The Taming Read online

  They walked down the stairs to the solar, and Iolanthe bid Liana farewell.

  That evening Severn came to Iolanthe’s apartments. He was limping and there was a blood-dripping gash on the side of his head. Io motioned to her maid and soon Io was bathing his head with a linen cloth.

  “I am going to kill my brother,” Severn said through his teeth. “That is the only way to stop him. Did you talk any sense into that wife of his?”

  “I had as much success talking to her as you have had with your brother.”

  “Watch that!” Severn said, wincing. “I don’t want new wounds. At least I can understand Rogan. He’s been very tolerant of that woman, allowing her to sit by him while he judged the courts, letting her do what she could in the village, even giving her a full day in bed.”

  “He has been most generous,” Io said sarcastically.

  “He has, actually. I never thought he’d be so generous with a wife.”

  “What did you think? That your sweet-tempered brother would drop her in this filthy castle with servants who ridiculed her, that he’d ignore her, that he wouldn’t remember what she looked like until she set him on fire?”

  “Women!” Severn muttered. “You are such illogical creatures.”

  “My logic is fine, it’s your brother who—”

  Severn pulled her into his lap and kissed her neck. “Let’s forget my brother.”

  She pushed away from him and stood. “How many weeks has it been since you had a bath?”

  “You never used to care whether I bathed or not.”

  “I thought horse manure was your natural scent,” she shot back at him.

  Severn stood up. “This is all that woman’s fault. If she—”

  “If you hadn’t interfered, things would be fine now. What are you going to do to make up for what you’ve done?”

  “We’ve been through this, remember? I was willing to admit that I’d been…well, a little overzealous with Rogan, so at your suggestion I sent them invitations to supper. And you saw where that went, didn’t you? That stupid bitch showed up wearing coins. Rogan should have accepted her offer of payment. What he should have done was—”

  “He should have told her she’s beautiful,” Io interrupted. “She thinks your oversexed brother doesn’t desire her. I can’t imagine why. He’ll bed anything that’s even three-quarters female.”

  Severn smiled proudly. “Great cocksman, isn’t he?”

  “Let’s not go into my opinions of your brother. You have to get Rogan to tell Liana he thinks she’s beautiful and he desires her above all other women.”

  “Sure. And I’ll move a few oceans, too. You want London moved while I’m at it? You’ve never tried to get Rogan to do something he doesn’t want to do.”

  “Is he back sleeping with his Days now?”

  Severn grimaced. “No, and I think that’s half his problem. This is the longest he’s gone without a female since…” He thought a moment. “…since the Howards took his first wife. Don’t give me that look,” he said to Io. “My brother can handle women whether he’s married to them or not. Maybe he just doesn’t want a woman right now. I can understand that, what with the way his wife has behaved. Wearing those coins was the last straw.”

  “It’s up to you,” Io said sweetly. “Why don’t you get Rogan to send Liana back to her father, get rid of her completely. Then you could bring in a wagonload of beautiful, nubile young girls so your brother could have a dozen per night.”

  “And which one will see that we have pies to eat?” Severn muttered. “Damn you, Io! And damn that Liana. Damn all women! Why can’t you leave a man alone? Rogan only married her to get money. Why did he have to…to…”

  “To what?” Io asked innocently. “Fall in love with her? Begin to need her?”

  “That isn’t what I meant at all. Damn both of them! Somebody ought to lock them in a room together and throw away the key. Both of them make me sick.” His head came up.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing. Just a thought.”

  “Tell me,” Io urged.

  It was a while before Severn began talking.

  That same evening Severn sent a peace offering to Liana. She sat alone in her solar with her ladies, as she did every evening. Usually, she was undisturbed by anyone from the castle—as if she didn’t exist, or as if they wished she didn’t exist—so she was very surprised when a scarred old knight brought up a jug of wine and said it was from Lord Severn to his beautiful sister-in-law.

  “Do you think it’s poisoned?” Liana asked Gaby.

  “Perhaps with a love potion,” Gaby answered. She’d never give up trying to reason with Liana.

  The wine was spicy and warm and Liana drank more than she meant to. “I suddenly feel very tired,” she said. She was so tired that her head felt too heavy to hold up.

  It was at that moment that Severn entered the solar. All of Liana’s women perked up at the sight of the handsome blond giant, but Severn had eyes only for Liana.

  Gaby was looking at her mistress in alarm as Liana’s eyes closed and her head lolled against the back of her chair. “I’m afraid something’s wrong.”

  “She’ll sleep it off,” Severn said, elbowed Gaby out of his way, then picked Liana up.

  “My lord!” Gaby gasped. “You cannot—”

  “I am,” Severn answered as he carried the sleeping Liana from the room and started up the spiral stairs. He went up past the bedrooms above the solar, up another flight until he came to a heavy iron-clad oak door. He shifted Liana, tossing her over his shoulder while he took a key hanging at the end of a chain suspended from his belt and opened the door.

  It was a small room with a garderobe off to one side and another heavy, barred door leading out to the walk along the top of the parapets. The room was usually used for housing guards, but today the guards were gone. Sometimes the room was used as a prison and that’s what Severn wanted it for.

  Severn pushed the door open and stood for a moment while his eyes adjusted to the dim light. Lying on the bed, sound asleep, was Rogan and for a moment Severn reconsidered his plan. But then a couple of fleas began scurrying about on his back and he knew that what he was doing was right. He dumped his sister-in-law on the bed beside his brother and gouged at the fleas.

  “There,” he said as he looked down at the two of them. “You can stay in here until we have some peace.”

  Chapter

  Sixteen

  It took Liana a while to wake up in the morning. It was as if she couldn’t open her eyes. She stretched her arms, then her legs, as she luxuriated in the soft warmth of the mattress.

  “If you want something to eat, you better get up and get it.”

  Her eyes flew open to see Rogan sitting at a small table devouring chicken, cheese, and bread.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Why have you brought me here? The wine! You drugged it.”

  “My brother did. My brother, whose days on this earth are limited, drugged the wine.”

  “And he brought me here?”

  “He brought both of us here while we were sleeping.”

  Liana sat up and looked about the spare little room: a bed, a table and two chairs, and a candle stand. “He has betrayed us to the Howards,” she said softly. “Does he mean to turn the castle over to them?”

  Rogan looked at her as if she were the village idiot. “My brother may be stupid at times as well as stubborn, but he is not a traitor.”

  “Then why has he done this?”

  Rogan looked back at the food.

  Liana got out of bed. “Why has he drugged us and put us in here?”

  “Who knows? Now, eat.”

  Liana felt her temper rising. She went to the doors and pulled on them, then beat her fists against them and shouted to be released, but no one came. She went to each of the two narrow arrow slits and shouted down from them, but no one answered. She turned back to Rogan. “How can you eat? How long are we to be prisoners? How do