Seeing no reason why he should deny his curiosity-since she was so openly humouring her own-he followed the slender arch of her swan's throat down to where the clinging fabric of her gown afforded little modesty for the impertinent thrust of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Not so large as to cause a man difficulty in breathing, they were nonetheless of a proud shape and bearing, the nipples jutting like little round b.u.t.tons against the cloth. He guessed he could span her waist neatly with his two hands, and her limbs, folded so gracefully beneath the shimmering pool of her hair, would be long and lithe, and would feel like warmed silk against his palms.

Servanne, silent throughout his inspection, endured the probing heat of his eyes until a flush of light-headedness threatened to topple her. It was difficult not to stare at the steaming dampness that rose from the surface of his skin; nearly impossible to ignore the power and strength sculpted so boldly into every inch of bulging muscle. Worse, she suffered a vivid recollection of having been held in those arms, crushed against that chest, threatened by those lips that were even now moving without sound ...

"... a long way from camp, my lady?" he was saying. "You found your way here alone?"

"S-Sparrow brought me," she replied, quickly lowering her gaze and focusing on where her hands were clasped together on her lap. "He ... he thought it would be permitted for me to wash and refresh myself. I ... am sorry if my presence has interrupted your bath, but Sparrow a.s.sured me I would have the pool to myself."

"He did, did he?" The Wolf arched a brow. "And yet he knows my habits almost as well as he knows his own."

Servanne hated the flush she could feel blooming darker in her cheeks, and she hated the diminutive forester for indulging in what had obviously been another of his pranks.

The Wolf looked down at the golden crown of her head and for no good reason that he could think of, rea.s.sured her with a dry laugh. "He needs to have his nose tied at least twice each day to keep it from poking where it does not belong. But, since I am finished here anyway, you may have your privacy." He turned, retreated half a stride, and hesitated again. "You might want to heed a warning and stay well clear of the waterfall. It may look harmless enough, but the bottom is tangled with weeds as thick around as a man's arm."

She shook her head without looking up. "I do not know how to swim. I would not venture deeper than my ankles, but ... I thank you for the warning."

The Wolf's mask of determined indifference slipped yet again and he raked his hands through his hair with an impatient gesture. "I make no excuses for my behaviour, but it has been a long time since my men or I have been in the company of gentlewomen, and, tempers being what they are ..."

Servanne clasped her hands tighter. Was he attempting to apologize? Was he suffering pangs of guilt over the abominal way he had treated her last night-as well he should! If she thought it was worth the effort, she would have spat in his face and told him how much she cared to hear his lame excuses and apologies. If she thought it was worth the effort, she would have spat in his face and told him how much she cared to hear his lame excuses and apologies.

"It is not my wish to cause you any further discomfort, Lady Servanne. My quarrel is not with you."

"It is with the man who is soon to be my husband," she said tersely. "Therefore, sir, your quarrel is indeed with me."

The faintest hint of a bemused smile pa.s.sed across the Wolf's mouth. Spirited ... and loyal too; qualities that would do her good stead in the days ahead. Whether they would be enough to see her through, he had no idea, but for the moment, they earned her more respect than would have been won through weeping, wailing, and swooning off her feet at each turn of a phrase.

He accepted her rebuke with uncharacteristic silence. His slate-gray eyes lifted to the burnished blue vault of the sky above and moved slowly, speculatively around the ring of trees until they settled finally on the source of the waterfall high on the escarpment.

"This place is called the Silent Pool," he murmured absently. "According to legend, it was filled by the tears of a maiden who had fallen hopelessly in love with one of the monks from the abbey. Unfortunately, the bishop l.u.s.ted after her too, and one night, on his way from the monastery to the village, the young monk met with an "accident" and fell from the promontory. The maiden knelt by his body and wept until the basin was filled with her tears, ensuring that she and her lover could remain here undisturbed for all of eternity. To show their sympathy and approval for the sacrifice she made, the druids cast a spell over the pool ... a spell of absolute silence," he added cynically "that can only be broken by a love fulfilled."

Servanne found herself swaying to the melodic drone of his voice. "You believe in curses and spells?"

"I believe what my eyes see and my ears hear. Look around you. Listen. The forest is teeming with birds and animals, but not one is ever seen or heard near the pool. The waterfall makes no sound where it runs into the basin; the leaves move on the branches, but say nothing to the wind."

Servanne raised her head with an effort. Surely this was another form of torment, for she heard sounds, a great many of them rushing and hissing in her ears. She tried to obey his command to look up at the trees, but the sun was a hot, hazy blur and its glare off the surface of the water made her feel dizzy and disoriented. Cleaving that glare into a ma.s.s of sparkling pinpoints of light, was the tall, shadowy figure who moved suddenly toward her.

