Forbidden Magic (19 page)

* * *

Jewel shifted uncomfortably, snuggling against the strong arm encircling her for a more suitable place to rest and dreamily listening to the steady rhythm of a horse's hooves against the earth when suddenly the memories of the past night exploded in her mind. Her eyes flew open and she pushed away from the massive chest that seemed to fill her entire vision, gasp of outrage parting her lips when she heard Amery laugh.

"If only you were as soft and gentle awake as you are when you sleep," he mocked.

"A need for rest can tame even the wildest animals," she insisted coldly, quickly taking in her surroundings. They, were alone on the road, and she wondered briefly where Gunther might be, though she was confident that he had not gone far. She concentrated on the path they took, purposely avoiding the green eyes that could so easily stir her blood. "But beware, sir knight. Their claws are always sharp."

His mirth rumbled deeply in his chest. "And their tongues," he added.

"Will we be stopping, soon?" she asked, deliberately changing the direction of their conversation, for she had noticed the pink hues of the eastern sky and knew they had been traveling for several hours. "I am weary and have a gnawing in my stomach."

"There is a farm not far from here, friends of Gunther's. He has gone on ahead to ask their generosity for food and drink."

"And a place to rest?"

"Only for a short time," he said flatly. "My half brother has, by now, discovered your disappearance and will be searching. We will not stop for long until the distance is great between us.

A sarcastic smile twisted Jewel's lovely face. "Is there such a place? Radolf will never rest until he finds us. Methinks you cannot run forever."

Amery remained quiet a moment appraising the delicate profile Jewel presented him,.and he felt a quickening of his pulse. He was sorely tempted to direct Conan from the road, spread his mantle on the frost-covered ground, and sample the passion she had aroused in him once before. A curious frown crimped his brow. There had been so many willing damsels who had spread their skirts for him, some nearly as beautiful as this comely wench, hut none as stirring as she. What made it so? he wondered and mentally shrugged it off as unimportant. He would tire of her soon enough.

"'Tis. not my intent to run forever, little one," he answered casually, "but merely take safe refuge where Radolf will not think to look."

"Doth he worry you, m'lord?" she jeered bravely, casting him a challenging look from the corner of her eye.

Amery threw back his tawny head and laughed heartily. "Twould give you great pleasure if I told you yea. Bat, alas, fair one, 'tis not so. Gunther and I number only two. Radolf will bring an army. Only a fool would take on such odds."

"Then you will form your own?"

"Nay. Twill not take an army to bring about Radolf's destruction. Only his greed," he stated simply, shifting his fur-lined cloak back to his shoulders. "I have but to wait."

"And I as well?" she ventured.

Amery smiled secretively, nudging Conan's ribs as the farmhouse came into view and he saw Gunther waiting outside for them. The steed bolted off, throwing Jewel back against him, and he chuckled at the frantic way she sought to set herself from him and failed. His green eyes darkened, remembering the similar manner in which she had fought him, and wondered if there would ever come a time when she willingly offered herself to him. His mouth crimped in a half grin. Probably net. But what did it matter? He would only send her heme if she did, for that was surely the reason for the strange attraction that interested him so. All the others had eagerly awaited him in bed while Jewel longed not even to touch him. And he truly hated the weight of a clinging woman around his neck. More so, he had no time for one now. His only goal was to reclaim Wellington and cast out Lady Edlyn.

"Blagden and his wife offer all they have, Amery," Gunther informed him, reaching up to take Cohan's bridle once his friend reined the steed to a halt beside him. "And lodgings for the night, if it be your want."

Amery twisted in the saddle, surveying the road they had just traveled as if half expecting to see it filled with Radolf's knights. "How much further must we journey?"

"If we shared only food and drink... until sunset," Gunther advised, then looked sympathetically at Jewel. "Methinks the rest would do us all a favor. Even our horses tire."

"And your friends, Gunther," Amery continued. "Wouldst thou trust them with your life?"

