“What are you doing on my horse?”
His outrage filled his craw to overflowing. “You have the gall to face me down about riding Wicket? Have you no sense? You are out here alone. You do not know what sort of man might be lurking, eager to take you. You are with Hawk, the most vicious of all my father’s hounds. He could have ripped your neck apart.”
“I am not alone. I am with Hawk. He likes me. There was never a problem with him. No one would come close to me with him about. It is you who are at fault here. You are riding Wicket. He is my horse, no one else’s. Why are you riding him? Why did he allow you to?”
He kept a firm hold on himself. “The only reason you are not riding him is because you knew my men would never let you out of the keep walls without protection. So you made a friend of Hawk and slithered out the postern gate. At least you had the brains not to venture out by yourself.”
“Aye, mayhap that is the way it appeared.”
“Don’t lie to me. That is exactly what you did.”
“Very well. That is very handy, that gate. It is a beautiful day. I was bored. I wanted to explore. Hawk wished to have some exercise. He is all the protection I needed. I do not like you riding Wicket. I don’t understand why he let you ride him.”
He plowed his fingers through his hair to calm himself. He could only shake his head. “Your horse and my father’s hound have no sense. But hear me, Chandra, what you did was beyond foolish. Hawk could have chewed your arm off instead of falling in love with you. I don’t understand it. Why did you leave the safety of Camberley without telling me? And don’t you dare whine about me lying there snoring.”
“Well, you were snoring. You woke me up. I could not go back to sleep.”
“Then why didn’t you kiss me to wake me up?”
She looked at him as if he were mad.
He could only shake his head. “That is no excuse for leaving the safety of the keep. I still cannot believe that my men allowed you to leave by yourself. They will not allow this to happen again, Chandra.”
“I am to be a prisoner now?”
“By all God’s gifts to the world, are you really so witless? Or, for some devious reason I cannot understand, are you simply torturing me?”
“I am not witless or devious.”
“Then what are you?”
For an instant, her eyes went perfe
ctly blank. Then she said slowly, and he saw the deep uncertainty in her, “I don’t know anymore what I am. I am not what I was, but now? Mayhap you’re right and I am witless.”
He cursed, then pulled her against him. She was stiff. He stroked his big hands up and down her back, willing her to ease against him. He kissed her neck, tasted her, and said, “Listen to me. You are not a prisoner. You are my wife. That is what you are now. Have no more doubts about that. Now, you will exercise your sense—do you understand me? And no, don’t accuse me of changing.”
She leaned away from him. “You have changed toward me, and you are nearly spitting in my face.”
“No, I wasn’t spitting. I was kissing you.”
She said nothing at all to that.
He looked at her face, into her eyes, wondering what she was thinking now. “Well then, that is good. You understand.” He released her, turned away and mounted Wicket. “Wicket is a fine animal. He took to me readily. It seems Wicket recognizes me more quickly than you do as his master.”
“I don’t want you to ride him again, Jerval. In fact, you should get off him right now. I will ride him back to the keep. You will stay with Hawk.”
“You walked out here. You can walk back.” He laughed and gave her a wave and galloped away. She did not know it, but Jerval didn’t let her out of his sight until she was safely inside the postern gate.
Life, he thought, as he brushed Wicket’s broad back in the dimly lit stable, was proving to be quite a diversion. Diversions were fine, but too many of them just might send him to his knees.
When he joined her at one of the long benches in the Great Hall, he broke off a piece of warm bread, chewed it with great appreciation, and said, “Did you enjoy the storm last night?”
She ate her own bread, chewing it for a very long time. He leaned close and kissed her nose. When she would have pulled away, he said, “At least you were warm and safe because I held you very close. You see, I continue to be useful to you even after I have felled you with pleasure.”
She ate more bread and chewed and chewed before saying sourly, “Mayhap there is some truth there.”
He laughed.