On the bank an audience formed. Geoffrey waded waist deep in the stream, screaming, but Sir James caught the boy by his arm, holding him in check. Robin charged through a score of Welsh archers and young Edward plowed through the shallows at his heels. Both ran on bare, unshod feet, coming to the screaming lady's rescue.

Aware of all of that was going on around him, Chandos concentrated only on Bella's fighting hands seeking any purchase they could. Her nails raked his bare chest. Her kicking feet and twisting torso strained with every ounce of strength she had left to free her shoulders from his iron grip.

Again, John brought her up into the air. She spat water, choked and that wild red hair of hers spread like blood staining the water. She didn't curse this time.

Or claw at him with intent to injure. She threw her arms upward, trying to secure a hold around his neck, babbling, "No, no, stop, please, for the love of G.o.d, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

He refused to allow her to gain the fierce arm lock she wanted around his own neck. He would not be forced into having to dunk his own head again to submerge her if the fighting didn't stop. Her hands clamped behind his ears and she managed to lift herself enough to weld her mouth to his, kissing him.

That Chandos allowed. Sweeping his arm behind her back, he pulled her body flush against his own. She came to him, yielding her mouth to the raw thrust of his tongue. Her parted legs gripped his left thigh intimately.

Chandos tightened his fist on the wet sheet of hair at the nape of her neck. He pulled her head back as he deliberately kept her bent vulnerably over the water. Ginger freckles starkly glazed her pale skin. Her lashes spiked around eyes that had exchanged rage for remorse.

"Oh, John, what have I done?" she whispered.

"You've lost the battle, lady," he affirmed, pulling her to him. "And the war. You know in your heart I cannot let you win. There is too much at stake between us."

"What do you mean?" she whispered as a shiver made her lips quiver.

"Time bed.a.m.ned. You are my woman and belong only to me, lady." He kissed her with all the need and hunger that had tormented him night after night since he'd brought her out of the Well of Souls. He would never be satisfied until she belonged to him, body, heart and soul.

Along the bank of the Maye the curious and the rudely awoken began to disperse. Prince Edward had Robin in a Welsh armlock, a good ten feet shy of his parents. Edward tightened his hold to spin Robin around, shoving him back up the embankment, growling an order to disperse to those who hadn't got the idea that this was a private moment, not to be intruded upon for which Chandos was eternally grateful.

Goeffrey stubbornly stood his ground, refusing to obey the Prince of Wales order to depart. That got him the first cuffing he'd ever had from James Graham. Every man in the camp knew, that today of all days, orders from the top were to be followed to the letter.

When Sir John finally raised his head from Bella's lips, only one person stood on the rocks by the Maye, Guilamu. He waited, holding the two towels he'd been ordered to bring.

Shivering in the drape of fresh linen, Bella followed Guilamu back to the tent. He gave her the heated water and soap and went to find her dry clothes from Sir Robin.

Sir John dried off at the stream and sought the king's confessor so that he could make his peace with G.o.d before attending ma.s.s and receiving communion. As there was time yet before the sun would be completely risen, he spoke to the king of the troubles that haunted his conscience the most...the validity of his marriage.

Edward, in his blunt way, cut to the heart of what troubled John Chandos so gravely, telling him, "The solution is obvious. Repeat each of your vows, renew them before G.o.d and before going into battle."

The king commanded his confessor to see to that before doing anything else this morning. Last, he sent for his son, and informed the prince that they would stand as witnesses.

Bella tugged Sir John's boar bristle brush through her hair one last time then shook the heavy mane of damp curls loose across her shoulders. Dressed temporarily in only her silk panties and a gauzy shirt of Sir John's, she sat on her heels, picking red strands from the brush, mentally praying, G.o.d, don't let me have ruined everything here, please.

A fat lot of good it did her to think G.o.d had time for her paltry prayers. Bella put the brush back where she'd found it. As she closed the lid when the tent wall parted and John de Chandos and King Edward's confessor straighted up right before her eyes... and she didn't have a st.i.tch of decent clothing on her body!

"For the love of G.o.d, woman, what have you done with your clothes?" Chandos shouted.

The vestment-robed priest about-faced so quickly his beads struck the canvas with a wallop. Mortified, Bella crossed her arms over her chest to cover her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

What little calm Chandos gained since his confession evaporated into the muggy air. He took two steps forward, snapped open the trunk at Bella's knees and rifled in it for the first piece of clothing he could find.

His ungentle hands yanked her to her feet and thrust one of his everyday tunics over her head.

"What's he doing here?" Bella hissed through her teeth, as she thrust her arm through a sleeve and pointed at the priest. Chandos jerked the tunic down her hips, covering Bella's lewd and s.e.xy silk britches and most of her thighs as well.

"Answer me!" Bella's fist thudded weakly against Sir John's naked chest. She'd be going for his nose next, if he thought to pull the same dirty trick he had the first morning she'd gotten to this blasted world.

John caught a hold of her offending fist and turned it down, his eyes blued steel piercing her to her core. "The priest is here to administer a sacrament."

