Masters of Medieval Romance: Series Starters Volume 1 by Kathryn Le Veque

Author:Kathryn Le Veque [Le Veque, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Fiction, Medieval, Romance, Anthology
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2019-11-22T18:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Oh, God… the armor… I recognize it!

She was in that awful mess of a dream again, gazing down at the injured knight beneath the tree. What she thought was a de Nerra coat of arms on the breast plate wasn’t de Nerra at all. It was a bird of prey with great talons ready to spear its enemies. It sat upon a broad, broad chest, much bigger than her father ever was. In fact, the man was enormous.

All she could feel was sheer terror as she gazed down at the man beneath the tree. He was leaning up against the trunk, his helmed head facing away from her, and she crouched down on shaking legs next to him.

Angst and terror and panic gripped her. It was raining again and the tree provided minimal shelter. She felt wet all over. A nervous glance over her shoulder showed the castle in the distance to be half-melted now, bleeding out into the fields around it. It was horribly unsettling. The mud fields were churning now, churning the bodies in the ground, making them appear as if they were rolling over and over in their graves.

Frightened, she turned back to the knight against the tree. With a shaking hand, she reached out and lifted the visor so she could see his face. Then, all she could see were his eyes.

She knew those eyes.

*

Ellowyn was entrenched in the awful dream when she felt the bed give slightly. It wasn’t a big shift, but big enough to rouse her somewhat. She was so exhausted, however, that very soon she was drifting back to sleep, snoring softly. The dream was gone but the anxiety was still there. Someone gently kissed the hand by her face and Ellowyn slowly opened her eyes.

Brandt was lying next to her, smiling into her sleeping face. Mind foggy from the terrible dream, it took Ellowyn a moment to realize she was looking at him and when realization dawned, it was as if the sun had emerged from behind the clouds. All was bright and well in her world again, and her apprehension had vanished. She smiled sleepily.

“Are you real?” she whispered.

“I am real.”

“I am not dreaming?”

“Nay, sweetheart, you are not dreaming.”

“Tell me you love me.”

“With everything I am, I love you more with each breath I take.”

That was enough for her. She reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck, overwhelmed with joy and ecstasy as he pulled her into his muscular embrace. She pressed tight against him, and he against her, but when he realized how big her belly was, he backed off.

“I am sorry,” he whispered, one hand on her stomach as the other held her. “Did I hurt you?”

Ellowyn didn’t like being held at arm’s length. She resumed pressing herself against him. “Of course not,” she murmured, her lips on his face. “You have finally returned to me. It seemed as if you were gone forever.”

“It seemed that way to me as well,” he said, his hand still on her hard belly, feeling the growing life within with awe and gratitude.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.