The Conquest Read online

  He watched Zared dodge the boy, then run after her sword, and when she leaned over to pick it up she smiled at Tearle. She had known all along that he had been watching her, and she knew very well how it was affecting him.

  He turned his head away. He wasn't going to allow her to see that he was concerned for her safety. In fact, he wasn't going to be concerned for her safety. He couldn't care less what happened to her or to any of her family.

  At the sound of steel hitting steel he turned back quickly. The boy had Zared on the ground, his sword at her throat, and he was smiling as though he meant to skewer her.

  Tearle was on his feet in seconds, and he pushed the boy away, sending him sprawling.

  Zared lay still on the ground and smiled up at him. "You have recovered well, I see," she said softly.

  "Not through the help of your family," he said, looking down at her, trying to remember the anger and loathing he'd felt for her on the day he'd left the Peregrine castle. What he noticed was that she was quite pretty. There was a smudge on her cheek.

  "I came to be with you." She looked up at him with her heart in her eyes. "I have missed you. I… I do not like being without you."

  He opened his mouth to tell her that he'd missed her, too. He had missed her laughter; he'd missed teaching her about the world. He'd missed her enthusiasm, her lack of artifice. He had wanted her with him even when he was ill. He had wanted her there telling him that he was weak and should have been up and about days earlier. Jeanne had been a good nurse, but Oliver had killed her spirit years before, and his convalescence had been a dreary affair.

  "I have not given you a thought," he said haughtily.

  She smiled up at him.

  How did people not know that she was female? he wondered for the thousandth time. She was as feminine as the moon and the stars.

  She started to get up, but he put his foot on her stomach. "I have but to tell anyone who you are and my brother will have you killed," he said softly.

  She put her hand on his ankle. He did not put any weight on the foot that was on her. "Do you still laugh when your feet are tickled?"

  "No," he said sternly, "I do not. You must leave here. I do not want you."

  "But I want you. I have been miserable these months."

  "You did not care on the day I left. That day you thought I had taken a child. You thought I would harm a child."

  "People are staring at us," she said, and she started to get up, but he held her down. She gave a sigh, put her hand behind her head, and leaned on it. "Yes, I thought you were guilty. Can you blame me? You had gone with the boy. How was I to know that you would not harm him?"

  "You had spent time with me. You should have known me."

  "How can anyone know what is in another's heart?"

  "You should have known then. You should have—"

  "You should have taken me with you when you left. You should know what is in my heart now," she yelled up at him.

  At that Tearle turned and looked behind him. Every man on the field, every man, woman, and child in the courtyard had gathered behind them and was watching them with consternation on their faces. Tearle knew that it was only a matter of minutes before someone went to tell his brother that something very unusual was going on.

  Tearle lifted his foot from Zared's stomach and glared down at her. "Come with me."

  She stood up, dusted herself off, then gave him a hot look. "Gladly," she said in a provocative way.

  He pretended to ignore her as he led the way into the main building and up two flights of stairs to his room. Since he was in front of Zared he did not see the way her eyes bugged and her mouth fell open at the sight of the riches in the Howard castle. She had seen something like it at the Marshall estate, but that was a stable compared to this rich place. Every surface gleamed with vessels of gold and silver. The walls were covered with tapestries, and there were thick rugs on the tables.

  At last they arrived at his room, and he reached over her head to shut the door. "Now you will tell me what you do here. Have your brothers sent you to me to try to persuade me to give the estates to them? Have they heard that my brother is dying? Have they—"

  He broke off because Zared had begun removing her clothes. She had wanted to talk to him, to tell him that it was her decision alone to come to him, that in fact she had had a raging fight with Rogan before he allowed her her freedom. But she knew that she could not out-talk Tearle. He had always been able to persuade her to do anything that he wanted, so perhaps she could keep him from talking.

  Tearle stood where he was and watched her untie ties and slip cloth over her head. He hadn't had a woman since he had ridden away from the Peregrine castle. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted one. Twice he had chosen pretty kitchen maids and had wanted to take them to bed. The young women had been agreeable—so agreeable, in fact, that Tearle could practically hear the gold coins clinking in their pockets. In spite of himself he kept remembering that Zared had not come to love him for his money. She had come to love him for himself. She had come to love him when she finally realized that he wasn't her enemy.

  "Do not," he whispered.

  Zared removed the last of her clothes and looked at him. One minute she was standing in front of him and the next she had launched herself at him. He caught her as her legs went around his waist. He put his hands on her bare buttocks, and his lips fastened on hers, and the next minute his hose were around his ankles and he was in her.

  They made love like two people dying for want of each other, as hard and as fast as their firm young bodies would allow.

  When they finished Zared was half on the floor, half shoved against a wooden chest, while Tearle's back was bent in a backward curve that a spine could not manage under normal conditions.

  He groaned. "You have killed me." When he could again move, he carried her to the bed, then pulled her on top of him, covering them both with the sheet.

  She was still for a moment, eyes closed both in happiness and in fear. She had been in the Peregrine castle for four days. She had seen Tearle often during those days, but until that day he had not seen her. During those four days she had been terrified that he really did have no more feeling for her. But when she had seen him, seen the anger in his eyes when he had first recognized her, she had known then that he was still hers.

  She lifted her head and kissed his chin. "Forgive me?"

  "No." His lips said no, but his hand caressed her hair, and his eyes looked at her with love.

  "Then I shall have to try harder to win you. When you are recovered from today I shall think of something new to do to your body."

  "Oh?" Tearle said with some interest, then he pulled her hair back so that she looked up at him. "What are you doing here, brat? Is your brother waiting outside for you to open the gate for him tonight?"

  "You can stay awake all night and watch me if you do not trust me," she said, wiggling her bottom against his hips.

  He hugged her to him. "You are the curse of my life. I wish I had never seen you with my brother's men. Had I never laid eyes on you I would have been better off."

  "You do not mean that." She raised herself up to look at him. "I have come not out of treachery or hatred, but out of love," she said softly. "I wanted to come to you long ago, but Liana begged me not to. Somehow she has managed to get messages about you. I…" She hesitated.

  Tearle narrowed his eyes at her. "Do not think to hold back information from me."

  "All right." She took a breath. "I think it was your brother's wife who sent word that you were well." Zared ran her hand down his cheek. "When you nearly died Liana and I spent long days in the chapel on our knees praying for your recovery. Anne Marshall came to Moray, and she prayed with us."

  Tearle nodded. Perhaps he had felt the women's prayers. "I'll wager that your brothers did not pray for the recovery of a Howard."

  "No, you are wrong." Zared paused. "Rogan has changed. I am not sure how yet, but he is different. I think it did something to h