The fire had burned low, and she placed a few more logs upon the glowing coals before tugging a chair close and propping her feet upon the raised hearth. The nightmare had left her mind cast awry upon the vast, barren steppes of some foreign place, and though she searched hither and yon, she could find no comforting home for her thoughts to rest.
Finally she forced herself to review the past weeks with meticulous detail and deliberation, and memories of Maxim quickly overshadowed the gloom. In both manner and charm he had outdone himself, and as a suitor he had been irresistible. He had cajoled, pampered, teased, and delighted, leaving her feeling wonderfully alive. For the first time in her life she was being courted by a man who was mature enough to know what he was about and to be assured of himself and his powers of persuasion. A light brush of his lean fingers upon her arm or a cheek could evoke sinuating waves of pleasure and leave her giddy with delight.
The advent season had come and gone, and servants and highborn alike had feasted well. Even Frau Hanz had given a chuckle or two as they listened to the wildly humorous stories told around the hearth as each took their turn to entertain. In private Maxim had gifted her with a bejeweled box and, with a soft husky voice, had urged her to keep it solely for the hearts she had won. Elise remembered only too well the soft, warm feelings she had experienced when he graced her slender fingers with a kiss.
For a time they had been kept busy at separate tasks, she with instructing the housekeeper on her duties; he with directing the carpenters toward the repairs that needed to be made. The seamstress had been enlisted to sew draperies for the bedchamber windows and new hangings for the beds, heavy enough to keep out the drafts. Rugs had been placed over the stone floors in areas where they were most wont to sit, and woolen lap robes were furnished for the chairs.
Elise’s own chamber had taken on a feeling of coziness with the draped velvet on the windows. The new bed-hangings added an inviting warmth to that haven, and it was almost a pleasure to curl beneath the downy comforters as she drifted off into the arms of Morpheus. Even in its shadowed corner the copper tub now gleamed after a thorough polishing.
A growing feeling of security was settling down upon her because of the improving conditions outside the keep. No longer did Elise need to fear the coming of night. The small cannons which Maxim had brought back now graced the front walls, and the portcullis, which had been made serviceable by the addition of linked chain, could be lowered at nightfall behind the newly repaired gate.
Still, Elise found the passing weeks had chafed hard against her emotions. The many hours she had spent with Maxim within the narrow confines of Faulder Castle had begun an erosion of the once-solid wall of her defense. His warm and gentle manner was beginning to bring about a change in her, a change which boded ill for her weakening will. She was very much a stranger to the growing yearnings that assailed her and more than a little cautious of the desires that enflamed her. Never in her life had she felt the smallest urge to seek out a man’s company, as she now was inclined to do with Maxim. She enjoyed being with him and being the recipient of his attentions. He seemed casual enough about touching her, but to be so familiar to respond in kind was a yearning she had not yet appeased. She had been totally amazed by the attack on her senses the morning she had come upon him bereft of a shirt, and she had been hard pressed to drag her eyes away from that lithely muscled expanse. From simple to sensuous, her mind was ever wont to wander when her hungering eyes touched upon the man. She had memorized every shape, every swell, every bulge, every leanness, every firmness, every flowing muscle that had all been wonderfully combined to create that tall, handsome torso. Quite often her lashes would flick down, brushing burning cheeks as she tried to hide her growing fascination, but her imagination refused to halt on the outer garb of the man. She had seen all, and wanton maid that she was, all was what she desired to see again.
Stepping away from the hearth, Elise slowly paced about the chamber. Her longings were by no means a singular problem, for Maxim had made it known that he wanted her as a man wants a woman. But she had refused them both, crushing down the cravings, cindering them beneath the firm heel of her restraint. Still, the longings came back to haunt her, and, such as now, she could not find the soothing comfort of rest.
Her eyes turned as if compelled to the tapestry. She now had a suspicion where the doorway led, and a deep curiosity began to grow within her as she stared at the piece. What better time for her to explore this mystery than when Maxim was asleep and he would know naught of her wanderings.
