"The preparations go well. William the Marshal has sent his acknowledgment, as have Salisbury and Tavistoke. Prince John should arrive early in the week, as will Fournier from Normandy, and La Seyne Sur Mer from Mirebeau."
"The queen"s champion?" Nicolaa arched a brow. "You should indeed be honoured that Eleanor of Aquitaine would send her favoured knight as envoy. A pity the wrinkled old sheep"s bladder is too feeble to make the journey herself, but surely a feather for you that she persuaded La Seyne Sur Mer to journey in her stead. Will he partic.i.p.ate in the tourney?"
"It remains to be seen," De Gournay said, the merest trace of pleasure betrayed in his expression. "I suspect he might be eager to establish a reputation outside of Brittany."
"Saints a.s.soil us," Nicolaa murmured. "You would share your own laurel wreath with the Scourge of Mirebeau? How generous of you."
"Wisdom before generosity, my love. The wisdom to see his skill firsthand and judge his mettle by mine own eyes rather than rely solely on the reports of others."
"It is said he has yet to meet his equal in the lists," Nicolaa remarked with a sly lack of subtlety.
"He has yet to venture more than a hundred miles from Mirebeau," Wardieu shot back. "Much less come to England to meet his match."
Nicolaa shivered deliciously, riding the ripples of a series of small inner fluctuations. Wardieu angry, or Wardieu impugned usually set the stage for an incomparable bout of lovemaking and she felt her thighs slicken with antic.i.p.ation.
"Then you intend to challenge him?"
"The notion has its merit."
"But will your bride be sympathetic to the possibility of losing her groom before she has had a chance at true wedded bliss?"
Lucien stared a moment, then gave way to a slow grin. "Ahh, the crux of the matter. I thought I detected more green in your eyes tonight than was normal."
"Plague take you, Lucien Wardieu. What, by all the saints, do I have to be jealous of? A timid little widow with knocking knees and a sallow complexion? You forget, I have seen her, my lord; I was present at her wedding to Hubert de Briscourt, and a sorrier sight could not be imagined. Three years of laying fallow beneath an invalid could not have wrought much improvement either, and if the gossip-mongers speak the truth when they say the old viper died of the pox, then she is undoubtedly riddled with the disease herself and will appeal to neither your sense of sight nor smell."
At that, a laugh escaped him. "Sir Hubert died of a sixty-year-old heart."
"Weakened, I am sure, by the sight of a poxy trull waiting in his bed each night."
"Nicolaa ..." He shook his head slowly, causing sparks of candlelight to glint off the magnificent mane of golden hair. "Is it any wonder poor Onfroi sweats himself into pools when he is near you? Your tongue is sharp enough to flay any man or woman into a cowering shadow of their former self. Now, come. She cannot be as bad as all that."
"Have you seen her?" Nicolaa asked pointedly, knowing full well he had not.
"Once," he admitted. "I think. The room was very crowded, and she was standing very far away."
"There, you see? She was so ugly she was kept well out of the way to avoid giving offense."
Lucien unfolded his thickly muscled arms and moved away from the window. He set his goblet on a nearby table and crossed over to where Nicolaa stood, stopping in front of her. Reaching out, he placed a hand on either trim hip, grasping the slippery silk of her tunic between his fingers and sliding it upward.
"So what would you have me do?" he murmured, casting the flimsy garment aside and watching the fall of black hair drift back down to cover the lusciously nude body. "Let some other lout pet.i.tion for her hand and win her estates?"
"Is that truly all you want her for? She is very young."
"I can have youth anytime I want it," he said, reaching out again, this time to flick aside a ribbon of hair that had tumbled over her breast. "Along with the whining, and bleating, and tears of inexperience that go hand in hand. No, Nicolaa, I am not marrying her for her youth."
Knowing the dark eyes were intent upon his face, Lucien deliberately avoided meeting them while a lazy thumb and forefinger began to trace a light pattern around one engorged nipple. The rushlights cast a mellow golden glow over the luminous, satiny curves of her body; the fire crackling in the hearth behind them might have been the sound of the sparks leaping from one heated body to the other.
