Her Dark Knight's Redemption

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But the food was here for the child, and she wouldn’t wait another moment. Whatever this man had told the kitchens, it was correct. A bowl, a mortar and pestle, cooked oats, and copious warmed milk all ready to be prepared.

Glancing at the man who hadn’t moved from the doors, she set the child down on the bench and propped her with cushions. Another glance, as she prepared the bowl and dipped the tiny spoon in the mixture.

The near silence made her heart and her breath unnaturally loud. For a clarion moment she wanted to fill that silence, but the way he held still made her think he was expecting her to question and accuse.

She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. Silence had done her well in the past when she needed to hide or surprise. So she sat with the child on her lap, covered her finger in milk and honey and dabbed it on the sweet lips until she took sustenance.

The man at the door shifted, she didn’t raise her eyes. Her entire world now was this room and this child.

Another dollop and the child suckled, its incoming teeth gently scraping across her finger. Another, and another, until she sat her up and filled the small spoon.

Her dark, telling, grey-coloured eyes were distinct and explained much. Dark hair, dark grey eyes. Her captor said he wasn’t the father, but the way he watched them, and the way he’d pulled the blade, told a different story...but maybe she was wrong. She trusted her instincts, but she didn’t trust this man or anyone. Lies were too easily told.

Another shift and he strode to the chair nearest them, his dark presence and intent cloaking him. He reminded her of a raven, perched, watching, waiting.

She watched right back. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the way his thick lashes fanned his cheeks, the sardonic bowing of his top lip. The way his fine, almost beautiful hands folded in front of him as he rested his elbows on his knees. One hand perfect, the other marred by a large circular burn scar.

A growing tension threaded its way between them, but she ignored it. The child’s eyes were wide and anxious, its body curving and contorting in her arms. A franticness to reach the food she was slowly and carefully feeding her.

She knew this feeling. When she was young, and days went by between any scraps, the hunger was a living, breathing animal that clawed and scraped. If she was fortunate enough to snatch something edible, she’d consumed it between blinks. But the feeling would make her nauseous. Her body rejected what it most needed.

She didn’t want this child rejecting nourishment so she kept to the slow steady feeding, but not the entire bowl.

Standing, she adjusted the child over her shoulder. She was around a year old, but so thin and fragile. Walking, talking, comforting, she traversed the room until the child calmed in her arms and fell asleep.

The man in the chair didn’t move, didn’t speak.

She didn’t care. She’d feed this child. Feed her again in another hour, then be on her way. She wouldn’t risk more time here.

He hadn’t taken the blade to her or made any threats. He had no reason to keep her here, so, logically, he must let her go. If that didn’t work, the room was filled with enough precious items. Surely a threat to damage such beauty would warrant her release.

The child she wouldn’t threaten. She could never go through with it and the man, who watched her care, wouldn’t believe she could harm an innocent.

‘She sleeps,’ her captor said.

Aliette nodded.

‘Yet you do not ask to go.’

It was a question that didn’t need an answer. He’d let her go or he wouldn’t, either way she intended to stay a bit longer for a second feeding. She shrugged.

‘You also fed the child without feeding yourself. Two trays and you chose to feed her first.’ With a huff, he pushed himself back in the chair. His relaxed position did not make him seem less threatening.

‘This is all so...uncomplicated,’ he said.

That warranted her looking at him. She heard the mercenaries outside the door shift their positions. Trained killers positioned to threaten her or protect him. Which begged the question—what did she have that he wanted?

For what was easy for this man would never be easy for her. Over the years she’d been caught, which always revealed three options for her: fight, pretend stupidity, or plead for mercy.

None of those would work in this situation; talking of the child was her only safe choice until he exposed his purpose for kidnapping her.

‘She is a child and needs shelter, food, and gentle words. There is nothing difficult about it. It would do her well to be bathed, to have a change of clothing. She is soiled and, with the food, she will soil her clothing far worse.’

‘I have ordered her clothing and a bath. They will be available in another room.’

Aliette was surprised at his forethought and yearned to go there now. But if her stay went beyond this room she feared it would change his expectations of her. She had no intention to stay here.

‘In her condition and over the next sennight,’ Aliette continued, ‘she’ll need to be fed and cared for as I have done. Anything less and her condition will worsen. It may seem simple, but there are concerns here.’

‘Hmm,’ he said. ‘The child is a concern, but not what I meant.’

‘Then what is uncomplicated?’ she said without thought, without thinking, her mind on the supplies the child needed and Gabriel’s worry.

‘You.’

She stopped moving and looked directly at him. No, nothing of his relaxed stance changed her impression that he was shadows and dark. He was Darkness, swirling around the light in a dance that didn’t make it any less threatening. She only had to misstep and a blade would be in her belly.

He quirked a brow at her, his mouth curving at the corners. ‘Interesting.’

She didn’t care what was interesting, she cared for his deeds, his words.

‘You’re not talking.’

