19
WORD of Cassandra’s appearance went through the keep almost as quickly as word of Duncan’s true name had two days before. Amber heard rumors of the Learned woman whispered by the serving men who brought steaming bathwater to the room where Amber and Duncan had once slept together.
But no more.
Amber hadn’t seen Duncan since he had requested that Simon escort her to the luxurious room. She had become a prisoner in all but name, her only company the servants who came and went without warning.
And without conversation. It was as though they were terrified of being caught speaking to the lady of the keep.
A shout from the bailey below drifted through the partially open shutters. Amber stood poised on the edge of entering the big wooden tub, where water gently steamed.
“She be here, I tell you! Saw her with me own two eyes. Blood-red robes and silver hair!”
Amber listened, but nothing more about Cassandra’s presence could be heard from the high room. With a sigh, Amber slid into the water.
Will Duncan come to me now? Will he finally admit that he needs me as much as I need him?
Only silence answered Amber’s half-fearful, half-yearning thoughts.
That same silence had once been her customary state, but she had never noticed it.
She hadn’t known then what it was like to wake up feeling herself surrounded by Duncan’s arms. She hadn’t known then what it was like to feel his warmth, his laughter, his hunger, his peace, his strength, all that was Duncan enfolding her in a richness of emotion she had never imagined.
Having known that sharing, Amber now knew what true loneliness was. She measured its extent in the echoing emptiness that was inside her.
No, Duncan won’t come to me.
’Tis just as well. I dream of black wings beating at me, whispering unthinkable rage, unspeakable grief.
I fear what would happen if I touched him now.
For both of us.
I fear.
And yet I yearn…
The coolness of the bath told Amber that she had spent too long in useless regrets. Despite the hearth’s cheerful fire close by, she felt chilled.
Amber reached for a pot of soap and began washing quickly, barely noticing the complex fragrance of evergreen and spices that rose from the soap. Soon the scent drifted through the room, as did the sound of soft splashes as she bathed.
“My lady,” Egbert called from the hallway beyond the room.
“Again?” muttered Amber under her breath. Then, “What is it?”
“May I enter?”
Though the bath was shielded by wooden screens both for privacy and to hold the hearth’s warmth close to the wooden tub, Amber had no desire for Egbert’s company.
“As I told you a few minutes ago, I’m bathing,” she said tartly.
There was an odd silence followed by the sound of feet shifting against the wooden floor.
“Lord Duncan requires your presence in the solar,” Egbert said.
“I will be down presently.”
Nothing in Amber’s voice suggested that she was excited to have her time of forced seclusion end.
Or that she was longing to see her husband.
“The lord was most, um, urgent in his requirement.”
“Ask him, then, if he would like to see me in the great hall, wearing only the liquid remains of my bath?”
The sound of rapidly retreating footsteps was Egbert’s answer.
Moments later, candle flames dipped and trembled as a draft moved through the room. Amber didn’t notice, for she was rinsing her face. But an instant later, she looked up and froze. A frisson of awareness shot through her.
Someone was in the room with her, standing just beyond the the wooden screens. Watching her.
Duncan.
She was certain of it.
“Yes, lord?” Amber asked.
Despite her best efforts at calm, her voice wasn’t steady. Her heart was beating far too rapidly with the knowledge that Duncan was so close.
For the space of several breaths, no answer came.
Rage and desire fought for control of Duncan.
Every breath he took was infused with the scent of evergreen and spice.
The silence shivered with the tiny sounds of water gliding over skin.
Each instant announced in a new way that Amber was nearby, fragrant, warm.
Naked.
The hammer blow of desire that went through Duncan made him sway.
“Cassandra has asked after you,” he said finally.
But Duncan’s voice said much more, husky and heavy, telling of blood racing hotly, flesh hardening, a body yearning to be completed. He could not have told Amber of his desire more clearly if he had touched her.
His mind might be closed like a fist against her, but his body wasn’t.
Amber made a soft sound as her own body softened in a heated rush. She prayed that Duncan hadn’t heard the telltale break and thickening of her breath.
And she prayed that he had.
The same instinct that had told Amber about Duncan in that first single touch had been whispering relentlessly to her since he had looked at her and seen his betrayer rather than his lover.
Instinct and gift combined told Amber that she must somehow get past Duncan’s rage before it destroyed both of them, and the people of Stone Ring Keep as well. If desire was the only way to reach him…
Then let it burn.