The Black Wolf reached the lip of the rock an instant before Servanne's head would have struck it. The act of catching her jolted her eyes open briefly, but they fluttered closed again, the lashes falling like stilled b.u.t.terfly wings against the ashen skin.

"Little fool," he murmured. "It is a wonder you have held your head up this long."

Cradling her against his chest, he lifted her carefully into his arms and waded with her to a point on the bank where he could more easily step out of the knee-deep water. He carried her back up the slope and returned along the path to the monastery, where, once inside the crumbling, vine-covered gate, a scowl warned away the curious stares that followed his naked b.u.t.tocks through the pilgrims' hall.

In the chamber set aside for Servanne and Biddy, he gently deposited her on a sleeping couch made of fresh rushes and fur pelts. Somewhere along the way, she had roused enough to drape her arms around his neck, and she held fast to it now, reluctant in sleep to exchange the luxurient heat of his body for the cooler bed of pelts.

The Wolf gently pried her hands from around his neck, and, with only the silent walls of the cloistered chamber to bear witness to the crime, he ran his fingers down the shiny wavelets of her hair, tenderly brushing aside the curls that had clouded over her face. The chamber was windowless and the candle unlit. Even so, in the spa.r.s.e light that flared through the open door, her hair glowed like the phosph.o.r.escent waves on a moonlit sea, her skin was pale and radiant, almost blue-white against the darker furs.

A frown pleated his brow as he looked down and saw that the hem of her gown was wet from having been dragged through the water. A hesitant glance at the door was shrugged aside and without further thought, he unfastened the belt of fine gold links she wore girded about her waist and eased it out from beneath her. Not the least doubtful of what her reaction would be if she could see what he was doing, his smile was wry as he slid the skirt of her gown up to her hips, collecting the lower edge of her thin linen undergarment-also wet-and manipulating both above her waist, b.r.e.a.s.t.s, shoulders, and finally tossing them free of the tousled ma.s.s of her hair.

It was when he lowered Servanne back onto the bed of furs that his smile faded and the gray of his eyes took on a new, smouldering intensity. He became suddenly aware of the feel of her naked flesh where it pressed against his, and acutely aware of his own nudity for the first time since leaving the Silent Pool. His hand was a paltry few inches from the round fullness of a breast, and of its own accord, the fingers traced a light path to the dark pink blossom of the velvety nipple. An intrigued palm measured and marveled over the firmness of the flesh that seemed specially moulded and shaped for just that purpose.

A low, almost inaudible moan drew his gaze up to her face. Her lips were parted and invitingly moist. Her body trembled slightly at the intimate contact-so slightly he might have thought he imagined it if not for the berry-hard nub that formed beneath his cupped hand. His fingers moved again and a second soft, breathy sigh set the nerves down his spine tingling.

The tingle burned all the way into his belly and groin, and the heated curiosity of his gaze roved from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to the fine golden thatch of silk at the juncture of her thighs. It was soft to the touch, the curls parting and luring him deeper into the enticingly shadowed cleft. This time, there was no mistaking the tremor that welcomed his explorations, no denying the response that deepened the stain of colour in her warming flesh.

The Wolf withdrew his hand and clenched the treacherously inquisitive fingers into a tight fist. He knew there was nothing to stop him from taking her; indeed, had that not been an integral part of the plan from the moment he had heard the Dragon had chosen himself a bride? She was no virgin, untried, untouched, but she belonged to the Dragon and that made her an important gamepiece in his pursuit of revenge. An eye for an eye, was it not written?

The Wolf sank back on his haunches, not wanting to remember, but unable to prevent the memories from crowding into his anger.

Nicolaa.

Young and vibrant, lithe as a whip and just as deadly efficient in stripping away the innocence and guile of youth. Nicolaa had been the one who had introduced his adolescent body to worldly pleasures other than fighting, jousting, and training for war. She had taken his raw, aggressive l.u.s.t in hand and had spent weeks of steamy days and nights instructing him exhaustively on the art of making love.

Nicolaa.

During that time he had imagined himself wildly, pa.s.sionately in love with her. He had gone so far as to have a pet.i.tion of marriage drawn, knowing the match was as sound politically as it was personally. Her eager and immediate acceptance had sent him thundering to her father's castle, where, in a burst of love-smitten irreverence, he had not waited for her to be summoned, but had sought her out in her private solar.

