The Velvet Promise Read online

  Yet for all their closeness in spirit, their bodies were as far apart as ever. Gavin felt that at any moment he might go insane with wanting her. He wiped the sweat from his eyes as he stared across the yard and saw Judith walking toward him. Or did he imagine it? She seemed to be everywhere before his eyes, even when she was not.

  “I brought you something cool to drink,” she said, holding out a mug to him.

  He stared at her intently.

  She put the mug beside him on the bench. “Gavin, are you well?” she asked as she put a cool hand on his brow.

  He grabbed her violently and pulled her down. His lips sought hers hungrily, forcing them open. He didn’t think that she might deny him; he was past caring.

  Her arms went about his neck and her response to his kiss was as eager as his. Neither cared that half the castlefolk watched. There was no one but the two of them. Gavin moved his lips to her neck. He wasn’t gentle. He acted as if he would devour her if at all possible.

  “My lord!” someone said impatiently.

  Judith opened her eyes to see a boy standing nearby, a rolled paper in his hand. She suddenly remembered who and where she was. “Gavin, there is a message for you.”

  He didn’t move his lips from her neck, and Judith had to concentrate very hard to keep her mind on the waiting boy.

  “My lord,” the boy said. “It’s an urgent message.” He was very young—before his first beard—and he looked on Gavin’s kissing of a woman as a waste of time.

  “Here!” Gavin said as he snatched the parchment from the boy. “Now go and don’t bother me anymore.”

  He threw the paper on the ground before turning once again to his wife’s lips.

  But Judith was now very aware of their public place. “Gavin,” she said sternly, struggling to get off his lap. “You must read it.”

  He looked up at her as she stood over him, his breath coming hard and fast. “You read it,” he said as he grabbed the mug of liquid Judith had brought. Maybe it would cool his hot blood.

  Judith unrolled the paper with a worried frown, her face draining of color as she read.

  Instantly Gavin was concerned. “Is it bad news?” When she looked up, his breath stopped, for there again he saw the coldness in her eyes. Her beautiful, warm, passionate eyes flashed daggers of hate at him.

  “I am three times a fool!” she said through clenched teeth as she threw the parchment in his face. She turned on her heel and stalked toward the manor house.

  Gavin took the parchment from his lap.

  My dearest, I send this in private so I may tell you of my love freely. Tomorrow I wed Edmund Chatworth. Pray for me, think of me, as I will think of you. Remember always that my life is yours. Without your love I am nothing. I count the moments until I am yours again.

  All my love,

  Alice

  “Trouble, my lord?” John Bassett asked.

  Gavin put the missive down. “More than I have ever known. Tell me, John, you are an older man. Perhaps you know something about women.”

  John chuckled. “No man does, my lord.”

  “Is it possible to give your love to one woman, yet desire another until you are nearly mad?”

  John shook his head as he watched his master staring after his wife’s retreating form. “Does this man also desire the woman he loves?”

  “Surely!” Gavin answered. “But perhaps not…not in the same manner.”

  “Ah, I see. A holy love, as for the Virgin. I am a simple man. If it were me, I’d take the earthly one. I think love would come if the woman were a joy in bed.”

  Gavin propped his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. “Women were created to tempt men. They are the devil’s own.”

  John smiled. “I think that if I were to meet old Scratch, I might thank him for that bit of evil work.”

  For Gavin, the next three days were hell. Judith would neither look at him nor speak to him. If at all possible, she would not be anywhere near him. And the more haughtily she treated him the more furious he became.

  “Stay!” he ordered her on one night as she started to leave the room when he entered.

  “Of course, my lord,” she said as she curtsied. Judith kept her head bowed, her eyes never meeting his.

  Once Gavin thought her eyes were red, as if she’d been crying. But that was nonsense, of course. What reason did she have to cry? He was the one being punished, not her. He’d shown he wanted to be kind, yet she chose to despise him. Well, she’d gotten over it once, and she would get over it again. Yet the days passed, and still Judith was cold to him. He heard her laughter, but when he appeared, the smile died on her face. He felt he should slap her, force her to respond to him; even anger was better than the way she looked through him. But Gavin couldn’t hurt her. He wanted to hold her and even apologize. For what? He spent his days riding hard, training hard, yet at night he didn’t sleep. He found himself making excuses to be near her, just to see if he could touch her.

  Judith had cried until she was nearly ill. How could she have forgotten so soon that he was such a vile man? Yet for all the anguish the letter caused, she had to steel herself from running to his arms. Judith hated Gavin yet her body burned for him every moment of every hour of every day.

  “My lady,” Joan said quietly. Many of the servants had learned to tiptoe about their master and mistress lately. “Lord Gavin asks you to come to him in the great hall.”

  “I will not!” Judith replied without hesitation.

  “He said it was urgent, to do with your parents.”

  “My mother?” she asked, immediately concerned.

  “I don’t know. He said only that he must speak with you at once.”

  As soon as Judith saw her husband, she knew something was very wrong. His eyes were like black coals, his lips so tightly drawn that they appeared to be only a slash across his face.

  He turned his wrath on her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pledged to somone else before me?”

  Judith was bewildered. “I told you I was pledged to the church.”

  “You know I don’t mean the church. What about that man you laughed and flirted with at the tournament? I should have known then.”

  Judith could feel the blood beginning to pound through her veins. “You should have known what? That any man would be a more suitable husband than you?”

  Gavin took a step forward, his manner threatening, but Judith did not retreat. “Walter Demari has lain claim to you and your lands. To prove his claim, he has killed your father and taken your mother captive.”

  Immediately, all the anger left Judith. She felt deflated and weak. She grabbed a chair back to steady herself. “Killed? Captive?” she managed to whisper.

  Gavin calmed somewhat and put a hand on her arm. “I didn’t mean to tell you like that. It’s just that the man lays claim to what is mine!”

  “Yours?” Judith stared at him. “My father killed, my mother captured, my lands seized—and you dare talk to me of what you have lost?”

  He drew away from her. “Let’s talk reasonably. Were you pledged to Walter Demari?”

  “I was not.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She only glared at him in answer.

  “He says that he will return your mother to safety if you will go to him.”

  She turned instantly. “Then I will go.”

  “No!” Gavin said and pulled her back to the seat. “You cannot! You are mine!”

  She stared up at him, her mind concentrating on business. “If I am yours and my lands are yours, how does this man plan to get them? Even if he fights you, he cannot fight all your kin.”

  “Demari doesn’t plan to do so.” Gavin’s eyes bored into hers. “He has been told we don’t sleep together. He asks for an annulment, that you declare before the king your distaste for me and your desire for him.”

  “And if I do this, he will release my mother, unharmed?”

  “That is what he says.”

  “And