Nicolaa closed her eyes and leaned boldly into the caressing fingertips. "Will you bed her?"
"Would you have me ignore her and rouse questions concerning my ... preferences?"
"I would have you kill her," came the husky whisper, shivered from between clenched teeth. "Wed her, and kill her as soon as the properties are secured in your name."
Lucien bowed his head, burying his lips in the arched curve of her throat. Her groan sent his arm curling around her waist, and the hand that had been teasing the bloodred aureole of her breast left the bountiful peaks to slide down into the soft, mossy juncture below. Nicolaa clutched at his upper arms for support and parted her quaking limbs wider, moaning feverishly as his fingers stretched deeply and deliciously into flesh that was all too ready to respond.
"You know how I abhor unnecessary violence," he said sardonically, his words m.u.f.fled against a mouthful of succulent white flesh.
"I would do it," she gasped. "I would do it gladly. Gladly! Oh ... !" Oh ... !"
His fingers left a shiny wet path on her belly as they stroked upward to surround and engulf her breast again. His mouth crushed down over hers, smothering her cry of protest, the kiss as savage and mindless as the tearing fingers that scratched runnels into his skin in their haste to rid him of the short, shapeless tunic he wore. The cloth was shredded in her frenzy, but it mattered not. The hard rasp of red-gold stubble on his jaw burned her cheek and throat, but the flames were indistinguishable from the others that seared her body internally.
Running her hands beneath the torn edges of his tunic, she spread her fingers greedily over the firm planes and muscular ridges of his chest and ribs. She pushed the rent in the garment lower, baring the flat belly, the explosion of coa.r.s.e blond hairs at his groin. A final tug and the fabric fell away, leaving her hands free to grasp and adore the blooded fullness that rose up between them.
"Mon Dieu," she cried hoa.r.s.ely. she cried hoa.r.s.ely. "Mon Dieu ... !" "Mon Dieu ... !"
Her mouth ravaged the taut column of his neck, the firelit expanse of his chest, the bronze discs of his nipples, and she started to slip down onto her knees, eager to worship the bold, virile body. His big hands forestalled her. They grasped her b.u.t.tocks, lifting her against him, and, as he splayed his own legs wider for balance, plunged her fiercely down over the thickened spear of his flesh.
Nicolaa"s head arched back. Her mouth gaped and froze around a jolt of pleasure so intense the sensation hovered somewhere between ecstasy and agony. He eased the pressure briefly, allowing her only as many moments of clarity as were necessary to wrap her arms and legs avariciously around him. Then he brought her weight slamming down again ... and again ... and the pleasure verged on pain before erupting in a thousand starbursts of unending rapture.
Her hair enveloped them in a silky black coc.o.o.n, the curls jumping to and fro to the rhythm of the damp, heated clash of their bodies. Their silhouettes were cast onto the wall behind them, two huge shadows undulating with wild abandon.
Lucien"s great strength survived the first convulsive foray into oblivion, but as he felt the second building within him, he laughingly chastised Nicolaa to interrupt her own recurring climaxes until they could gain the support of the bed beneath them. Her answer was a guttural curse, her response a wave of such protracted gratification that she was drenching both of them in its effects as Lucien lowered her onto the high platform bed.
"By Christ"s holy vows," he rasped, furrowing deeply into the sleek and trembling haven once more. "How does a man like Onfroi even begin to satisfy you?"
"He never has," she gasped, quaking through a shiver of aftershocks. "And never will. That is why I need you, my l.u.s.ty lord. And this-" She arched her head back into the linens, straining into the joy of each thrust as he plunged his flesh repeatedly into hers. "This is why you need me as well. We should have married, you and I. All those years ago ... we should have married."
"We would have killed each other by now," he grunted. "One way or another."
"Ahh, but what a sweet death it would have been, locked together, bound together in ecstasy forever. Admit it, d.a.m.n you. Admit you have never found another woman who can satisfy you as I do!"
Lucien admitted nothing, not in so many words. His body, however, spoke eloquently, surging deeper, harder, faster; held in her pulsing grip, driven by the pa.s.sion raging through every vein, muscle, and tautened sinew.