"Yea," Gunther replied without the slightest hesitation. "I have known them since we all were children. They would watch while we sleep and warn us should anyone come with question concerning us. I have no doubt that I will sleep as a babe under their protection."

"Then it is decided," Amery announced, swinging a leg over Conan's rump to settle himself easily on the ground. "We shall accept their offer and begin our journey again once we have eaten and drunk our fill. .. and washed the sleep from our eyes."

"Good." Gunther smiled. "And I shall give an introduction first, then see our horses fed and stabled." Taking Conan's reins from Amery, he tied them to the roughly built fence next to his own steed's while Amery turned to help Jewel from the charger's back.

Although Jewel yearned to stretch her legs and chase away the chill with a cup of warm milk, she found the idea of having to submit to Amery's touch as he lifted her from the saddle hardly worth the rewards it would bring. She would have preferred Gunther's assistance but realized it was useless even to voice such a request. Amery would not allow it, for it appeared he took great pleasure in anything that might upset her. And, she decided, since that was his game, she would never let him know just how well he had succeeded. She took a deep breath to steal herself and watched his hands rise to take her around the waist. Jewel's heart lurched once he touched her and the contact seemed to burn through the bodice of her gunna, for he had slipped his hands beneath her mantle and she fleetingly wondered if he had done so purposely. The curious thought had little time to fade, however, before the answer came, for as he slowly lowered her to the ground, he pulled her to him, touching their bodies full length. Jewel's face flamed. Placing her hands against his shoulders, she fought to push away.

"Unhand me, Sir Amery," she spat through clenched teeth, her voice held to a whisper, her effort failing.

Green eyes filled with amusement stared back at her as he prolonged the task of setting her on her feet; enjoying the softness of her body pressed against his. He said nothing, but the gleam in his eyes spoke a thousand words, and Jewel's temper soared.

"You assume too much, m'lord. By your own decision we are no longer betrothed, and thou hast no claim on me. I am not a whore for you to fondle at your leisure!"

One tawny brow rose challengingly. "And what is in a title, Lady Jewel? Can those who share it claim a similarity that puts them above the rest?" His green eyes turned emerald. "I say nay, for I have known both whore and lady, and rarely knew the difference." Almost angrily, he set her feet upon the ground, but his hands remained on the tiny waist, inhibiting her release.

"Even thy mother, Lady Sigrid?" Jewel posed foolishly, thinking her point well made. But to her dismay, she saw the humor return to his eyes and wondered at its cause, for surely the woman who had borne him had softened his heart.

" 'Tis true she gave me life, little One, but nothing more. Her death came before I could speak her name."

"Is that why you hate us all... because she cheated you?"

"Hate?" he questioned, his gaze freely moving to the gentle rise and fall of her bosom. "Nay. In truth, I feel nothing. I desire you, 'tis all." A curious frown settled on his brow when he looked at her again, for an odd smile graced the delicate mouth.

"And 'tis a shame, m'lord, that I do not share the desire," she said calmly, "for methinks your pride will suffer when you learn there is one among us who finds the thought of your caress most distasteful."

Spotting Gunther from the corner of her eye as he waited patiently for them, she drew courage from his presence and lifted her nose haughtily in the air as she turned and started toward the tiny farmhouse. But she had only traveled a few steps when Amery's words caused her steady gait to falter.

"Mayhap, little one, but I will soon change your mind."

Jewel wanted to spin back on her heel and set the issue straight, tell him that no matter how often he tried, if he took her against her will time and time again, she would never find any tenderness in her heart for him. He was cruel, arrogant, and a murderer, and the need to hate him fully overshadowed any compassion she was capable of giving. Yet something within her forbade the emotion to surface. Radolf had given her the proof of Amery's guilt and she wanted to believe, but a gnawing seed of doubt had been planted and now grew within her, and she saw the possibility that somehow fact had been muddied with too many unanswered questions. Feeling Gunther's gaze upon her, she looked up at faun and knew the reason. But did he suspect the inner battle she fought? And had he guessed that Amery's touch, his caress, already stirred strange feelings in her, ones that she wished to deny? If she turned back to Amery and spoke a lie, would Gunther know and think her fickle? She started to look away, too ashamed to face him, when suddenly Gunther reached out and took her elbow, gently guiding her toward the house, and Jewel felt a sweeter victory. With a simple gesture, the man had given a silent expression of his understanding.

