Medieval 2 - By Design by Madeline Hunter

Author:Madeline Hunter
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780307482631
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2001-10-17T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

SHE APPROACHED the lord's chair in the hall. The wrong man sat in it, a man too young and too complex. He appraised her with the kind of interest that the last lord had never shown.

Grief had killed her fear of him. The last days' horrors had turned her numb. She knew what he wanted, but she had already decided that she would kill herself first.

He looked her over possessively. It had been thus since he first saw her. She had assumed that first day that he would violate her, but he had not.

“You will sit here and eat, Joan. I will not have you pine.”

She took the place beside him. His solicitous tone made her bitterness spill out. Its heat felt like boiling water thrown on the ice of her heart. “You did not have to kill Piers.”

“He challenged me. It was ungrateful of him. I spared him when the keep fell, because we had once fought for the same lord. He repaid me by threatening my person.”

“You forced him to the challenge. You have been too familiar with me. He is … he was my betrothed, my husband in God's eyes. His honor and mine left him no choice but to challenge you, despite his wounds, and you knew it.”

He smiled mildly. A charming smile, but deadly in its brittle line. “Aye, your husband. Now he no longer stands between us, as fate would have it.”

She understood suddenly. She saw the horrible truth. Piers had been lured into that challenge. It had all been deliberate, decided once Guy learned what Piers was to her. It had been a game to this knight, with her both the bait and the prize.

“You are a madman if you think his death makes me more willing. I only hate you the more.”

He sipped his wine too calmly. His eyes glinted with triumph. “You will be mine, and you will be willing. You may bring me only your hatred at first, but that will change. Your safety depends on my favor.”

“Do you think that I care about my safety? I hope that someday you know defeat, and learn how death can be a gift when all you love has been destroyed.”

He looked her over again. The lust glowing in his eyes made her stomach turn.

He turned his head, and stared at something in the hall. “Not all that you love has been destroyed. I have been generous.”

Her gaze followed his. She saw what absorbed his attention. Her brother Mark sat with the servants. A chill prickled her neck and shivered down her back.

His hand covered hers. “It is not mere lust, Joan. I can satisfy that without cost, and we both know it. But your beauty and manner entrance me, and I am besotted enough to want you to accept me of your own choice.”

Rebellion surged for an instant, but she forced it into submission. She gave up all hope at that moment, and tasted the bitter bile of surrender.

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