Brianna lifted her chin and tossed her long braids back over her shoulders. “I’d rather manage without food than go begging to him!”
Her companions were startled at her vehemence.
Ali came over to help them dismount. “Ladies, if you will sit in the shade of the beech trees, a special lunch has been prepared.”
“Oh, how lovely,” Joan exclaimed. Three followed him eagerly, one reluctantly. Ali was a squire who observed every nicety. He presented them with scented water and hand towels as soon as they sat down upon the greensward. Then he opened a hamper, spread a linen cloth, and laid out game birds, wedges of cheese, cold artichokes, and tiny spiced crab apples. He handed them small silver goblets, then retired a short distance so his presence did not intrude upon their privacy.
Hawksblood approached the ladies carrying a wineskin. First he came to Brianna to fill her goblet. A vivid picture of sharing wine with him came full-blown into her memory. She recoiled from him immediately. “I will not share your wine!”
He stared at her intensely for a full minute. Under the circumstances her words sounded ridiculous. “You must drink something, my lady,” he said softly.
She jumped up, clutching the silver cup. “I shall drink water,” she declared, and headed toward the stream. The ladies were embarrassed at Brianna’s uncharacteristic behavior and graciously held up their cups for the proffered wine. After a few minutes Christian followed Brianna, determined to breach the barrier she was trying to erect between them.
“My lady—” he began firmly.
She whirled about. “Leave me alone,” she cried, putting out her hand to ward him off as if he were an evil spirit.
She was being totally unreasonable. He had not done or said anything to warrant this behavior. He decided to goad her into spitting out whatever was stuck in her craw. “I realize it is a female’s nature to be perverse, but I expect common courtesy when you address me. I will not tolerate being spoken to like some lackey.”
Green and gold flecks glittered in her eyes. “I know what you are trying to do, you devil!”
“Enlighten me, my lady.”
“You are trying to cast a spell upon me so that I’ll fall under your control, but it won’t work. You cannot hypnotize nor mesmerize me into doing your bidding!”
His dark eyebrows rose and a corner of his mouth lifted in amusement. “Can I not, lady?” he asked enigmatically. His voice surrounded her like dark velvet, challenging, luring, seducing.
She looked like an enchantress from some mythic tale with the sunlight turning her hair to finespun gold.
“Be on your guard against me every moment of the day and every second of the long night, lest I possess your very soul,” he teased.
Spoken aloud, in the bright light of day, the words seemed no more than ridiculous nonsense, but Brianna knew that deep down, beneath the banter, lay a kernel of truth. He did possess a power that was supernatural. Christian Hawksblood was not as other men. She wondered briefly if there were such things as immortals. She turned her back upon him and felt him withdraw.
Brianna lingered by the stream as long as she dared, then slowly made her way back to the beech trees. When she reached the others, she saw that they were feeding a fey little creature with four black feet. Brianna was immediately diverted. “Why, it’s a ferret! I never saw one so tame before.” She laughed at its bold antics as it stood on its hind legs to take a piece of meat from Glynis, then pulled her fingers apart, searching for more.
Brianna bent down and held out the silver cup of water. The bright-eyed ferret came to her immediately and lapped up the water just like a cat. Then it began to bob up and down and chatter to her, performing what looked like a weasel dance.
“Whatever does it want?” Brianna asked, laughing at its antics.
“It wants to play with you,” said a deep voice at her elbow. She stood up and whirled about. The look on Hawksblood’s face told her clearly he, too, wanted to play with her. She blushed. “Is it yours?” she asked quickly to cover the disquieting effect his closeness had upon her.
“Aye, we’ve formed a close attachment to each other. Gnasher has fallen victim to my charm,” he mocked.
“No doubt you have cast an evil spell upon the poor little creature,” she said repressively.
“No doubt,” he mocked.
Christian wanted a private word with Joan. She looked forlorn today and exceedingly fragile. He walked beside her toward her palfrey, towering at her side. “Are you weary, my lady?”
“A little,” she admitted, her voice sounding lost.
