Knave Of Hearts. Shari Anton

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Her hips were more rounded than he remembered, her breasts fuller. She padded toward him on bare feet, sleepy-eyed and delectable. All the vision wanted was a stray piece of hay caught in her tumbling, wavy tresses and they could be right back in the stables enjoying each other’s bodies.

      His loins stirred, a familiar and natural reaction to seeing a near naked woman, especially when remembering how he’d hastily divested this female of a similar filmy chemise to fondle her firm, dusky-tipped breasts. To press her smooth skin against his. To ease his aching member into Marian’s slick, velvet softness.

      Stephen dropped his boot and stood, his arms rising to invite an embrace. Marian stopped beyond his reach and pointed to the door.

      “Out,” she whispered, the command as clear as an angry shout.

      So much for a tender reunion.

      Stephen placed his hands on his hips, drawing her gaze downward to his waist and below, where evidence of his thoughts now strained at his breeches. She stared at the bulge long enough for him to know she remembered well what they’d been doing, in boisterous fashion, when last together.

      “Is that any way to greet an old friend?” he asked.

      “Shh!”

      He failed to understand her insistent hushing. “Why must we whisper?”

      Marian glanced over her shoulder at the bed. “So we do not wake my daughter.”

      Stephen noted the heaped coverlet, under which must lie a child, a little girl. He banished a moment of unease by recalling, with great relief, that his and Marian’s union hadn’t borne fruit. For a while after their affair he’d wondered over that particular consequence, fearing Marian’s father might come roaring into Wilmont demanding a wedding—or Stephen’s head. It hadn’t happened. He’d been spared.

      He’d also taken the incident as a warning and forever after been careful about where he spilled his seed.

      The bundle on the bed shifted, the child the result of another man’s spilled seed.

      Marian must now be married. No wonder she was so angry at his intrusion—and he had intruded. He’d taken it upon himself to enter the chamber in search of Carolyn.

      Was it possible that sometime after he and Carolyn had arranged this tryst, the palace seneschal had moved her into another room, giving this one to Marian? And Marian’s husband? Was that why the door hadn’t been bolted?

      Stephen sat and pulled on his boot. He’d never been caught in a compromising situation with another man’s wife and didn’t intend for that to happen now. Too, he had yet to find Carolyn and secure the betrothal bargain tonight.

      Dare he ask Marian if she knew where Carolyn had been moved to? He stood and shrugged into his sherte and tunic, preparing for a hasty escape if Marian took his inquiry badly.

      “My pardon for the intrusion, Marian. I obviously mistook your chamber for that of another. Do you happen to know where its former occupant might be?”

      She stared at him, long and hard. “You look for Carolyn?”

      Wary, he nodded.

      Without a hint of surprise or anger, which might be expected of a former lover, she said, “Then you are in the right chamber. Unfortunately, my cousin is not here.” She waved at the door. “Kindly wait without.”

      Marian and Carolyn were cousins? They shared these quarters? Stephen pushed aside further questions. Those were for Carolyn to answer, not Marian.

      “As you wish. Truly, I did not mean to disturb you, Marian, only talk to Carolyn.”

      Marian scoffed. “Talk?”

      “Aye, talk,” he said. “If you will recall, you and I managed to do some of that, too.”

      “You talked. I listened. For all my devoted attention you dismissed me without so much as the courtesy of a farewell.”

      True enough. She’d listened, fascinated by his tales of the many places he’d been, and especially about those he yet wished to visit. He’d forgotten how good a companion she’d been, but then, he truly hadn’t thought about Marian in years. He’d been too busy traveling to all of those exotic places he’d told her about. She was wrong about dismissing her lightly, however. Surely, someone had explained to her why he’d left her father’s estate so quickly.

      “We were denied the chance to part company as we should. I am sorry for that,” he said.

      He took a step forward, knowing he shouldn’t touch her, yet reached out to brush at a lock of silky hair that threatened to cover Marian’s eyes. She jerked back and looked away. Her recoil hurt, sharper and deeper than it should. His offending fingers curled into his palm.

      “Rather too late for apologies, is it not?” she asked.

      Apparently so, and for that he was sorry, too.

      “Fare thee well, Marian.”

      Chapter One

      July, 1109

      Marian didn’t have to look up from her embroidery to know which of her twin daughters entered the hut. Audra’s leather sandals slapped the hard-packed dirt floor with the purposeful steps of someone much older than five summers. Had it been the other twin, Lyssa, the footfalls would have landed light and quick.

      Flipping her raven braid behind her, Audra sat at the table and propped her chin in her hands. Well acquainted with her daughter’s pout, Marian pursed her lips to withhold a smile. Apparently, Lyssa was doing something Audra didn’t approve of. Not unusual.

      Bowing to the inevitable, Marian asked, “Where is Lyssa?”

      “Playing on the stone fence.” Audra’s tone suggested Lyssa receive a scolding, which Marian wasn’t about to do. Though she didn’t completely approve of Lyssa’s daring, she could hardly deny the girl one of the few joys in her life.

      As different as night and day, were her girls. Though they looked so alike most people couldn’t tell one from the other, their temperaments distinguished them as no physical trait could. Audra would never scramble up on the stones and walk along the top of the fence, not for fear of falling off but out of disdain for such unladylike behavior. Lyssa inevitably forswore dignity when a fence wanted climbing, a mud puddle must be run through, or a twin sister needed irritating.

      Most often the twins balanced each other. Lyssa sometimes heeded Audra’s cautions, which prevented the bold twin from courting disaster. Audra sometimes got caught up in Lyssa’s gleeful view of life, which kept the solemn twin from becoming dour.

      Usually, as happened last night, when Lyssa’s headaches stole away the sparkle in her eyes, Audra sat next to her twin’s pallet, quietly holding her sister’s hand.

      With an inward sigh, Marian acknowledged that the long, vexing trip to Westminster with Lyssa had proved a failure. They’d endured the journey’s physical hardships, the sorrow of leaving Audra behind and the annoyance of Carolyn’s almost constant company, all for naught. СКАЧАТЬ