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  Raine grabbed her hips and as if she had no weight at all, picked her up and set her down on his manhood with such an accurate thrust that Alyx let out a raspy squeal.

  “Swordplay,” Raine laughed. “I’m very accurate with a sword.”

  Alyx leaned forward and with her strong thighs began a rhythm that left Raine too busy to speak again. He lay still, his face a mask of almost pain as he held back, all his senses given over to the enjoyment of what Alyx was doing.

  When he could stand no more, he grabbed her to him, rolled her over and with two hard, almost violent thrusts, they ended together, shaking, quivering, clutching as if they might get even closer.

  After several moments, Raine raised his head and gave Alyx a smile that said more than all the words in the world. With a grunt of satisfaction, he rolled off her, pulling her close to him, their sweaty skin glued together. And together they slept.

  * * *

  It was early evening when they woke and Raine made an awful sound as he pulled a sharp, hard knee up from under the small of his back. “How can anything so small be so dangerous?” he asked a sleepy Alyx.

  With one sharp smack on her buttocks, he moved away from her to stand and stretch. “Up!” he commanded. “We’ve stayed here too long already. It’ll take us two days to get home as it is.”

  Alyx didn’t relish moving to ride on a horse and her expression said so. She’d much rather stay here—in bed—with Raine for a few more days.

  “Alyx, don’t tempt me. Get out of there this minute or I shall return to the forest and send some of Gavin’s men to escort you to the Montgomery estates.”

  That made her jump. Within seconds she was out of bed and had pulled the torn white sheath over her head.

  “Filthy thing,” Raine said, fingering it. “Judith will find you dresses fit for a Montgomery. It will be nice to see you dressed as you should be, although I must say I like your hair like this.” He rubbed her curls as if he still thought of her as his squire.

  There was no time for anything else as he pushed her out the door and tossed her into the saddle of a horse. Except for messengers, Alyx had never seen knights as they were with their lord master. Raine had only to hint at a command and Gavin’s men jumped to obey. Quickly, efficiently, they cleared the armor Raine had taken from Pagnell’s man from the room while Raine dressed in the dark green wools he’d worn in the forest. One of the knights gave such a look of astonishment that Raine laughed.

  “They itch, too,” he said. “Ready, Alyx?”

  Before she could answer, they were off, galloping at a pace that she should have been used to. It was no surprise to her when Raine rode through half the night. But what did surprise her was the way Gavin’s men treated her. They asked after her health, if she were tired. When they stopped to eat and rest the horses, some of the men presented her with flowers. One man spread his cloak for her to sit on. No one seemed to notice that the fur-lined cloak was of far better quality than the sack she wore.

  With surprise and disbelief in her eyes, she looked up at Raine but saw that he thought nothing of the way the men treated her. A knight asked permission to play the lute for her, and as three men sang together, Raine raised one eyebrow at her, for the men were not very good. Alyx looked away, because to her, the knights, so kind, so polite, were perfect.

  When Raine lifted her back on her horse, he said, “They are practicing their chivalry on you. I hope you can bear with them.”

  Bear with them! she thought as they started riding again. She felt as if she’d just seen a glimpse of heaven and, indeed, she could withstand it.

  At night they stayed at an inn and Alyx was embarrassed by the way she was dressed. There was no need to be. The innkeeper took one look at Raine and the twenty men in their rich green and gold and he practically lay down to be their carpet. Food such as Alyx had never seen before was set before them in a quantity that made her gasp.

  “May they sit with you?” Raine asked.

  It took her a moment to realize he was asking permission for these lovely men to sit at the same long oak table with her. With a large smile, she gestured to them and the chairs.

  The men’s table manners were so good that Alyx was overly cautious about her own. All through the meal they offered her prize tidbits of meat and fruit. One man peeled an apple, placed a sliver on a plate and asked if she’d accept it.

  They expressed sympathy about her lost voice, which made Raine laugh and say they were missing more than they knew. Formally, they asked Lord Raine to explain this. He said they’d not believe what he said, which made Alyx blush.

  In their room was a large, soft bed, sparkling clean, and Alyx immediately snuggled under the light blanket. In seconds, Raine joined her there, pulling her close to him, his hands caressing her stomach, smiling when the baby jumped.

  “Strong,” he murmured, falling asleep. “A good, strong child.”

  In the morning the landlord tapped on their door and delivered fresh baked bread and hot wine, along with twenty red roses from Gavin’s knights.

  “That’s Judith’s doing,” Raine said, dressing. “They’re all half in love with her, and it looks like you’ve won their hearts, too.”

  Alyx shook her head at this and indicated that they only cared for her because of her relationship to him.

  He kissed her nose. “Perhaps all men fall in love with women who can’t speak.”

  Alyx grabbed a pillow and threw it at him, catching him in the back of the head.

  “Is that any way for a lady to act?” he teased.

  In spite of his light manner, Alyx worried about his words all day. She wasn’t a lady and she didn’t know how one should behave. How could she possibly meet this paragon, Judith Montgomery, dressed in a sooty, scorched, shapeless sack?

  “Alyx, what’s wrong with you? Are those tears I see?” Raine asked from beside her.

  She tried to smile and indicate that there was something in her eye and she would be fine in a moment. After that, she tried to control herself better, but by the time they rode into sight of the Montgomery castle, she was ready to turn tail and run.

  The massive stone fortress, centuries old, was even more formidable than she had imagined. As they rode closer to it, the old stone walls seemed to be crushing down on her.

  Raine led them to the back entrance, to announce their arrival to as few people as possible. The path to the gate was lined with high stone walls and as they rode, men called down in joyful greeting to Raine. He seemed so at home here that the man she knew began to seem far away. The men who obeyed him without question, the whole vast scope of this place, was closer to the real man than the artificial outlaw camp.

  They rode into a courtyard and, to Alyx’s astonishment, houses, looking comfortable, with many windows, were inside the walls. In the few castles where she and Jocelin had sung, the people still lived in the towers, which were so uncomfortable most castles had been abandoned.

  They had barely stopped when out of a little walled garden came running a breathtakingly beautiful woman wearing a gown of flashing red satin.

  “Raine,” she called, running, arms open.

  She can’t sing, Alyx thought defensively, watching her husband leap from his horse and run toward the woman.

  “Judith,” he said, grabbing her, twirling her about, feet off the ground, kissing her mouth, in Alyx’s opinion, much too exuberantly.

  “My lady,” came a voice to Alyx’s left. “May I help you down?”

  Her eyes never leaving Raine and the exquisite Judith, she let herself be lifted down.

  “Where is she, Raine?” Judith was saying. “Your message was so garbled we could hardly understand it. We must have misheard because it seemed the messenger was saying your wife was about to be burned the stake.”

  “True I rescued her at the very last moment.” His voice held a great deal of pride. With one arm around Judith, he led her to Alyx, whom he casually embraced. This is Alyx and this vision is my unworthy br