Hearts Across Time (The Knights of Berwyck: A Quest Through Time Novel ~ Books 1 & 2) (33 page)

“Has no one ever said you talk too much, my sweet?”

Embarrassment caused her to blush again. “I suppose, once or twice.”

He began kissing her, and any further thoughts were completely gone from her mind. Heat flooded her entire body as she experienced the dreamlike enchantment Riorden always managed to weave around them. She gasped as he entered her.

“Riorden?” Her throaty murmur as she tried to catch her breath when he began to move sounded foreign in her ears.

“Aye, my love?” he said just as hoarsely.

“Speak to me in French,” she urged, raking her nails playfully down the muscles of his back. “It always drives me wild.”

He looked up at her with a completely wicked grin. “As my lady commands.”

It was several hours later, after Katherine was completely drained, that she curled up next to her husband and listened to the soft snores passing from his lips. She closed her eyes, content. She would worry about their troubles and her concerns another day.

S
he clawed
her
way up to the edge of the riverbed, gasping for air. She wasn’t sure how she had made it, only that she had. Looking back at the river, its current seemed so innocent. She swore, for how could she have known that its true force lay underneath the surface as it attempted to suck her down into its watery grave.

But truly, had she had any choice, other than leaping into the frigid water? The answer was a simple one.
No!
Not if she wanted to save herself and her unborn child. Jumping into the river had seemed like the most logical choice at the time, and yet, given her aversion to water, what had she been thinking?

Her feet slipped as she tried to plant them on something solid to pull herself from the cold stream. The slime squished between her toes. She groaned at the feeling while trying not to think of what her feet were encountering, having lost her slippers sometime during her frantic flight. Her only thought now was to get herself safe and away from the river’s edge, including any prying eyes that would be searching for her. Escaping the water that had almost been the death of her had only been part of her problem. The other was far more troubling to her tenderhearted feelings than her early demise.

As she tugged at her water logged skirts, she crawled on shaking knees to the tree line and collapsed against the rough bark of a towering oak. A sob escaped her lips as tears slipped uninhibited from her eyes. That evil woman wanted him back. It was more than obvious to everyone, except the man who refused to see that she would stop at nothing to have him again, even if that meant killing his wife.

She gazed up at Warkworth in the distance with its glowing lights shimmering from the upper windows while evening quickly descended upon the earth. She had drifted farther in the river’s current than she thought while her arms flayed to keep herself above the water line. She quickly came to the realization she was on the wrong side of the river, and she looked again toward the keep. What should have been a welcoming sight, brought her nothing but sorrow, knowing even now she was with him.

She gave a long drawn out sigh and stood, wrapping her arms around her to keep from shivering as the cold air went straight through her. Soon it would be completely dark, and she would need to find shelter. Luckily for her, and her knowledge of the future, she knew which direction she would be heading as she made her way into the trees.

The safe haven she sought was not easily found, this place made inside the face of a rock wall that would one day be known as Warkworth’s Hermitage. With the light quickly fading, she carefully made her way up a stone path until she found the entrance to what was, at this time in history, little more than a cave. Someone, at some point, had been here, however. But the dried flowers left on what would one day be called an altar was a clear indication that the person wouldn’t be returning anytime soon.

She slumped to the ground, curling her body into a tight ball of despair. Cold, scared, and feeling utterly rejected, she began to pray, even as darkness swallowed up her body, and she became one with the shadows of the night. Katherine began to weep for what she had lost. Without Riorden in her life, there was no reason for her to stay here in the twelfth century.

As if Time heard her hopeless thoughts, the ground beneath her began to quake, even while she cried out she had not meant to go where her mind had wandered. But it was too late, as those annoying little iridescent lights began to sparkle and dance before her eyes. She watched in horror as first her hands and then the rest of her body quickly became a vague ghostly silhouette. A feeling overcame her, as if she had only been tested to ensure she was worthy to be given such a gift as to travel through time in order to keep her chivalrous knight. Obviously, she had failed.

Against her will, she felt a force hit her with the energy of what it might feel like to get hit by a truck as she was instantly ripped back to where she truly belonged. Time had come to claim her, and, throughout all history, people would only remember the legend of a twelfth century woman who wept throughout time in a cave for her lost love. Brought back to the present, Katherine screamed out Riorden’s name and knew only one thing for certain before she collapsed in a dead faint. Marguerite had won...

