Medieval 02 - Forbidden

caressed the veins where the force of his life surged just beneath his skin.
    Erik sensed Amber’s sorrow as clearly as he sensed her love for the dark warrior who watched her with haunted eyes.
    “Duncan,” Erik said, “leave us.”
    “Nay,” Duncan said savagely. “I’ll not have you shame Amber for what wasn’t her fault.”
    Erik looked directly into Duncan’s eyes and knew that the other man was walking on a knife-edge of control. Erik wondered what memories were returning, how quickly; and how much time he had beforeDuncan awakened and knew himself as the Scots Hammer.
    Erik’s enemy.
    Amber’s lover.
    Betrothed to a Norman heiress whom he had never seen.
    Vassal to Dominic le Sabre.
    A savage impatience flattened Erik’s mouth as he thought of how little time remained, how much could go wrong, and how great the stakes were.
    They must wed .
    Immediately !
    “I would no more humiliate Amber than I would my own sister,” Erik said carefully. “She is much cherished by me. She is also well known to me.”
    He turned to Amber. “Do you wish Duncan to stay while we talk about…wedding arrangements?”
    Amber’s smile was even sadder than her tears. Slowly she shook her head.
    Without a word Duncan turned on his heel and left the lord’s solar.
    Erik waited until the last harsh echo of Duncan’s footsteps had faded into the hiss of the fire. But even then Amber didn’t speak. She simply stood unmoving, slow tears turning her pale cheeks to silver.
    Uneasiness rippled through Erik. He had seen Amber many ways, in many moods, but never had he sensed such unremitting sorrow in her.
    As though something cherished had died.
    “If it wouldn’t cause you pain,” Erik said, “I would take you onto my lap and rock you like a child.”
    Amber’s laugh was little different from a sob.
    “There is only one person who can hold me thus without discomfort,” she whispered.
    “Duncan.”
    A look of profound loss shadowed Amber’s face.
    “Aye,” she whispered. “My dark warrior.”
    “You will be wed to him before the chaplain chants morning mass,” Erik said. “Why, then, do you grieve?”
    “I cannot marry Duncan.”
    “God’s blood, was he that great a swine with you?”
    At first Amber didn’t understand. When she did, a blush tinted her pale cheeks.
    “Nay,” she said.
    Her voice was so soft that Erik could barely hear it.
    “Are you certain? Some men are vicious when lust takes them,” Erik said bluntly. “No matter how badly I need Duncan as my own, I’ll not condemn you to spend your life lying beneath a rutting beast who is twice your size.”
    Amber put her hands to her suddenly hot cheeks. “Stop!”
    Erik cursed beneath his breath, stood abruptly, and came to stand as close to Amber as he could without touching her.
    “Look at me, Amber.”
    A combination of regret, tenderness, and concern was mixed together in Erik’s voice and in the expression on his face.
    “Did Cassandra never talk to you about the ways of men and maids?” Erik asked.
    Amber shook her head.
    Erik sighed. “It must be that she believed you would never be able to touch a man’s hand without pain, much less hold part of his body within you in the marriage bed.”
    A small sound escaped Amber as she looked away from the tall lord she had known all her life.
    Yet never had they talked like this.
    “Nay,” Erik said. “There is no need to be embarrassed about the way in which men and womenunite. It is a gift of God. Did you find it…distasteful?”
    Amber shook her head.
    “Hurtful?” he asked.
    She shook her head again.
    “Then he didn’t take you too quickly?” Erik pressed. “He’s not unskilled?”
    “Erik,” Amber said faintly. “We should not talk of such things!”
    “Why not? You have neither mother nor sister, and Cassandra has never experienced a man. Or would you rather talk about such things with a priest who has never experienced a woman?”
    “I’d rather not talk about it at all,” Amber muttered.
    The returning life in her voice sent a surge of relief through Erik. He didn’t know what would happen to Amber if she believed Duncan lost to her.
    Nor did Erik want to know.
    “You must talk about it,” he said, “if only this once.”
    A sideways look convinced Amber that Erik wasn’t going to be turned aside. Reluctantly, she nodded.
    “If Duncan is unskilled in the arts of love,” Erik said matter-of-factly, “it can be remedied. If he is a brute, there is no