“Tell Cassandra I am bathing,” Amber said huskily.
Deliberately she shifted in the tub so that her profile rather than her back was to the screens.
Slowly, gracefully, she trickled fragrant water over her shoulders and breasts.
Crystal drops ran down the shadow cleft between her breasts and gathered in glittering crowns on nipples that had tightened simply at the sound of Duncan’s voice.
Amber heard Duncan draw in his breath. As she had hoped, he was watching her through the space where the screens didn’t completely meet. She wished she could see him as well as he was seeing her.
And as naked.
“You don’t usually bathe at this time of day,” Duncan said.
Like Amber’s voice, Duncan’s said more than his words.
She shrugged, sending intriguing patterns of light, shadow, and moisture over her breasts.
“I’m not usually held prisoner,” Amber said.
She lifted her arms and reached behind her head to tuck up stray strands of her hair. Her breasts swayed gently. The nipples gathered into even higher crowns. Silhouetted against the fire, she appeared to be licked by amorous flames.
With a throttled sound, Duncan forced himself to look away. The first thing he saw was the dinner that had been brought hours before to Amber’s room. Little had been touched. Less had been eaten.
“Is something wrong with your food?” he asked roughly.
“No.”
“You must eat more,” he said.
“Why? It takes little strength to be a prisoner.”
The calm question infuriated Duncan. He had no answer save that the thought of her fasting when there was no religious need disturbed him.
Abruptly Duncan turned and headed for the door. This time he made no attempt to be silent. The clink and rub of chain-mail hauberk and hood, chausses, gauntlets, and sword announced that the lord of the keep was prepared for battle.
But he hadn’t been prepared to find his enemy naked.
“Finish your bath,” Duncan said in a harsh voice. “Be quick about it. If you aren’t in the great hall before I become impatient, I’ll send a scullery wench in to dress you and drag you forth.”
The door to the room shut with emphasis, announcing that Duncan had left.
Anger and disappointment swept through Amber, but she wasn’t foolish enough to test her husband’s temper by dragging her feet. Whether Duncan knew it or not, she would rather have been whipped than forced to endure being touched by all but three people in the world.
Cassandra was one of them. Erik was another. The third had just left in a fury.
It was a very short time before Amber appeared in the solar, wearing a gown the color of highland pines.
Against the dark green of her gown, the ancient amber pendant glowed as though on fire.
Her hair was a loose, flowing cloud held back from her face by a silver circlet set with amber gems the precise color of her eyes.
Duncan looked at Amber as though she were a stranger. A glance, no more, before he turned again to watch the Learned woman whose gray eyes had never looked more like a winter sky.
“As you see,” Duncan said curtly, gesturing toward the doorway, “Amber is unharmed.”
Cassandra turned and looked at the girl she had raised as her own daughter.
“How goes it with you?” Cassandra asked.
“It is as you foresaw.”
Pain passed like a shadow over the Learned woman’s face at Amber’s soft words. Cassandra bowed her head for a moment. When she looked up again, there was no expression on her face at all. She turned toward Duncan.
“Thank you, lord,” Cassandra said quietly. “I will trouble you no more.”
“Hold,” Duncan said when Cassandra would have turned away.
“Yes?” she asked calmly.
“What did you foresee for Amber?”
“Nothing that would affect your ability to rule Stone Ring Keep, its people, or its lands.”
“Amber,” Duncan said without looking away from Cassandra. “Touch the Learned woman while I question her.”
Disbelief showed in Amber’s face for an instant. Then anger came.
“There is no reason to doubt her word,” Amber said stiffly.
Duncan’s smile was as cold as Cassandra’s eyes.
“No reason for you, perhaps,” he said. “She has no affection for me.”
“Daughter,” Cassandra said, holding out her hand. “Your husband is uneasy. Reassure him.”
Amber took the other woman’s elegant fingers between her own. The emotions that poured into Amber were complex, powerful, darkly seething with all that had been risked.
And lost.
Closing her eyes, Amber fought against the tears that Cassandra would not shed.
“I have foreseen nothing that would affect your hold on Stone Ring Keep, its people, or its lands,” Cassandra repeated.
“It is the truth,” Amber said.
She put Cassandra’s palm against her cheek in a brief caress and released her.
Unease rippled through Duncan. Though nothing more was said, he could feel the sadness flowing between the two women.
It was as though they were saying good-bye.
“What did you foresee for Amber?” he demanded again.
Neither woman spoke.
“What did you foresee?”