Chapter 5
“You, by the gate. Come here.”
Bucket in hand, Katherine froze. She knew that voice. The night before it had whispered in her ear, and it had been as seductive as melted honey. It was now sharp and cutting, and calling to her from across the bailey.
Siaspar ap Morgan was displeased. And he wanted to talk to her. The only thing to do, even if she was petrified, was to obey. He was the master of the castle and could not be ignored. Eyes to the floor, she walked over to him.
“My lord?”
By rights, someone like him should barely even see her. What on earth could he possibly want from a scullion? She could tell that the people in the courtyard were asking themselves the same question. Unless…
Katherine ruthlessly stopped the question from forming fully. Mel had assured her only the day before that he never used servants to slake his masculine urges. She had to believe it was the truth.
“I need a moment with you,” he told her, adding to her confusion—and dread. “Leave your bucket here. Someone else will dispose of the scraps.”
He barked a few orders in Welsh. It wasn’t long before someone took the bucket from her hands, and everyone scurried back to the kitchen, as if wary of their master’s temper.
A moment later, Katherine was alone with Siaspar.
“What is your name?” he asked, his voice still as cutting as a shard of ice.
“Katherine, my l-lord,” Katherine stammered.
But she couldn’t help being terrified, because she was starting to suspect the reason for this bewildering summons.
He didn’t want to tumble her into bed, rather he wanted to know how she had ended up in his arms the night before.
Which was a hundred times worse. “Why do you desire to know my name?” she could not help but add.
“Because I still don’t know it, despite having made love to you twice.”
Breath caught in Katherine’s throat. Though she had been bracing herself for it, the attack had been blunt.
“I beg your pardon, my lord? We have never met before.”
“We have never been introduced before,” he contradicted with a calm that seemed to her more frightening than any show of temper. “Still, I would argue that we are not strangers to one another, would you not?”
“I assure you that you are mistaken,” she said feebly, taking a step back. From such close proximity she could see deep into Siaspar’s incredible eyes, and it made it all the more difficult to keep a level head. “I am a scullion. How could we have—”
“I know I am not mistaken.” He spoke with the assurance of a man of authority, a man used to being right. And he had every right to be confident. They had made love together, twice. But how did he know that? “You are the woman I held in my arms last night, who moaned under my caresses.”
Katherine stayed silent. Lady Malpas had never imagined that Siaspar would challenge her, and they had not prepared for the eventuality. How could she, a simple servant, go against the word of a great lord, on any matter?
Especially when he was speaking nothing but the truth?
“I have no idea what your mistress and you are about, but I will not be taken for a fool,” Siaspar added when it became obvious that she was not going to respond.
“My lord, I swear I do not think you’re a fool.”
“No? Well then stop acting as if you did,” he snapped.
Oh, Lord, what could she do? The man in front of her was nothing like the tender lover who had given her a kiss the night before and he seemed to know the truth about what had happened. How would she get out of this?
Siaspar took a step forward, forcing her to put her back to the wall to avoid his body coming in contact with hers.
“I say that you are the woman who was in my arms last night, you say you are not. If only there were a way to decide who is right, an irrefutable proof that you did lie with me last night…” he said, leaning in. “Mm. Isn’t it a bit warm to wear a cloak? Not to mention unpractical in the kitchen?”
It was, but it had been the only way to hide the mark on her neck, the scandalous trace of her night with Siaspar.
When she had walked into the kitchen that morning, Mel had laughed and asked her who was the lover who had marked her thus.
If her friend could have guessed that the man nibbling at her throat while in the throes of passion was none other than the master of the castle, she would have choked on her laughter.
Katherine panicked. She could not let Siaspar see her neck but she was trapped between him and the wall. There was nothing she could do save push him out of the way. This was not an option, and would probably not even work. He was twice as strong as she was.
Before she could do anything, Siaspar tugged at the cloak and uncovered the base of her neck. His eyes lit up when he saw what she had been desperate to hide.
“Tell me, Katherine, who gave you this bite?” His voice had been reduced to the purr she remembered from the night before.