“
K
atherine
! Awake, my love, you are but dreaming.”

The sound of his comforting voice woke her, but she was still hesitant to open her eyes, afraid that she had only dreamed of him. She began to smile, knowing he was real when she felt the softness of his lips as he kissed her cheek.

“Hurry, Katherine. You may rest the day away later,” Riorden urged. “I thought you wished to see me off this morn.” She felt him move away from their bed.

Her eyes flew open when his words penetrated her fuzzy brain. He was mostly already dressed for travel, and her eyes lovingly scanned his broad shoulders. She heard the chink of his chainmail when he donned his tabard as it fell into place over his chest. He turned once more to face her, and her mouth became dry. Her hands suddenly began to shake uncontrollably with a feeling of unease at what his trip would cost her.

Was it just her imagination, or did his eyes seem more blue than usual? Perhaps it was the color of his cloak that had made them seem more intense. Her heart skipped a beat, as if it knew exactly what this man before her did to her senses. Her gaze moved to the lion head emblem in the center of his chest that now appeared to gaze at her with jeering eyes.

“Kat?”

“What?” she muttered, knowing she hadn’t heard a word he had said, for she was remembering every minute of her nightmare and feeling every bit as scared now.

He finished buckling his sword at his side and came back to the bed. The sapphire stone in its hilt sparkled in the firelight from the hearth and reminded her of Riorden’s eyes. “Mayhap, you should stay abed. I kept you up most of the night, and you still need your rest, it appears,” he chuckled, kissing her cheek again, but he continued reading her face in puzzlement. “Is something amiss?”

She shook her head as if to clear the remnants of her dreams. “No...yes...I don’t know, Riorden. I had a bad dream, and I’m afraid that all, or some of it, may come true, as my dreams have before.” She threw back the covers and began dressing in her comfortable hose and tunic. Riorden only continued to watch her from hooded eyes.

“
Ma cherie
, there is no need to worry. Nothing will happen between us.”

“Ha! It’s not
us
I’m worried about Riorden but
her
!” she said angrily as she yanked on her boots. All she could think of was Lord Everard’s words to be wary.
Poison!
How was she to go about detecting something so easily concealed in food or wine as poison?

“Are you perchance jealous of her? You need not be.”

“Of course I’m jealous, Riorden! Why wouldn’t I be, as beautiful as she is?” Her voice had risen in pitch, and she pinched her eyes shut so he wouldn’t see her cry. This pregnancy was making her an emotional mess! Why did she doubt his feelings for her? She knew it was because, in a way, Marguerite was right. When it came to physical beauty, Katherine came nowhere close, nor would she ever be in the same league, as the other woman who once held Riorden’s heart. She covered her eyes with her hands, trying to gather what little she had left of her composure.

“There is more to beauty than just physical appearance, my love,” Riorden proclaimed, as if he had read where her thoughts had led her. “Come, Katherine. Do not upset yourself so, or you may harm the babe.”

“It’s not the baby I’m worried about, Riordan,” she snapped harshly.

“Why then are you angry with me when I have done nothing wrong? ’Twas just a dream.” He gathered her in his arms and held her tight until she felt the voice of reason bring the calming effect she stood in need of.

“Sorry.”

He tilted her chin up and gave her a grin that was hard to resist. “Now smile for me, my lovely wife, and give me a kiss. I shall be back afore you even have time to miss me.”

She obliged him. “I miss you already, Riorden,” she whispered fervently and held tightly onto his hand as they made their way below.

The Great Hall was busy as knights finished breaking their fast. Riorden held her chair out for her, and she sat while food was laid before them. He filled a trencher for them to share, but she only took a small piece of dry bread to nibble on, not knowing how her stomach would react to food. It didn’t take long for it to disagree with her, and she pushed her chair back, listening while the legs scraped loudly along the stone floor. Riorden was inhaling the heavenly aroma of his repast, but, for Katherine, the smell only made her want to gag.

