5
“YOUNG Egbert told me that you want to go to Sea Home with me and watch my men train for battle,” Erik said.
“Yes,” Amber and Duncan said as one.
The three of them stood just inside the cottage. A few steps outside, Egbert waited with outward patience in the drizzle, holding the horses Amber and Duncan were to ride. One of the spare horses stamped and snorted, irritated by a trickle of rainwater down its leg.
Erik shot a hooded glance at Duncan before he turned his attention to Amber.
“You were never keen to watch my men train before,” Erik said mildly.
“Like Duncan, I tire of the four walls of my cottage,” Amber said in a tight voice. “Autumn rains can be tedious.”
Erik turned toward the other man. Duncan offered a smile that lacked both humor and comfort.
“The witch and I—excuse me,” Duncan said sardonically, “the Learned female and I are weary of shadow games, unanswerable questions, and Squire Egbert’s company.”
The squire in question gave a heartfelt sigh. He was heartily tired of tiptoeing around a witch of uncertain temper and a warrior whose temper was very certain—and quite vile.
“Then by all means,” Erik said, stepping away from the cottage door, “let’s be off to Sea Home.”
Amber pulled the hood of her mantle over her hair and walked across grass that shone with thick drops of water. The smoke of wood and peat fires curled through the early morning, finding space between drops of moisture that were too fine to be rain and too thick to be mist.
When Amber approached, Egbert whisked a protective cloth from the saddle of a dainty little chestnut mare. The squire made no move to help Amber into the saddle. That would have required touching her, and Egbert knew that no man touched Amber without her specific invitation.
Duncan didn’t know any such thing. He threw a disbelieving look at the stripling squire, stepped forward quickly, and lifted Amber into the saddle before the other men realized what he was doing.
Erik drew his sword half out of its sheath before he saw that Amber made no protest. With narrowed eyes he watched Duncan and Amber together.
Even in the act of releasing her, Duncan let his hands caress subtly, testing the resilience of Amber’s waist and hips, brushing over her thigh.
“Thank you,” she said.
Amber’s voice was breathless and her cheeks were flushed. The desire that Duncan had for her burned more brightly with each touch, each look, each day of enforced intimacy in the one-room cottage.
Once Duncan had gotten over his anger at Amber’s fear of him as a lover, he had set about seducing her with a single-minded focus that was in itself seductive.
Instead of banking the fires of mutual desire, Egbert’s presence had acted to heighten the intimacy of the ordinary.
Stolen caresses, a smile revealed and then hidden, strong fingers closing over a more delicate hand as a pot was lifted from the fire, all of these worked to increase passion until the very air quivered with it.
Amber had felt nothing similar in her life.
It was as though she were a harp being plucked by a master’s fingers.
Each of Duncan’s touches vibrated through her, setting off haunting harmonies in unexpected places.
The racing of her heart combined with a curious melting deep inside her body.
Her shortened breath was matched by the exquisite sensitivity of her skin.
Sometimes just watching Duncan was enough to make a sweet lassitude steal through Amber, turning her bones to honey. Now was one of those times. Duncan mounted the spare horse with the grace of a cat leaping onto a fence. His hand rubbed reassuringly down the length of the horse’s neck.
With a deep, aching breath, Amber tried to still the clamor of her body for the one man she must not have. Yet she couldn’t stop her memory of Duncan’s eyes as he watched her, and his lips as he spoke the words that set her on fire.
How many times have I undressed you, kissed your breasts, your belly, the creamy smoothness of your thighs?
“Are you all right?” Erik asked.
“Yes,” Amber said faintly.
“You don’t sound it.”
Turning, Erik gave Duncan a narrow look.
“No one touches Amber without her permission,” Erik said. “Is that quite clear?”
“Why?” Duncan asked.
“She is forbidden.”
Surprise showed in Duncan’s expression, but he controlled it immediately.
“I don’t understand,” he said carefully.
“You don’t have to,” Erik retorted. “Just don’t touch her. She doesn’t wish it.”
Duncan smiled slightly. “Truly?”
“Aye.”
“In that case, I will do as the lady wishes.”
With a darkly sensual smile, Duncan turned his horse aside and waited for Erik to lead off into the liquid gray of the morning.
Erik turned to Amber.
“Haven’t you warned him about touching you?” he asked.
“There was no need.”
“Why?”
“Even after Duncan awakened, his touch didn’t distress me.”
“Odd.”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She is still consulting her runes.”
Erik grunted. “I’ve never known Cassandra to labor so long over a prophecy before.”
“No.”
“God’s blood, no wonder Duncan is eager to be free of the cottage,” Erik muttered.
Amber gave him a sideways look from golden eyes, but said nothing.
