The Taming Read online

  Liana did as she was bid. “I have come to see you before, but you weren’t here. Rogan has gone to Bevan Castle.” Once again, there was the feeling of having known this woman forever.

  The woman separated strands of scarlet silk. “Yes, and you have a wager with him. He’s to be your slave for a day?”

  Liana smiled and walked toward the woman, looking over her shoulder at the fabric stretched on the frame. It was a tapestry-worked, almost-complete picture of a slim blonde lady with her hand on the head of a unicorn.

  “She could be you,” the Lady replied, smiling. “What do you have planned for your day with Rogan?”

  Liana smiled dreamily. “A long walk in the woods, perhaps. A day spent alone. No brothers, no castle duties, no knights, just the two of us. I want him to…to give me his full attention.” When the Lady didn’t reply, Liana looked at her and saw the smile was gone. “You don’t approve.”

  “It’s not for me to say,” she said softly. “But then I believe he and Jeanne used to take walks together.”

  “Jeanne?”

  “Jeanne Howard.”

  “Howard!” Liana said, gasping. “The same Howards who are the sworn enemies of the Peregrines? I have heard little else since I was married—about how the Howards stole the Peregrine lands, killed the Peregrines, starved the Peregrines. Are you saying that Rogan once courted a Howard?”

  “Rogan was once married to Jeanne before she was a Howard.”

  Liana sat down on a window seat, the sun warm on her back. “Tell me all,” she whispered.

  “Rogan was married to Jeanne Randel when he was only sixteen and she was fifteen. His parents and his brother William had been starved at Bevan the year before and the three oldest Peregrine sons were busy waging war on the Howards and so were too busy to marry themselves. They decided Rogan should marry, get a girl’s dowry, and give them a few sons to grow to help them fight. Rogan fought against the marriage, but his brothers persuaded him.”

  The Lady turned to look at Liana. “Rogan has known only hardship and pain in his life. Not all the scars on his body are from battles. His brothers and father put their share on him, too.”

  “So they ‘persuaded’ Rogan to marry?” Liana said softly.

  “Yes, but he wasn’t reluctant after he saw her. She was a pretty little thing, so quiet and soft-spoken. Her mother had died when she was quite young and as a ward of the king she was raised by nuns in a convent. Perhaps going from a convent to marrying a Peregrine was not the easiest thing a child ever did.”

  The Lady looked at Liana, but Liana did not respond. This morning she’d discovered a dozen illegitimate children of her husband’s and this evening she’d discovered he’d had another wife.

  The Lady continued. “I think Rogan began to fall in love with her. He’d never had any softness in his life and I think Jeanne’s gentleness fascinated him. I remember once they came back from a walk and they both had flowers in their hair.”

  Liana looked away, not wanting the hurt on her face to be seen. He gave his first wife flowers and he couldn’t remember the name of his second wife.

  “They were married for about four months when the Howards took Jeanne. She and Rogan were alone in the woods. Rowland had told Rogan not to go out alone, but Rogan thought he was immortal, that when he was with Jeanne, nothing could harm him. I believe they’d been swimming and…”—the Lady looked at Liana’s stricken face—“…and napping when Oliver Howard’s men set upon them and took her. Rogan couldn’t get to his sword, but he managed to pull two Howards off their horses. He strangled one of them before the others could pull him away. I’m afraid that one of the Peregrines had just killed Oliver’s younger brother and Oliver was in a vile mood. He had his men hold Rogan while he shot three arrows into him, not to kill him but to show Oliver’s power. Then Oliver and his men rode away with Jeanne.”

  Liana stared at the woman, imagining the awful scene. “And what did Rogan do?” she whispered.

  “Walked back to the castle,” the Lady said. “Four miles, with three dripping wounds, he walked back to his brothers. He went with them the next day when they attacked the Howards. He rode with them and fought with them, until, on the third day, he fell off his horse, burning with fever. When he was sensible again, it was nearly two weeks later and his brothers Basil and James were dead.”

  “He said he killed his brothers,” Liana said softly.

  “Rogan has always taken his responsibilities very seriously. He and Rowland and young Severn fought the Howards for over a year. The Peregrines did not have the strength or the money to properly attack the Howard castle and it is a vast, strong place, so they fought however they could, stealing Howard supplies, burning the peasants’ houses, poisoning what water they could reach. It was a bloody year. And then…” the Lady trailed off.

  “And then what?” Liana encouraged.

  “And then Jeanne returned to Rogan.”

  Liana waited, but the Lady said no more. Her needle flew lightning-fast in and out of the tapestry silk. “What happened when Jeanne returned?”

  “She was six months’ pregnant with Oliver Howard’s child and very much in love with him. She came to Rogan to beg him to give her an annulment so she could marry Oliver.”

  “That poor boy,” Liana said at last. “How could she do that to him? Or did Oliver Howard force her to come to him?”

  “No one had forced Jeanne. She loved Oliver, and he, her. In fact, Oliver had forbidden her to go to Rogan. Oliver planned to kill the husband of the woman he loved. I think Jeanne must have felt something for Rogan because I think her visit saved his life. Rogan came home after he saw Jeanne, and while Rogan petitioned for the annulment, the Peregrines and the Howards did not war with each other.’

  Liana stood and walked to the far side of the room. She was silent for quite some time. At last she turned back to look at the Lady. “So Rogan and Jeanne used to walk in the woods together, did they? Then I shall plan a celebration. We will dance. I will have singers and acrobats and—”

  “As you did at your wedding?”

  Liana stopped talking and remembered her wedding day, when Rogan had ignored her. “I want him to spend time with me,” she said. “He doesn’t notice me except in bed. I want to be more to him than…than a day of the week. I want him…”

  “You want what from him?”

  “I want what that slut Jeanne Howard had and threw away!” Liana said violently. “I want Rogan to love me.”

  “And you are going to accomplish this with walks in the woods?” The Lady seemed amused.

  Liana suddenly felt very tired. Her dream of a husband who walked with her and held her hand was not the man who, after being shot with three arrows, continued to fight for days. She remembered Zared’s saying Rogan was in his brooding room. Well, no wonder he brooded; no wonder he never smiled; no wonder he wanted nothing to do with another wife.

  “What do I do?” she whispered aloud. “How do I show him I’m no Jeanne Howard? How do I make a man like Rogan love me?” She looked to the Lady and waited.

  But the Lady shook her head. “I have no answer for you. Perhaps it is an impossible task. Most women would be content with a husband who did not beat them and who used other women’s bodies for their needs. Rogan will give you children, and children can be a great comfort to a woman.”

  Liana’s mouth tightened. “Children who can grow up to fight and die for the Howards? Am I to stand by and watch while my husband points to the horses’ skulls and teaches my children to hate? Rogan drains all income from me, from the peasants, from wherever he can get it, in order to make war machines. His hatred is more to him than any life on earth. He breeds sons on the peasant girls, then leaves the boys to starve. If for one day he could forget the Howards, forget that now he is the oldest Peregrine. If he could just see how his hatred is causing the slow death of his people, then he might—” She stopped, her eyes wide.

  “He might what?”

  Liana’s voi