To the Castle by Joan Wolf

Author:Joan Wolf [Wolf, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780263855401
Publisher: Harlequin Mills & Boon, Limited
Published: 2007-10-04T23:00:00+00:00

Roger had only to wait a few minutes before Richard appeared leading a tall bay. Roger swung into his high saddle, picked up the reins, and without another word rode off under the portcullis. The knights on guard duty watched him go.

The town of Wilton lay several miles away from the castle, along the River Avon. It had one main street that held most of the shops, which were really nothing more than open-fronted booths on the ground floor of the shopkeepers' residences. Streets of narrow, wooden residential buildings wound off the main street. Roger thought of what he had seen in Cirencester and feared that Wilton would go up like a torch if it was ever raided.

He rode down the main street, past the cloth merchants, past the fishmonger, past the shop that sold knives for pruning vines, sickles for cutting corn and spades for digging. He came to a stop in front of the silversmith's shop and dismounted. One of the boys who had been tossing a leather ball around in the street came to hold his horse.

A woman was behind the long table displaying the smith's wares. She was tall and strongly built, with long blond hair worn in two plaits over her shoulders. "Good afternoon, my lord," she greeted him. "Have you come to buy a gift for your new wife?"

"Good afternoon, Tordis," he replied. "Yes, I thought I would take a look at your wares."

She smiled. "I got some new things in yesterday from a peddler who had been in London. Let me show them to you."

Roger obediently bent his head and looked at the silver brooch that was being displayed for his benefit. It was very pretty.

"Perhaps your lady already has a silver brooch," Tordis said.

"My wife lived in a convent before we wed," Roger replied. "She has very little in the way of jewelry."

"Then perhaps she would like this piece."

"I'm sure she would."

"Shall I wrap it up for you?"

"Yes, please."

He stood in silence, watching Tordis as she wrapped the brooch in a piece of sheepskin. Her breasts were high and full under her blue tunic, and her waist, which was encircled by a leather belt, was small. She was a widow in her early thirties with no children. When her husband, who had been the silversmith, had died, Tordis had carried on his business by herself. Roger's patronage had helped her to establish herself among the mostly male-owned businesses in town.

Tordis placed the brooch in his hand, managing to touch his fingers with her own as she did so. Lust ratcheted through him.

"Would you like to come inside and see what else I got from the London peddler, my lord?" she asked softly.

"Yes," he replied, his face stark.

"Egon!" Tordis called to one of the boys who was still playing football. "Come and watch my shop while I show my lord some of the jewelry I have inside."

A boy detached himself from the group and came into the silversmith's shop. "We will be about fifteen minutes," Tordis said.

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