The Taming Read online

  The more Liana heard about what Severn was doing, the more comfort she tried to provide Rogan. In the evenings she sometimes saw how torn he was, as if he warred inside himself whether he should give in to the pleasures of her solar or stay alone in his brooding chamber.

  His brooding chamber caused their second big fight. After he’d spent two nights alone in there, Liana went inside. She didn’t knock or ask permission for entry, she just walked in, her heart pounding in her ears. He’d yelled at her. He’d blustered and fumed, but there was something in his eyes that told her he didn’t actually mind her invasion.

  “What are those?” she’d asked, pointing to the stack of papers on the table.

  He’d argued some more, but at last he’d shown her his sketches. Liana didn’t know much about war machines, but she knew something about farm machinery and this wasn’t all that different. She’d made a few suggestions and they had been good ones.

  It had been a lovely evening, just the two of them together in that little room, bent over the papers. Several times Rogan had said, “Like this?” or, “Is this better?” or, “Yes, I think that might work.”

  As he often did, Severn had ruined the evening. He’d pushed open the half-open door, then stood gaping at the two of them. “I heard she was in here,” he’d said softly, “but I didn’t believe it. This room was sacred to our brother Rowland and to our father. But now you let a woman in here. And for what?” He nodded toward the sketches on the table. “To tell you how to build war machines? Is there nothing of the man left in you?”

  Liana was pleased to see that when Severn stomped away, he was scratching his arm furiously. She knew that once again lice were infesting his clothes and she hoped they ate him alive. She turned to her husband. “Rogan…” she began.

  But he was already on his feet. He left her alone in the room and as far as she knew, he had not visited the room since.

  Her heart went out to Rogan as she saw him fight within himself. Part of him wanted the softness and tenderness she offered, but part of him wanted to please his angry brother. He trained and worked many hours during the day, trying to be the leader of the Peregrines, to prove to his men and especially to his brother that he was still worthy of his position as their master. And in the evening he never fully relaxed during the pleasures Liana offered.

  She tried her best to keep her rage at Severn under control, but it was difficult. She wrote a letter to her stepmother, asking Helen if she knew of any young heiresses Severn might marry. If she could find a wife for Severn, perhaps he’d leave Rogan to her.

  It was the third fight that turned the tables and made Rogan side with Severn against her.

  Liana was boiling with rage when she stormed down the stairs into the Lord’s Chamber. Severn and Rogan were sitting at the table, calmly eating breakfast but not speaking to each other.

  Liana was so angry she could hardly speak. “Your…your brother was in bed with three women this morning,” she spat at Rogan.

  Rogan looked at Severn in wonder. “Three? The most I’ve ever had was four. I was worn out the next day.”

  “When was that?” Severn asked, as if Liana weren’t there.

  “A year ago at the tournament at—”

  “Not him!” Liana shouted. “Zared! Your little brother, that child, spent the night with three women.”

  The two men just stared at her stupidly. She doubted if they had any idea what was wrong with Zared’s being in bed with three women. “I won’t have it,” she said. “Rogan, you have to stop this.”

  To further increase her fury, Rogan’s eyes began to twinkle. “Yes, I will have to do something.”

  She advanced on him. “Don’t patronize me. That boy looks up to you. He idolizes you. He thinks the sun rises and sets on you and I’m sure he’s merely imitating you.”

  Severn grinned and slapped Rogan’s shoulder. “Just imitating his big brother,” he said, laughing.

  Liana turned on Severn, her anger at him coming to the surface. “At least Rogan is making an effort. But you! You, with a married mistress living in the same house as that innocent child.”

  Severn was on his feet and glowering down at her. “My life is none of your business,” he shouted at her. “And Zared is—”

  Rogan stood, cutting his brother off. “We will take care of Zared.”

  “As you take care of everything else—including your wife?” Severn sneered, then slammed from the room.

  Rogan watched his brother go, then sat down heavily in his chair. Severn’s words had upset him.

  “That man needs a wife,” Liana said.

  “A wife?” Rogan said. “Iolanthe would tear the woman’s eyes out.”

  He looked so dejected sitting there that she wanted to say something to amuse him. “We’ll have to find a woman strong enough to handle Severn and Iolanthe.”

  “There is no such woman.”

  She caressed his forehead. “No? I have handled you, and you are stronger than twenty Severns and Iolanthes.” She meant her words as a jest, but Rogan didn’t seem to take them as such. He looked up at her with eyes glittering with anger.

  “No woman controls me,” he said under his breath.

  “I didn’t mean—” she began, but he stood, his expression still angry.

  “No woman controls me or my family. Go back to your sewing, woman, where you belong.” He left her alone in the room.

  He left her alone all that day, that evening, and that night. She was frantic with worry and she was sure he’d gone to another woman. “I will kill her so slowly she will pray for death,” Liana seethed as she paced their chamber.

  At midnight she went to Gaby, woke her from Baudoin’s arms, and had Gaby find out where Rogan was. It didn’t take Gaby long to return and tell Liana that Rogan was getting drunk in the Great Hall with half a dozen of his men.

  Somehow the news made Liana feel very good. He was as upset about their argument as she was. No more was he the man who ignored her, who couldn’t pick her out from a group of women.

  When at last she went to bed, if she didn’t sleep soundly, she did sleep.

  She was awakened before dawn by the unmistakable sound of steel on steel. “Rogan,” she said, her heart tight with fear. She threw a robe over her nakedness and began to run.

  The Howards had tried to sneak into the Peregrine castle before dawn. They tossed great hooks over the parapets and started climbing up the ropes.

  It had been so many months since the Howards had attacked, and the Peregrines had been so involved in their own internal squabbles, that there had been a feeling of safety. Watchfulness had lulled; senses were no longer as alert.

  Twelve of the twenty Howard attackers were over the wall before the sleepy guards on the parapets heard them. Two Peregrine knights died without ever waking up.

  Rogan, in the Great Hall, lying on the floor in a drunken stupor, had difficulty rousing himself. Severn was there before he was fully aware of what was happening.

  “You sicken me,” Severn said, then tossed his brother a sword and ran out of the room.

  Rogan made up for lost time. If his head did not clear instantly, his body remembered its long training. He kicked his men awake and within seconds he was in the courtyard fighting beside Severn and Baudoin.

  It didn’t take long to kill the Howard attackers, and as Severn meant to slay the last one, Rogan stopped him.

  “Why?” he demanded of the man. “What does Oliver Howard want?”

  “The woman,” the Howard man said. “We were to take her and hold her.” The man knew he was going to die. He gave Rogan an insolent look. “He said his younger brother needs a wife and the Peregrine brides make excellent Howard wives.”

  Rogan killed the man. He thrust his knife into the man’s heart and twisted and kept twisting until Severn pulled him away.

  “He’s dead,” Severn said. “They’re all dead. As well as four of our men.”

  Fear was coursing through Rogan’s body. If Se