“Did you allow one of the grooms working at the stables some liberties last night? Was it perhaps one of the stone masons repairing the castle at the top of the hill? Did you let him place his lips on your neck and bite you while he pumped his hips between your legs?”
He bent his head down until his lips came to rest on the place where the bite was.
At the contact of his mouth, so hot and velvety, Katherine let out a strangled cry. This was too much, she was drowning in confusion and sensation. “My lord.”
He ignored her plea and spoke against her flesh, sending goose bumps all the way down to her toes.
“Did the man give you pleasure? Did you cry out when you found your release? I know that cry, I heard it last night. Twice. It was you under me, responding to my touch. I know it. I can feel it. I can smell it. It was me, suckling at your throat the way I’d suckled on your breast earlier, at your request. It was me filling you with my cock, making your body burst at the seams.”
Though her insides had gone liquid, from somewhere Katherine found the strength to contradict him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, my lord.”
Siaspar drew back, eyes flashing with anger.
Suddenly he looked exactly like the savage Lady Malpas took him for.
She understood that his pleasant manners toward her the first time they had met at the bottom of the stairs, had been an act.
She had not walked into him by accident; he had purposefully placed himself on her path so that he could find out who she was.
“Let me spell it out for you. For a reason I am ignorant of, you and Lady Malpas agreed that you should take her place in bed. I bedded you on my wedding night, not my wife. I bedded you again last night. Though I am, for all intents and purposes, married to Lady Malpas, in reality, our marriage still has not been consummated and she is still a virgin, in a position to annul our union when it pleases her. Is that clearer for you? Are you still going to deny that this is what happened?”
Katherine found herself unable to withstand the onslaught.
All attempts at seduction had been forgotten.
The silk in Siaspar’s voice had been replaced by ice.
In that moment, she knew she would tell him the truth because there was no telling what he would do to extract an answer from her.
Even Lady Malpas in all her wrath had not come close to her husband’s formidable anger and she was frightened.
“I’m sorry. I was only obeying my lady’s orders,” she finally said.
She was sorry?
Siaspar was not going to be satisfied with such a feeble explanation or such a paltry apology, not when he was beside himself with anger. The two women, say what this Katherine might, had made a fool out of him, and worse, they had willfully compromised the alliance he had fought so hard to attain.
“Those orders made you sacrifice your maidenhead,” he said between his teeth.
She had been a virgin on his wedding night, he did know that.
There had been no mistaking the tension in her body as he’d lain next to her, or the tightness of her sheath when he’d entered her.
At the time, he had not thought it odd, as he had fully expected his bride to be untouched, but he could not help but wonder why any woman would have agreed to be ruined thus.
“I took your maidenhead, did I not?” he asked when she remained silent.
“Yes,” she said in a whisper, covering her neck with the cloak once again.
The gesture caused his groin to tingle, which in turned fanned his anger.
Why was he still attracted to her, despite knowing what she had done?
He should be disgusted. But remembering the way he had nibbled at her while she’d milked his seed with the strength of her release was making him want to do it again.
“Why did you allow such a thing to happen? You are ruined now.”
“You are speaking as if I had a choice!” Katherine’s vehemence surprised him.
Suddenly she was no longer the timid little scullion but an outraged woman.
She had lifted her head and her eyes were sending sparks.
“I am nothing, just a servant. I had no say in this! I could no more refuse to obey my lady’s orders than I could fight you off. ”
“Is that what you wanted to do last night, then? Fight me off? I did not get that impression.” Quite the contrary. She had been thoroughly seduced by his caresses and they both knew it.
“N-no, I…”
“I think that obeying your mistress’ orders was not exactly a bothersome duty.”
“Oh, my lord!”
The way she said the three words made Siaspar pause. She looked mortified, ashamed and defeated all at once. It made him reconsider what she had said—and see that she was right. Being only a servant, not the instigator of the scheme, she could not have gainsaid her mistress.
“Why did Lady Malpas ask you to take her place?” he asked, feeling calmer now that she had admitted the truth.
“She…is…”