shadow and lace (29 page)

The nights since they had left Midgard had been passed beneath the watchful eyes of her brothers and cousin. Little besides their hands and gazes had touched. Only once had Gareth drawn her away while the others were taking down the tent, pulling her into a copse and pinning her against a pine with his kiss until she thought he would take her then and there, quickly and secretly. But he had pulled away, driving his fingers through his hair with a groan. They had returned to mount with the others, her silly grin matching the one on Gareth's lips. Beneath the fur mantle he had wrested from a reluctant Irwin, his hands had roamed shamelessly until her giggles melted to small moans and she begged him in a tight whisper to end his exquisite tortures. Tonight she would beg him to continue them.

Rowena held her breath as she ducked beneath the water to rinse away the soap. She emerged to find Marlys standing at the top of the tub, arms crossed and one booted foot propped on its rim.

Marlys's hair hung in damp hanks. Her tunic was beaded with moisture and she smelled like a damp hound. Rowena crossed her arms over her chest, remembering their last meeting—Marlys's kindness in helping them flee. After too many sleepless nights on frozen earth, Rowena had to wonder if it was kindness or malice that had prompted Gareth's sister.

"Welcome home, pup."

"Hullo, Marlys. 'Twas hardly a homecoming without you leaping out of a tree at us." Rowena reached for the soap, keeping her face carefully expressionless.

Marlys scooped up the slippery ball and tossed it in the air. "I was around."

"You always are, are you not?"

"Only when you need me." Marlys circled the tub.

Tears stung Rowena's eyes as Marlys grabbed a handful of hair and jerked her fingers through a tangled strand. Rowena bit her lip to stifle a shriek.

"How many weeks has it been since you combed this mop?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Rowena retorted.

"It wants untangling badly."

Rowena snatched her hair out of Marlys's implacable grip. "I have no desire to be bald by the time Gareth returns."

Marlys tossed the soap in the water and took an ivory comb from the table. Her smile was a flash of startling white behind her fall of dark hair. "Trust me."

Marlys knelt behind the tub and gathered a handful of hair. With surprising gentleness, she began to work the comb through its length. Rowena's scalp tingled as the languid strokes drew her head back. She closed her eyes, sighing with satisfaction.

Marlys's voice was as soft and soothing as her hands in Rowena's hair. "Where did you spend your nights on your return to Caerleon?"

Rowena did not open her eyes. "Fields. Copses. Once the snow began to melt, 'twas pleasant enough."

Marlys abandoned the comb and curled the damp tendrils around her fingers. " Tis a pity he could not lodge at the keeps of his friends. I suppose his reputation is black enough without carting a bright-eyed whore all over England."

Rowena's shoulders heaved in a weary sigh. The last time she had thought herself a whore in this tub she had dissolved in tears. But then it had not been the truth. She could hardly lash out at Marlys for putting her new status into words, however cruel their intent.

Marlys gathered her hair into a knot. "You were a fool to let Gareth catch you."

"Do you see any scars marring my flesh? Your brother did not flog me. He did naught but warm and feed me."

Marlys's laugh was low. "I daresay he did. The way his hands lingered when he pulled you off Folio, I thought he was going to warm you right there in the bailey."

Rowena's eyes were as opaque as the cloudy water. "Why did you send me away?"

"You were losing your heart to him, were you not? Like all those others before you." Marlys's hands tightened into fists, tugging the tender hairs at the nape of Rowena's neck. "Is that how you would choose to spend your life? Simpering over a man who can never return your love?"

" 'Tis how you have chosen to spend your life, is it not?"

Without warning, Marlys slammed Rowena's head under the water. Rowena came up, sputtering and spitting, only to be shoved under again. The next time she came up swinging, and Marlys caught a soapy fist in the mouth.

Water flew as Rowena shook her hair out of her eyes and leaped to her feet. "Shall you drown me?"

" 'Tis more compassion than Gareth will show when he tires of your mewling." Marlys jammed her hands into her sleeves and paced to the window. She threw open the shutter and turned her face to the rain.

Rowena sat down abruptly. "The truth about your jealousy stings, does it not? I've heard the things you say to Gareth. As long as you keep him obsessed with the past and make him feel unworthy of another's love, he belongs to you. You can keep him at Caerleon, cut off from society, in virtual isolation. He will venture out to fight his tournaments, to bed his women, but he will always return to you because you will insure he believes you are the only one who loves him, despite the past."

Marlys slammed the shutter. "Of course I love him. Everyone loves Gareth. I heard it as a child until I thought it would make me ill. My mother loved him. I tore open her womb fighting to be born, but 'twas Gareth's name she whispered with her dying breath. My father loved him. He was every hope my father had. And we both know how very well Elayne loved him."

