Chapter Ten #2
Bose’s knights continued to chortle loudly at his expense, listening to Lance’s high-pitched delight join in their amusement.
The loud laughter had attracted the attention of other knights on the opposite side of the table, interested expressions focusing on the frivolity.
If Bose noticed the additional attention, he did not react.
In truth, he had eyes only for Summer as she smiled beautifully in reaction to his response.
“Truly?” she squeezed his hand. “You would do this for me?”
He fought down a threatening smile. God’s Beard, it was difficult to look into her smiling face and not respond in kind. “I would do anything for you.”
Bose’s knights roared their approval, clapping loudly as if Bose had just accomplished a mighty feat.
Lance clapped too, heartily, as Ian paid particularly close attention to the conversation; in faith, he had only been jesting when he had asked Summer to use her influence against the fearsome warrior.
And even though he did not truly believe the man to be serious in his reply, it was increasingly apparent that he was responsive to Summer’s pleas and Ian’s hope began to mount.
Mayhap he had a chance tomorrow, after all.
Summer was acutely aware of his softly-uttered words. She leaned closer to him, tugging on his sleeve.
“You say you will do anything for me?”
“Indeed.”
“Promise?”
“I do.”
She did not hesitate. “Then knock my b-brother on his arse.”
The entire table exploded with boisterous laughter.
Lance turned to Ian, slouched in his chair and awash with a miserable expression, to slap the man heartily on the shoulder in a show of sympathy.
Summer moved away from Bose, her lips still creased with a devilish smile, to regain her chalice of wine.
“Bravo, Summer,” Stephan said with quiet mirth. “I applaud a woman who refuses to misuse her power.”
Summer’s smile broadened in response, casting a glance to her forlorn brother three seats away. Ian looked to his treacherous sister between the splayed fingers of the hand over his face, grimacing in reaction to her smirking expression.
“You’ve doomed me, Summer,” he lamented as Lance patted him on the skull. “By tomorrow this time, I shall be only a memory.”
As the other knights about the table agreed, Summer’s expression softened with mock pity toward her condemned brother.
“But you are so strong and skilled, Ian,” she insisted with mock conviction. “You’ve told me so. And the only reason Sir B-Bose has managed to best you in the p-past is because he’s cheated. Isn’t that what you’ve said?”
The throng hovering about the table groaned and chortled as Ian turned shades of red. Summer merely smiled, loving the attention and the fact that she was succeeding in humiliating her too-confident brother.
“That’s not what I said. I… I told you that Sir Bose bested me because he is the most powerful knight in the entire realm.”
The bid to avoid Bose’s wrath was met by cheers and drunken salutes; there was not one man about the table willing to disagree. The snickering laughter was directed at Ian, knowing the man was struggling to retain his hide.
Through the laughter and revelry filling the smoky air, Stephan seemed somewhat removed from the dialogue as he watched his baby sister sample her first true taste of public life. Her smiles, her rosy cheeks, and her lack of concern for her imperfect speech struck a chord deep within him.
Stephan and his brothers had shielded Summer for her own protection.
And as Stephan lived and breathed, he knew his father had kept her isolated for very different reasons; Edward liked to pretend that he protected his daughter out of fatherly concern when, in fact, his eldest son knew full well that his father hid the youngest du Bonne sibling and her stuttering as one would conceal a disease.
Glancing to his drunken father now and again, Stephan could not help but wonder why Edward had allowed Summer to mingle with the masses.
Mayhap the man was past the point of caring any longer, a factor Stephan seemed to have a good deal of trouble accepting.
Or mayhap Edward permitted his daughter to attend the feast with de Moray in the hopes that the man would become smitten enough to take the girl off his hands.
Summer was indeed proving to be witty and beautiful, radiant and sweet.
Her stutter was hardly evident and if the knights and ladies about the table noticed her occasional stammer, they certainly had not indicated as such.
They were as enchanted with her as de Moray was and from the expression on Bose’s face, Stephan suspected that enchantment did not quite encompass all of the knight’s thoughts.
“Do you see how Bose looks at Summer?” Genisa’s breath was suddenly hot on his ear, distracting him from his thoughts.
As Stephan nodded faintly, his wife squeezed his arm encouragingly.