"Which sacrament?" Bella demanded. Chandos picked up his cotte hardie and shrugged it onto his shoulders.

The flap parted again and this time a crowd entered. King Edward and his son, Robin, Geoffrey and Sir James all stepped inside, flanking the priest who had yet to turn back around.

"Sounds like you are ready for the witnesses," the King said with forced joviality. "Father Thomas, proceed."

"Just one minute!" Bella lodged another protest as John pushed her firmly under the light of the single lamp. His hands remained on her shoulders, making her face both priest and king.

"Ahem," Father Thomas cleared his throat, his breviary open in his hands. He raised his right hand and looked past Bella to Sir John. "You are ready, sir?"

"Yes, proceed." Sir John nodded a.s.sent.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to celebrate the sacrament of matrimony..."

Bella twisted against the hands clamped on her shoulders, turning her head to stare into John's fathomless eyes. "You want to marry me? Why?"

"One moment, Father." The king halted the priest.

"Your Majesty, I prefer to answer that question myself," Chandos said preemptively. "Bella, today in battle I could very well be asked to surrender my soul to to G.o.d. Will you repeat our vows, removing all doubt of the validity of our marriage from my conscience, so that I may face judgement before G.o.d Almighty with my eternal soul shriven of all sin?"

Bella already knew John de Chandos walked a devilishly narrow line between what he considered good and evil. She shook damp hair away from her face, nodding. "So long as you are not doing this out of pity for me."

"Pity has nothing to do with this." John's arms encircled her, bringing her hands together under his, properly folded before the priest. When she bowed her head, she saw her bare knees and feet. That made high color rise into her face as she realized her backside was flush against his aroused body.

"Proceed," ordered Sir John.

Father Thomas did exactly that. It wasn't very long before Bella repeated after him, "I, Isabella Saint Pierre pledge my troth to you, John de Chandos my lawfully wedded husband, to love, honor and obey from this day forward, for richer, for poorer in sickness and in health until death do we part."

Then they were both kneeling for the priest's blessing which came with an addendum for Sir John, absolving him of all the sins he'd confessed.

Bella kept her comments to herself, a little too flabbergasted to make sense of what was really going down. Especially since King Edward made a point of clapping Chandos on the back and admonishing him with the words, "There, that should set your mind completely at rest. You may ride into battle with a clear conscience, my friend."

The priest had other confessions and ma.s.s pending so he departed immediately. Prince Edward bowed elegantly, congratulated Bella and with a devilish grin making his eyes twinkle, kissed her on the mouth.

Robin and Geoffrey remained silent witnesses. James Graham offered Sir John his best wishes. Sir John took hold of Graham's extended hand and clasped his other hand to his friend's shoulder.

"My friend, should anything happen to me this day, I entrust my sons into your keeping. See that they are upright Christians, strong in their trust in G.o.d, and loyal to their king."

"I will, my lord." Graham answered gravely. He bowed formally before Bella, touching his lips to the back of her hand and wished her well.

The king was more circ.u.mspect, having a few private words with Chandos that Bella wasn't privy to. Then he turned to her, giving her a rather curious examination, bare legs and all, then bowed to her, claimed he was her servant, always, and departed.

Her foundations rocked, Bella regarded Chandos with deep mistrust. "That was about the sneakiest trick I've ever been subjected to in my whole entire life, John Chandos." One dark brow arched above his beautiful eyes and he stared at her without denying his duplicity. "You object to repeating your oath of marriage before G.o.d and king, Bella?" "I object to being manipulated into making an oath of blind obedience to your will." "But you enjoy practicing the skill of manipulation ...greatly." Bella threw up her hands. She wasn't going to win any arguments against him. It wasn't in the cards. "So now what?" she wanted to know.

"Now," John said evenly. "All doubts of the validity of our marriage are resolved. You are my lawful wife in this time and era. I may do with you as I see fit, including bed you without sin, guilt or recrimination. So

you may remove that tunic I put on you for the priest and resume the fetching pose you had for my benefit when I returned."

"I don't think so," Bella countered. If he thought he was going to consummate this union after the way

he'd treated her since ten o'clock last night, he had another think coming. "What just transpired here doesn't come under my heading of as long as we both shall dig it."

"I have no idea what you mean by that."

"I mean that you just made this whole arrangement between you and I permanent."

Chandos raised his hand to the closure of his cotte hardie, opening it and discarding the garment as easily as he'd put it on. He sat on his clothing trunk and unbuckled his wet boots, unfastened his crossed-garters and stripped away drenched knitted stockings.

Bella remained standing, warily watching him rise and with deliberate purpose release the ties on his

trews. "Remove my tunic, Bella. Now."

"No. Why wouldn't the priest absolve you of your sins until after you'd said the vows of marriage to me?"

"Surely that is obvious enough without my having to explain."

"No." Bella shook her head. "It isn't."

"I am not an adulterer, Bella. I do not knowingly break any vow I have made. To bed you when there

exists the slightest question as to the validity of our marriage, is adultery. I could not continue to desire you and at the same time, resist the occasion of sin. By having the priest renew our vows removes all doubt from my mind."

