Conquered

by Kirsten Osbourne

  Once they were finished, he rolled to his side, pulling her back against him and falling asleep curled around his bride, for once forgetting about his duties and allowing himself to rest during the day.

  Chapter Seven

  Christiana lay in bed, listening to the sound of her husband’s breathing. She needed to check on her sisters and see if they were okay, but she didn’t want to leave his arms. After a moment of internal debate, she sent out a thought to Eva. “Is she waking? Do you need help?”

  “She’s fine. Still sound asleep. I can manage on my own if you’re too busy bedding your husband to help me.” The mischief in Eva’s voice came through clearly in her thoughts.

  Christiana blushed. “Eva!”

  Eva’s laughter echoed through Christiana’s mind.

  She turned over to find Roland staring at her. Being uncertain what to say to a man you had just passionately surrendered to in the middle of the afternoon, she simply stared. She was surprised at just how much she enjoyed looking at him. His Norse good looks made her heart beat faster as her eyes met his.

  His finger traced the side of her cheek. “Explain to me about these powers you share with your sisters?” For the first time there was no sarcasm in his voice as he asked. It was a straightforward question and finally phrased in a way she was willing to answer.

  Christiana shrugged. “Our family is said to have descended from Druid priests. Our grandmother had the gift of seeing the future. She told our mother from the time she was a child that she would give birth to three girls all at once. She explained that the three of us would each have a different power, and that we must practice with our powers from the day we are old enough. She also told her that we would have to use our powers to ‘fight the evil that would come’.” She paused, her finger tracing the hair on his chest. “I thought the evil was the Normans until today. I believe the evil is still to come, and it’s hiding in our forest.”

  “Do you know what to do to defeat the evil?” Roland’s brows drew together as he studied her carefully, wondering if she was telling him everything she knew.

  She shook her head. “I have no idea. Mother had no powers, but she did have the three of us. My power was the first to manifest. As I was the oldest, that always made sense to my sisters and me.” Her fingers rubbed his shoulders gently. She found she couldn’t stop touching his naked skin.

  He shook his head. “You have the power to make things appear? Is that why we saw an army?”

  “No, Eva has the power of illusion. My power is mental communication.” She wasn’t surprised he thought her power was illusion but was glad to say it wasn’t. She loved her power and wouldn’t trade it to either of her sisters for theirs.

  “I don’t understand. What does that mean?”

  Instead of speaking, she sent her words to him mentally. “It means that I don’t have to speak to you for you to know what I’m thinking. I can do this with anyone, and they can send their thoughts right back to me.” She watched him carefully as she sent the message to him, wondering how he’d react to her using the power on him.

  His jaw dropped. “That’s how I knew you were in danger today?”

  “Yes. I told my sisters and all three of you men. Everyone came running, and my sisters made sure I knew you’d all received the message and were coming by sending messages with their minds.” Would he be angered that she had used the powers that he had made clear he didn’t believe in?

  “And Eva? How strong is her power?” The calculation was clear on his face. If he needed the sisters’ powers in battle, he wouldn’t hesitate to call on them.

  “We’re all stronger when we’re touching each other. Without Marina and I pushing our powers into Eva, she wouldn’t have been able to hold the illusion of an army for so long. As it is, she is unable to make people hear sounds, only see what she wants them to see.”

  “And Marina heals people.” It wasn’t a question. Roland had seen her youngest sister’s healing power with his own eyes.

  Christiana nodded. “We discovered Marina’s power when we were six. I remember cutting myself to let her practice healing. Mother put the word out to the servants that every small cut should be brought to Marina after that. She didn’t want Eva and I purposefully hurting ourselves to give Marina practice.”

  “How did you mother die? Why could Marina not save her?”

  “Mother died in childbirth. Marina’s powers were not nearly as strong as they are now. She tried to heal Mother, and the baby boy she carried, but she had to be pulled back. Eva and I could feel the life draining out of her. We knew we had a purpose, and we had to save Marina.” A tear trickled down Christiana’s cheek. “I still miss her every day.” Christiana and her sisters had lost their mother at much too young an age. They still wanted her guidance every day of their lives.

  Roland hugged Christiana closer. “I’m sorry. That must have been devastating for you.”

  Christiana nodded. “After that, Marina practiced more and more. All of the peasants in the area would come to us for Marina to heal. Father didn’t like it, so we started doing it in secret. We knew she needed to have her powers enhanced so she could do more and more.” She rested her head against his broad shoulder. “Of course, the healing drains her, just as Eva’s visions drain her. We use my power effortlessly within the house, but if I try to speak to someone too far away, then I must rest afterward. Or if I’m talking to a large group all at once for any period of time.” She spoke casually of the price they paid for their special powers.

  “You get as weak as Marina did today?” The look on his face told her he didn’t like the idea of her welcoming that sort of weakness.

  “Yes, we all do. Eva was barely recovered from the first time you tried to take the manor when you came back. That’s why she was so exhausted the day we met.” She sighed. “I hate that my sisters have so much taken out of them every time they use their gifts.” She didn’t mention what happened to her, because for the most part, it wasn’t something that affected her.

