The Conquest by Jude Deveraux
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
"On whose estates?"
"I do not know. Liana says that with the money she brought and now with the dowry from Anne they could build a place or add on to Moray Castle. I think that Rogan is considering the idea."
Tearle knew that this was revolutionary thinking for the hate-filled Peregrines. "What will your brother do without his hatred to fuel him?"
"You know only the worst of my brother. Underneath he is a kind and gentle man. He does not want to kill anyone. He was so… so hard on you because he thought you might harm his family. Had you thought what he did, you would have been difficult, too."
"Difficult? Is that what he was?" Tearle was trying to restrain his anger at the injustice that had been done to him, but it wasn't easy. He was cursed with being able to see both sides. "So what made you come here?"
She kissed his neck. "I have told you. I came because I did not like being without you. You make me laugh."
Tearle grunted. "Did I make you laugh on the day your brothers beat me?"
"No, I did not laugh that day. But that day I told you that I wanted to go with you, to stay with you."
"Until you believe that I have done something else to one of your precious brothers."
"No, I will believe you from now on. Now I will side with you against them."
He didn't move for a moment, then he lifted her head to look at her. He stared for a long while into her eyes, and he saw that she was telling the truth. There was more than just love in her eyes, there was commitment and loyalty and trust.
He put her head back down on his chest. "Now what do we do? You cannot stay here."
"I will stay wherever you are. Do you mean to go into battle? I will go with you."
He smiled at that. "I do not think that will be required. But if you stay here, it might be a battle. My brother will hear of what has happened this morning, and he will want an explanation."
"Tell him that you have taken a fancy to boys and—"
"Where have you heard of such?" He was genuinely horrified.
"Anne Marshall," she said simply, then she looked at him. "Oh, Tearle, she is the most interesting woman. She knows a great deal about many things. She is fascinating. Liana and I listen to her every word."
"The woman should keep her mouth shut."
"Her pretty mouth?" Zared said, looking at him. "She is beautiful, is she not?"
"Like a pretty, poisonous snake. Tell me, how does she get on with Severn?"
Zared laughed at that. "I rather think that she likes him. I do not think that he understands her any more than Liana and I do, but when he does not understand her he kisses her or takes her to their room. I sometimes think that she provokes him so that he will take her into privacy."
Tearle laughed at that. Perhaps his error had been in listening to women. Perhaps he should have behaved as Severn did; perhaps when a woman talked he should take her to bed.
"What else has Anne taught you?" he asked, hoping that her answer would be that she had been instructed in some exotic form of lovemaking.
"She has solved the riddle."
"I would think that Anne Marshall would be quite good at solving riddles." He said it in that tone that men use when they want to tell what they think of clever women. "What riddle did she solve?"
In spite of her intention of being the perfect wife Zared gave him a look of disgust at his ignorance. "The Peregrine riddle."
"Forgive my stupidity, but I do not know as much about your family as you do."
"I will wager that your brother knows of the Peregrine riddle."
He didn't answer her but gave her a look that meant that she was to continue.
She repeated the riddle for him. "Anne said that she had little to do when she was at Moray Castle—I think that Severn was concerned that she might flee, and—"
"Wise of your brother to worry," Tearle said under his breath.
She ignored him, for she didn't like to think of what had gone on between her brother and his unwilling wife while they were away. When the subject was mentioned to some of the men who had been with them, they turned pale and shook their heads in disbelief. There were a few fresh wounds on Severn.
"Anne said it was hair color." When Tearle didn't seem to understand, she continued. "The red and the black. Hair color." She paused. "Rogan and Liana's first child has—"
"The boy whose life I saved?" he asked innocently.
"Their first child has red hair, like his father, but the second son has black hair, as Rogan's mother did."
"So this has to do with the riddle?"
"'When the red and the white make black.' See? Rogan's hair is red, Liana's hair is almost white, and they made a black-haired child."
