A Passionate Magic (4 page)

She fled to the window niche, to lean against
the cold stone while she cradled her burned forearm in her other
hand. When Dain approached she caught the shutter latch and
unfastened it, pulling the shutter wide open. Cool air blew in,
damp and salty from the sea. Emma took several restoring
breaths.

“Don’t be a fool.” Dain reached across her to
slam the shutter closed and fasten it again. “It is hundreds of
feet to the rocks below, and the waves catch anything that falls
and hurl it into the deep sea. Nothing that drops from this tower
is ever found again.”

“I wasn’t going to jump,” she said, feeling
remarkably calm.

“I did wonder.” He turned to face her, and in
the glow of the single candle his eyes were shadowed. Emma could
not guess what he was thinking. She was certain of only one
thing.

“You don’t care about me at all,” she
whispered.

“Why did you think I would?” he asked with
perfect reasonableness. “I was merely doing what I – and you, too,
my lady – am obligated to do. I regret any offense I caused, but
surely you are aware that certain actions must be taken by us in
order to consummate our marriage. I was attempting to make the
event as pleasant as possible for you.”

“The event?” She swallowed hard, knowing he
was in the right and that she was a fool, indeed, to expect true
affection from him.

“Shall we try it again?” Dain held out his
hand to her. “On the bed this time. It will be simpler that way,
and more quickly done.” Incredibly, he was smiling at her, clearly
expecting her to place her hand in his.

“Now?” She wanted to hit him. She wanted to
scream and yell and throw something at him. Her burned arm hurt and
she was perilously close to tears, and this uncaring brute who was
her predestined love wanted to toss her onto the bed and put his
-

“We could wait until later,” he said, still
smiling, “but it is my opinion that it will be better to have the
act over and done with at once.”

“Oh?” she said.

“The first time is always difficult for a
virgin. I’m sure you have been told about that. Afterward, it will
be easier.”

“You miserable cur,” she muttered, not caring
whether he heard her or not. He did hear her. So indifferent was he
to her feelings that the insult did not mar his coolness. His smile
never faltered.

“You have no choice, my lady. My advice to
you is to give in gracefully and do your duty.”

“You don’t know or like me,” she said.

“No more than you know or like me. My opinion
of you does not matter, nor yours of me. We are bound together, you
and I, and I will have what is rightfully mine.”

“If I refuse, will you force me?” She wasn’t
afraid, only more angry than she had ever been in her life.

“There will be no need for force,” he said,
his eyes sparkling with an emotion she could only guess at. “After
our one, brief embrace, I am convinced that you are a woman of rare
passion. I have only to remove that shamefully sheer piece of linen
you are wearing and then begin to caress you, and before long you
will accept me eagerly, despite your virgin state.”

“No, I won’t,” she protested.

“I need only sit on the bed,” he said,
suiting the action to his words, “and tell you what I intend to do
to you, and you will come to me, lured by the possibility of even
greater ecstasy than I have already shown you. What you felt when I
touched you a few moments ago is only the barest taste of the
passion you will experience in my arms.

“Now, do not scowl at me so fiercely,’ he
said, looking amused. “You know that what I say is true, and so, my
lady, you will lie down where I tell you to lie down, and open
yourself to me when I order it, and when I am ready, I will make
you mine.”

“Stop it!” The horrible truth was that his
caressing tone was reheating the earlier fires he had kindled
within her. Emma longed to join him on the bed. She ached to
experience his hands on her again, to feel once more the exquisite
torture of his fingers stroking into her, lifting her to unimagined
heights.

But most of all, she wanted him to care about
her wishes, to see her as a person worthy of his respect. And
therefore she was going to refuse him, her husband and master. She
was certain there was no one in the kingdom, her father and
Mirielle included, who would stand with her on her decision to defy
her husband. Once she said no to Dain, she would be alone as she
had never been alone before.

There was nothing else she could do. She
simply could not allow him to take her and use her for the sake of
cold, unfeeling revenge against her father. What Dain’s reaction
was going to be she could not guess. She opened her mouth,
preparing to tell him that she would not lie with him willingly,
and that if he attempted to force her against her will, she would
use her magical arts to prevent him.

