The Taming Read online

  Liana laughed. “I brought some recipes with me and I persuaded your cooks to try them.” She put her hand on his arm and gently began pulling him toward the window seat. “Oh, Rogan, I could have used your help. Your people are so stubborn, it was like talking to rocks. Here, try this. It’s a pickled peach, and you might like this bread, there’s no sand in it.”

  Before Rogan knew what he was doing, he was half sprawled on the softness of a window-seat cushion, eating one delicious food after another and wasting the day listening to a lot of frivolous nonsense about cleaning. He should, of course, be out training with his men, but he didn’t move. “How many gold coins?” he found himself asking.

  “We found six gold coins, twelve silver, and over a hundred copper pennies in the moat. There were also eight bodies, which we buried.” She crossed herself. “Here, you look uncomfortable. Stretch out and put your head on my lap.”

  Rogan knew he should leave and he hadn’t asked her yet about the wager, but he was tired and the wine was relaxing him. He stretched his legs on the long seat and put his head in her soft lap. The silk of her skirt felt good against his cheek and she caressed his temples and his hair with soft, smooth fingertips. When she began to hum, he closed his eyes.

  Liana looked down at the beautiful man sleeping in her lap and she never wanted this moment to end. He looked so much younger when he was asleep, no scowl marring his handsomeness, the weight of responsibility not as heavy on his broad shoulders.

  He slept peacefully for nearly an hour until Severn came clanging into the room wearing fifty pounds of armor.

  War-trained Rogan sat up with a jolt. “What has happened?” he demanded, all softness leaving him.

  Severn looked from his brother to his sister-in-law. He had never seen Rogan even look at a woman before sundown, much less put his head in her lap. It was startling to see such softness in his hard older brother. He found himself frowning.

  Severn had been on his sister-in-law’s side, but then Rogan’s hardheadedness often made Severn take an opposite side when arguing with his older brother. But he did not like this. He didn’t like this woman making Rogan forget where he was supposed to be. Just hours ago Rogan had been dreading seeing his wife again after weeks away from her. Severn had been a bit amused at his brother’s temerity, but perhaps Rogan had cause to fear the power of this woman. Could she make him forget his duties? His honor? She was peace-loving with the peasants, but did her nonviolent ways extend to making Rogan forget the Peregrines’ war with the Howards?

  Severn did not want to see his older brother change. He did not want Rogan’s edges softened. It was one thing to play childish games with a woman and quite another to neglect duties to lay about with her in the afternoon.

  “I had no idea today was a holy day and meant to be spent in pleasure,” Severn said sarcastically. “I beg your pardon. I will leave the men to train alone, without me, and I will go to judge the peasants’ disputes since you are too…busy.”

  “Go and train the men,” Rogan snapped. “I will judge the courts, and if you do not want to find yourself eating that tongue of yours, keep it still.”

  Severn turned away in time to hide a smile. This was his brother, the man who scowled and growled, the man who treated him as if he were still a boy. It was all right for the woman to change the castle, but Severn didn’t like her trying to change Rogan. As if she could! he thought with a grin. Nothing and no one could change Rogan.

  Liana felt like throwing something at Severn. She saw what he was doing, saw the disbelief in his eyes when he’d seen Rogan asleep on a woman’s lap. It seemed that everyone conspired to keep all softness from Rogan’s life. She reached up to put her hand on his shoulder. “Perhaps I could help in the judgments. I often helped my father,” she said. Actually, since her mother’s death she had had sole responsibility for judging the peasants’ disputes because her father couldn’t be bothered.

  Rogan was on his feet at once, scowling down at her. “You go too far, woman. I will make the judgments. I will give justice to my own peasants.”

  She was on her feet also. “And you have done a fine job of it until now, haven’t you?” she said angrily. “Is starving them your idea of justice? Is letting the roofs of their houses fall on their heads what you think they need? If two men come to you with a dispute, what do you do, hang both of them? Justice! You have no idea what the word means. You only know how to punish.”

  As Liana looked at the rage on his face, she was sure he was going to add her to the long list of people he’d killed. In the heat of that rage, she almost backed away from him, but some great force of willpower made her stay where she was.

  Suddenly, his eyes changed. “And what would you do to a man who stole another man’s cow? Have them bathe together? Perhaps have them clean their fingernails twice a day as their punishment?”

  “Why, no, I’d—” Liana began, then realized he was teasing her. Her eyes twinkled. “I’d have them live with your foul temper for a day. That and the stench of you after weeks without washing should be enough.”

  “Oh?” he said softly, and stepped toward her. “You do not seem to mind my stench.”

  He pulled her to him with one arm, and Liana melted against him. No, she did not seem to mind his stench or his temper or his glares or his disappearances. He kissed her gently at first, then deeper and deeper, until he had to fully support her weight against his strong body.

  He pulled his mouth from hers, still holding her. “And what do you want of me as your slave? Shall we spend all day in bed? Shall you stand over me wearing just my helmet and make demands of me?”

  Liana opened her eyes. What an interesting idea, she thought, and almost said yes to his suggestion. But she controlled her lust. “I want you to wear peasants’ clothes and attend a fair with me.”

  Rogan blinked a few times, then released her so abruptly she fell back against the window seat. “Not in my lifetime,” he said, anger in his face again. “You ask me to go to my death. You are a spy. The Howards—”

  “Damn the Howards!” Liana yelled. “I care nothing for them. I merely want you to spend a day with me. Alone. With no guard watching us, with no brother taunting you for daring to spend an hour with your wife. I want a whole day with you—with my clothes on. It cannot happen here, they would not leave you alone. So I ask you to stop, for one whole day, being Lord Rogan and share with me an ordinary day at a peasants’ festival.” She slowed down, put her hands on his forearms. “Please,” she said. “They are such simple people, and their pleasures are so simple. It will be a day of dancing, of drinking, of eating. I believe they plan to put on a play. Can you not spare one day for me?”

  Rogan’s face did not betray how much her words appealed to him. A day spent in merriment…“I cannot go unarmed among the peasants,” he said. “They—”

  “Wouldn’t recognize you. Half the men of the village are the offspring of your father—or you.” She said the last with some disgust.

  Rogan was shocked at the insolence of her words. He should have locked her away moments after he married her. “And you think they will not recognize you, either?”

  “I will wear a patch over one eye. I do not know how I will disguise myself. The peasants will never believe their lord and mistress to be among them. One day, Rogan, please?” She leaned toward him and he could smell lavender from her clothes.

  He heard himself say, “Yes,” and didn’t believe his own voice.

  Liana flung her arms about his neck and kissed all the skin she could reach. She couldn’t see the look of shock on Rogan’s face that slowly softened. For just a moment, a quick, brief moment, he hugged her in return, not a sexual caressing, but just a little squeeze of pleasure.

  He released her immediately. “I must go,” he murmured, stepping away from her. “And you stay here and don’t interfere in my court judgments.”

  She tried to look hurt, but she was too happy to succeed. “Of course I wouldn’t. I’m a good and