Page 37

His men were there, milling nervously about, casting him sheepish, worried glances.

His servants were there, their garments unkempt and unwashed, their faces pale and taut.

And his wife was there, standing next to Richard at the bottom of the stairs.

At least he thought it was his wife—in truth, he wasn’t so sure.

He drew rein on his horse, swung himself down, and began striding toward her.

The woman up ahead—a small, unkempt creature with dirty auburn hair and a soot-smudged face—saw him and started to smile.

She wore a ragged brown tunic, grease-stained and torn in several places, and hadn’t bothered with shoes.

“What goes on here?” Ral bellowed, coming to a halt before her, his hands balled tightly into fists.

Caryn merely smiled. “Welcome home, my lord. ’Tis good to have you returned.”

Ral glanced around the bailey, taking in the grunting pigs and rotting mounds of garbage, thinking he was certain to awaken at any moment from this terrible, hellish dream.

“You will tell me what has happened,” he commanded, keeping his voice as even as he could.

“Naught has happened, my lord. Surely you can see that for yourself.”

He worked a muscle in his jaw and then strode past her, taking the stairs two at a time up into the keep, not bothering to close the heavy oaken door.

Caryn followed him in, noting with satisfaction the stunned look on his face as he registered the awful condition of the hall.

His neck was red and his mouth had thinned into a furious line.

Behind her, Richard and Geoffrey and a number of the men walked into the hall just as Ral turned to face her.

“Why?” he asked with soft menace. “Why have you done this?”

She pretended to look perplexed. “But I have done nothing, my lord. ’Twould seem that is clear.”

He took several angry strides in her direction, gripped the top of her arms and dragged her up on her toes .

“You will tell me what this is about. You will explain to me what you have done and why you have done it.”

He glanced once more around the hall, noting the refuse on the floors and the unpleasant smell drifting up from the rushes.

“Then I will humiliate you as you have done me. I will drag up on the dais in front of the servants and the men, toss up your skirts, and beat you within an inch of your life.”

He let her go, stepped back and eyed her with a look of fury that said he meant every word.

Caryn wet her lips. She had known the risks before she started; she wasn’t about to back down.

“I am surprised you are displeased, my lord. In fact, I am surprised that you bothered to notice. ’Tis certain you noticed naught of our labors the last time you came home, though all in the castle worked from dawn till dusk to try and please you.

Since you cared naught for what we did before, I did not believe you would notice when we did nothing. ”

Ral’s thick black brows drew together in a frown. “The last time I was home, Braxston Keep shone like it never has before.”

Caryn’s own brow arched up. “You are telling me you saw the work we had done?”

“Of course, I saw it. ’Twould have taken weeks of labor to accomplish such a feat. ’Twas a place a man could be proud of.”

“Then why did you not say so? Why did you allow your men to destroy our efforts? Why did you stride in here and take your pleasure then ride away without so much as a ‘by your leave’?”

For the first time, Ral looked uneasy. “I did not think much about it. ’Twas selfish, I suppose… and thoughtless. I had much on my mind… the men back at Caanan, Lord Arnaut, and the king.”

“Do you have any idea how much I loath such duties? How much I would rather have been out riding, or visiting the people in the village?” That was the truth, though she had discovered her accomplishments could be surprisingly rewarding.

So much so, it had taken a will of iron not to caste aside her vow of retribution and set the castle in order again.

He was looking at her strangely. “If you loathed the task so much then why did you do it?”

Caryn felt the heat rising into her cheeks. She wondered if Ral could see it beneath the smudges of grease. “Because I wished to please you.”

He eyed her cautiously. “And today?”

Caryn straightened her shoulders and her chin came up. “I would be certain you understand how hard your people work to please their lord. What better way to learn than by comparison?”

Ral glanced once more around the hall, and Caryn held her breath. He surveyed every corner, saw the beautiful paintings and the tapestries carefully hung, then saw the barren hearth and dirty linens. The vile odor of the rushes drifted up, no longer sweetly scented with dried flowers and herbs.

A corner of his mouth curved up. Lines crinkled at the corners of his eyes, then Caryn caught a flash of strong white teeth.