Rowena stood, pride stiffening her spine. Refusing to betray a trace of shyness, she climbed out of the tub and crossed to the linen towel draped in front of the fire.

She bent to dry herself with the stiff, warm folds.

Marlys's arms hung loose at her sides. "Not one mark did he leave on you. Unless he put a babe in your belly." Rowena straightened, paralyzed by the venom in Marlys's voice. "You'd best hope he failed at that, lest it meet the same fate as Elayne's babe."

Rowena's towel hung forgotten from her fingertips. The door swung open. She was unaware of the portrait the flames painted of her in shades of peach and gold and stricken blue.

"Begone, Marlys." Gareth stood in the doorway, a steaming cup cradled in his hand. "Now."

His expression did not invite argument. Rowena shielded herself with the towel, suddenly shy. Marlys gave her a mocking bow before sweeping from the chamber. Gareth slammed the door behind her.

Rowena turned all of her attention to drying between her toes. She could not meet Gareth's gaze with Marlys's words still spinning through her head. Elayne's cursed babe again. She kept her head inclined, praying her hair would hide her confusion.

The cup clinked as he laid it on the hearth. His hand brushed the naked curve of her spine. "Was she taunting you?"

"Sometimes I think she must hate me as much as she hated your stepmother."

Gareth's eyes darkened. "On the contrary. Marlys worshiped Elayne. Followed her everywhere like a puppy. I suppose she tired of following me."

Rowena shivered, more from Marlys's lingering miasma of doom than from cold. Gareth wrested two pelts from the bed. One he spread at Rowena's feet. The other he held like a cloak in front of him.

She arched an eyebrow. "My bed, milord? I had hoped I was done sleeping at your feet."

"Impudent wench. One bath and you fancy yourself fit for my bed." He threw the fur over her head before dragging her into his lap. The soft fur tickled her nose, making her sneeze. He poked around in the top of the fur until a golden head emerged. "Look what I found! A stray beastie among my pelts." He ruffled her damp hair. "What a lovely pair of gloves these locks would make! Or mayhaps a muff for my lady."

"Your lady would be cursed indeed at such a perverse muff. She might stuff her hands in and never retrieve them."

Gareth brought her palm to his lips. "We must avert such disaster, for her hands are precious to me indeed."

Rowena's hand lingered at his face, her fingertips tracing his warm lips. When enfolded in his arms, the doubts stirred by Marlys's words seemed a world away. The cozy scent of cloves and cinnamon wafted to her nostrils as Gareth pressed the cup to her lips.

"I almost forgot," he said. "Drink this."

Rowena recoiled from the cup. "What is it?"

"Poison, of course. What else would you expect of me?"

Rowena giggled, not sure if she should. She took a sip and spiced cider flavored with ale slid down her throat.

"How sweetly you would drink poison for me." At his pensive tone, Rowena twisted to see his expression, but he dug his chin into the top of her head to prevent it. " Tis a sobering thought."

" 'Tis a pleasant poison."

He gently boxed her ears. " 'Tis only a posset Dunnla brewed for you. I bade her go heavy on the ale in the hopes you would lose your wits and I could make merry on your body all the night long."

Setting the cup aside, Rowena wiggled in a circle and threw herself against him, driving him to his back. The fur slid off her shoulders. She leaned forward, dragging her bare breasts across his tunic in a tantalizing motion.

"I've already lost my wits. I need no posset to prove it."

Gareth murmured an agreement as he cupped her head and pulled her mouth to his. Their lips lingered in a touch of flame, bound by the inextricable sweetness of warmth and cinnamon.

After several breathless kisses, Gareth wrapped her hair around his fist and pulled her head up. "Rowena, these stones are rather lumpy."

Her smile was crooked. "Suffer, sir. You've had no bath. You are not fit for my bed."

She pressed her sweet-smelling body to his. Rain pattered against the shutters as Rowena proceeded to make him forget about the lumpy stones and every other thought that had ever entered his mind. She shuddered as his velvety hardness deepened the ache within her. She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears that would come, and for a timeless moment cared naught if he had murdered a hundred treacherous women and their mewling babes.

Marlys stood with her back pressed to Gareth's door. A groan so deep it was almost a growl was followed by a tinkling bell of laughter."

"Aye, my sweet puppy," Marlys said softly, burying her face in her hands. "Jealous."

A soft moan, throaty with the exquisite agony of pleasure, drifted through the door. Marlys clapped her hands over her ears and fled down the corridor, trying to escape the bright edge of light the lovers cast. It left her in a shadow so deep she was afraid she might disappear forever. She threw herself on her own bed and stuffed the coverlet in her mouth to muffle her sobs.