The Warrior's Maiden (The Warriors Series Book 2) by Denise Domning

Author:Denise Domning [Domning, Denise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Dawn’s pinks and golds exploded along the horizon behind Josce and Perrin as they rode up to Knabwell’s walls. As early as the hour was, they weren’t the first to reach the town’s eastern gate this morn. A handful of peasants dressed in brightly colored homespun waited before the city’s massive doorway. A bent old woman carried a great bundle of faggots on her back. One man’s sack held strong cheeses, or so said the pungent stink wafting around him. Another drove an oxcart filled with wheat.

Halting his horse behind them, Josce glanced at his servant, only to find Perrin watching him in return. Confusion painted his servant’s face. The instant their gazes met Perrin looked down at his horse’s mane, staring at that stiff hair as if it were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.

Worry, chagrin and a touch of very untoward amusement all tumbled in Josce. Such was the price he paid for trying to negate the truth of Sir Adelm’s words. Josce had been vehement yestereven in describing the sheriff’s incompetent, and most likely dastardly, actions to Perrin. At the same time he’d reaffirmed his intent to end du Hommet’s life.

Aye, and when Perrin awakened this morn and sought out his missing master, where did he find Haydon’s son? Naked in the arms of du Hommet’s daughter at the center of the sheriff’s garden. The only positive thing about all this was that Elianne slept through the discovery.

Covering her with her blanket, Josce left her where she lay. God be praised that none of the rest of the household had been up and about at that hour. She didn’t deserve the shame the world would surely lade upon her were their relationship revealed.

Surprise blinked through Josce. Relationship? In the next instant, he sighed in acceptance.

What they’d done between them at the pool had been but an encounter, happenstance and nothing more. Last night they done something far more significant. Rather than expunge ‘Lianne from his thoughts, the experience left Josce only wanting more of her.

That his heart might now fixate on his enemy’s honest daughter was beyond irony. God knew he’d played the game of slap and tickle often enough. There’d been chambermaids, rich widows and other men’s wives, but whether or not he succeeded in his seduction, he never once gave any of those women so much as a sliver of himself. That included his seed.

Out of the depths of Josce’s memory came the echo of his father’s voice, Baldwin of Haydon lecturing that while a man of principle always lived up to his responsibilities, a wise man never put his seed where it didn’t belong. Yet, for the second time Josce had let the sensations Elianne made in him wash away all thought, until he once again sowed seeds where they had no place being.

Lost in the complexity of what he did to himself, Josce stared at the city’s yellowish stone walls. Wood and coal smoke, the result of so many kitchen fires burning all at once, snaked and curled above the city’s skyline into an ever-thickening brown cloud.

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