“Your expression was the very same when we first met. I would wager to say that we are witnessing Summer’s future husband. ”
Stephan eyed the dark knight a moment, moving to drink from his chalice. “Time will tell, love.”
Genisa grinned, kissing his ear hotly. “It took you one week to pledge for my hand. How long do you suppose it will take Sir Bose?”
Stephan groaned softly, his male member already pulsing with life as his wife kissed him again. “God’s Blood, Genisa, not… here. Later.”
She laughed softly. “Sir Bose’s expression has caused me to recollect the very first time we made love. In an alcove at my father’s manse. Do you remember?”
Stephan groaned again, his palms beginning to sweat with the heat of desire. “Sir Bose’s expression has provoked your lust? I find the fact that another man has managed to arouse you most disturbing.”
“Do not,” she breathed, suckling discreetly on his earlobe. “Be thankful. There is an alcove in the hallway near the kitchens, my darling. It is a perfect place for our passion.”
Stephan did not reply for a moment, distracted from the thought of his sister’s blossoming popularity by Genisa’s desire. God’s Blood, the woman was never satisfied. But, then again, neither was he.
Abruptly, he stood, thankful that his tunic concealed his arousal. Pulling Genisa to her feet, he mumbled his excuses to the table of guests and escorted his giggling wife from the table. Moving through the smelly hall, he directed her into a dark, seldom used corridor.
The alcove was deep and narrow, nearly completely concealed by a large dusty tapestry.
Pushing his wife into the shadowed nook, he absorbed her wicked laughter with his demanding mouth, drawing at her flesh until her moans of desire drowned away the devilish mirth.
Hiking her skirts to her waist as she fumbled with his hose, he lifted her against the wall and braced her writhing body with his hips.
With a soft shout of possession, Stephan filled his wife with the proof of his powerful passion.
Thrust after mighty thrust, Genisa moved with him, her hands in his hair, her lips against his ear.
She wondered fleetingly if Summer would ever feel the same power from mighty de Moray and suspecting that she soon would.
*
“Stephan drew Duncan Kerry in the fifth round,” Lance was growing drunker by the moment. “I hope Genisa’s lust doesn’t drain his strength.”
Ian laughed softly, knowing the current activities of his brother and sister-in-law and struggling to suppress the familiar pain the knowledge evoked.
Controlling his emotions for Genisa had grown easier with time, a necessity for the sake of his sanity, until he was able to quite easily subdue the dull, anguishing ache.
Still, not a day went by that he did not wish for Genisa to be his.
And not a day went by that he did not envy his brother his good fortune.
But he refused to allow the familiar depression to envelope him at the thought of his brother bedding the woman that he himself was in love with. Instead, Ian found a good deal of distraction in the situation at hand and endeavored to focus on the conversation.
“I am surprised the young Kerry lad was able to best Sir Adgar,” he said, shifting to gain a better look at the small, trim knight down the table. “A freakish occurrence that he managed to evade your shield.”
Adgar leaned forward, his neatly groomed beard moving as he chewed. “Even more amazing that he managed to unseat me without trickery or unfair tactics. The lad caught me off-guard, pure and simple.”
“Duncan is not like his brother,” Bose said quietly, his gaze still riveted to Summer. “Fortunately, the lad possesses an ounce of compassion and morality. His older brother would do well to learn from him.”
Hand resting on her chin, Summer listened to the conversation regarding the Kerry brothers with lagging interest. The other knights about the table had turned back to their ladies and wine, a peppering of varied conversations traversing the length of the heavy table.
As she focused on a particularly loud knight who had fought quite brutally in the melee, a servant respectfully approached and whispered in her ear.
Immediately, she stood up, much to Bose’s concern.
“Where do you go, my lady?” he was already on his feet, preparing to escort her.
She smiled, patting his arm gently. “My father wishes to speak with me. Please sit and enjoy your wine,” when he appeared hesitant, her smile broadened and she put a reassuring hand against his chest. “He oft grows frantic when Stephan is absent. He merely wishes to know where my b-brother has gone.”
Bose cocked a black eyebrow, not wanting to let her out of arm’s length. She patted his arm again in a comforting gesture, excusing herself from the table and moving toward her lounging father several feet away. Bose watched until she reached the portly, ruddy man before re-seating himself.