He rose and took a step in her direction, and
at first Emma thought he was going to grab at her. But he walked
right past her, heading for the chamber door, and she realized that
there was a great deal of noise coming from below, in the hall. She
had heard it at the back of her mind, but in her concentration on
Dain she had ignored it, until now, when it could no longer be
ignored.

“My lord!” There were footsteps on the
stairs, followed by a heavy banging on the door, and the excited
sound of several male voices outside it. “My lord, make haste! To
arms!”

“What in the name of the saints are you
yelling about?” Dain exclaimed, pulling the door open so quickly
that both Blake the page and a short, swarthy man-at-arms nearly
fell into the room. “Sloan, you had better have a good reason for
disturbing me.”

“I have, my lord,” said the man-at-arms. He
gave Emma only the briefest of glances before turning his full
attention to Dain. ”A messenger arrived just a few moments ago.
Trevanan has been attacked and looted.”

“Has it?” Dain’s mouth thinned, his eyes
blazing. “We can both guess whose work that was.”

“Aye, no doubt about it,” Sloan agreed,
nodding. “The messenger said three men and a woman were
killed.”

“My people,” said Dain. “My responsibility.
Where is Robert?”

“Here, my lord.” A young, blond fellow pushed
his way into the crowded chamber.

“Arm me.” Dain snapped out the order to
Robert, who was apparently his squire. Swiftly, he unbuckled his
belt and threw off his tunic.

Ignored by the men, Emma gaped at the broad,
suntanned chest revealed to her, and at arms with muscles like
corded steel. How had she dared to imagine she could resist such
strength? Dain’s chest and his lower arms were lightly covered with
hair that was sun bleached to the same pale shade as the hair on
his head. To her bedazzled eyes he appeared as one of the great
knights of legend – tall, golden, incredibly handsome – and so
immersed in manly concerns that her presence in his chamber was
already forgotten. Perhaps he had forgotten her very existence.

The squire Robert lifted the lid of Dain’s
clothes chest and drew out first a plain linen undershirt and then
the padded gambeson and the head wrapping knights wore beneath
their chain mail.

“Let me help,” Emma said. She caught up the
concealing woolen shawl that Robert had dropped on the floor. Upon
hearing the noise at the door, Hawise had come into the room from
her own chamber, and now she brought Emma a pin to fasten the shawl
she was draping over her shoulders. Thus securely covered, Emma
reached for the gambeson, to help Dain pull it over his head.

“My lady, I can do it,” Robert said.

“Leave me, Emma,” Dain commanded her. With a
smile for the squire, he motioned for the young man to
continue.

“I am perfectly capable of arming a knight,”
Emma protested.

“I am sure you are, but I prefer to have
Robert do it, and I do not want you here when you are undressed. Go
with your maidservant into the next room, and stay there with her
until after I have left.”

“Where are you going?” Emma cried, not moving
from where she stood.

“To smoke out a band of brigands that dares
lay waste to my lands,” Dain said. “This is the second time in less
than six months that they have looted Trevanan. I thought I had
destroyed them after the first time they attacked. They will not
have a third opportunity.”

“What will you do to them? And what can I do
to aid you?” she asked.

“When I find them, I will burn them to
ashes,” he responded. “This is man’s work. As for you, do not leave
the castle until I return.”

“Really, my lord,” she began, “I can decide
for myself—”

“You will obey me.” Dain’s voice was a cold
knife slicing across her words. “It is common gossip in this area
that I have taken a wife, so some of the same brigands may be
lurking nearby in hope of seizing you and holding you for ransom
while I am occupied at Trevanan. I do not intend to waste my time
or risk the lives of my men in an effort to rescue a woman who is
foolish enough to expose herself to abduction by leaving the
protection of my castle walls. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, my lord.” If she sounded meek, it was
only because she did understand the danger against which he was
warning her. “May I walk on the battlements?”

“If you have a liking for rain and wind, you
may do as you please. I will probably be gone for several days,” he
said.