The sight of her, all white skin, raven-black hair, and flashing eyes, naked and grappling blindly to the churning hips of another lover had stopped him cold in the doorway. Seeing the man fling his golden head back to keen his ecstasy, and recognizing who was drawing the guttural screams of rapture from Nicolaa's arched throat, nearly caused him to unsheath his sword then and there and slay the pair at the height of their betrayal.

Instead, the Wolf had waited, his heart building a wall of ice around it while he watched their rutting acrobatics grind to a sweating, shivering halt. Nicolaa had seen him first, and had screamed. Her lover had turned toward the door and ... smiled his triumph.

Without a word, he had torn the marriage contract asunder and left the room, left the castle. A week later, he had sailed away from England, his gypon emblazoned with the red cross of the Crusader.

An eye for an eye, the Wolf reminded himself as he flexed his hands open and slowly lowered them to the pale, sleeping form of Servanne de Briscourt. It was a cruel, callous world -cruder by far to a woman than a man, but there too it was Fate who ultimately decided which gender should spring from the seeds sown. It was his fate to have been born a man of destiny; hers to have been born the p.a.w.n whose life or death meant very little in the scheme of things. He could not afford to think of her as anything else, despite the innocence and vulnerability she tried so hard to conceal behind the snapping blue eyes. If he did, if he dared feel any compa.s.sion or regret, all of their lives, including hers, would be forfeit.

Uploaded by Coral

6.

The messenger thundered up to the castle gates on a horse lathered nose to rump in the sour white foam of haste. The man himself was so winded he could barely communicate his demands to the guard who angled a bleary eye through the portcullis gates to identify him. Once admitted, he was escorted through the outer bailey, across a wooden drawbridge to an inner courtyard, through more gates and more annoying questions, until finally he was admitted to the innermost court. The horse's hooves clacked loudly on both wood and cobbled surfaces, echoing the urgency of the message he carried, scattering the throngs of servants and pages who were going about their morning duties. Dismounting at last, he forced his cramped legs to run up the enclosed stairway to the entrance of the main keep, where he reiterated, with no small amount of irritation, his breathless demand to see Lord Lucien Wardieu.

The seneschal, a dour and grim-faced stub of a man, warned with equal acidity that the lord was still abed and would not humour an interruption. The guard, against all sane advice and protocol, shoved the seneschal aside and bolted the length of the corridor to enter the narrow stone spiral of stairs that led up into the lord's private tower.

At the top, he was delayed by the poniards and drawn swords of the two alerted squires who slept in the anteroom adjoining their master's sleeping chamber. The ruckus they caused in challenging the intrusion was sufficient to bring the naked and enraged Baron de Gournay slamming out of the chamber, his own sword unsheathed and gleaming in readiness.

"What the devil goes on here?" he demanded. "Rolf! Eduard! Who in blazes is this man and what does he want?"

"Please, my lord," the guard gasped, his one arm bent to the breaking point by the elder of the two squires, Rolf. The younger one, his face earnest with intent, jabbed the point of his knife deeper into the intruder's straining throat, causing a fine thread of blood to leak from the cut.

"Please, my lord! Hear me out! I bring urgent news from the sheriff! News I was commanded to relay to your ears only, my lord. Your ears only!"

Some of the tension eased from Wardieu's arms as he lowered the huge steel blade. After another taut moment, he nodded curtly to his squires, who relaxed their grips only enough to allow the man breath and speech.

"Well? Deliver your news."

"It ... it comes from the Lord High Sheriff, my liege. F-from Onfroi de la Haye."

"We know full well who the sheriff is," came a belligerent voice from the inner chamber. Nicolaa de la Haye appeared a moment later in glorious dishevelment, the sheet she had s.n.a.t.c.hed up off the bed held haphazardly around her waist and looped over one shoulder.

The sight was so startling, the guard was struck dumb. He gaped first at the mottled pink splendour of a nearly bared breast, then at the telltale scratches and bitemarks that scored the baron's virile body.

"Well?"

"Th-there was an ambush, my lord. In Lincolnwood. More than a score of brave men slain, the rest robbed and forced to leave the forest on foot."

For several tense moments, Wardieu continued to stare expectantly at the guard, his brain slowed by a night of wine and s.e.xual excess. It cleared, however, on an oath so violent and graphic, the squires looked over, startled.

"The Lady Servanne!" he exploded. "Where is she?"

His eyes bulging with fear, the guard stammered what he had been told to report of the ambush. "The cavalcade was set upon by outlaws, my lord. Their leader ... called the Black Wolf by his victims ... took the Lady Servanne hostage and advised the remainder of the guard to remove themselves from the woods ere they drown in their own blood along with their fallen comrades. H-he also insisted a message be delivered to"-the guard's eyelids shivered closed and he swallowed hard-"to the Dragon of Bloodmoor Keep, advising him that a ransom of ten thousand marks is necessary for the safe return of the hostage."

