The Pagan's Prize by Miriam Minger

Author:Miriam Minger [Minger, Miriam]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 2012-01-26T21:44:15+00:00

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Zora awoke deep in the night to the feeling that someone was watching her, but the feather bed was so warm and comfortable and she was so bone-tired that she readily fel asleep again without lifting her head to look.

When she did open her eyes with a start much later that morning, however, she remembered the odd sensation as vividly as if she could stil feel it. Yet this time the feeling was almost menacing whereas last night she had not felt threatened.

Was it just a lingering remnant of her bad dream? Trying to recal the nightmare that had so suddenly awakened her, she roled onto her back and gasped in surprise. A lithe, strikingly lovely young woman with the glossiest black hair she had ever seen stood at the foot of her bed, glaring at her.

“Who are you?” Zora yanked the coverlet to her breasts even though she wore a light linen shift. “What are you doing in my chamber?”

“I am Semirah.” The woman spoke proudly in a husky foreign accent, her agate eyes fixed upon Zora’s face as if studying her every feature. “You are Lord Rurik’s new wife, yes?” Zora nodded, wondering how this woman had slipped past her guards. Then she noticed that the fur covering at the single window across the room was hanging askew, bright golden sunlight spiling onto the planked floor.

“You climbed in my window,” she said in disbelief. Semirah smiled as if pleased with her cunning.

“Why have you come here?”

“To see you for myself,” snapped the woman, walking around the bed with the sleek litheness of a cat until she stopped even with Zora. Caressing the nearest pilow with slim white fingers, her voice became a throaty purr. “What a pity for you to spend your wedding night alone. Lord Rurik spent his with Semirah, a mere Khazar slave, instead of his most beautiful royal bride.” Zora gaped at her. So it had been Semirah on his mind when he left her so abruptly last night!

Stung by a sharp and wholy unexpected pang, Zora angrily swalowed it down.

“Did Lord Rurik send you to taunt me with this news?” She drew herself up to a sitting position to better face the woman. “If so, you can tel him for me that I couldn’t care one whit if he had spent last night with al six of his women!”

Semirah appeared momentarily flustered. “You … you are not displeased that I share your husband’s bed?”

“Not in the least and why should I be?” Zora’s anger was growing. How dare he alow this woman to come here! “I was forced into this marriage by my uncle, the grand prince. I do not wish to be here but home in Chernigov! Surely as a slave, you can understand—” The woman tossed her ebony hair. “I rejoiced the day Lord Rurik bought me from slave traders in Kiev and then brought me here. Rejoiced! Al was wel until now, when a wife has come into our midst.”

“And I’m teling you that you have nothing to fear from me,” Zora insisted.

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