Nicolaa"s nails drew ragged red gouges on his flesh as she raked them from his shoulders to his flanks. She levered her hips higher, and watched his handsome face contort in the firelight. Spasms wracked his body, rendering him as helpless and vulnerable as a babe in arms and she knew she could have stabbed a dagger into his heart at that moment and he would not have been aware of the threat. She could have slashed his throat or signaled to someone concealed in the shadows to attack him from behind, and he would not have suspected the danger until it was too late.
He should not take me for granted, she thought darkly. Nor should he doubt for a moment that I would hesitate to kill-as I have done before-in order to get what I desire most in life. A nubile young bride keening her pleasure beneath him, she most certainly did not desire. She knew full well a steady stream of girls, women, wenches, and wh.o.r.es frequented his sleeping couch, but never, not once had he ever contemplated marriage. Not even when the dower lands of a proposed match could have doubled or trebbled his present wealth. So why this one?
Nicolaa had had seen the widow De Briscourt. Tiny as a bird, delicate as a blush, as blonde and dewy with youth as the early morning sunlight. seen the widow De Briscourt. Tiny as a bird, delicate as a blush, as blonde and dewy with youth as the early morning sunlight.
What if Lucien saw her and ... and ...?
The moan that welcomed the panting, drained ma.s.s of spent ecstasy back into her arms was not entirely feigned. She held him and combed her fingers through his damp blond locks, savouring every last shiver and shudder that racked the mighty body.
Nicolaa was not going to lose him again. Not this time. She had been patient all these years, tolerant of the need for discretion and caution. But there was no one now who would dare point a finger at the Baron de Gournay and remind him his father had been branded a traitor, his brother slain as a murderer. The last of his line, he had succeeded in overcoming the taint of both tragedies. He was Richard"s trusted ally and Prince John"s confidant; the time for patience was rapidly drawing to an end. She would have her great golden warlord. She would live at Bloodmoor Keep as its mistress, and she would remove without qualm anything or anyone who stood in her way!
4.
It seemed to Servanne that outrage upon outrage was to be heaped upon her for as long as she was expected to endure the outlaw"s company. Not only was she being forced to join them in defiling the holy ground of the ruined abbey, but she was also pressed into taking part in further indignities. Scarcely had she been permitted the luxury of scrubbing the grime and dampness of the forest off her face and hands, when she was summoned to join the motley band of renegades while they consumed their evening meal. An adamant refusal was met, moments after it was relayed, by the appearance of the Black Wolf himself in the doorway of the tiny, windowless cubicle that had once been a monk"s sleeping chamber. A clear warning was delivered: refuse again and she would be thrown over his shoulder and carried to the dinner table.
Her eyes red-rimmed from weeping, her body aching and bruised in too many places to recount, Servanne accompanied the rogue to the long pilgrims" hall, the only building of the three still boasting a partial roof, and the one that had obviously been taken over as living and sleeping quarters for the band of outlaws. To complete her humiliation, Servanne de Briscourt was seated, as guest of honour, with the Black Wolf and half a dozen of his more important henchmen on the raised stone dais that dominated one end of the vaulted hall.
It was an eerie feeling to be seated at a long trestle table, its surface covered with a prim white cloth and laid with fine silver and pewter, and to overlook a hall whose walls were scorched and blackened by fire, bristling with the nests of enterprising colonies of swallows. Mouldy rushes and decomposed leaves littered the floor, rustling and even moving now and then with small living things. Horses nickered and scuffed heavily against one another in a crude pen constructed at the far end of the hall. Their smells of offal, sweat, and leather mingled unpleasantly with musk and decay, which in turn was flavoured pungently with the oily black smoke that rose from the pine-pitch torches burning in iron cressets set into the stone walls.
Two longer tables had been erected at either end of the dais to form an open-ended square, while the fourth side was taken up by a firepit filled with glowing red coals. Squirrels, hares, capons, and other small game were turned on spits by men who defied the heat and flames to s.n.a.t.c.h at pieces of the sizzling meat and crackling skin. Larger shanks of venison, mutton, and boar were overseen by two bustling women- the only two in the camp so far as Servanne could discern- who turned their spits and basted their meats with large copper ladlefuls of seasoned oil. Another fire, pitched over an iron grating, kept cauldrons of water boiling, steaming the air, and smaller pots of stews and sauces burping sluggishly at the end of long iron hooks suspended from crossbars.