"Is that why you avoided my bed after I went back to the Well of Souls?" "Aye," he answered solemnly.

"Do you believe I came here from the future?"

That tested him. "What I believe is that you are a different woman than the one I married. The how or why of that I cannot explain. So this renewal of our vows was necessary for me. It removes all questions, all doubts. Now, do you remove the tunic as I have told you to do, or do you force my hand?"

"That, Mister John Chandos, is exactly what I object to about the vow of obedience and the very reason it is no longer part of the pledge between consenting adults in my time."

"Hence, I remind you, wife, you are in my time. Here pledges are kept exactly the way they are spoken. These are the only terms you have available to you."

She didn't know what to say to that. He had to make the next move. She couldn't.

He met her under the soft glow of the lamp. Bella shivered a little when his hands caught hold of his oversized tunic at her hips, bunching the fabric inside his palms. She still had stubbornly crossed arms which he ought to know meant she wasn't in the mood for any fun and games.

His hands tightened on the cloth, drawing her against him with the barrier of her crossed arms an impediment to intimacy. He bent his head and kissed her throat below her left ear. Sharp teeth nibbled at her ear, then his lips moved softly against the outer sh.e.l.l as he spoke.

"I am not going to coax you like a pouting child, Bella. It is my right to consummate our marriage and your duty to submit to my will."

"After the way you've treated me..." She began a righteous protest and had it cut off by his lips taking hers.

He kissed her deeply, both his hands firm upon her head, allowing no path of escape as his tongue plunged like a hot lance between her lips. He raked the soft sensitive tissue of her palate, and toyed with her tongue, seeking it when she tried to avoid contact.

Her crossed arms weren't doing much good when he was free to exert all the seductive force in the world on melting her resistance. Melt she did, because Bella had always been a patsy for a well delivered kiss. The minute she gave in to the pleasure and uncrossed her arms so that she could slide her fingers into his hair, he had his blasted tunic up and over her head in a heartbeat.

Again, he didn't bother to look where he was throwing the tunic. He just sent it sailing. His gauzy shirt gaped open, exposing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Taking the collarless neckline in hand, he pushed it across her shoulders, letting the garment fall to the floor at her feet.

For a long, agonizing moment his eyes simply feasted longingly on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s then he cupped her fullness with his hands, letting callused palms and fingers deliberately stroke and arouse her nipples to hard shuddering peaks.

"What sort of garment is this?" he asked as he slid one hand down her belly and grasped the trailing end of the bowknot in the drawstring of her britches.

"They're called panties."

"They look very impractical and certainly get in the way of the most serious functions of a woman's body.

Were I not a man of infinite leisure this very moment, I would have strenuous objections to your wearing such a garment."

"They are absolutely necessary under a pair of rough seamed trews."

"Oh, aye," he answered, tugging on the knot with sufficient force to pull the black silk very tight across Bella's b.u.t.tocks. The knot gave and the silk slithered off her hips and pooled at her feet. "That's better, hmm? Your body is the splendor of all creation, G.o.d's most wonderful work of art."

"Are you thinking He made a mistake or two on Adam and created Eve just to correct the flaws?" Bella asked slightly on the breathless side.

"I can think of one or two." John bent just enough to be able to taste her lips and lay his right hand upon her knee. As he kissed her hungrily, his hand stroked upward between the soft, sensitive flesh of her thighs. He parted her mouth with his tongue at the same time he cupped her s.e.x and used his long fingers to part her nether lips.

His hand at the back of her neck drew her closer to deepen the kiss, his tongue probing with the same stirring intensity of his hand.

Of her own volition, Bella pressed closer to him, her hands clasping his shoulders, her body answering the summons of his. When it came to lovemaking, Bella was a woman of easy virtue. She simply did not know how to say no to s.e.x. He was truly her husband now and it was his right to make this most basic demand.

Only a touch of resentment lingered in the back of her mind over his tactics for gaining this ultimate power over her. Before too many more minutes had pa.s.sed, even those resentments faded to unimportant. Once aroused, for Bella, there was no turning back.

He broke the kiss of their lips to straighten his back. Bella followed his gaze to the cot. It was long and narrow, meant to accommodate only him and she had spent a miserable night on it, unable to find any comfort or sleep. "Lay down, Bella."

She shook her head, loose hair swirling around her shoulders. "Not yet," she said, warily watching Chandos with hungry eyes. "I think we'd better establish some ground rules for this relationship first."

"Ground rules are completely unnecessary," he replied as he pinched out the flame on the lamp's wick.

The golden glow of light faded, plunging the interior of the tent into opaque shadows. She might not be able to see much, but Bella's hearing was unimpaired. She definitely heard the sound of chords ripping out of grommets. Then came the tearing brrrr of tight britches being stripped off very long legs. He released a barely audible shudder of relief that spoke eloquently of man's primitive roots wherein clothes were completely unnatural.

Bella focused on the large shadowy shape that loomed so tall above her, not quite able to fathom the ardent man he was now with the toweringly angry man he had been at midnight.