  He eyed her for a moment. “About your power. Can you see what I’m thinking all the time?” The suspicious look on his face tickled her.

  She laughed. “Only if you’re consciously sending it to me. The rest of the time, I can’t see a thing.” He nodded, seemingly relieved. “So do you think you’re married to a witch?” She watched him carefully, wondering how he was taking the information about their special powers. Many men would ask her to leave at that point, and she hoped she wasn’t married to a man who couldn’t accept her as she was.

  He shook his head slowly. “You can’t be a witch because you wear the Christian cross with ease. It’s not possible.” He studied her carefully. “It’s strange about your powers, though.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have them. If they’re all you know, then they don’t bother you at all.” She wasn’t ashamed of her powers and had never doubted God’s presence in her life. For most, it was a puzzle, but for Christiana, it was simply how God had made her.

  “That makes sense, I think.”

  “Tell me about Hugh,” she said, thinking of Eva. They’d both wondered at his connection to the two brothers.

  “Hugh has been with me for as long as I remember. My mother says that when I was a small child, barely walking, I wandered off during a picnic, and she didn’t notice immediately. Everyone set out to look for me, but no one could find me. What they found, an hour later, was a small peasant boy lying unconscious. I was lying under him. He had thrown himself on top of me as a dog had attacked me, and he still bears the scars on his shoulder. He was only six summers at the time, so my parents brought him to live in our castle, and he was educated as a nobleman. Because of his history, he’s never been able to find a wife who would accept him.” Roland sighed. “He’s always been by my side for as long as I could remember. When I decided to fight with Duke William, he came with me, as did my youngest brother Charles.”

  “Both of them want l
ands as well, I assume?” It was the way of men, wanting to have lands to leave to their sons. She couldn’t imagine either of his men thinking any other way.

  “Charles does. Hugh has never said what he wants. He’s a man of few words. He’s always with me, but he never really tells me much. I assume he wants to marry and have land, but I really don’t know.” Roland shrugged as if Hugh’s presence was what mattered to him, not his motives.

  She bit her lip wondering if she should say something about Eva. “I think my sister, Eva, would be happy to take him for a husband if he didn’t mind not having lands.” She hoped he would be welcoming to the idea.

  Roland looked at her for a moment. “Eva wouldn’t mind marrying a man who was once a peasant?”

  Christiana shook her head. “No, she wouldn’t. She’s never cared what a person’s background was as long as they were good. Hugh is a good man.” She emphasized the word good.

  Roland studied her for a moment. “How do you know this?”

  Christiana shrugged. “The same way I felt the man in the forest was evil. I can sometimes sense the good or bad in a person, depending on whether it overwhelms the other side of them.” She sighed trying to come up with the best way to explain it. “Most people are mostly good or somewhat bad, but if I drew a line in the middle where a person was neither good nor bad, most people would be near the middle. They have to be way off the line for me to know differently. Hugh has good radiating from him, just as the two men we’ve met in the forest have had evil. I don’t know a better way to explain it.”

  He nodded. “You’re making sense to me. I think you’re right. Hugh is a very good man.” He sighed. “He hates killing, even when it’s part of warfare. He doesn’t think it should be done. I keep him with me more to watch my back than anything else, because he’ll kill to defend me or my brother, but he won’t attack anyone.”

  “I can see that in him. He would make a good husband for my sister. She’s not ready yet to make her choice, but I wanted to know how you’d feel about the two of them marrying, before I discuss it with her again.” She said a quick prayer that he would understand her sister’s desire to marry a man she could love, not just a nobleman.

  “I don’t think she could marry a better man.” He pulled her closer contentedly. “I need to go back to work. My men are already saying that marriage to you has made me lazy, and I fear they’re right.” He finally stood and quickly donned his clothing while she watched him dress. She’d not really seen him unclothed before, and was fascinated at the sight of him.

  “What will you do for the rest of the day?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “I’ll spend my day training with my men. We’ll need to go into the forest and root out the rest of the men in there soon, but not today. Today is for strengthening ourselves. We lost a lot of strength during the Battle of Hastings.”

  “Would your men be able to defend us if the resistance fighters attacked?” She hated the idea of again being as defenseless as they were before Roland and his men came, but she knew she and her sisters would fight as hard as possible to defend them if necessary.

  He nodded emphatically. “Absolutely. Not as well as they’d have been able to defend two weeks ago, but they could certainly do the job.” Fully dressed now, he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. “Will you go check on your sister?”

  “I already have, and she’s still sleeping, but I’ll go in and give Eva a break if she’d like one. We’re used to watching over each other this way.” She waited until he’d left the room before getting out of bed and dressing quickly.

  She hurried down the hall to Marina’s room. “Has there been any change?” Christiana felt badly for not staying and helping sit with their younger sister.

  Eva shook her head. “She’s still sleeping.” She looked at Christiana tiredly.

  Christiana stood over Marina looking down at her. “She’s so pale. She wasn’t getting ill before the healing was she?” Christiana was always fearful they would lose her when she healed someone, because there was no one around to heal her. She’d come so close to death trying to save their mother that Christiana still had nightmares from it.

