Nightly he felt her draw closer to him. As if her thoughts and feelings were tentacles, invisibly entering his skin and working their way deep inside of him. He didn’t notice it at first, but as each day passed, he began to feel her presence within him. Like an echo of himself, he felt her become a part of him. And with each day his world grew unimaginably more complicated.
And now, at the end of a long day of training his men, Rufus entered the hall and the first person he looked for was Kezia. He scanned the hall, but there was no sign of her, only William and Sir Harry poring over some maps.
“Rufus!” called William. “Come here and look over these plans!”
He leaned over his brother’s chair and looked at the sketches William and Sir Harry had been discussing. Rufus pointed to where two tributaries flowed into the main river. “Here is where we need to ambush them. I’ve just been there. If they’re coming toward us, here, then they’ll have to pass this place and we can attack them.”
William nodded slowly, and the discussion between the men continued. Rufus stepped back and poured himself a cup of ale. Kezia’s suggestion of an ambush made sense given her background. But it hadn’t been something any of them would have considered. For the first time, he thought they might succeed.
Combining Kezia’s idea of an ambush with his own of direct assault, they’d have covered all their bases. The main force would leave the castle to attack but be scattered and weakened by continued ambush assaults, leaving the castle exposed to direct attack.
“We are lucky to have Bayard on our side,” said William. “Gilbert de Montmorency believes he sides with him and tells him his plans. While in truth he works for us.”
“Are you sure?” asked Rufus.
William shrugged. “He had better be because he knows all our plans.”
“He is,” said Lady Charlotte with finality, sweeping into the hall. “He and his family have suffered at the hands of the de Montmorencys as much as Richard de Courcy. They simply had less to lose, which is why they were not forced to become their enemy. Bayard is with us, of that, you can be sure.”
Rufus sighed. “We have no choice but to trust him. He is the only one who can tell us when they plan to attack. I don’t like being dependent on one man.”
“De Courcy trusts him. And so must we.”
“So, all we need is de Courcy’s reinforcements from Kent. Then we should have men aplenty for the attack.” Rufus grimaced. “He says it will be weeks. I trust it will be. Leave it much longer, and we risk de Montmorency attacking us.”
“That’s where the intelligence we receive about de Montmorency’s movements and plans comes in.” William leaned forward and caught Rufus’s gaze. “All we need now is someone to take the messages from our spy within the castle and get them passed on to us here.”
“I went this morn with Kezia to see the man she mentioned.” Rufus sat on the bench between his mother and brother. “He’s an old reedsman who lives on an island in the river. He knows everything that goes on there. He says he will take the messages which our spy smuggles out. It will be easy enough, so he says.”
William sat back with a triumphant air. “So, then, the last piece of the puzzle slots home.”
“No. There’s a problem. This man trusts few people, but there is one who he trusts.”
“Then that man shall be the messenger who collects the messages from the island hermit to bring to us.”
“It is not a man. It is Kezia.”
Lady Charlotte shook his head in disbelief. “Kezia?”
Kezia suddenly stepped out of the shadows. Not even Rufus had seen her appear from the kitchen and steal into the hall.
“I’ll do it.”
“You. Will. Not!” said Rufus, in a louder tone than he’d intended. “It is too dangerous.” He turned to the others. “It is not women’s work.”
Lady Charlotte sat regally in her chair and looked from one to the other of them. “It’s the work of anyone we can get to do it.”
“It is too dangerous.” Rufus focused on the map in front of them, not wanting his mother to read the truth in his eyes.
Lady Charlotte beckoned Kezia to approach them. She didn’t hesitate. “Your… husband seems very delicate when it comes to your involvement here. Tell us why you think you can do what others can’t.”
“Because I’ve earned the trust of the hermit. He and others like him who live and work on the waterways have no love for the de Montmorencys. And they’ve come to know me over the past weeks. They trust me.”
“How can they trust you after such a short time?”
“Because I grew up with people like them. I understand them. They remind me of my people.”
“Your people,” Lady Charlotte scoffed. “But they’re not really yours, are they?”
She lifted her chin. “They’re all I know.”
Lady Charlotte raised a hand. “Enough.” She turned to Rufus. “She’s all we have. She will do this.”
Rufus ground his teeth and shot a dark look at Kezia. It wasn’t her business. She shouldn’t risk herself for his family. Kezia met his gaze with equal ferocity. It quickened his heart and made him think of their nights together. Each morning he swore he wouldn’t have her again. He had no capacity for love. But seeing her here now, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. He wanted her now like the devil.
“Kezia!” he said, not looking at his family as he strode forward and took her arm. “Come, I would have a word.”
He began to climb the steps to the private chamber but heard the laughter of his sisters and knew that he would not be able to do as he wished with them close by. So, instead, he led her away from the hall, away from the watchful eyes of his family and out toward the sea. He didn’t let go of her arm until they’d stepped down into the sheltering sand dunes. Before she could remonstrate, he pulled her toward him and kissed her with all the passion which had been mounting ever since she’d stepped from the shadows in the hall.