Even to the casual observer, it would be obvious that these were not men accustomed to hardship. The life Servanne had envisioned for outlaws who spent their days poaching and their nights avoiding capture was definitely not one of fine linen, rich food, and flagons encrusted with gold and silver. Moreover, common foresters would hardly move about the countryside with a large stabling of horses, and most especially not the heavy-shanked, muscular animals that Servanne saw being fed and well tended in the pens. They were no ordinary plow-horses, nor were they nags stolen from merchants who used them to draw carts or carry packs. Sir Hubert had kept a fine stable of warhorses-huge beasts trained to respond to a knight"s commands, to kill if provoked, to bear the burden of full armour and heavy weapons.
At least half of the two dozen animals penned under the charred and rotted archways of the pilgrims" hall could have rivaled the best Sir Hubert had kept in his stables. And one of them, a huge black destrier with a silver mane and tail whose slightest grunt or annoyed sidestep sent the rest flinching nervously out of range, would have compared favorably to the white rampagers bred for King Richard"s use.
Who were these men if they were not common thieves and outlaws?
Her curiosity roused, Servanne took a new interest in examining the faces around her. To her immediate right was the Black Wolf-an enigma from start to finish, and far too complicated for a cursory perusal. To her left, the mercurial sprite, Sparrow, equally baffling. Sandwiched between the half-man, half-child and the stoically formidable presence of Biddy, was the one they called Friar. He had shed his monk"s robes and was dressed more comfortably in lincoln green leggings and linsey-woolsey tunic. As serene and smooth as his countenance might be, there was narry a hint of softness in the breadth of his shoulders or the solid muscle in his arms and legs.
Gil Golden sat on the Wolf"s right-hand side, which gave Servanne a clear view of the terrible, ravaging scar that distorted the left side of his face. He too could not boast of an inch of excess flesh, but his was a wiry trimness not thinned by starvation or deprivation. To his right sat a pair of scoundrels so identical in features, clothing, and gestures, Servanne had initially blamed a weakened const.i.tution for causing her to see double. Twins were a rarity in England. The fact that these two-nicknamed Mutter and Stutter by their comrades-should have survived to adulthood with no twisted limbs, missing teeth, or pockmarks to distinguish them apart, was truly a wonder. They lifted their eating knives in unison, chewed in unison, and, after the third goblet of strong ale, turned red as raw meat and belched in unison.
As for the others-a score who sat at tables-there were not a few oddities caught by Servanne"s sharp eyes. A hand raised to call for a servant or squire and quickly withdrawn on the recollection that none were there. An easy camaraderie only found among men who had spent a good many years together, not a few furtive months of skulking and thieving.
And the man who sat in their midst like an uncrowned king? Those shoulders and that musculature could not have been developed behind a plow or a serf"s thralldom! Those arms had known the weight and fury of sword and lance; those eyes, keen and canny, had seen the world-perhaps too much of it? And that voice, that carefully controlled, precisely articulated manner of speaking belonged to no peasant churl. He chatted amiably with the other outlaws at the table, and most of the time spoke in clear, unaccented French. Occasionally, however, he addressed the handful of retainers who laboured over the fires and tended the pens, in the barbaric Saxon tongue that branded them as locals. Once he even responded to a raucus jibe from the Welshman in the same melodic but totally unp.r.o.nounceable gibberish native to the bearded mountain of a man.
Much as he sought to conceal it, the Black Wolf of Lincoln was well born, well educated, and well traveled. A knight turned rogue? An outcast who had surrounded himself with other knights who, for some reason or another, had chosen to break with every honour and vow they had once held more sacred than life itself? And what of his claim? Only a crackbrain would give any credence to his claim of being the real Baron de Gournay, so who was he? And why was he thieving his way through the forests of Lincoln, murdering, kidnapping, and wreaking havoc in the name of Lucien Wardieu?
