The Conquest Read online

  Rogan and his men rode straight for the front of the house, their horses trampling over the pretty walkways and the flowers and the shrubbery. In spite of the seriousness of the situation she found herself frowning. Rogan would not think flowers meant anything in life.

  "Good morn to you, brother," Tearle said cheerfully. "Will you come inside and eat with us?"

  Rogan, atop his horse, his red hair making him look angry even when he wasn't, looked even bigger than Zared remembered. "I have come for my sister," he said in a voice that Zared had always obeyed.

  She started to pull away from Tearle, but he held her fast.

  "We will be ready soon," Tearle said. "Our garments and household goods are being packed now. But come and rest with us while we wait. I have ordered a half dozen cows killed, and they will be set to roasting soon. Your horses must be hungry, too."

  Zared looked up at her brother and knew that Tearle must sound as insane to him as he did to her.

  Rogan ignored him as he looked at his sister. "Mount and ride."

  Again Zared tried to obey, but Tearle held her.

  Rogan drew his sword. "Do you force her? I will kill you now."

  At that Tearle released Zared, thrusting her behind him as he reached for the small knife at his side. Zared jumped between the men.

  "He does not hold me," she said as loudly as her powerful lungs would allow. "No man holds me. I am free. Oh, Rogan, do not kill him. I have come of my own free will. Do not harm him."

  She looked from one man to the other and knew in that instant she had insulted both men. She knew that Rogan had thought that she was honorable and that the only way she would have gone with a Howard was if she had been forced, but now he knew that she was not honorable, that she had betrayed the ancient Peregrine name. And she had insulted her husband by, in essence, saying that a woman must fight his battles for him.

  It was Tearle, as she knew it would be, who made the first move toward peace. He sheathed his knife. "I do not wish to fight you. We are related now, and I wish this feuding to stop. You must come and eat with me, and we will discuss the future."

  Rogan sneered down at him. "How many men do you have hidden in the house, Howard? Do you plan to take us once we are inside and befuddled with drink?"

  "We can eat outside and drink water if that is your wish," Tearle said.

  At that there were many groans from the men behind him.

  "He will not attack you," Zared said. "He believes in peace." She said this with some wonder in her voice. How could one think of peace when looking at three hundred armed men?

  At that Tearle put his hands on her shoulders. "I think you should leave us. Your brother and I have matters that we must discuss."

  Zared turned pale at that. "I cannot leave the two of you alone."

  Tearle looked up at Rogan as he sat on his big horse. "Your brother may hate me, but he is not a fool. He knows that if he kills me and takes you, now that you are my legal wife, then my brother will wipe what is left of your family from the face of the earth. Is that not right, brother?"

  "I am not your brother," Rogan muttered, but he looked at his sister. "Go. I will not kill him—not now. Ready yourself to return with me."

  She nodded at her brother, then took one more look at her husband and went back into the house.

  "What are they doing now?" Zared asked Margaret.

  "The same as before. The men are eating, and your brother is sitting at the table in silence, but he is listening. Lord Tearle is doing all the talking."

  "Yes, yes, I know that he is a talker. He could talk until a dead man would leave the room to get away from him." She remembered the way Tearle had been able to twist everything she had said to him so that it was to his advantage. "My brother is not so easily led as I was," she muttered to herself. "Rogan will not agree to what a Howard says."

  "Yes, my Lady Howard," Margaret said softly, making Zared grimace.

  Zared sat down on a window seat and looked out over the lovely rolling English countryside. "He will not agree to leave me here," she whispered. So I will have to return with my brother, and I will have to leave this beautiful place and my beautiful husband, she thought. I must return to a place of hatred and talk of war.

  It was nearly sundown when Tearle returned to the room they shared. She jumped up at once and went to him, but she did not get close enough to touch him. "When do I leave?"

  "Early tomorrow," he said, stretching. "Those men of your brother's can eat. I do not wonder that your brother wants his title and lands back. It must cost much to feed men such as those."

  "Do you jest about what is life and death to the Peregrines?"

  He smiled at her. "I try to make a jest of everything. Have you not learned that yet? I am of the firm belief that laughter makes one live longer. Tell me, has that brother of yours ever so much as smiled?"

  "Liana can make him smile," she said impatiently, then turned away. "So we have one last night together."

  Tearle sat on the edge of the bed and began to unlace his tall boots. "Do you not plan to sleep with me when we are at your brother's house?"

  It took Zared a moment to realize what he was saying, then she went to him. "You cannot go with us."

  He smiled at her in a teasing way. "You can stand the place, but I cannot. Does this mean that you are more of a man than I am?"

  She went on her knees in front of him. "Do not make a joke of this. My brother will kill you. If not directly, then there will be a falling stone, a blade that slips, an ax—"

  "I did think of those things. I mentioned such to your brother." He paused in his undressing. "If he did not fear for the lives of those he loves, he would have killed me today. At least he would have taken great pleasure in the attempt. I have never seen such hatred in a man."

  "He will kill you if given half a chance. You cannot think to go anywhere with him."

  He put his hand under her chin. "I am not so fragile or so dumb and trusting as you seem to believe, nor is your brother as powerful as you think. Do you know that when I was a child I thought my brother Oliver was the strongest, bravest—"

  "Oliver Howard is fat and weak and—" She broke off, knowing where he was heading. "You cannot think that I do not see my brother as he is. Rogan is neither fat nor weak."

  He leaned toward her. "Nor am I."

  She sat back on her heels. Why did each man think he was invincible? "What have you and my brother arranged?" She looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "What have you talked my brother into?"

  "Ah, at last you admit that there is something that I can best your brother in."

  "Tell me," she repeated.

  "He has agreed to what I have always planned to do. I am going with you to your home. Your brother will not believe that I want his sister for any purpose other than as some hostage of war. I told him that I wanted you only for your body, but even that did not make him laugh."

  Zared grimaced. No, that would not make Rogan laugh. "Why would you want to do this? Why would you want to leave all this finery for my brother's poor place?"

  He was silent so long that she looked up at him, and the tenderness in his eyes made her look away. She knew that he was going so that he could be near her. Rogan was so stubborn, so hardheaded that he would not believe any words that she spoke if she told him that she was with a Howard because she wanted to be. Rogan would always think that she had been forced. And he would do what he considered necessary to get her back. Zared had to go with her brother.

  "You do not have to go with me," she whispered. "Perhaps I can return to you… later."

  "Ha!" Tearle said. "I think your brother is worse than you had described him. The man does not listen to reason. Do you know that I offered to give him this place if he would stop this war of his? I offered him half of the Howard estates upon my brother's death."

  "He would refuse. All of what the Howards own belongs to the Peregrines."

  He smiled at her. "He wanted you more than he wanted the