Velvet Song Read online

  She nuzzled her face in his neck, such soft, sweet-tasting skin. “I did not know you. Oh, Raine, are you really, truly very weak?”

  Raine’s laugh rumbled through her body as he pulled her away from him, tossed her in the air. “Got your first taste of love and can’t stop, is that it?”

  “It is like music,” she said dreamily, “the very best music.”

  “I’m sure I should take that as a compliment,” he said, beginning to unbutton her doublet.

  For a moment it flashed across Alyx’s mind that he wouldn’t like her flat-chested body now when no fever blurred his senses. “Raine,” she said, her hand on his. “I look like a boy.”

  It took a while before he understood her words. “You drive me to distraction with those legs of yours, and now you say you look like a boy? I have done everything in my power to make a man out of you and failed. But I have made a woman out of you.”

  With her breath held, Alyx allowed him to undress her, and when he looked at her slight body with hot, wanting eyes, she forgot any feelings of being unworthy.

  With a laugh, she tore at his clothes, pulling whatever she could reach away from his skin.

  Raine lowered her to the ground, kept his hands on her bare back while she had her way with him. Never had he encountered such enthusiasm.

  “I do not hurt you?” he murmured as he held her small body.

  “Only a little and only in the right places. Oh, Raine, I thought you would never recover from your fever.” With that she jumped atop him, and after a look of astonishment, he put his hands on her slim hips.

  “Sing for me, my little songbird,” he whispered as he lifted her and lowered her onto his shaft.

  Alyx’s gasp was indeed musical, and it took her only minutes to catch the rhythm of Raine’s movement as his big hands traveled upward to her breasts, warming her, exciting her. His hands traveled all over her body, halting just briefly at the gold Lyon belt, then down to her thighs that worked as she raised and lowered herself.

  Raine’s fingertips explored, caressed, until his urgency increased and his hands dug into her hips, holding her, manipulating her as he desired. With one violent upward thrust, he spent himself as Alyx shivered, shuddered and fell forward onto him.

  “How could so much woman have disguised herself as a boy?” he murmured, his hands tangled in her hair, kissing her temple. “No wonder you threatened to drive me insane.”

  “Oh?” she asked, trying to hide her interest in his answer. “When was that? I would never have guessed you knew I was alive except as someone to fetch for you.”

  “Perhaps when you bent over or tossed a leg before my face or other such unmanly things.”

  “Toss—! I did no such thing. And what about you? Having me climb on your back, to straddle you! Is that how you treat all boys?”

  He laughed at her. “Boys would have been interested in my strength. Are you cold?”

  She snuggled on top of him, her body touching only his. “No.”

  “Alyx!” His head came up. “How old are you?” There was fear in his face.

  She gave him a haughty look. “I am twenty, and if you hope I will grow—”

  Chuckling, he pushed her head back down. “God has given you the gift of music, what more could you want? I was afraid you were a child. You don’t look more than twelve.”

  “Do you like my music?” she asked innocently, making her voice soft and seductive.

  “You’ll get no more compliments from me. It seems you’ve had too many already. Who has trained you?”

  Briefly she told him of the priest and the monk.

  “So that is how you come to be a virgin at twenty and Pagnell—Hush,” he said when she started to speak. “He is a coward, and he will not harm you while you are near me.”

  “Oh, Raine! I knew you’d say that. I knew it! There are many advantages to being a nobleman. Now you can go to the king and beg his forgiveness, then you and I will go to your home. I will sing for you and play for you and we will be so very happy.”

  Raine, in one motion, pushed her off him and began to dress. “Beg the king’s forgiveness,” he said under his breath. “And what have I done to be forgiven? Do you forget that two of my family are being held prisoner? Do you forget why I am here? And what of those in that camp? One moment you preach about the Enclosure Acts and the next you demand the farmers leave this new home they have found.”

  “Raine,” she pleaded, holding her shirt to her neck, “I didn’t mean—Surely if King Henry heard your side of the story he’d help you. This man Chatworth should not be allowed to hold your family.”

  “Henry!” he snarled. “You talk of him as if he were a god. He is a greedy man. Do you know why he’s outlawed me? For my lands! He wants to take all the power from the nobles and keep it for himself. Of course, your class wants him to do this since he does good things for you, but what happens when a bad king has the power? With the nobles, at least, a bad one controls only a small area. What if Pagnell were king? Would you wish to follow a man like him?”

  Hastily she pulled on her shirt. She’d never seen Raine so angry. “I wasn’t talking about all of England,” she soothed. “I meant us. Surely you could do more good for your family if you were with them.”

  “And for that you wish me to go on bended knee to the king?” he whispered. “Is that what you want? You wish to see me groveling, forsaking my vows of honor?”

  “Honor!” she said loudly. “What has honor to do with this? You were wrong to use the king’s men.”

  For a moment she was sure he was going to strike her, but he took a step backward, away from her, his eyes blazing. “Honor is all to me,” he whispered before turning back to the camp.

  As quickly as she could, she dressed and ran after him.

  Standing before Raine’s tent was one of his brother’s men, a message in his hand. She was glad to see the man. Perhaps some good news from home would make Raine forget his anger.

  Hurrying forward, she took the message and without a glance from Raine, slipped inside the tent. Smiling, she opened the message, and the next moment, her shoulders fell.

  “What is it?” Raine growled. “Is someone ill?”

  There were tears in Alyx’s eyes when she looked up at Raine. As they locked gazes, his eyes hardened.

  “What is it?” he demanded of her.

  “Your . . . sister Mary is . . . dead,” she whispered.

  Raine’s face betrayed no emotion except for a bit of white appearing at the corners of his mouth. “And Bronwyn?”

  “Escaped from Roger Chat worth, but she has not been found yet. Your brothers are looking for her.”

  “Is there more?”

  “No. Nothing. Raine—” she began.

  He brushed her aside. “Go! Leave me to myself.”

  Alyx started to obey him, but as she looked back and saw his rigid back, she knew she couldn’t leave him. “Sit!” she commanded, and when he turned to her his eyes were like black coals from hell.

  “Sit,” she said, quieter, “and we will talk.”

  “Leave me!” he growled, but he sat on a stool and dropped his head into his hands.

  Immediately, Alyx sat at his feet, not touching him. “What was she like?” she whispered. “Was Mary short or fat? Did she laugh often? Did she rail at you and your brothers? What did she do when you were so obstinate she wanted to take a club to your head?”

  He looked up at that, his eyes dark, angry. “Mary was good, kind. She had no flaws.”

  “It’s a good thing,” Alyx said. “She would have to be a saint to stand your mule-headedness, and no doubt your brothers are as bad.”

  Raine’s hand fastened about her throat as he went for her, the stool flying. “Mary was an angel,” he said into her face, pinning her body, his hands tightening.

  “You will kill me,” she said in a resigned voice, gasping. “And still Mary will not come back.”

  After a moment, his hands dropped and he pulled he