“It’s slow traveling with ox carts, but we don’t have too much farther to go today.” He watched her face carefully, wanting to see the radiant smile when it came.
“You are most kind to trouble about me, Christian. Where will we stay?” she asked indifferently.
He set his hands to her tiny waist to lift her into the saddle. “Berkhamsted,” he replied.
Joan’s eyes widened with hope.
“Edward awaits you there,” he said low.
Joan threw her arms about his neck and kissed him on the cheek. Her smile was radiant indeed, almost like the sun emerging from the clouds.
Brianna checked her steps as she saw the intimate by-play. A searing jealousy ran along her veins like green fire. Joan hadn’t the brains she was born with. Brianna, in that moment, could have throttled her.
Paddy aided Brianna to mount, then picked up the ferret and moved on to Adele. The two chattered happily together and when Paddy mounted his own animal, he stayed at Adele’s side.
Brianna was out of charity with everyone. It did nothing to soothe her irritability when she saw Ali fall in beside Glynis. She had no choice but to ride alongside Joan. Suddenly she couldn’t believe her ears. Her friend was actually singing! Something inside Brianna snapped. She opened her mouth and the words came tumbling out in a torrent. “Joan, it’s high time someone took you to task about your behavior. You flirt with every man who comes near you. It makes you look like a shameless hussy!”
Joan, jolted from her lovely reverie about Prince Edward, stared at Brianna blankly. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Don’t pretend that angelic innocence with me, it’s a bloody act! You can’t keep your hands off that damned Arabian, but at least you should have enough sensibility to do your kissing in private.”
“Why, Brianna, you’re jealous.”
“Jealous? That’s preposterous! I’m betrothed.”
“So am I,” replied Joan, “but that doesn’t stop me from loving another. Brianna, are you in love with Christian?”
“You must be mad! Haven’t you ever heard the gossip about him? He seduces women as casually as he would pluck peaches from a tree. Flirting with him is asking for trouble.”
“I have never flirted with him, Brianna,” Joan insisted.
“You don’t even know you are doing it. You act like a strumpet!”
“And you are acting as petulantly as Princess Isabel. It seems to me you think both De Beauchamp brothers your own personal property. Look to your own morals!” Joan replied.
The two girls stared at each other furiously. Then Joan spurred her palfrey to catch up with Glynis, Adele, and their attentive squires, leaving Brianna to her own devices.
She was oblivious to the beauty all about her. Usually she viewed nature reverently with an artist’s eye, appreciating the shimmering greenness, the silver birches, the red rowan trees. With every mile she felt worse. She felt wretched that she had exchanged angry words with her dearest friend. Anger blazed up in her. Anger at herself and at the dark, dangerous Hawksblood. He obviously would like to have his way with both of them, and Joan was too innocent to suspect him!
The light was fading from the day before the wagons, the ladies, and their mail-clad escort arrived in Berkhamsted’s bailey.
Paddy immediately unloaded Brianna’s and Adele’s trunks from a wagon and Lady Bedford led the way into the castle. “I had no idea
we were coming to Berkhamsted,” she remarked to the squire.
Paddy replied, “We came here for more wagons, my lady.”
“Oh, I see,” said Brianna. “Ah, here comes that dreadful chamberlain. I hope he provides us with decent chambers this time. I don’t suppose he will be as high-handed without Princess Isabel’s urging.”
As it happened, Prince Edward had given his chamberlain very specific instructions regarding his guests’ chambers. Adele was put in her own room beside Lady Bedford’s. When Paddy put down Adele’s trunk, he asked her to sit with him in the hall. She dimpled and told him she would try her best. When she went in to attend to her lady, Brianna said, “I’m not fit company, Adele. I think I shall dine in my chamber tonight.”
“After a bath and an early night, you’ll be right as rain, my lamb.”
