Dawn of Destiny (The Warrior Angels Trilogy - Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-One

"If I am forced into doing this, I am going to do this my own way. And if I am going to become an official knight, I am going to do so because I earned it—not because I share my name with you."

Beatrice ducked behind the hedge. Considering how bashful he had been with her, she had trouble believing such an angry tone belonged to Ashton Ward. She also couldn't believe the way Sir Allister was responding. It reminded her of her arguments with her mother.

And what had Ashton meant by forced? Did he not want to be a soldier? Or did he simply not want to be her guard?

Beatrice sighed and moved away as the shouting commenced. That was enough eavesdropping. Their problem was their problem, and she did not care to be involved in that mess.

As she rounded the corner and reached the fountain, she heard rapid footsteps coming from down the path. She inclined her head, and she widened her eyes to see Luc rushing toward her with a face that better matched Ashton's rage.

Luc pointed at her. "What did you say to her?"

Oh, of course. Samoa.

Beatrice had nearly forgotten about that. She smiled at Luc and raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

Luc growled under his breath, halting in front of her. "Do not play your games with me, Beatrice. Do you know how humiliated I have just been? In front of everyone, she called off our engagement because of my infidelity."

Beatrice feigned a gasp and touched her chest. "Oh, how awful of her. She tainted your reputation. How will you ever find another suitor now?" Then her smirk broke through.

"Why?" Luc threw up his hands. "Why would you do this to me?"

"In truth, I did not expect her to do this publicly. I simply could not stand the idea of you marrying her. Why her?"

"I had no other choice! It was either marrying her or being punished by your mother for what she caught us doing."

"I would have handled that, Luc. If you would have shown that you would stand by me and not shown your fear of her, I would have fixed this—"

"How?"

Beatrice blinked a few times.

Luc rubbed his face and turned away from her, groaning. "You wouldn't have been able to do anything about your mother, Beatrice. You fear her just as much."

"That is not true!"

"It is true!" He whirled on her, and she stumbled backwards a few feet. "You told me that. You told me you feel helpless around her, because no matter how hard you fight, she never listens to you. Do you truly believe she would have listened to you about this?" He gestured to the two of them.

Beatrice curled her fingers in and pursed her lips, her mind failing to compose any proper response.

Luc inhaled sharply, and his expression softened. "Let us be honest, Beatrice. You and I were finished the moment she found us. There was no recovery for us after that. But now you've ruined everything else for me." He eyed her up and down and shook his head. "I should have known better than to involve myself with you. Now I will pity the next fool who falls for you."

With that, he spun on his heel and began to storm off.

Beatrice hadn't noticed until then how heavy and short her breaths had become. Her vision had also blurred. Even so, she roughly wiped her eyes and glowered at him.

"You cannot speak to me that way!" She chased after him.

He waved his hand, not looking at her. "What are you going to do, Beatrice? There is no way you can possibly make things worse for me. Oh, perhaps you can convince your mother to hang me and put me out of this misery. Either way, I do not care anymore."