Hearts Aflame by Johanna Lindsey

Author:Johanna Lindsey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance:Historical
ISBN: 9780816144228
Publisher: Avon
Published: 1987-06-01T10:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-three

W hen Royce unlocked the door, Kristen was sitting with her back against the far wall, her knees bent before her to help her to rise quickly if necessary. She saw that he was not angry, yet. But he was certainly not pleased.

Coming straight from his bath, he wore only a long-sleeved white tunic and, over it, the type of robe that was given Kristen when she bathed, though his was of a fine quality, even to having an inch-deep border of green silk along every edge of the white linen that fell to his feet. The white became him with his dark hair and summer-tanned skin.

If she were not furious with him, she knew she would be waiting breathlessly to see a bare leg when the robe parted as he walked. But she stared only at his face, lit by the tallow candle he held aloft so the light reached across to her.

"Eda has confessed to me why you are here once again instead of where you should be. I want to know why you thought you had gained freedom of the hall, when I said naught of that to you."

Kristen was proud of the way her voice did not falter, sounding calm even to her ears. " 'Tis simple, Saxon. You knew why I refused to share your bed this week past. Yet you took me to your bed yestereve. I was fool enough to assume that if you would do that, then you must have relented concerning my restraints."

"You are correct," he replied curtly. " 'Twas a fool assumption indeed. I told you why you must be fettered. I also told you the alternatives."

Kristen was no longer so calm, hearing him actually confirm what she had concluded. "I spit on your alternatives! I will wear your cursed fetters, but I want no more of you. I cannot bear your tender care and the chains too."

He walked slowly toward her. Warily she rose to her feet, but he stopped short of her, two arms' lengths away.

"I thought you stronger than this, wench."

She gasped at the deliberate slur. "I am not without mettle, milord. My father was captured and imprisoned in his youth. My mother endured enslavement for a time as well. I am what my parents have made me, and I would not be a credit to them if I could not endure enslavement myself. For me 'tis a fit punishment for defying my parents to sail with my brother. I can endure, Royce. But there is a limit to what I will endure without a fight. Leave me be from now on and you will have no problem with me."

"I cannot," he replied simply. "And you do not really want me to ignore you, Kristen."

"I do. I want you no more."

He did not like what he was hearing at all, and it showed in the tight slant of his lips, the turbulent green of his eyes. "You can say that after last eve?"

"Aye."

"Liar. You want me still and I will prove it.

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