A Passionate Magic Page 3

  Emma believed her only hope for a reasonably contented life at Penruan lay in pleasing her husband. And so she rested her hands on his arms to steady herself, and when Dain’s mouth seared across her cheek she offered up her lips and let her hands slide up the sleeves of his tunic, noticing with her fingertips, if not with her preoccupied mind, the hard muscles of his upper arms and shoulders.

  When his arms suddenly clasped her about the waist and pulled her close against him, and one of his hands splayed down over her buttocks to push her closer still, and his lips seized hers in a kiss that rocked her to her very soul, she knew he was not going to be a gentle lover. Dain was going to plunder her body and take everything she had to offer.

  She wanted him to take her. She wanted to belong to him completely, utterly, and she knew in her heart it was what she had wanted from the first moment she had seen him. In the single, shattering instant when his mouth claimed hers, Emma recognized in Dain her predestined mate.

  The magical recognition left her defenseless against him, for while she was eager to give him both her body and the love she had stored in her heart for her eighteen years of life, along with all her hopes and dreams for their future together, Dain wanted only her body. And revenge.

  She was lost in his kiss, in the wild, heated sensation of his hands on her back, on her shoulders, and on her breasts. His kiss deepened. Dain’s mouth forced her lips open and his tongue plunged into her, tangling with her tongue as if in a mysterious, passionate dance. Emma gasped.

  With his lips still on hers, Dain loosened his grip on her a little. Emma was aware of his hand stroking down her thigh, of her shift being drawn upward, and his hand warm on the soft skin of her upper leg. His fingers skimmed across her thigh and into her warm, moist, most private place – and stayed there, even when she moaned and tried to pull her mouth away from his. He ignored her protest, instead thrusting a finger farther still, touching – touching -

  An exquisite, piercing sweetness enveloped Emma, and she found herself pushing back against the pressure of his hand. Finally, Dain lifted his head, releasing her mouth from his.

  With one arm still supporting her, for she was by now quite incapable of standing by herself, he used his other hand to wreck havoc upon all her senses until she was at the brink of a marvelous discovery. Longing to share her wonder with him, Emma opened her eyes.

  Dain was watching her, and there was cold triumph in his beautiful, blue-green gaze. Watching her! Disinterested, coolly judging her reaction to his lovemaking that was not lovemaking at all. His hand stayed where it was, between her thighs, and to her horror Emma realized she wanted him to continue what he was doing to her. Worse, she wanted him to carry her to the bed, for she knew she was unable to walk even those few steps, and in his bed she wanted him to complete what he had started.

  Dain smiled at her – a superior, knowing smile – and let his finger sink a little deeper into her. Seeing his smile, Emma rebelled at last.

  “No!” She pushed hard against his chest, shoving him away from her at the same time that she lurched backward.

  She almost fell into the brazier. Its edge burned her arm, and the pain of the injury returned her to her proper senses.

  She was shaking so violently that she knew she could not stand for more than a moment or two without some source of support. The bed – no, that was the last place she wanted to be. The only other furniture was Dain’s clothes chest. She could sit on it, but it was large – large enough for him to push her down on it and –

  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.”

  “Oh, my lady, do be careful,” Hawise begged. “What can any woman hope to achieve against a man as hard as Lord Dain?’

  “I shall teach him to trust me and to love me,” Emma declared with all the assurance of youth and with an innocence only slightly tarnished by Dain’s recent cool manipulation of her senses. “Furthermore, I will do it without using magic. I do believe it’s the only way to assure a permanent peace between Penruan and Wroxley.”

  “If you can teach him.” Hawise, who was three years older than Emma, and a bit more experienced with men, replaced the cork in the bottle of cowslip water and headed for the other room to put it away. “If Lord Dain owns a heart that is capable of love. From what I’ve seen of him, I sadly doubt it.”

  Chapter 3