The Taming Read online

  It was hours later that a sweat-dripping Severn mounted the stone stairs over the kitchen and entered Iolanthe’s apartments. Here the richness of this large, sunny room was stunning. Gold glowed, silk embroideries shone, jewels on the ladies’ gowns sparkled. But by far the most beautiful thing in the room was Iolanthe. Her beauty, her figure, her voice, her movements, were all without flaw, of such exquisite loveliness that often people could not speak when they saw her.

  When Io saw the anger on Severn’s face, she lifted her hand and dismissed her three women to their own chambers. She poured delicious wine into a golden goblet, handed it to Severn, and when he downed it in one gulp, she refilled it.

  “Tell me,” she said softly.

  “It’s that damned woman,” Severn said.

  Io knew who he meant because Severn had been complaining about Rogan’s new wife for some time now.

  “She is a Delilah,” he said. “She is taking his very soul from him. She rules him, the men, the servants, the peasants, and even me. She ordered my room to be whitewashed! There is no place sacred from her touch. She invades Rogan’s brooding room and he doesn’t so much as reprimand her.”

  Io was watching him thoughtfully. “And what has she done today?”

  “Somehow she persuaded Rogan to bring one of our father’s bastards into the castle, and I am to train him. He’s a wool merchant.” Severn said the last with horror.

  “How did you get the lump on your forehead?”

  Severn looked away. “So the man had a bit of luck with the poles. He’ll never be a knight, no matter how much that woman wants it. And today I heard that she sat beside Rogan at court. What next? Will he ask her permission to piss?”

  Iolanthe watched Severn, saw his jealousy, and she wondered what this wife of Rogan’s was like. Io had stayed in her pretty apartments, leaving only for walks on the battlements, and watched what was happening below. At first she would have wagered that no woman could effect a change on that hardheaded, insensitive, hate-obsessed Rogan, but the weeks had proved her wrong. She and her ladies had watched with amazement as the castle had been cleaned (Iolanthe and her ladies refused even to walk down the stairs through the filth) and she’d listened for hours to the kitchen maids tell stories of what the Fire Lady was doing. Io especially liked the story of Lady Liana’s setting Rogan and one of his whores on fire. “Should have been done a long time ago,” she’d said.

  Io looked back at Severn. “He cares for her, then?”

  “I don’t know. It’s as if she’s put a spell on him. She’s draining him of his strength. Today in training I knocked him down.”

  “It could have nothing to do with your being angry while he was not?”

  “Before she came, Rogan was always angry. Now he…he smiles!”

  Io could not hide a smile of her own. She did her best to stay out of the Peregrine-Howard feud. The only thing she cared about was Severn. Of course she did not tell him of her love. She had long ago guessed that at the mention of the word love, he would flee. And now she knew she was right. He was raging because his brother cared for his wife.

  Io wondered how this Liana had made Rogan notice her. It wasn’t beauty, because she’d seen divine-looking women make fools of themselves over Rogan yet he’d not glanced at them, and she’d heard this little wife of his was pretty but certainly no beauty. No, it wasn’t beauty that attracted the Peregrine men or Severn would be in love with Iolanthe.

  As Io looked at Severn, his handsome face colored by his anger, she thought she’d sell her soul to the devil if he’d love her. He made love to her, true, he spent time with her, even asked her advice on problems, but she never deluded herself that he loved her. So she took what he gave her and never let him know she wanted more.

  “What is this woman like?” Io asked.

  “Meddlesome,” Severn snapped. “Into everyone’s business. She wants to run everyone—the knights, the peasants, Rogan, everyone. And she is simpleminded. She believes if she cleans something, it will cure the problem. No doubt she believes that if we bathed with the Howards, we could forgive each other.”

  “What does she look like?”

  “Ordinary. Plain. I cannot see what Rogan sees in her.”

  Neither could Io, but she wanted to find out. “I am coming to supper in the Lord’s Chamber tomorrow night,” she announced.

  For a moment Severn looked astonished. He knew Io didn’t like Rogan, and the castle outside her apartment disgusted her. “Good,” he said at last. “Perhaps you can teach the woman to behave like a woman should. Invite her to spend time with you. Keep her out of the courts and away from the peasants—and away from my brother. Maybe if you can get the woman to mind her own business, things can return to the way they should be.”

  Or perhaps she can teach me how a woman should behave, Io thought, but said nothing to Severn.

  Liana looked out the window for the thousandth time. Yesterday Rogan had returned from the training field and his good mood was broken. Since they returned from the fair, he’d been so sweet, so much like the man she sensed he could be, but in the evening he’d been sullen and angry. He locked himself in his brooding room, as Zared called it, and wouldn’t let her in.

  It was late that night when he came to bed beside her, and sleepily she rolled next to him. For a moment she thought he was going to push her away, but then he clutched her to him and without a word made violent love to her. Liana almost complained about his fierceness but some instinct told her to be quiet, that he needed her.

  Afterward, he’d held her tightly.

  “Tell me what happened,” she whispered.

  For a moment she thought he might talk to her but he rolled away, his back to her, and went to sleep. In the morning he got out of bed and left without a word.

  So now she was waiting for him to return from the training field for supper. At dinner he’d eaten with his men, leaving Liana alone with her ladies and Zared. It had been a lonely meal.

  Liana dressed carefully to go downstairs. It never hurt to look your best when you were with a man.

  When she entered the Lord’s Chamber, the air was heavy with silence. Zared, Severn, and Rogan were already seated and eating, none of them speaking. Liana had already guessed that Rogan’s anger had something to do with his brother, but she had no idea what had caused it. She could have asked Zared, but she wanted Rogan to tell her what had happened.

  She seated herself to Rogan’s left and began to eat after she was served. She searched for some topic of conversation. “Did Baudoin arrive today?” she asked.

  It didn’t seem possible, but the silence increased. When the two older men said nothing, she looked at Zared.

  “Not a bad fighter,” Zared said. “But then our father always bred good men.”

  “He’s not our brother,” Severn snapped.

  Zared’s eyes flashed. “He’s as much my brother as you are.”

  “I’ll teach you who’s a Peregrine and who isn’t,” Severn said.

  All three of them were on their feet at once, Severn going for Zared’s throat, Rogan going for Severn.

  This scene was halted in mid-action by the arrival of a woman. Liana looked under the arch that was formed by Severn’s hands around Zared’s throat, and her eyes opened wide in astonishment. Standing in the doorway was the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. No, not just beautiful: perfect, flawless, a standard of beauty for all time. She was swathed in cloth of gold so that she was radiant, like a pillar of sunshine on a dark night.

  “I see that nothing has changed,” said the woman. Her voice was cool and arresting and at once made everyone feel calmer. She walked forward, as gracefully as an angel, floating, yards of fur-trimmed cloth trailing behind her. “Severn,” she said, and looked at him as a mother might look at a disobedient child.

  Severn immediately dropped his hands and looked a bit sheepish. Then, obediently, he pulled out a chair for her. When she was seated, she looked up at the three Peregrines who