Medieval 02 - Forbidden

horse aside and spurred into the lead. Two knights and their squires trotted across the meadow to join the small party. The men were wearing chain-mail hauberks beneath their mantles. They also had metal helms on their heads and carried the long, teardrop-shaped shields that Saxons had adopted from their Norman conquerors. Both knights were mounted on war stallions.
    Duncan looked from the fully armed knights to Erik.
    “Despite the clothes Stone Ring Keep has provided, suddenly I feel as naked as when I was found,” Duncan said dryly.
    “Do you think you once wore armor?” Erik asked.
    “I know it.”
    There was no doubting the certainty in Duncan’s voice.
    “It makes me wonder if perhaps the man who discovered me didn’t take my armor to pay for his trouble,” Duncan added.
    “He didn’t.”
    “You sound confident.”
    “I am. I was the man who found you.”
    Duncan’s right eyebrow rose in a questioning arc.
    “Amber told me only that you had brought me to her,” Duncan said.
    At Erik’s signal, the knights turned and rode from the cottage yard. After a time, Erik reined his horse alongside Duncan’s.
    “Is your memory returning?” Erik asked.
    “Bits and fragments, no more.”
    “Such as?”
    Though asked politely, the question was a command. Both men knew it.
    “I fought the Saracen,” Duncan said, “but I don’t know when or where.”
    Erik nodded, unsurprised.
    “I feel naked without weapons or armor,” Duncan said. “I have some skill at hawking.”
    “You ride well,” Erik added.
    Duncan looked surprised, then thoughtful. “Odd. I assumed everyone did.”
    “Knights, squires, and warriors, yes,” Erik said. “Serfs, villeins, merchants, and the like, no. Some priests ride well. Most don’t, unless they came of highborn families.”
    “I doubt I’m a priest.”
    “Why not? Many a fine warrior-priest has ridden against the Saracen for Church and Christ.”
    “But the Church desires—yea, of late it even demands!—celibacy.”
    Without realizing it, Duncan looked over his shoulder, where Amber rode alone.
    She saw his glance and smiled.
    Duncan smiled in return, watching Amber with a longing he couldn’t conceal. Even in the gray drizzle, she seemed to gather light into herself, becoming a golden presence that warmed everything within reach.
    He wished he were free to ride next to Amber, his leg brushing hers occasionally. He loved to see the color flood her cheeks at his touch, to hear her breath shorten, and to sense the hidden stirring of her sensuality.
    “No,” Duncan said, turning back to Erik, “celibacy is not for me. Now or ever.”
    “Don’t even think of it,” Erik said icily.
    Duncan gave the younger man a wary look.
    “Think of what, my lord?” Duncan asked.
    “Seducing Amber.”
    “No maid is seduced without her permission.”
    “Amber is called the Untouched. She is totally innocent. She wouldn’t have the least idea of what a man wanted until it was far too late.”
    Duncan laughed, shocking Erik.
    “No untouched maiden would be so vividly, sensually aware of a man,” Duncan said, amused.
    Erik’s shock gave way to cold fury.
    “Understand this, Duncan the Nameless,” Erik said distinctly. “If you seduce Amber, you will face me in single combat. And you will die.”
    For a moment Duncan said nothing. Then he looked at Erik with the coolly measuring glance of a man to whom battles were neither new nor feared.
    “Don’t force me to fight you,” Duncan said, “forI will win. Your death would grieve Amber, and I have no desire to bring her sadness.”
    “Then keep your hands off her.”
    “As the lady wills. If she is, as you say, untouched, there will be no difficulty. She won’t respond to the sensual lure.”
    “Don’t offer it,” Erik said in a clipped tone.
    “Why not? She is well beyond the age of marriage, yet she is neither betrothed nor under a lord’s private seal.” Duncan paused, then added, “Is she?”
    “Betrothed? Nay.”
    “Is she some lord’s leman?”
    “I just told you, Amber is untouched!”
    “Is she yours?” Duncan pressed.
    “Mine? Haven’t you been listening? She is—”
    “Untouched,” Duncan interrupted. “Aye. So you say.”
    Duncan frowned, wondering why Erik was so intent on believing that Amber was a virgin, when Duncan had no doubt that the opposite was the case.
    “Do you fancy Amber for yourself?” Duncan asked after a moment.
    “Nay.”
    “I find that hard to