Medieval 01 - Untamed

long-tongued hunting bitch.”
    Simon made a sound like coughing—or muffled laughter.
    Without looking away from Meg’s angry green eyes, Dominic gestured for his brother to get on with the backtracking.
    â€œNo, you’re neither hound nor horse,” Dominic said distinctly. “You’re a Glendruid witch. What mischief have you been hatching here?”
    â€œI am Glendruid, but I’m not a witch.”
    â€œYet you come to a place the common folk consider cursed.”
    â€œIt doesn’t disturb the cross I wear,” Meg said. “If the ancient place were the evil some people think it is, the cross would burn. It does not. It lies cool and quiet between my breasts.”
    Dominic looked at his wife while the sound of hoofbeats faded into a silence disturbed only by birdcalls and a rising wind. When he released Meg’s chin, small marks reddened her creamy complexion where chain mail had met skin. He would have felt worse about even that fleeting hurt if the certainty that she had been with a lover were not lying in hisgut like cold, undigested food.
    No wonder my bride responded so quickly to the sensual lure last night. She is no nestling newly caught, but a falcon ready trained to a man’s touch .
    I will have heirs of her, that is certain. She can no more resist the wild flight in a man’s arms than a falcon can resist the untamed sky. But whomever she belonged to in the past, she is mine now .
    And mine she shall remain .
    Grimly Dominic looked at the greenery scattered over the ground. Using her fingertips, Meg had gently raked up all but a few seedlings that were rapidly wilting. He was no herbalist, nor was he a gardener, but the seedlings looked common to him. He was certain he had seen their like growing far closer to the keep.
    Expecting Meg to object, Dominic picked up several of the seedlings.
    No protest came, not even when he carelessly stuffed the seedlings into a travel pouch tied to Crusader’s saddle. Yet when he bent to help Meg gather the few remaining loose leaves, stems, and tiny roots, she pushed his hands forcefully away.
    â€œNay,” Meg said. “Your gauntlets are too clumsy. If you bruise the leaves before the potion is prepared, it will be too weak to serve its purpose.”
    â€œIs that why you didn’t bring Eadith or one of the men-at-arms?” Dominic asked smoothly. “They’re too clumsy?”
    Meg said nothing.
    â€œAnswer me, wife . Tell me why you came into the forest alone.”
    Meg’s hands stilled. “I…”
    Dominic waited with a growing certainty that whatever he heard next would be a lie.
    What he heard was silence.
    â€œHow much farther up this way lies Carlysle Manor?” he asked in a carefully conversational tone.
    Meg let out a breath of relief at the new topic. While she spoke, she began picking up the last of the tiny leaves.
    â€œIt’s more than a hard day afoot,” she said. “It would be moonrise long before you saw the manor from the Old Pass.”
    â€œLess, if you ride the path you just walked?”
    â€œAye, yet few do, though the way is a shortcut between cart roads,” Meg said, talking quickly in her relief at having a safe topic. “The short way is arduous in places. Most people prefer the cart roads. Before John grew too weak, we traveled by road from the keep to the various manors several times a year.”
    â€œAre the cart roads in ill repair? Is that why you came this way?”
    â€œNay. Duncan has had men working on the roads since he returned.”
    Dominic’s eyes narrowed. If Meg could have seen him, she would have forgotten the few remaining scraps of leaves and taken to her heels. But her attention was entirely on gathering up each precious bit of green.
    â€œDo all the common folk prefer to go around these hills, walking the extra distance on the cart roads?” Dominic asked.
    â€œYes. They avoid the haunted places.”
    â€œHow convenient.”
    The savagery of his tone was like a sword being drawn. Meg’s hands fumbled and went still.
    â€œConvenient?” she asked. “How so?”
    â€œFor trysts,” Dominic said succinctly.
    Meg looked up and met Dominic’s eyes without flinching.
    â€œSo that is it,” she said. “You think I’ve been out rolling in the meadow with some man.”
    â€œNot some man,” Dominic said harshly, “but Duncan of Maxwell.