She lit a taper and, with purposeful intent, slipped beneath the work of art, holding it a safe distance from the burning candle. She was determined that nothing would dissuade her from her resolve, not even the bats that had once inhabited the shadows of the tapestry. Gently she slid back the latch that Spence had affixed to the door and, thus freeing the panel, carefully opened it.
Lifting the candle high to banish the darkness, Elise stepped into the passageway and moved cautiously beyond the fireplace wall to the steep, narrow stairway. Gingerly testing each step, she made a slow, careful ascent. At a small landing she found a door with a neatly worked latch positioned low on the right side. She set the candle down where it would give her light and cautiously turned the latch. The panel swung smoothly without the slightest sound, and as she stepped over the threshold, she caught the slow, steady breathing of the slumbering man who occupied the bed. The low fire cast more shadows than light, while the heavy velvet hangings held the darkness secure within the bed.
Elise’s nerves stretched taut as she crept to the canopied piece. There was no mistaking the tousled tawny head of the lord of Faulder Castle. He lay on his left side, facing away from her, and the fur pelts barely preserved her composure, for they provided only a meager covering over his narrow hips. An ugly, purple scar marred the smooth symmetry of his back, lending her an understanding of those brief times she had seen him grimace and stretch, as if some twinge of pain plagued him.
A sudden pang of compassion stirred within her as she thought of the agony he must have suffered when Fitch and Spence dragged him from the murky depths of the river and then spirited him away in the dead of night to the inn in Alsatia. Nicholas had said he had been close to death, and the whole of England had been persuaded that he had died. It greatly pleased her that he had not.
Elise held her breath as he stirred restlessly in his sleep and rolled onto his back. A long sigh slipped from him as he flung an arm up over his head and turned his face slightly away. Though she dared not move or breathe, her eyes wandered where they would, while a warming blush suffused her cheeks at the forwardness of her inspection. Slowly her gaze passed down the furred chest and lean waist and moved on to the firm, flat belly with its light tracing of hair. A dark shadow of a scar traced upward across his ribs from his left side, and curious to know the extent of it, she leaned over the bed as her eyes followed the line of it.
Of a sudden long fingers closed tightly upon her arm, and Elise gasped in sudden alarm as she found herself being swept down over the man. Maxim rolled to his side, pulling her full against him, and held her there with an arm clasped close about her slender waist. For a stunned moment Elise stared with widened eyes into his shadowed face, while the firelight etched his dark form with a golden light, tracing along the side of his head, the square, muscular curve of his shoulder, on downward over a naked flank to where the open skirt of her robe covered his leg. She saw the gleam of white teeth beside her, and even in the darkness, she thought it had more the twist of a lurid leer.
“What? No pail of icy water to drench me?” His voice was soft and deeply laced with humor. “What say you, maid? Have you brought aught to rend me to my pallet?”
“Let me go!” Elise gasped. She laid a hand to his naked chest to push herself away and struggled to rise.
“Not yet, I think,” Maxim whispered, bringing around his left arm to fold it beneath her head. He raised slightly on that member until his shadow
covered her, and he lowered his head toward hers. Elise flung her face aside, but he forced it back as his arm curled about her head, and she was imprisoned in a gentle vise that refused to let her go. Deliberately he took his time, touching kisses as light as thistledown upon her lips, insidiously stirring her woman’s passion. Her trepidation began to fade and her qualms were sundered beneath the onslaught of his persuasive gentleness. By slow degrees his mouth parted and began to pluck the sweet nectar from hers in soft caresses, sipping deep, slowly sampling until she began to feel almost heady with the strong intoxicant of his kisses. His fervor mounted with her advancing response, and his tongue became a flicking firebrand as his mouth consumed hers with a hunger that would not be lightly appeased. A soft sigh slipped from her as his lips wandered down the slender column of her throat. Her dressing gown fell away from her naked breasts beneath his searching hand, and Elise caught her breath at the flaring pleasure evoked by the warm wetness of his mouth and the flaming strokes across a softly pliant peak.