For a moment he thought she would resist, but as his tongue found hers, sliding against it, reminding her of the pleasure they’d found in each other’s arms, she stopped resisting. He deepened the kiss as his hands lowered, feeling her curves and lifting her dress to feel her naked legs beneath.
Her hands strayed over his body, finding the gap between his clothes and slipping inside, her cool fingers making his heated skin even hotter as she explored his body.
Breathless, he kissed her neck and lower. She arched as his lips and tongue found her small breasts, whose nipples peaked, revealing a desire which mirrored his own. He swept up her skirts until he felt her trembling thighs open although he exerted no pressure. Then he felt the apex of her legs, which was warm and soft, and wet and wanting.
She pushed down his hose and brought her fingers around his shaft. All thought had gone, all measured action had disappeared, there was nothing except his throbbing cock and the place it needed to be. The only thing which could have stopped him was Kezia. But her gaze was unwavering as she took him and guided him toward the apex of her legs.
“Kezia?” he whispered hoarsely.
“Take me,” she breathed.
It was all he needed to know, and he did, thrusting easily inside her.
As the waves rolled in and out, he kept up a steady rhythm, marveling at her enjoyment, at the fine skin on her flickering eyelids, at the intensifying moans and pants as his movement increased her pleasure.
Suddenly her eyes opened wide as if in panic, and he almost stopped, then she let out a loud cry expressing a sweet-painful anguish as she reached the edge of her passion and fell in, her body spasming around him, drawing him on until he pumped his seed deep into her body.
Slowly the world returned to them as they fell back into the sand—the bright blue of the sky overhead, not tainted with clouds of any sort, and the cool sand beneath them, the cries of the seagulls, and the beating of their hearts.
She lay within the crook of his arm, tight against his body
. She smiled up at him.
“You wanted a word, my lord.” She kissed his arm.
“Aye. Kezia, I would not have you risk your life for my family.”
As the last word died on his lips, the smile fled from her eyes. “Am I not also your family now?”
He shook his head, unable to answer the simple question with a simple answer. By Christ, why was nothing simple in his life?
In silence, she readjusted her clothing, and they returned to the lane. As they walked to the castle, a barrier, as thick and strong as the flint wall alongside which they walked, fell between them. If one of the workers in the fields had looked up, they would have thought them returned from an errand, a visit to the church maybe, their demeanor was so subdued.
When they reached the castle, Rufus stopped and gripped her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. Her chin was raised and her proud gaze met his, but he saw the pain there.
“You asked me if you were of my family and I didn’t reply,” he said.
“Your lack of words was reply enough.”
She started to move into the gatehouse, but his grip tightened.
“Nay, you are mistaken. You are family now, and as such, I undertake to protect you, just as I protect my sisters. You will not risk yourself.”
She pulled his hands from her and tossed them aside. “I risk myself every day. I need no protection.”
He watched her walk quickly back through the busy bailey yard knowing bone-deep, that she was wrong. She needed all the protection she could get.
As spring turned into summer the crops, which had been but green shoots when they’d arrived, grew into swaying fields of gold beneath bright green-leafed trees. And Rufus became ever more impatient. He and William cantered toward Wanham Castle, with Rufus having to control his skittish mount who sensed his unease.
“De Courcy’s men should have arrived by now! By Christ, we cannot wait much longer.”
“Soon, Rufus. It will happen soon. Be patient, brother. And then we’ll defeat the de Montmorencys, take the castle and return it to the de Courcys.” William drew in a deep breath and looked around the fields. “And then we can return to normal.”
Rufus shot him a sideways look. “You seem confident.”
“And why should I not? I know the land, you know the warfare and it seems that Kezia knows the people better than either of us. I’m confident, and with a bit of luck Mother might just let this marriage business rest between you and Kezia.”
Rufus looked straight ahead. He wasn’t accustomed to talking about his woman with William.
“You can’t deny it, Rufus. I’ve seen the way you look at Kezia. And I’ve seen the effect she has on you even when she’s not around. I’ve never seen you happier.”
“Happier? Than when?” asked Rufus.
“Than forever. You smile more often now, and you even laughed the other day when I said something amusing.”
“What you said struck me as amusing. Do you doubt your humor?”
“No. I doubt yours.” William drew his horse closer to Rufus’s. “Rufus, I haven’t seen you like this since you went away. Never since you returned from the Crusades.”
“Seen me like what?”
William snorted and shook his head as they reached the gatehouse, his gaze resting on Kezia, who was bending over to pick up a child who’d fallen. “Laughing, talking, being human, for God’s sake.”
Rufus gnawed the inside of his cheek as he followed William’s gaze to Kezia. “That’s ridiculous,” he muttered, jumping off his horse.
“Admit it,” said William, jumping down beside him. “You’re a changed man since your return.”
Rufus deliberately chose to misinterpret his brother’s comments. “Of course, war changes a man.”
“Not back from the war, back from Leicester. Back with Kezia.”
