Defiant Surrender by Tamara Gill

with every passing day. Mostly, due to the sheer need to look for the missing ring. As no rings were exchanged through the wedding ceremony, her hope of getting it back that way was lost. It only left the road that lay between Aimecourt and the church. Perhaps it was there. Unfortunately, her husband had decided to be an arse and not allow her freedom to leave. However, a small measure of hope had sparked since that first denial. Apparently, “her people” held an annual festival celebrating the winter solstice. Or so Mistress Rhode had informed her. This year the festival would include the celebration of her marriage and a welcome to Lord William.
    The letters from her steward told her of her people’s excitement over the daylong celebration. All the details were planned with the utmost care and proceeding in a timely manner. He had explained in an almost sycophantic detail her people’s eagerness to see Lady Madeline again, and her esteemed husband, the baron.
    Maddie rolled her eyes, irked that they thought her husband noble and worthy. The Baron of Kingston was neither of those things. For all she knew, her husband and his mistress could be lying along a road somewhere, dead.
    Six weeks he’d been gone and without a word of goodbye. Who left an estate without a single word? Obviously his “greatness” did. The castle staff had begun to silence their conversations whenever she entered a room. She loathed the pity she saw in their eyes, although the condescension of others was worse. Maddie was not oblivious to what they whispered behind her back. That the baron had taken flight with his lover, escape his only course. The marriage bed with the Lady Madeline too abhorrent for any man to stomach.
    Maddie again wished she knew more about the real Lady Madeline. From what she could gather, the woman was the opposite to her own character in every way. Was this why William would not offer her the hand of friendship? Because he still thought her the same as the old Madeline? Or what he had heard of the old Madeline, since he had never met the girl prior to their wedding.
    After their little tête-à-tête within the solar that one morning, he had disappeared off the face of the earth. The reprieve had not dampened her temper. She wasn’t finished with him quite yet. His dismissal of her and his disappearing act burrowed into her skin like a thistle. It festered, made her temper worse with every day that passed.
    It was silly really, because as soon as she had the chance, she’d be out of here, gone. However, as a woman, she could not help but be slighted, hurt, by his callous manner toward her. It made her feel sorry for other women in this time who suffered the same fate.
    She stood next to a boulder and watched the waters of a local river flow away. The dormant landscape, under the sprinkling of snow, glittered in the soft sunshine and she couldn’t help but admit that being stuck in this time did have some positives. The air was fresh and the seasons more pronounced. Animal meat tasted more delicious and the butter their cook made was to die for. If only she had fresh water or a beautiful aged wine, her stomach at least would have been content. She picked up a flat stone, threw it, and skimmed it across the water. She watched as a startled bird flew out of the reeds on the opposite bank.
    “A strange ability for a lady born to privilege,” Sir Alex said, his face passive.
    Maddie smiled. At least with her knight she had one friend in medieval England. “I learnt as a child, Sir Alex. My dad taught me.”
    Sir Alex frowned. “Did you always address your father as dad?” the word sounded foreign and awkward on his tongue. “It seems most strange, Lady Madeline.”
    “Would it make you feel better if I said father instead of dad?” She laughed at his perplexed gaze. “Is it so strange for you? What did you call your father?” He looked at her with a small smile on his lips.
    “I used to call him