Wardieu's icy blue eyes narrowed to slits. "Ten thousand marks! Who is this madman, this ... Black Wolf? Black Wolf? Why have I not heard of him before now? And where, by Christ's holy rood, was our vainglorious high sheriff while this travesty was being committed?" Why have I not heard of him before now? And where, by Christ's holy rood, was our vainglorious high sheriff while this travesty was being committed?"

The golden knight advanced upon the cowering guard as he spoke, his hand once again clenched around the hilt of his sword. So terrifying a visage did he present, a naked and unyielding wall of solid muscle, that the guard could not have answered had he wanted to.

"The Black Wolf of Lincoln," mused Nicolaa de la Haye. "Onfroi has mentioned him on occasion."

Wardieu spun around to confront her. "What? "What? Why have I not heard of him before today?" Why have I not heard of him before today?"

"Good my lord, as you well know, my husband never boasts of his failures. This wolf's head has been playing at skittles with Onfroi's bold guardsmen for ... oh, a goodly month or more, at least. I am sure he would have had to tell you eventually, since the rogue seems to be encamped within hailing distance of your own borders. In his defense, however -though G.o.d knows why I should bother-his mind has been strenuously taxed taxed with other matters of late." with other matters of late."

Wardieu deliberately ignored the veiled reference to the sheriff's current round of revenue collecting-taxes supposedly levied to help finance the king's army, but in reality, going to finance Prince John's feral ambitions.

"If your husband required help ridding the forest of a nest of thieves," Lucien growled, "why the devil did he not come limping to me as usual?"

"Perhaps he was trying to stand on his own at long last?" Nicolaa suggested, her voice so heavy with sarcasm, the words dripped. "Perhaps he feels his manhood has been threatened enough by your superiority in other matters?"

Wardieu clamped his jaw into a steely ridge. "Rolf-fetch my clothes and armour. armour. Eduard-call out my personal guard and tell them to be prepared to ride within the hour." Eduard-call out my personal guard and tell them to be prepared to ride within the hour."

As the squires moved hastily to comply, the frosted blue gaze flicked back to the guard, who was endeavouring to restore circulation to his twisted elbow. "Where is the sheriff now, and where are the men who were escorting the cavalcade? I want to question them personally."

"My lord sheriff antic.i.p.ated you might. He has set up temporary camp on the green above Alford Abbey to await your pleasure. Meanwhile, he has sent patrols back to the point of ambush and expects, what with the rain and damp we had earlier in the week, the tracks will not be too difficult to cipher."

"Onfroi has difficulty tracking his way to an over-full latrine," Nicolaa drawled, stifling a yawn. "I expect I should dress and accompany you, Lucien. The men are so much more eager to prove their worth to me me in fulfilling their duties." in fulfilling their duties."

"Please yourself. I'll not be stopping or humouring any delays between here and the abbey."

"Provide me with a worthy mount," she said, her eyes raking boldly down the powerful length of his body, "And you will not hear me balking at the thought of a hard day's ride."

Lucien turned to the gaping guard. "Go below and have my seneschal find you some hot food and drink, then be ready to lead us back to the green."

"Yes, my lord. My lord ... there was one other thing."

Wardieu had already started back into his chamber to dress. "Yes, what is it?"

Sweat popped out across the man's brow in tiny, oily beads. "It comes from the Black Wolf, my liege. He said it should be delivered with a further message so that you would know his intentions were true."

A shaking, gloved hand reached into a leather pouch strapped to his belt. A small canvas sack was withdrawn and held out to the frowning baron. The thong binding the mouth of the sack had become loosened through the long journey and, before Wardieu could unthread it fully, the sack gaped open and the contents fell onto the floor by his bare feet.

It was a finger; a woman's severed finger, judging by the size and shape of it.

Wardieu drew a deep breath. "What was the message?"

The guard's chin quivered and he looked from Nicolaa to the baron. "Only ... only that if you did not pay the ransom, you would not see your bride again ... leastwise not in pieces large enough for anyone to recognize."

Nicolaa, sidling closer for a better view, was the first one to break the ensuing silence.

"Well," she murmured, "if nothing else, this Black Wolf knows how to make his meaning perfectly clear."

7.