Rufus made a huffing sound which he hoped would convince his brother that he didn’t believe such a thing, and that it was untrue. William was wrong. He had to be wrong. Because to admit to himself that Kezia had touched his heart, meant to admit that he had a heart, that he was weak and vulnerable. And he’d vowed that he’d never be vulnerable again: it near killed him when Christian had fought against Christian in Constantinople.
William shook his head and led his horse into the stables, leaving Rufus standing watching Kezia console the crying child. The mother had her arms full of clean linen but was talking to Kezia with an ease that he’d never seen between his people and his family before. Kezia was short, fair and slender, but somehow she held more force than many people he knew. Especially with him. Somehow this slender no-longer virgin had surrendered something very special to him and had opened something up inside of him.
As if she realized he was thinking about her, she turned around and smiled, an unguarded, intimate smile which shot at him like an arrow. He smiled, and then turned and watched William talking to his mother. William turned suddenly to him, with a look that had no humor in it whatsoever. Rufus drew his horse toward the stable. Something had happened. Something which involved him, something which William knew he wouldn’t like. And when he entered the stables, he knew what it was. They had visitors.
He strode up to the hall which he’d seen William and his mother enter and stopped dead. Lady de Courcy and her daughter, Alice, were seated by the fire like honored guests. Sir Richard de Courcy had been a frequent visitor in recent weeks as they’d discussed how they would combine their forces to retake the castle which the de Montmorencys had stolen from them two years since. But Rufus hadn’t seen his daughter in years. And one glance at Lady Charlotte told him that the timing wasn’t accidental. She was planning something.
They hadn’t yet seen Rufus, who beckoned Lady Charlotte to join him outside.
“And what,” he said, closing the door to the hall, “is the meaning of this, Mother?”
His mother didn’t even have the grace to look abashed. “Of what, mon fils?” she asked as she smoothed her finest dress.
He crossed his arms grimly and leaned against the door. There would be no escaping from him until he’d got to the bottom of this. “You know, full well. That woman in there! Why is she here?”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
He frowned. “God’s teeth, mother! Do not tell me that you are still hopeful of a match for me?”
“Don’t swear.”
“By the Virgin Mary, you would test the patience of a saint!”
“You liken yourself to a saint?” She raised one finely arched eyebrow.
“You misunderstand me on purpose, to buy yourself time. But you are not going anywhere until you tell me exactly your purpose here.”
“Yes, you’re correct,” said his mother. “I want a match for you.” She cast an irritated glance at Kezia who was watching them suspiciously from across the yard.
“In case it’s escaped your notice, I am already married.”
She waved her hand airily. “A technicality. Once Kezia has gone, and the marriage has been annulled, a match with Lady Alice will be the next best thing after Lady Maud.”
“And you are so certain Kezia will leave, will desert me as you wish her to?”
“Yes.”
“But how could you know such a thing? And what of the Lady Alice and her mother. Do they know of your plans? Have they agreed to this wild scheme?”
“It is not wild. And only the mother is aware of what we’re planning. No one else. Not yet. Not until the… other thing is dealt with.”
“And by the other thing, I suppose you mean Kezia.” Rufus was weary of arguing.
“Yes.” Lady Charlotte sighed and walked to the window, and half-turned to him. “I’ve lived longer than you, I know more.” She held up her hand to silence Rufus, who shook his head in disbelief that he was about to be lectured. “And marriage is more than rutting at night. Much more. Look at your father and me.” Her profile was outlined by the bright light out the window, the rest of her shadowy by contrast. “He wanted m
e because he couldn’t have me, so he took me. But I had no fortune and he lived to regret it.”
Rufus knew it and hated to hear of it. It had informed everything he’d ever done regarding women. Because, whether she knew it or not, he loved his mother. But now was not the time to admit the emotional connection he had with her. The image of Kezia stood between them now. “And what exactly has Lady Alice to do with my father’s feelings for you?”
She looked at him directly. “I see you do not deny it.”
“How can I know?” But of course, he knew. His father’s treatment of his mother had left a lot to be desired and had affected all of their children.
She nibbled her bottom lip, looking as troubled and insecure as a youth. In that shadowed position, she looked remarkably young, and his heart went out to her.
“I can see that Kezia has feelings for you,” she said. “But they won’t be enough to keep you. And you’ll both be left with nothing but the ashy remains of what you once had. No, you need a wife who is your peer, and who can give you the future this family requires. Kezia will not.”
“Whether she will, or will not, is of no consequence. We are married, and that is that.”
His mother grimaced and looked away. “So… you have feelings for her. I know you lie with her at nights. Even if I had not heard your cries, all the servants are gossiping about it. But I hoped it hadn’t gone any further than that. Kezia is cleverer than I thought.” She looked up at him. “What do you intend to do?”
He ground his teeth in frustration. It seemed everyone knew what he refused to admit—that he was falling for Kezia with each passing day. The nights of intimacy went beyond the physical without him even being aware of it, until she’d wound her way deep inside of him. How could he disentangle himself even if he wanted to? But then he had his family to consider. There were more lives at stake here than his and Kezia’s. His family and his people. He had a duty to them, and he’d never before shirked his duty, and he never would.
Defending His Lady (Norfolk Knights Book 4) Page 14