“You’re as talkative as a turnip,” Erik said.
She nodded.
And spoke not one word.
With an impatient oath, Erik reined his horse aside and spurred into the lead.
Two knights and their squires trotted across the meadow to join the small party.
The men were wearing chain-mail hauberks beneath their mantles.
They also had metal helms on their heads and carried the long, teardrop-shaped shields that Saxons had adopted from their Norman conquerors.
Both knights were mounted on war stallions.
Duncan looked from the fully armed knights to Erik.
“Despite the clothes Stone Ring Keep has provided, suddenly I feel as naked as when I was found,” Duncan said dryly.
“Do you think you once wore armor?” Erik asked.
“I know it.”
There was no doubting the certainty in Duncan’s voice.
“It makes me wonder if perhaps the man who discovered me didn’t take my armor to pay for his trouble,” Duncan added.
“He didn’t.”
“You sound confident.”
“I am. I was the man who found you.”
Duncan’s right eyebrow rose in a questioning arc.
“Amber told me only that you had brought me to her,” Duncan said.
At Erik’s signal, the knights turned and rode from the cottage yard. After a time, Erik reined his horse alongside Duncan’s.
“Is your memory returning?” Erik asked.
“Bits and fragments, no more.”
“Such as?”
Though asked politely, the question was a command. Both men knew it.
“I fought the Saracen,” Duncan said, “but I don’t know when or where.”
Erik nodded, unsurprised.
“I feel naked without weapons or armor,” Duncan said. “I have some skill at hawking.”
“You ride well,” Erik added.
Duncan looked surprised, then thoughtful. “Odd. I assumed everyone did.”
“Knights, squires, and warriors, yes,” Erik said. “Serfs, villeins, merchants, and the like, no. Some priests ride well. Most don’t, unless they came of highborn families.”
“I doubt I’m a priest.”
“Why not? Many a fine warrior-priest has ridden against the Saracen for Church and Christ.”
“But the Church desires—yea, of late it even demands!—celibacy.”
Without realizing it, Duncan looked over his shoulder, where Amber rode alone.
She saw his glance and smiled.
Duncan smiled in return, watching Amber with a longing he couldn’t conceal. Even in the gray drizzle, she seemed to gather light into herself, becoming a golden presence that warmed everything within reach.
He wished he were free to ride next to Amber, his leg brushing hers occasionally. He loved to see the color flood her cheeks at his touch, to hear her breath shorten, and to sense the hidden stirring of her sensuality.
“No,” Duncan said, turning back to Erik, “celibacy is not for me. Now or ever.”
“Don’t even think of it,” Erik said icily.
Duncan gave the younger man a wary look.
“Think of what, my lord?” Duncan asked.
“Seducing Amber.”
“No maid is seduced without her permission.”
“Amber is called the Untouched. She is totally innocent. She wouldn’t have the least idea of what a man wanted until it was far too late.”
Duncan laughed, shocking Erik.
“No untouched maiden would be so vividly, sensually aware of a man,” Duncan said, amused.
Erik’s shock gave way to cold fury.
“Understand this, Duncan the Nameless,” Erik said distinctly. “If you seduce Amber, you will face me in single combat. And you will die.”
For a moment Duncan said nothing. Then he looked at Erik with the coolly measuring glance of a man to whom battles were neither new nor feared.
“Don’t force me to fight you,” Duncan said, “for I will win. Your death would grieve Amber, and I have no desire to bring her sadness.”
“Then keep your hands off her.”
“As the lady wills. If she is, as you say, untouched, there will be no difficulty. She won’t respond to the sensual lure.”
“Don’t offer it,” Erik said in a clipped tone.
“Why not? She is well beyond the age of marriage, yet she is neither betrothed nor under a lord’s private seal.” Duncan paused, then added, “Is she?”
“Betrothed? Nay.”
“Is she some lord’s leman?”
“I just told you, Amber is untouched!”
“Is she yours?” Duncan pressed.
“Mine? Haven’t you been listening? She is—”
“Untouched,” Duncan interrupted. “Aye. So you say.”
Duncan frowned, wondering why Erik was so intent on believing that Amber was a virgin, when Duncan had no doubt that the opposite was the case.
“Do you fancy Amber for yourself?” Duncan asked after a moment.
“Nay.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Why?”
“Amber is…extraordinary. No man could look at her without wanting her.”
“I can,” Erik said bluntly. “I no more desire Amber carnally than I would a sister.”
Duncan gave the other man a startled look.
“We were raised together,” Erik explained.
“Then why do you object to my touching her? Do you have a marriage in mind for her? Does she feel a calling to the nunnery?”
Erik shook his head.