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Marcus would not be pleased if anything were to happen to her.Neither would I be, Nicholas thought, turning back for one last glance at her. The firelight gilded her creamy skin. One hand was curled beneath a cheek. She looked like a woman but slept the deep, innocent sleep of a child.
Nicholas stalked You’d fall in love with a sow tonight, he told himself, and Marcus’s charmingly delicate sister was anything but that. Still, he had gone a long while without a woman until just recently.
When he’d escaped that place he never wanted to think of again and made his way back toward Dinadan, he’d had a few tavern whores along the way. They provided a quick, animal slaking of his needs. But something inside of him had been left unsatisfied, craving something more.
He raked a hand through his hair and decided that weariness was making him sentimental—and foolish. This was a time to rest and prepare for the battle ahead. Because a battle it would be. He would need all of his wits and his gradually returning strength to rescue Marcus and to retake the castle.
By tomorrow this time, I’ll have breached the castle walls,he vowed as he lowered himself to the floor before the fire.There will be no time for thoughts of a woman, even one as lovely as Arianne—no space in my mind for anything but the fighting and killing and dying that the sunrise will bring.
4
“I’ll do nosuch thing!” Arianne exclaimed indignantly, staring at Nicholas the next morning as if he’d just suggested she strip off all her clothing and run naked through the town. “It’s a grave insult, one I warn you I won’t soon forget. How could you even contemplate it?” she flashed.
It was shortly past dawn. She had awakened to find him gone, the cottage silent and deserted, the fire burnt low. But outside, the dawn had brought an unexpected mildness to the air. A lark sang. The fierce wind had fled with the night, and a fanciful breeze raced through the brush and teased the branches of trees, where tiny spring buds struggled to burst free.
Beneath a sapphire sky, Arianne had made her way to the river and washed, and by the time Nicholas showed up a short while later, she had smoothed and braided her hair with a thong she’d discovered in a box in the cottage. She’d also found some tin cups and old rag shoes, and, on a shelf, a moldy wedge of cheese.
He brought food from the village. There was a thick loaf of rye, still warm and fragrant, a slab of ham, and some cheese. It stood on the table between them, and though she’d been half starved when he came in, she now forgot all about eating.
“I will not stay behind while you enter the castle and free Marcus. You might well need my help, and I refuse to sit idle while thatmurderercounts the hours until he can hang my brother.”
“I’ll make arrangements for your stay at a safe place. The matter is settled.”
“It is settled that I’m going into the castle with you. I’ve made up my mind. If you knew me better, my lord, you would know that once I make up my mind Ineverchange it.”
Nicholas shoved the stool up to the table and yanked her down atop it. “Sit. Eat.”
“My lord is confused. Let me assure you that I’m not a pet dog who performs tricks and obeys commands!”
He sighed, regarding her in irritation as he broke the rye loaf in half and handed her a chunk. “Arianne, do you always make things difficult? I pity Marcus and, worse, the man who weds you.”
Crimson color flooded her cheeks. She jumped up from the stool. “I refuse to sit here and be insulted by a man who—“
She broke off, the flush now spreading to her ears and down her neck.
“Go ahead. Say it.” Nicholas’s eyes glinted like shards of ice as he took out his knife and began slicing the ham onto a chunk of bread. “A man who left his home in disgrace, who deserted his father, his people…”
“You didn’t desert them. You were banished. You couldn’t stay and couldn’t return. Everyone knows that.”
“Make up your mind, Arianne. Are you attacking me or defending me?”
She bit her lip, scowling. “Neither,” she said defiantly. “I am joining forces with you.”
Their eyes met and held. There was no give in his, she saw. She tightened her scowl.
But Nicholas shook his head. “Too dangerous.”
“You forget to whom you speak. While Marcus is imprisoned, I am charged with the leadership of Galeron’s troops. Felix and the knights under his command will do my bidding. You may well need them behind you if you are to succeed.”
He said smoothly, “Your offer does me honor, but I have my own men to stand behind me.”
“What men?”
“When you’re finished with your meal, I’ll show you.”
She lowered herself with regal dignity onto the stool and broke off a hunk of the cheese.
She did not speak to Nicholas during that brief, quick repast, but she felt his gaze on her; and each time as she met it, her countenance and bearing grew more determined.