He was playing with her. Making her wait. She couldn’t remain idle the whole day. ‘It’s your turn,’ she said. ‘I asked questions that you have yet to answer. Further, you’re the one who dragged me here. It would be appreciated if you would be courteous and convey the reasons why.’

‘Haste again.’

‘With good cause.’

Another brow, enquiring, looking for elaboration on her statement. She wouldn’t give him more. It was none of his concern that she needed to return to her family. When it came to time, hers was important as anyone’s. Rich or poor.

Another huff of air as if she amused or frustrated him. ‘I want you to care for the babe.’

‘I already am and I intend to wake her in a bit and feed her more. Then she should bathe and sleep.’

‘It is good you let me know your intentions—what will you do when she sleeps?’

‘Leave.’

He nodded. ‘You are correct in thinking it is my time to talk, for I intend for you to stay.’

‘Stay?’

‘For the remainder of the day, tomorrow and the conceivable future.’

‘You said—’

‘I do not want your body or your death, nor by extension will my men. I intend for you to care for the babe, as you’ve been doing.’

No one snatched a stranger off the streets and ordered them to care for a child. Especially when that child was obviously theirs. He’d drawn a blade guarding the child, now he was giving her into her care?’

‘You want me to care for your child,’ she said.

‘Not my child.’

‘The mother, wouldn’t she—?’

‘You’re her mother.’

She jerked, momentarily waking the child in her arms, and she walked around the room again until it was soothed. A year old. She should have been plump with dimples and too heavy to carry this long. She weighed no more than the swaddling wrapped around her.

‘We both know I’m not her mother.’

‘You look alike.’

It was true.

‘You look alike,’ she pointed out, certain he’d confess to the relationship.

He only smiled. ‘Anything could be a deception.’

She’d play along if she must to understand this. ‘If you are not the father and I am not the mother, won’t the parents have some say in this matter?’

‘She has no parents.’

‘You’re certain.’

‘She has no one.’

Not true. She knew what it meant to have no one. ‘She has you. She was in this room and you were holding her.’

‘Now you are.’

An abandoned baby. This man took a trebuchet to her defence against her argument to leave.

‘Everyone saw you with the child first.’

‘You mean by the men who are in my pay?’

This man wasn’t like anyone she’d met before. She’d always been able to bargain her way out of a situation. But every argument she could think of, he’d already anticipated.

Panicked, she blurted, ‘I can’t stay.’

‘You’re a thief, homeless, on the streets. Before I snatched you from that predicament you were to be sent to gaol to suffer for your crimes. Wouldn’t staying here in this home, taking care of that child, be preferable?’

Darkness was a madman. ‘No one snatches a complete stranger off the streets to care for a child. No one takes a thief and brings them into their home. You do not know me.’

‘True, but you do not know me.’

Oh, but she did. Her instincts never lied. He was far more dangerous than his act of bringing in a thief. And she let him know she knew him. ‘I saw your blade.’

‘Yes...you did.’

Threats. If he set her free, she’d go to gaol. He’d insist; Ido, the arrogant baker, would as well. There her sentence would be an ear, a hand, her life.

That is, if he set her free. After all, there were other means to dispose of her. For all she knew, she was the second woman he’d offered to care for the child. Maybe another kidnapped woman declined his offer and it was her blood on his clothes.

‘If I refuse?’ she asked.

‘You can’t.’

He didn’t say any more, but he didn’t need to. It was the truth. She couldn’t refuse though she had a compelling reason to beg. Pleading did no good with the mercenaries, but pleading was all she had left. She’d tried reasoning and that failed.

But what could she plead? He wouldn’t believe the little bits of work she did or her scavenging were important.

She couldn’t tell him she had others in her care. That would give him an advantage and put her family in jeopardy. All he would need to do was find them and threaten them and she’d comply with his demands.

Her only recourse was to agree, then escape. Gabriel wouldn’t stay at home, might already be in the streets looking for her. Maybe he’d listen to Helewise and Vernon. They’d talked of a situation like this. That if she was caught to give her time to return.

She prayed he’d give her time.

Striding to the bench, she plopped herself and the child down. It was enough to wake and feed her again, which is what Aliette did.

‘That is your answer.’ He indicated to the food, to the child.

‘I can’t refuse you and this child needs care. If you are so insistent that I’m the one to do it, who am I to argue?’

‘The house and food for your belly doesn’t hurt.’

That is what he thought compelled her. Shelter and food? Once it might have been enough, but her dingy room with her family was worth so much more than that. With them she laughed and told stories.

Darkness never smiled.

She smiled at him. ‘If I’m to be treated as well, I’d be a fool not to accept.’

Narrowing his eyes, he stood. It forced her to raise her chin as Darkness loomed over her.

‘I do not mean you or the child harm. I intend to give you a roof over your head and all the food you could want. A bath and clothes have been ordered for you as well and they are to be prepared for you in the room next to this one. You could have all this daily.’

‘Until the child is well?’

He slowly shook his head. ‘Food and shelter for years. Something you’ve never had.’

She hated that he guessed the truth.