The smile became a grin, the grin a chuckle of laughter that burst into a roar.

His hand slammed down on the table and he laughed even harder.

Behind him Richard chuckled, then Odo, then Geoffrey.

Hugh and Lambert started to guffaw. Aubrey broke into peals of laughter, and Leo dropped his hand from his mouth, allowing his giggles to bubble forth.

Chaos broke out in the hall, Bretta laughing, poking Odo in the ribs. Even Marta chuckled, more with relief, Caryn guessed, than with humor.

“You are lucky, ma petite ”—Ral wiped tears of laughter from his eyes—“that I did not wring your lovely little neck.”

Caryn smiled. “’ Twas not for my neck that I feared, my lord.”

His mouth curved up. “I presume that you will set things aright, now that you have made your point.”

“Already the servants work to freshen the hall.” They had been given instructions beforehand.

Even now they labored stripping off the soiled linens and carting out the rushes.

The smell of simmering meat had begun to drift in from the kitchen.

“By the end of the week, ’twill seem only a very bad dream. ”

He lifted her chin with his hand. “And what of our chamber? Does it also resemble a very bad dream?”

The flush in her cheeks grew deeper. “Nay, my lord. The rest of the keep has not suffered so. And I held every hope that our problems would be resolved before we retired to our bed.”

Ral chuckled softly. “How is it that instead of anger, I find that I am amused. You ever amaze me, little wife.”

“And I, my lord husband, find I am more than pleased to see you. If you will allow me to bathe and change, I will give you a proper welcome home.”

“Mayhap I will bathe you myself. That way I may be certain the task is properly done.”

“Mayhap you should,” she teased. “But only if you will let me see you equally well tended.”

Ral’s eyes swept down her body, his glance both intimate and hungry. Caryn took his hand and he laced his fingers with hers. As the servants worked feverishly to prepare the hall, she led him up the stairs.

***

Ral awakened well before dawn, uneasy and out of sorts, though his body felt well-sated. Easing himself from his sleeping wife’s side, he dressed and returned downstairs. Already the hall had regained some semblance of order. But today instead of a smile, the sight of it made him frown.

It had been images of the hall in disarray and what had happened there with Caryn that had given him pause this morn and forced him from the comfort of his bed. He kept thinking of the way she had dodged his anger, the way she had charmed him and bent him so easily to her will.

Ral’s jaw tightened as he descended the steep stone stairs.

No woman he had ever known had dared to gainsay him as his wife had—and she had done so on more than one occasion.

He should have punished her for the scene she had caused, justified or no, yet her bravado had only amused him.

Just as her passionate lovemaking last eventide had pleased him.

Ral crossed the great hall amidst the snores of sleeping men and headed outside to the bailey. He roused a squire in the stables and ordered his sorrel stallion made ready, then walked to the mews and lifted the great hawk, Caesar, onto a leather-gloved wrist.

“We hunt today, my friend,” he said softly.

“’Twill give me the chance I need to think.

” He rarely rode out on his own. There was danger in the woods, especially for the lord of the castle.

And without him, there was danger for his people.

Still, today he would risk it. He needed time away from Caryn, time to understand these feelings she stirred and begin to overcome them.

It was a decision he had made sometime in the night, after they had made love and he had held her with such fierce possession. It would not have alarmed him, had she merely been another of his vassals, someone who belonged to him.

What bothered him was this feeling that he also belonged to her.

Ral crossed the drawbridge and rode off into the forest, enjoying the coolness of the shadows and the sound of singing birds.

When he came to the meadow, he drew rein on his horse and looked around him.

Lifting the small leather hood that covered the hawk’s perceptive eyes, he set the great bird free .

Upward, upward it flew, winging its way toward the heavens, yet he knew the bird would return, drawn by some unseen force that existed between them. He had tamed the hawk and now it was his captive. If he did not learn to guard his emotions, he would find himself a captive of Caryn.

Ral watched the hawk spot its prey and begin its descent into the meadow for the kill. For this brief time the bird was in control of its destiny, yet in minutes it would return to his wrist and succumb once more to a life of serving its master.

Ral vowed as he never had before, that he would not succumb to that same fate with Caryn.

***