Tearle smiled, understanding. "And the second line?"
"'When the black and the gold become one.'"
"Severn's gold hair and Anne's black."
Zared looked at him in admiration. He was indeed clever. "You and I are the last line. 'When the one and red unite.' "
He smiled at that, but then he looked at her in seriousness. "I take it that you are the red, so I must be the one. Yet I am not the one, assuming that 'one' means that I am the only Howard child. What is the last line of the riddle?"
" 'Then shall you know.' "
"Know what?"
She took a while before answering. "Anne and Liana think that it means that we shall know who owns the estates." She could not look at him. If her brothers won, then it would mean that her husband lost. It wasn't that she so much wanted to own such a place, but she did not want to see her husband lose it. Nor did she want to see her brothers lose what perhaps should have been theirs.
Tearle looked at her and knew what she was thinking. "A dilemma, is it not?" He didn't tell her that he was glad that it had become a dilemma to her. A few months earlier she would not have had any doubts about who should have owned the estates. Then she had thought they should go to her brothers, and the man she married could go to hell for all she cared. But he was glad to see that she was confused about whom she should give her loyalty to.
He pulled her close to him and held her tightly. "Do not worry, my love. You will know what to do when the time comes."
"I know right from wrong," she said indignantly. "I know what must be done and who must—" She stopped when he kissed her to silence.
It was while he was kissing her that the door to his room burst open and four of his men charged inside. What they saw horrified them. It looked as though their master's brother was kissing a young boy, for all they could see was Zared's short hair above the sheet.
Tearle saw their looks and started to explain, but then he didn't know what to say. He couldn't introduce his Peregrine wife, and he couldn't very well pull the sheet down and show them that she was indeed a female.
For the first time in her life Zared saw her husband at a loss for words. She was not about to allow the opportunity to pass her by. She deepened her voice. "My lord," she said to Tearle, "you will buy me the armor you promised after I have done… this for you?" She motioned toward the bed.
Tearle gave her a quelling look as the men cleared their throats in embarrassment. He looked up at the men. "What do you want?" he snapped at them.
"Lady Jeanne begs you to come to her. Your brother is dying."
Zared didn't say anything as Tearle got out of the bed and began to dress. The riddle said that when the one and red unite then they would know. If Tearle's brother died, then Tearle would be the only Howard son left.
When Tearle was dressed he turned to her. "Remain here. Do not leave this room." He paused. "Can I trust you, or must I leave a guard on you?"
She was smart enough to know what could happen to her
He started to kiss her but then straightened as he became aware of the men. "I expect you to keep your word," he said, then he was gone.
Alone in the room Zared leaned back against the pillows and looked about her. This room was what her family had fought and died for. It was what her family and Tearle's family had killed each other for.
She turned over onto her stomach and closed her eyes. Her husband no longer hated her, and that was all that mattered to her in the world. She fell asleep within seconds.
Chapter Seventeen
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Zared didn't know what woke her. It wasn't a sound, for when she opened her eyes she heard nothing. It was night outside, so the room was dark, and she looked about, seeing nothing unusual or different in the room. Her eyes began to close again, but in the next moment she sat upright, clutching the sheet to her.
Standing at the foot of her bed was a woman. She was a pretty older woman dressed in a simple gown like the ones that Zared barely remembered seeing her mother wear. The woman looked at Zared with interest, then she smiled at her, a gentle smile.
Zared would have returned the smile to the woman except for one thing: She could see through the woman.
Through the woman's gown and body Zared could see the door behind her, could see the tapestry hanging to the left of the door.
Zared pulled the sheet closer about her and began to pray.
The woman's smile left her face, and she looked a bit sad that Zared should be so frightened of her. She turned away from the bed and walked to the door. At the door she paused and motioned to Zared to follow her, then she slid through the oak of the door and disappeared.
Zared sat paralyzed where she was. She had no intention of moving. In fact, she thought she might never leave the bed again in her life.