“And…Roger”—he tripped over the name—“is good to you?”
“He prot
ects me.” She smiled and closed her eyes. Miles was massaging the tight muscles in her neck. “Roger has always protected Brian and me.”
“Protected you from what?”
From Edmund, she almost said but caught herself. Her eyes flew open and she sat up. “From men!” she spat. “Men have always liked my looks but Roger kept them away from me.”
He kept her hands imprisoned. “You know many tricks for repulsing men and you have wrapped yourself in steel. You are obviously a naturally passionate woman, so what has killed your passion? Was it that perhaps Roger was not always near enough to protect you?”
Elizabeth refused to answer him and she cursed her momentary trustfulness. After a while, Miles gave an exaggerated sigh and released her. Immediately she sprang away from him.
“Go to bed,” he said tiredly as he stood, turning his back on her.
Elizabeth didn’t trust him to keep his word about not sleeping with her, but she would do nothing to entice him. Fully clothed except for her soft leather shoes, she slipped into the big bed.
Miles blew out the single candle and for a long moment stood silhouetted before the moonlit window.
When Elizabeth heard no sounds from him she quietly turned on her back to watch him. All her body was tense with fear of what was to come. With resignation she watched him undress, and when he was nude she held her breath. But Miles lifted the thin blanket on the windowseat and stretched out—or tried to. He cursed once when his feet hit the paneling at the end of the cushion.
It was some minutes before Elizabeth began to realize that Miles Montgomery was not going to force himself on her. But she suspected that as soon as she was asleep he would pounce. She dozed lightly but every noise woke her. When Miles tried to turn on his narrow bed, he woke her and for a moment she would tense, but when she heard his even breathing of sleep, she’d relax again and sleep—until the next noise woke her.
Chapter 4
“DIDN’T YOU SLEEP WELL?” MILES ASKED THE NEXT morning as he pulled on his clothes. Tight black hose gripped his powerful legs, an embroidered jacket barely reaching the tops of his thighs.
“I never sleep well in the presence of my enemies,” she retorted.
With a chuckle, he brushed her hands away and braided her hair for her, tying the tail with a bit of ribbon. When he finished, he kissed her neck, causing her to jump away while rubbing her neck.
He held out his arm to her. “I know you will be sad to leave my company but my men wait below for us.”
She ignored his arm and left the room ahead of him. It was very early yet, the sun only a warm glow on the horizon. Miles murmured that a meal was waiting for them some distance down the road, and that they would ride for a few hours first.
Miles and Elizabeth stood together on the little porch of the inn, Sir Guy before them, Miles’s knights waiting with the horses and baggage mules behind the giant.
“Everything is ready?” Miles asked Sir Guy. “The innkeeper has been paid?”
Before Sir Guy could answer, a little girl, about four, raggedly dressed, came running out of the inn, swerved to miss Miles and fell down the two steps. Instantly, Miles was on his knees, pulling the child into his arms.
“Hush, sweetheart,” he whispered, standing, the child clinging to him.
To Sir Guy and the knights, this was a familiar sight, and they waited patiently, with a bored air, while Miles comforted the child. Elizabeth didn’t concern herself with Miles. Her one and only thought was for the injured child. She stretched out her arm, put her hand on the back of the crying child’s head.
The child pulled her face away from the hollow in Miles’s shoulder, and through tear-blurred eyes she looked at Elizabeth. With a fresh burst of tears she lifted her arms and lunged forward into Elizabeth’s grasp.
It was difficult to tell who was more astonished: Miles, Sir Guy or the Montgomery knights. Miles gaped at Elizabeth and for a moment his pride took a beating.
“Hush now,” Elizabeth said in a gentle voice such as Miles had never heard before. “If you stop crying Sir Guy will give you a ride on his shoulders.”
Miles coughed to cover the laugh that threatened to choke him. Between Sir Guy’s size and the hideous scar on his face, most people, and especially women, were terrified of him. He’d never seen anyone dare to volunteer the giant to be a child’s horse.
“You’ll be so tall,” Elizabeth continued, swaying with the child, “you’ll be able to reach up and catch a star.”
The child gave a sniff, pulled away from Elizabeth and looked at her. “A star?” she hiccuped.
Elizabeth caressed the child’s wet cheek. “And when you get the star, you can give it to Sir Miles to repay him for the new dress he’s going to purchase for you.”