To Burn by Dain Claudia

Author:Dain, Claudia [Dain, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Night Shift Publishing
Published: 2011-04-24T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

"Impossible!" she exploded, pulling free of his touch. "You hold a knife to my throat and tell me that by some hideous miracle we are now married? When did this miraculous transformation occur? And when will you kill me, for surely you must know that... that what I did... what we did... that it was not real? I was but maneuvering you onto the point of my knife!"

He smiled down at her with his eyes of brightest blue and clasped her gently by the nape. "And look how close you came to maneuvering yourself onto the point of mine."

"You're disgusting." She tried to wrench herself free of him, but he held her fast.

"How changeable you Romans are." He smiled, fingering the knife. "Unless I am not translating you correctly. You did say disgust? Or was it lust?"

"Will I prove my point if I throw up all over your dusty feet?"

"Is that how Romans show their desire? Or is it only you?"

Melania pried his fingers off her neck and clenched her fists, mutely daring him to touch her again. "Will you kindly tell your murderous friends to stop banging away on their toys! I can hardly think!"

"They only show their approval of our bonding," he said as he tucked the knife—her knife—into the waist of his pants.

"We can't be married," she stated, crossing her arms over her chest, willing it not to be so. "There has been no ritual to bind us."

He obviously thought otherwise.

"You gave me a gift of arms. I gave you a horse. It was witnessed. We are one."

"That's... that's not a marriage ceremony," she stammered. It was as she had feared: a Saxon marriage ceremony was as flimsy as cloud trails across the face of the moon. She should have wagered gold that a Saxon bonding ceremony would include a knife. "And Optio is my horse!"

"My horse, by conquest, given to you as a gift. Now Optio is yours."

"This farce of a ceremony is not binding by Roman law, the most just law ever—"

"You live in Saxon-controlled land now, Melania," he said, turning her to face him, holding her by the arms when she tried to move away from him.

"Saxon law rules this land. By Saxon law you are my wife."

"I am Roman. I know nothing and care nothing about Saxon law. This" —she waved her hand all around her— "means nothing."

Wulfred let her go and stood looking down at her. His expression was solemn, almost rigid, and she found herself trapped by his look more than by anything his hands could have achieved.

"You accepted my intention to marry you. You gave me a gift of arms. You are on Saxon land ruled by Saxon law. Will you stand by the bond or ignore it because it does not match your own customs?"

There was far more subtlety to this barbari than she had at first thought. She could see no honorable way out.

The noise of the barbarians had stopped. Their drinking had not. Balduff toasted her loudly, his light blue eyes gleaming in amusement.

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