He offered her a sip of watered down wine, but even that she declined with a shake of her head. His brow rose in concern she wasn’t eating, but she waved him off, promising in a slight whisper she would eat her fill later. It seemed to satisfy him as he finished his meal with gusto. For her, it was done all too quickly, for that only meant she could no longer delay his parting.

Katherine stood and took Riorden’s arm. Unexpectedly, Marguerite came careening down the stairs, making for the front door to the keep. Her heavy cloak flowed behind her as she rushed across the floor.

“Leave me be, Everard!” she yelled with tears streaking down her face. She ran the distance to the door as if the devil’s demons from the underworld were cracking their chains about her head, ready to consume her. In the blink of an eye, she was gone with the vestibule door slamming loudly behind her.

A hush seemed to descend upon the Great Hall with her departure. Patrick crossed himself furiously, along with several other serfs who had witnessed her flight. Gavin and Brianna only looked at one another, as though there was nothing out of the ordinary going on, and resumed their meal. Aiden, Nathaniel, and Ulrick left their meals unfinished and left to see to their horses. Riorden, alone, scowled with brows drawn together in a fierce frown. Katherine could only guess at what was going on inside his head.

They left the hall with her hand placed lovingly in the crook of his arm. He was talking to her again, but, as they crossed the inner courtyard, none of his words registered in her head while she looked ahead to the outer baily. Coming out of the small tunnel, Katherine came to a blinding halt while her gaze flew to the unbelievable sight meeting her eyes.

Ever so prettily sitting atop a striking dapple grey mare with reins in hand, Marguerite looked down at Katherine from her lofty perch and gave her a smile that only another woman could interpret with precision.

Katherine felt as if her heart dropped out of her chest, and she turned to Riorden, trying to form some kind of response. The silence between them crackled with tension. Still trying to think of something to say to express her feelings, nothing came to mind, and her lips just moved soundlessly until she clamped them tightly shut in a grim line of fierce disapproval. She must have looked like an idiot!

She quickly turned her back on the woman, whose irritating laughter suddenly reached her ears. “Really?” she gasped, taking his arm and ushering him a short distance away so they could speak privately. “She’s to ride with you?”

“’Tis her dower house, Katherine. You knew I would need to ensure ’twas ready so she could leave,” Riorden answered.

“But why does she need to go with you?” Katherine tried to keep the hurt from her voice, but, from his look, she hadn’t done a very good job of it. He put his arm around her shoulder to give her a reassuring pat.

“There are some things that Marguerite must needs see to herself. The sooner the estate is settled, the sooner she can leave Warkworth for good.”

“But, Riorden−”

“But what, Katherine?” he exploded. “Have you so little faith in me that your jealousy of that woman would blind you to how I feel for you? Blind you to everything we have gone through just so we could be together?
Merde
! You carry my child. Does that not prove my love for you?”

Katherine flinched to hear how he spoke to her. “You don’t understand. Your father−”

He growled at her like a wounded animal and made no effort to hide his pent up frustration that he had obviously been holding back. “For the love of God, woman, do not speak to me thusly of my sire. He is dead! Let him stay that way,” he shouted furiously.

“I won’t mention him again,” she whispered in fright, not knowing how to handle this side of her husband. The way he was looking at her, he wouldn’t hear her words about Marguerite wanting her dead in a dream anyway, let alone that she poisoned his father. She choked back her tears as she gazed at him.

“
God’s Wounds!
” Riorden swore and enveloped her in his embrace. “She is nothing to me, Kat. Please try to remember that whilst I am gone.”

“I will,” she said slowly.

“I should be gone no longer than two fortnights, mayhap, less,” he declared, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

“A whole month?” she squeaked out.

“Aye,” he answered. “I will leave Aiden here for your protection and to watch over you, if that suits.”

Katherine only managed a shrug of indifference. “That’s fine,” she said simply.

He leaned down and kissed her lips. “Stay inside the castle walls unless you have your guards and Caldwell with you and take care of our child.”

He turned from her with his cape fluttering behind him in the morning breeze. He gave one backward glance in her direction until, with a wave of his hand, their horses were set in motion, leaving through the barbican gate. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him disappear from view, but the expression Marguerite gave her was sure to remain in her memory for days to come. It wasn’t a look that boded well for her good health.