Sinking deeper into a mire of confusion, Servanne tried to recall every sc.r.a.p of gossip, good or bad, she had heard about the reclusive knight who resided at Bloodmoor Keep. There was some cold business, many years ago: false charges of treason against the father which were later proven beyond doubt to have been contrived by his enemies-but what powerful baron did not have enemies? Lord Lucien had hunted down each and every one of the conspirators and forced their sealed confessions, too late to save his father from a traitor"s death, but boldly enough to win back most of the estates confiscated during the trial. There was more, but nothing that would give her a clue as to why two men would be laying claim to the De Gournays" violent, warlike ancestry.
"The broth is delicious tonight."
Startled, Servanne looked up at the Wolf"s lopsided grin, then at the two-handled ecuelle ecuelle he was politely offering for her consideration. The steaming contents of the bowl gave off a rich, meaty aroma that started the glands beneath her tongue spurting with a vengeance. he was politely offering for her consideration. The steaming contents of the bowl gave off a rich, meaty aroma that started the glands beneath her tongue spurting with a vengeance.
It was the custom in all great homes for the diners to sit in pairs when there were ladies present, and for each couple to share the same soup bowl, wine cup, and thick trencher of day-old bread that served as a plate. It was also the gentleman"s task to serve the lady, to offer soup or wine to her first, to present the choicest cuts of meat, and to even feed her bite-size morsels of bread or cheese if she desired it. In this court, under these charred beams and torchlit ruins, Servanne regarded such formalities as ludicrous. Intolerable. The linen, the gold plate, the silver and bejewelled eating knives only added insult to indignity and made her want to scratch the mocking grin from his face.
"Perhaps the venison will be more to your liking," said the outlaw lord, undaunted by her cold blue stare and even colder silence. He drained every last drop of soup from the bowl and set it aside to be collected, then smacked his lips with greater relish as a cheerful server replaced the used vessel with platters of still-sizzling meat. Mutton, venison, and hare were offered alongside bowls of leeks, onions, and peas. Eels turned inside out and boiled in wine gave off a sour-sweet aroma; fresh crusty bread, pasties, and quenelles swimming in savoury sauces and gravies prompted a need in Servanne to grip the edge of the table beneath the snow-white linen. Her stomach wept in protest as each dish was offered and refused. Her throat ached for a taste of bread and honey; her eyes drifted in a blur from platter to platter; her belly rumbled and quaked in an attempt to break down her resolve.
"My lady?" A sliver of tender hare"s meat wavered in front of her, flourished expertly on a silver blade. Servanne stared at the delicate pink morsel, following the movement of her tormentor"s hand until the meat was taken away and deposited between his own lips. A dribble of clear juice ran over his lower lip and trickled down his chin. Servanne"s tongue peeped out anxiously from the corner of her mouth, lingering there even after a casual wipe of his hand had removed the trail of sweet grease.
"A bite of lark pasty, perhaps? This way you can judge for yourself our boasting over Goodwife Mab"s skills."
"No. Thank you," she whispered.
He shrugged and the tender, delicate shred of meat, wrapped lightly and lovingly in a blanket of egg-glazed pastry, went the way of the declined hare. In the next instant, she swore she could hear the b.u.t.tery pastry crunching between the strong white teeth; she had her own imaginary tidbit half chewed and swallowed before she caught herself and clenched her jaws tightly together in anger.
He was only being attentive because he knew she must be starving. It would serve him right if she fainted dead away and- "Delicious," he murmured, drawing the word out to ten syllables. "Mistress Mab, you have outdone yourself."
A short woman, round as a dumpling and just as soft, giggled and bobbed gratefully after the compliment.
"Indeed, mistress. The fare is by far the best I have tasted in quite some time, and that includes a visit to the royal kitchens at Windsor."
Servanne"s eyes opened wide. Hardly believing her ears, she looked to her left and confirmed that it was Biddy who had spoken, her mouth stuffed with the lark pasty. Moreover, all three layers of chin were dobbed with grease, and there was an unmistakable flush of warmth on her cheeks to indicate her wine goblet was not being refilled for the first time.