Brianna doubted it. She had behaved peevishly to Joan and now felt pangs of guilt. “When you order my bath, be sure to order one for yourself, Adele. I’ll be perfectly happy left to my own devices. I’ll probably do some sketching while the scenes from the tournament are still vivid in my imagination.” She hung the amber tunic in her wardrobe and awaited her bath. Afterward she put the apricot under-dress back on and stood gazing out into the twilight, trying to sort out her feelings.
When Adele brought her a dinner tray, she remarked, “That strange chamberlain put Lady Kent in another wing. But perhaps it’s just as well; you and she didn’t seem to be getting along too well today.”
Adele’s words added to Brianna’s misery. When she didn’t enlighten Adele about what had gone wrong, Adele said, “Glynis and I are going to the hall together. Joan asked for a tray in her chamber too. Perhaps it’s best you avoid each other tonight.” When Brianna kept silent, Adele bade her good night and departed.
Brianna sighed and took up her sketch pad. She began to draw one of the horses she had seen in the tournament. Its coat had outshone the plumage of a peacock. She was usually good at capturing the image of fine horseflesh. The head should be lean, the eye gray like a falcon’s, the breast large and square. It should be round of thigh and tight of rump. She looked at her sketch in dismay. “The horse that looks like a dog!” she said with disgust.
Brianna’s thoughts darted about but kept coming back to Joan. She sketched on absently, unmindful of what her fingers created. Suddenly she looked at her pad in dismay. Staring back at her from the paper was the face of Christian Hawksblood. She threw down the charcoal and impatiently washed its black traces from her fingertips. Sighing heavily, she resumed her place at the long window.
The door to Joan of Kent’s chamber opened quietly and Prince Edward stepped into the room. He wore a black pelisson embroidered with the dragon of Wales. With a cry of joy, Joan flew into his open arms and he enfolded her. She was so petite, she stood only as high as his heart. She pressed her cheek to his breastbone and felt the strong, steady beat beneath. “Your Highness, how did you get here before us?”
“Sweetheart, don’t call me ‘Your Highness.’ It sets up a barrier between us, and God knows there are already too many of those.”
“Oh, Edward, I feared I would never be able to see you alone again.”
“From now on I will make it my first priority, Jeanette.”
He felt her tremble. “I … I don’t want to wed William de Montecute.”
He dropped a kiss on her pretty hair and placing a finger beneath her chin, lifted it so he could look into her eyes. He saw them liquid with unshed tears. “My little love, you shall not marry him,” Edward said emphatically.
“But the king—”
“The king is Katherine de Montecute’s lover, he can refuse her naught. Trust me to find a way for us, sweeting.”
Joan was shocked into silence. It was thought by the whole Court that King Edward was completely faithful to Queen Philippa. She was already having another child!
“He is discreet and careful of Katherine’s reputation,” Edward explained as if he read her thoughts. “I have bought a house in London where we can enjoy time together in privacy.” His words drew a parallel between her and Katherine.
Joan’s tremble turned to a shiver. The prince’s words told her plainly that he intended to become her lover. His fingers began to unthread the coral ribbons from her hair.
“I’ve waited so long for this. At last we have all night together.” His voice was husky with desire. “Will you let me love you?”
“Yes,” she cried passionately. “No matter what the future brings, they’ll never be able to take this night away from us.”
Edward sat down in a massive padded armchair and pulld her into his lap. His lips kissed the tears from her lashes then brushed across her pink mouth, savoring the sweet taste of her. “Lord God, you’re like honeyed wine.” His kiss deepened and she clung to him, never wanting them to be parted again.
His building desire made his hands clumsy as he tried to remove her tunic, so she helped him with the lacing and sat on his knees in her diaphanous underdress. “Jeanette, you’re delicate as a flower, how can you love such a clumsy brute as I?”
“Edward, you are no brute, you are my gentil parfait knight.”
“I want to undress you. Where will I start?”
Suddenly he seemed so youthful and in that moment Joan became all woman. She drew up her skirts, exposing her stockings held in place by exquisite, pearl-embroidered garters. It was Edward’s turn to tremble as he inched the stockings from her legs. Then his hand stole back up inside her skirt to caress her silky-soft thighs.