A log fell in the fireplace, sending a burst of crackling sparks flying outward from the hearth and startling Elise to her senses. Her eyes flew open, and with a sudden heave, she pushed the naked man away and scrambled over him to escape the bed, not caring that her modesty paid the total price as the skirt of her dressing gown flared wide. With urgent haste she fled the chamber and slammed the portal behind her. She seized the lighted tallow, and her rapid descent of the stairs made the tiny flame dance crazily atop the wick until it was nearly doused by the swift current of air. She plunged through the lower portal, secured it well, and flung aside the tapestry. Setting the candle in place, she knelt before the hearth, trembling and shaken, but it was not the coldness of the room that left her so. It was the realization of where their passion had led her.
A soft scratching on the hidden panel snatched her breath, and she heard the subdued plea.
“Elise? Open the door.”
Slipping beneath the tapestry, she braced her brow against the panel. “Please, Maxim, go away.”
“I want you.” Though but a whisper spoken against the panel, it seemed like a shout in the darkness that enveloped her. “I need you.”
Despite the coldness beneath the heavy cloth, a fine dew of moisture covered her skin, and her hands shook as she clutched them to her trembling mouth. “Go away, Maxim. Leave me be. Forget that I ever came.”
His brief, scoffing laugh attested to the difficulty of that feat. “Forget that I’ve a heart that will not slow? A hand that will not cease its trembling? A man’s lust that is not quenched? Would you have me seek out another to sate it?”
“No!” The answer burst from her lips before she could halt it, and she began to sob. Her heart ached with the sudden threat of his words, but she could not yield to the driving urgency of their passions, not when there was much yet to be spoken between them.
Chapter 15
THE HANSA CAPTAIN had arrived at Faulder Castle in his usual buoyant spirits, and settling his gaze on Elise, had thrown his arms wide and lavishly praised the maid on her appearance. “Oh, ho! Vhat have ve here? A fair damsel grown more radiant in these northern climes? Pray tell, vhat has done this thing? Can it be the new gown she is vearing?” His light blue eyes gleamed as he perused her. “Nein, I think it is more than that. I vow the frost in the air has set a sparkle in her eyes and a bloom upon her cheeks.” He leaned near with a teasing leer. “Truly, vrouwelin, if I did not know better, I vould think yu are happy here.”
“And had I no better ken, Captain Von Reijn, I would think you were endowed with the wayward tongue of an Irishman,” Elise parried with a beguiling smile and laid a hand upon his sleeve. “Truly, this cold weather does bring a blush to the cheeks, and your good company a warmth to my heart. We bid you welcome to Faulder Castle.”
“Yu are as gracious as yu are beautiful, vrouwelin.” Maxim could do naught but silently agree with the captain’s observations. It seemed with each passing day Elise grew more exquisite in her beauty. This evening she looked exceptionally striking dressed in a black and gold matelasse’ gown she had donned for the benefit of their guest. A ruff of stiff gold lace adorned her slender throat, and beneath it hung a most recent gift from the Hansa captain, gold chains intertwined with pearls and starred with tiny jewels. Heavy strands of auburn hair had been coiled intricately and dressed high upon her head, lending her a regal countenance that seemed to awe even Frau Hanz.
Maxim was intrigued by every aspect of Elise’s character and appearance. He found her totally engaging and easily understood how she captured the attention and imagination of both her suitors, though he stood mute and reluctantly reticent while the other man zealously wooed her. It was not a role Maxim greatly cherished. To play the disinterested bystander and ignore the painful proddings of jealousy as Nicholas freely claimed her company was an extremely difficult task. Had it not been for his own foolishness in giving the man permission to court her, he would have pressed his own suit with great fervor.
“Herr Dietrich has spent the day creating a feast for your pleasure, Captain.” Elise swept a hand toward the table invitingly. “It awaits only your enjoyment.”
Nicholas hooked his fingers in his jeweled belt and grinned. “Someone has read my mind.”
Elise laughed brightly. “There was no need, Captain. We know of your great love for food.”