For the next hour, Jewel sat before the flickering oranges and reds of the fire in the hearth, sampling the cooked rabbit, a small portion of bread, and a dish of hot custard Blagden's wife, Huette, had given her. She ate hungrily, wondering how long it would be before she was served another meal and failing to listen to the conversation any of the others held. The only words she spoke were in gratitude to Huette for her kindness to a stranger. And when offered a cup of wine, she cordially accepted it, eager to have its warming effects settle her nerves and ease the weariness from her body. Within moments, the heat of the blaze in the fireplace had soothed her troubled spirit and before she realized it, she had drifted off to sleep curled up in a chair.

Nightmares haunted Jewel's dreams, grotesque figures dressed in full battle armor surrounding her by the scores, huge swords waving in the air and threatening to slice her apart. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound emerged. Frantic, she tried to escape and was trapped when another dark figure blocked the way, his face a shadow. In the distance she could hear someone calling her name and when she looked back she saw her father standing among the enemy, arms extended toward her. With tears streaming down her face, she ran in his directions but with each step she took, he seemed further away than before. Exhausted, her side aching, she stumbled and fell, and when she looked upon him once more, her breath caught in her throat, for there, surrounding him, stood her mother, Edwina, Ivy, and little William. Dragging herself to her feet, she started toward them, sobbing their names, for she knew danger threatened them all and she had to warn them. Then suddenly a black charger in gleaming armor and carrying a huge knight galloped between them, blocking her view of her family. And when she tried to pass him, the knight spun his destrier around, cutting her off. Frightened, not knowing what to do, she stood frozen to her spot until the shrill screams of her sisters pierced her to the soul. Her eyes were filled with terror as she looked upon her family when the knight had guided his steed to stand aside, and Jewel watched in horror as a circle of warriors closed in, their swords and battle axes raised high.

"Nay!" she screamed, bolting off in a desperate effort to save them.

But the knight, who had lingered near her, charged, and in one swift movement swept her up in one arm and settled her before him, his evil laughter ringing in her ears. Darkness pressed in around her. A gray, swirling fog encased her. And of a sudden, she was floating, taken from the arms of the knight before she could look upon his face.

"Name thyself," she called frantically, lifted ever higher. "I will know thy name that I can damn you!"

Through the haze, Jewel watched the knight remove his helm, his laughter seeming even more wicked, and when he raised his face to her only the haunting green eyes shone in an orb of blackness. Tears filled her own.

"Nay, it cannot be," she whispered mournfully, burying her face in her hands. Then in the distance, she heard someone call her name and she glanced up. In the flowing mist she saw another figure, his arms raised to her.

"Jewel," he said again and stepped closer. "'Tis Radolf. I will protect you."

"Radolf?" she wept, starting toward him. But before she could reach him, he vanished and the dark knight stood before her once more, green eyes blazing, his vicious laughter chilling her to the bone.

"Nay!" she cried. "Leave me! Radolf! Radolf, come back!"

Jewel came to an abrupt awakening. Her eyes flew open and she sat straight up in bed, totally confused. This was not her chamber at Harcourt. Glancing about, she surveyed the tiny: room and jumped with a start when she saw the dark figure seated in a chair watching her from one corner of the room. The events of the past two days quickly enveloped her once she recognized Amery.

"'Tis evening," she mumbled nervously, noticing the gray shadows that struggled through the single window of the room to blend with the colors of the fire from the hearth. When he failed to respond or take his eyes from her, she looked away, uncomfortable in his presence, and lifted the thin coverlet from around her. Intending to vacate the bed, she suddenly remembered falling asleep in a chair and paused, asking, "How... how did I... ?"