  “I don’t think so. It was just a major healing, and she’s worn out from it.” Eva held Marina’s hand in hers as she spoke.

  Leaning over her sister, Christiana ran her hand over her brow to satisfy herself that she wasn’t burning with fever. She then sat on the edge of her bed, while Eva sat down in the chair next to it, so they could continue their vigil.

  “I asked Roland how he would feel if you were to marry Hugh.” Christiana flashed Eva a quick grin.

  “You didn’t!” Eva looked shocked that Christiana would bring up such a subject with her husband.

  Christiana laughed. “I wanted to know what the story was.” She related how Hugh had saved Roland’s life and had been educated as a nobleman as a result.

  “I knew he was a good man,” Eva told her. “He’s been very kind and gentle to me, and even when he kissed me…” She blushed. She obviously hadn’t been planning to say that.

  “He kissed you? When?” Christiana made herself comfortable on the edge of Marina’s bed, ready to hear everything her sister had to say.

  Eva looked down at her hands in embarrassment. “You’ll think less of me.”

  Christiana reached out and took Eva’s hand. “I could never think less of you. What happened?” Christiana’s eyes were shining as she asked her sister for all the details of her encounter with Hugh.

  “When we were in the woods this morning, he kissed me. We were walking along, and I told him how much I enjoyed listening to him play his lute and sing.” Eva stared ahead of her as if remembering. “He told me then he’d been born a peasant, and that I was a lady, and not for him.” She frowned as she said that. Obviously she didn’t feel there was a problem with Hugh being born a peasant.

  “And?” Christiana listened impatiently waiting for her sister to get to the good part of her story.

  “So I told him I didn’t care if he’d been raised by wolves. He was a good man, and I had the right to like him for who he was and not for what he’d come from.” She shrugged. “You know how I feel about everyone being the same whether noble or peasant.”

  “What did he say to that?” Christiana was surprised her sister had been so bold with Hugh.

  “He said he wouldn’t risk offending Roland by trying to court his sister-in-law.” She paused. “I told him I didn’t care what Roland thought. I have a mind and I can do with it what I will.”

  “And he kissed you?” Christiana watched her sister’s face as she asked. Had she liked the kiss?

  Eva nodded. “Just as he kissed me, we heard your cry for help. All that time we’d been walking in the woods together and hadn’t even tried to find any game to hunt. We were too wrapped up in talking to each other.” Eva looked embarrassed that she hadn’t done what she was supposed to do.

  Christiana grinned. “When he kissed you, did you feel it all the way to your toes?”

  “I don’t think it’s seemly to talk about such things.” Eva’s cheeks were bright red as she walked to the window and pulled back the coverings to look out. The men were training below, and Christiana could hear the clang of metal on metal. “He’s a good fighter.”

  “Hugh or Roland?” Christiana asked.

  “Both men. All three of them actually. They keep the other men away from us, and they alone live in the house with us.” Eva looked over at Christiana. “I know the circumstances of your wedding weren’t ideal, but I think you married a good man.”

  “I know I did.” She paused for a moment. “He’s not as overpoweringly good as Hugh is, but he’s a very good man.” She knew her sister would understand her words without further explanation.

  Eva sat down and took Christiana’s hand in hers. “We’re fortunate to have found men to protect us. So many bad things happen during wartime, and we’re still living in our beautiful home and still being protect
ed the way we were before the war. Our lives are changing very little other than the good men we’ve found.”

  “I never dreamed a terrible war could actually bring joy to my life, but it has. In ways I’d never dreamed possible.” She looked down at her Marina. “But the evil Mother told us about is coming. It’s close at hand. Can you feel it?” Sometime her sisters picked up the things she did, and sometimes they didn’t. Her power was more in tune with the way people were and the things they did.

  Eva nodded. “I can. I think our relationships with the men will help us with our coming battles, though.”

  “I hope so. They can help or distract. I only hope they help.” Christiana worried that the men would distract her sisters from their true purpose. She stood at the knock on the door and opened it quickly. “Charles!”

  “I just wanted to check on Marina. Is she all right?” He held his helmet in his hand, trying to peek around Christiana to see Marina.

  Christiana nodded. “Yes, she will be. She’s still asleep, but she’ll be fine. Would you like to see her?” She watched Charles carefully wondering what he felt for Marina. Marina had not mentioned him except in disgust, but it was obvious to Christiana there was something between the two.

  He stepped into the room and looked down at Marina. “I worry she shouldn’t have healed him when she did.”

  “What’s done is done. She didn’t have to offer to heal him, and she knew better than anyone else there what would happen when she did. It’s hard for all of us to use our powers, but they were a gift meant to be used, not kept hidden away.” Christiana watched the man’s face as he stared down at her unconscious sister.

  “Please alert me when she wakes.” Charles seemed to be unable to stop staring at Marina.

  Christiana nodded. “Where will you be?” She looked away from her brother-in-law, satisfied that his feelings for her sister, whatever they were, were genuine.