Onfroi de la Haye was a spike-thin, ferret-faced man cursed with a propensity for breaking into clammy, prolonged sweats when subjected to any kind of stress. He suffered nervous ticks in his high, gaunt cheekbones which set his brows and eyelids twitching in alternating spasms. Perpetually dry lips-even though the rest of his body might be drowning- continually brought his tongue flicking forth like a snake to chase the dried flakes to a crusted sc.u.m at both corners. His eyes were set too close together to allow for normal vision, with the result that when he was not twitching, he was squinting myopically to see objects only a few paces away. His nose was long and hooked, his chin pointed, his skin- beneath the few scrawny hairs he was able to cultivate into a beard-was a pitted and pocked testament to a sickly childhood.

Sweating torrents, twitching spasmodically, and picking morosely at a favorite weal on his cheek, Onfroi paced before the smoking ashes of the campfire, tracing and retracing a worn path in the flattened gra.s.s. By his calculations it had been nearly eighteen hours since he had bolstered his courage enough to dispatch his messenger to Bloodmoor Keep. Given the time required to ride from Alford to the castle and back ...

The sheriff came to the end of his measured track: halted, swiveled abruptly on his heel, and paced back.

... it would be well nigh onto midnight before a missive could return along the same route.

Onfroi paused long enough to squint out across the common on which his men had pitched camp. The abbey was nestled in a shallow valley, the monastery and its surrounding fruit orchards separated from the wide meadow by a sparkling ribbon of water. An orderly compound of buildings made of quarried stone and pitched slate roofs, the abbey was tranquil and rose-tinted in the dusk light, the air singing occasionally with the lowing of a lamb or a tinkling of a goat's bell. The small bronze bell in the priory had rung at dawn to call the holy brothers to ma.s.s, then had vibrated the stillness again at three-hour intervals until the last-Vespers-nearly an hour ago. It had allowed for plenty of time to go over every detail of the ambush again, to antic.i.p.ate every question and demand that would come his way.

Onfroi swabbed his brow with the fold of his velvet sleeve. He could not even begin to imagine what form Wardieu's anger would take. Having witnessed all extremes in his ten years as sheriff of Lincoln, he was not certain which to dread the most: the cold, icy calm that caused an offender's bowels to turn to jelly; or the hot, rampaging fury that resulted in flesh and tissue being splattered in all directions. The man was a sp.a.w.n of the Devil, no doubt about it. Unreadable. Unpredictable. Unfriendly. And unflinchingly possessive of his property. How should he be expected to react to the kidnapping of his bride?

Halt. Swivel. Pace.

There had to be a reasonable explanation of how thirty armed guards could allow themselves to be taken by surprise, stripped of everything of value, and herded out of the woods like guinea fowls, dressed only in shirts and chausses ... but what was it? By what possible reasonable reasonable logic could he, Onfroi de la Haye, hope to explain how an outlaw had managed to dig himself a forest lair that had defied discovery for nigh on two months now? How could he begin to explain the existence of a spectre in black wolf pelts who struck and vanished, struck and vanished and never left so much as a t.u.r.d behind to show he had ever been there? Men could not track him. Hounds could not track him. Armour -no matter how thickly forged-could not deflect his bowmen's arrows, nor could the swiftest of horses outmaneuver the silent death that stalked them from the greenwood. logic could he, Onfroi de la Haye, hope to explain how an outlaw had managed to dig himself a forest lair that had defied discovery for nigh on two months now? How could he begin to explain the existence of a spectre in black wolf pelts who struck and vanished, struck and vanished and never left so much as a t.u.r.d behind to show he had ever been there? Men could not track him. Hounds could not track him. Armour -no matter how thickly forged-could not deflect his bowmen's arrows, nor could the swiftest of horses outmaneuver the silent death that stalked them from the greenwood.

Halt. Swivel. Pace.

Reasonable? The very word mocked him. Why, by the Devil's loins, could he-Onfroi de la Haye-have not contented himself with the two small estates his father had bequeathed him? Why, by the fruit of those same viperous loins, had he allowed Nicolaa to push and prod and manipulate him into seeking the appointment as reeve of Lincoln?

Nicolaa! Bah! A beauty to look at, but long ago corrupted by greed, ambition, and a l.u.s.t for immortality. She was a clever b.i.t.c.h. Cold and conniving. And so in love with herself it was no surprise she had little room for anything else in that frigid heart of hearts. Onfroi knew he was a laughingstock because of Nicolaa's excesses. Truth be known, it was just as well she sought her perverted pleasures in every other bed but his own; truth be told, he was more than a little afraid of where those perversions might lead someday. Blood and pain delighted her; torture was viewed as an evening's entertainment; a victim's disembowelment was a prelude to a hearty feast.

A b.i.t.c.h, a reclusive warmonger, and a vengeful wolf's head. Was it any wonder his blood had turned sour and his belly ran liquid from morning till night?

Halt. Swivel ...

Freeze!