Joan’s mouth parted as she gasped at the pleasure his touch brought her and his mouth covered hers, delving deeply, as he explored the scented alcove. His hand sought her other scented alcove as his tongue touched hers, and with a little cry she opened to his questing fingers. Edward traced the delicate folds, then slipped a finger into her cleft, seeking the jewel hidden in her woman’s center.
She drew in her breath in a rush, feeling the heat of his hand and feeling an even greater heat from his loins beneath her buttocks. Suddenly she realized Edward was naked beneath his long robe and she could wait no longer to look upon his splendid male beauty.
A wild thrill went through him as Joan’s hands reached out to part the robe and push it from his shoulders. Instantly he shrugged it from his body so that his nakedness was revealed from throat to thigh. Her small hands smoothed over the great slabs of muscle in his chest, turning his male nipples to diamonds.
She sighed with the overpowering love she felt for this prince. “You are my golden god,” she whispered.
Edward groaned with disbelief at his great good fortune. That such an exquisitely beautiful creature loved him was no less than a miracle; a gift from the gods. Her skin was like silk and he needed her naked in his lap, needed to hear the love sounds that would come from her pretty throat as his hands moved her against his hard body.
Finally the love play was no longer enough for Edward. He needed to lie with her: beside her, beneath her, above her.
Inside her.
He got to his feet, cradling her high against his heart. His rampant shaft rose up to touch her bottom and her pale, platinum hair fell over his arm like rippling moonlight.
Brianna knew what she must do. She would never be able to sleep until she had made her peace with Joan. She didn’t bother with a robe. She still wore her apricot under-dress and didn’t think anyone would be about at this hour. She walked softly down the stone passageway where Adele had indicated Joan’s chamber. Perhaps Joan was already asleep. She turned the handle slowly and the heavy door opened a crack.
What Brianna heard gave her pause. She heard the swish of cloth as if a robe fell to the floor. At the same time she heard a gasp, a sigh, a kiss. She heard the unmistakable, sensual sounds of love. A sword of jealousy lanced deep into her heart. Joan was playing wanton with Christian Hawksblood de Beauchamp, Brianna’s own Arabian Knight!
She felt totally betrayed. She swung open the door in outrage, then her eyes w
idened at the blindingly intimate scene before her.
“Brianna!” Joan gasped.
With a hand over her mouth, Brianna turned and fled.
Edward’s arms tightened about his beloved. “Let her go. I’m sure we can trust her with our secret.”
“I’m glad she knows. I don’t know how I kept it from her this long. Perhaps I should go to her, Edward. She looked so shocked, I think she needs me.”
He laughed deep in his throat. “My need is greater, little Jeanette. We will explain together. Tomorrow will be soon enough.” As Edward walked to the bed, Joan hid her blushes against his throat.
Brianna rushed headlong down the darkened passageway of Berkhamsted, her thoughts in the most indecent disarray. She did not see the tall, dark figure in the shadows. She almost ran into him as he stepped into her path.
Hawksblood gripped her shoulders to steady her. “What is amiss, lady?”
“I … I went to Joan’s chamber … His Highness is with her … she … they—”
“You did not know of their secret liaison?” he asked incredulously.
Brianna shook her head. Her pallor alarmed him. “Come,” he said with command, and ushered her into his chamber. As if she had no will of her own at that moment, she allowed him to take her into a room and sit her down in a chair. “When I heard a man, I thought it was—”
He finished her sentence for her. “You thought it was me,” he said ironically. “Have I not made it plain, you are my woman?”
She looked at him in panic. The candles made his dark shadow loom gigantic up the wall. The great four-poster bed dominated the chamber. He saw the fear in her face and dropped down upon one knee. He took her cold hands into his and spoke calmly, quietly.
“Have no fear of me, Brianna. I will not claim you until you are ready,” he pledged. The candles bathed her in their soft glow. The apricot underdress clung to her lush breasts, her golden hair fell in waves to the carpet. In that moment he knew he lied. By the Splendor of God he would claim her if she resisted him overlong.