“I will see that Penruan is well guarded in
your absence, my lord.” She knew her duty as lady of the
castle.

“You?” There was a world of derision in his
tone. “In my absence you will defer to the orders of Sloan, the
knight who is the captain of my men-at-arms. It is he who will
guard the castle, not you.”

“I have been well trained,” she
protested.

“No doubt you have. But as you, yourself,
pointed out to me just a short time ago, I do not know you. Neither
do I trust you.”

“How dare you question my honesty?”

“It would be unwise of me not to distrust
you,” he said. “You are, after all, the child of my enemy. If you
want my trust, you must earn it. You may begin to do so by obeying
Sir Sloan while I am gone.”

While they talked, Robert had finished arming
him. Clad in chain mail from head to foot, Dain was a fearsome
sight. He adjusted his sword belt, pulled his mail coif up over the
cloth head wrapping, and with another smile and a word of thanks he
accepted the gauntlets his squire held out to him. Dain’s eyes had
taken on the cold glint of the metal armor he wore, and his mouth
was a hard, grim line. Emma could see no warmth in him at all.

“Until I return, my lady,” he said, and made
a slight bow in her direction.

An instant later he was gone, and his men
with him. Hawise hurried to close the door after them, shutting out
the draft that swirled along the stairs.

“My lady, I made sure to keep the door to my
room closed tight while Lord Dain was with you,” Hawise said,
glancing at the bed, where the sheets remained undisturbed and the
quilt showed only the imprint where Dain had sat. “Did he -? No, I
see he did not, unless he has some very peculiar habits. But did he
hurt you in any way? What is wrong with your arm?”

“This is my own doing,” Emma answered. “I
burned it on the brazier. Can you find the cowslip water among the
medicines we brought with us?”

“You’ll want a clean bandage, too.” Hawise
went to search among the boxes and baskets that were piled in the
adjoining room.

Emma decided she could remain on her feet no
longer. She staggered to the bed and sat on the edge, next to the
spot where the impression of Dain’s thighs still showed. Lost in
thought, she put out a hand to touch the indentation in the
quilt.

“Here, my lady.” Hawise returned and held out
the uncorked bottle of cowslip water. Emma poured a little of the
medicine onto the burned area and spread it around with her
fingertips. When she was finished she let Hawise tie a strip of
white linen around her arm. When Hawise was done she regarded Emma
out of troubled eyes.

“I hope Lord Dain will not be cruel to you,”
Hawise said. “From what I have seen of him, I think he is not a
kind man. Did he tell you that all of the men-at-arms and squires
who came with us have been quartered in a separate barracks from
his men, and that they are guarded wherever they go? One of our
squires told me so when I was in the kitchen earlier.”

“I am not surprised,” Emma said with a sigh.
“If Dain doesn’t trust me, surely he won’t trust them, either. For
all he knows, our people may have orders to attack his men-at-arms
and to open the castle gate to my father and a large force that is
waiting to take over Penruan.”

“Lord Gavin would never behave so
treacherously!” Hawise exclaimed.

“Dain doesn’t know that.” Emma straightened
her shoulders. “Before I am finished, he will know it. He will
trust me, and my father, too, and he will understand just how
ridiculous is the feud he reopened. In the future when he rides
away to battle he will leave Penruan in my keeping, as it ought to
be.”

“How can you achieve such a change, when he
holds all the power in your marriage?” Hawise asked. ”A mere woman
cannot gainsay her husband. Remember, Dain has the right to force
himself on you if you dare to refuse him – unless you plan to use
magic to prevent him?”

“He cannot know about my magic. Not yet, not
until we know each other far better than we do now. You are
correct, Hawise, when you say I have little power against him. By
law I cannot withhold physical favors from my husband.” As Emma
spoke all of her conflicting thoughts and emotions came together in
one determined purpose. “However, there is a way to change his mind
and his heart.”

“How?” Hawise asked.

“I intend to have the sweetest revenge
possible, to pay Dain back for the way he has treated me in the
last hour,” Emma said, her eyes glowing. “I will drive him to his
knees.”