had warned her many a times regarding his lordship's anger. When he was angry, he cared naught for who was there, all he saw was his anger. Leslie shuddered, she valued her life. As measly as it was, she valued it. 

  "She fell." Lady Atkins looked out the small window. Being this close to her husband had her feeling suffocated. Why couldn't he simply rest his eyes elsewhere? He complicated everything. He ruined everything that she wanted.

"How interesting," Lord Atkins mused, I hadn't been aware that the floor leaves finger prints." He delicately turned her face more towards him, gently tracing the reddened skin.

Savannah watched with hatred at the gentle way he examined Katherine's face. How dare he touch her with such gentleness! Such love! She didn't deserve any love from him. None.

  "My lady, from here forth you shan't be in my daughter's company unless I, or someone I trust, is in the gathering."
He kept his eyes on Katherine's face as he spoke. He watched as her eyes, so like his own, grew larger. The disbelief was clear as day in them. But her face, it was emotionless. And he couldn't help but blame himself. He was the cause of her emotions being suppressed.

  "What of the fact that she is also my daughter, my lord?" Savannah gripped the seats, her knuckles going pale. Her face colored with incredulous anger as she glared at her husband. How dare he? She would make the two of them regret their actions.

  Then, only then, did he spare  her a glance before turning to Katherine once more. "I may have been negligent up until now, but not anymore. I will earn your forgiveness and your respect, until then, I shall protect you, even from your own mother. It has come to light the many things which had occurred in my absence. I shan't allow it to continue."

Katherine didn't know how to react. What to do? This was too much for her. Why after so many years? What had he learned now?
 

****

"Where is he?" Jonathan was shaking with anger... if anything happened to Abu...

"We have locked him in the dungeons, my lord."
  Jonathan followed Albert down a set of stairs. As a child he would always run to the dungeons. It was the only place no one would come looking for him. That was his little secret. As it was, Rivers had no use of dungeons. There were no dragons to slay.