"Shall we cry "Judas" and have her flayed for insubordination?" a husky baritone mused in her ear.
"Biddy is ... older; not as strong. She needs to keep up her health."
The explanation sounded feeble, even to Servanne"s ears, but her salvation was quick to come from another source.
"You should eat something as well, sweet lady," Sparrow advised. "The rare air here in the greenwood thins the blood if it is not well fed. Even an apple, or a bit of cheese will help keep the humours balanced. You would not want to fall ill and have to rely upon the services of old Norwood the Leech, now would you? He came to us with Mab and claims to be a fair barber and a drawer of teeth, but as to his leeching talents ... we have not yet found a survivor to accredit them."
A sad shake of the tousled brown mop of hair sent Servanne"s attention to a large, toothless toad of a man who was grinning at her from the lower tier and waving a dripping joint of mutton by way of acknowledging the compliments.
He had a red, leaky nose fully as broad as his face, and wore an ap.r.o.n of leather that had become so stained and encrusted, it was moulded to his body like armour.
"Perhaps ... a bit of apple," Servanne conceded.
Sparrow jumped up to stand on his stool so that he could reach the far side of the table. Quick as spit, there was a small collection of choice, tasty bits of meat, pastry, and other delicacies heaped on a freshly cut slab of white bread. This he placed in front of her and settled back onto his stool, his feet dangling several inches off the ground. He was aware, as was Servanne, of the smouldering gray eyes that had followed his every move, but if the threat of sudden flame troubled him, it was not reflected in his next piece of sage advice.
"The best way to stop a fly from annoying you is to stop swatting at him," he said with a wink and an elfin grin. "Eventually it gets bored and flies away to pester someone else."
There was wisdom in what he said, and, the fact that it caused the Wolf"s brows to furl together like the gathering clouds of a storm, prompted Servanne to breach her resolve to starve to death. She reached for a thin slice of capon and took the tiniest bite into her mouth. It was delicious, which made her stomach groan for a second morsel, then a third ...
When her trencher was emptied, refilled, then emptied again, she unselfconsciously tore the gravy-soaked plate into bite-sized pieces and removed all evidence of its existence down to the last crumbs. Sparrow"s drinking cup had also ended up between them and she found the wine to be surprisingly fresh and full-bodied, of a far better quality than the vinegary possets that often graced the tables of wealthy n.o.bles.
Mutter and Stutter, bowing to howled demands and flung food, took their leave of the table and, kicking aside the dogs who fought happily amid the crunch and snap of discarded bones, placed their stools in the bright glow of the fires and set their fingers to plucking out tunes on the lute and viol.
The food, the wine, the music cast a dreamy sense of unreality over everything. The fire sent gauntlets of orange and yellow flame leaping toward the blackness above. The enclosing stone walls formed a cavern of light and shadow that was almost cozy in its isolation.
Servanne could feel her eyelids growing heavier and heavier, the weight of her wimple beginning to pull her chin lower and lower onto her chest.
"So, my lady." The Wolf"s sonorous tone brought her head up with a start. "You have supped on the king"s deer and prolonged your stay on earth awhile longer. You have also shown a remarkable restraint in the matter of the ransom I shall demand from your groom. Are you not curious to know the value of your life-or rather, what value your groom will place on your continued good health?"
Servanne sighed wearily, in no mood to take his bait.
"I am certain, whatever you have demanded, he will pay."
"A true adherent to the codes of chivalry, is he? Gold spurs flashing, swords thrusting, damosels rescued from the clutches of evil at any cost? He sounds almost too good to be true."
Servanne glared in silence.
"So, you have no doubt he will pay whatever I demand?" "Have you?"
"Madam, I doubt everything and everyone-even my own good sense on occasion. It is a credo that has kept me alive while others have perished and turned to dust."
"A pity you were not less insightful," she murmured tartly, putting a deal of frost in her gaze before turning her attention back to the minstrels. "I have no doubt my stay here will be a short one."
"One way or another," he agreed smoothly. "Still, ten thousand marks is a goodly sum of coin."