The meal was entered, and the time passed amiably. Much later the three left the table and found their own place of relaxation as Frau Hanz cleared away the last of the wooden trenchers and Herr Dietrich prepared a tray of sweetmeats to serve with tankards of mulled wine. Nicholas retired to a huge chair, while Maxim remained near the table, half-sitting, half-leaning against its sturdy planks. From there, he observed the graciousness of his charge as she served the spiced wine, which, to his irritation, also seemed the desire of the Hansa captain.
“Yu are an exquisite and unmatchable beauty in yur new gown,” Nicholas extolled. His pale blue eyes sparkled with pleasure as she danced around in a slow circle before him, and he cocked a wondering brow at Maxim who remained carefully stoic while his gaze rested on the maid. “I don’t know if I should trust her here vith yu much longer, my friend. Such a tempting sight vould vear hard on any man.”
Elise met Maxim’s stare with a challenge in her eyes and could not resist a taunt. “I doubt that his lordship even notices I’m alive. He’s far too involved with his memories of Arabella.”
Nicholas drained his mug and rose to refill it. “Maxim has not lived in this northern clime long enough. Cold nights have a tendency to varm a man’s heart and make him more appreciative of a maid closer to hand. It . . . ah . . . becomes a matter of survival . . . though for certain, his lordship has proven he has a vill to survive.”
“Do we not all share that inclination?” Elise inquired with a cryptic smile.
“Of course, vrouwelin!” the captain agreed. “Am Leben bleiben! ‘Tis an urge so strong in some men, they vill sometimes ignore the call of a drowning man to guard their own lives.” He splashed more of the mulled wine into his mug and gazed thoughtfully into the distance for a brief moment before facing them again. “No one knows a man’s true mettle ‘til the challenge comes. When faced vith danger, some turn tail and run, vhile others stand and fight. I’ve always considered myself a fighter, vith many a brawl to advance as evidence, but I’ve also fancied myself a lover of life and ladies. God only knows vhat I vould do if faced vith certain death. So vhere is truth to be found until that hour of testing?” He raised an arm to indicate the Marquess. “ ‘Tis different vith my friend. He has faced the foe and bested him.”
A wry grin curved Maxim’s lips. “I’ve also fled to preserve my life. Indeed, you could say the guards very nearly ended my life ere I escaped their tender care.”
Nicholas leaned back in his chair and entwined his fingers over his chest. “I see yu make light of yur valor, my friend, and jest over yur escape. Yet very few have escaped Elizabeth’s guards an
d eluded their search and then lived to banter over the whole of it.”
“And you make much ado about nothing.” Maxim shrugged casually. “Besides, whatever repute I once had serving Elizabeth, I’ve now lost. I’ve been stripped of home, honor, and possessions.”
“Stripped of home and possessions, perhaps.” Nicholas considered his host with a thoughtful smile. “But I think not honor.”
“I fear my charge would disagree with you,” Maxim commented dryly, directing his gaze again to the maid. “She is of the belief that there’s no honor among thieves and other sorts of vagabonds.”
“To be sure, my lord. Pirates, brigands, and kidnappers have no more esteem than the foulest scum.” Elise slowly approached the table as she teased him. “But then, since I cannot speak from experience as to the lengths a man will go for love, I may in time learn what goads a man and alter my opinion. As you have already clearly demonstrated, you’d do much to have Arabella at your side.” With gracefully veiled deliberation and a touch of boldness, Elise reached for the platter of sweetmeats Herr Dietrich had placed on the table, brushing so close to Maxim that her skirts half covered his booted legs. Lifting coyly questioning eyes to meet his stare, she dared to goad him. “Your devotion to her was the reason for her planned abduction, was it not, my lord?”
Maxim felt the prodding of her words and, at the same time, the pulsing of his blood as her nearness tantalized him and struck sparks in his mind. In the past days he had come to realize she could, with no more than a look, a touch, or a smile, awaken his lusting desires more effectively than any woman he had ever known, while seeming oblivious to what she did to him. Or was he being too kind to believe that she had not been born with the wiles of a temptress?