Medieval 02 - Forbidden

that lay within Amber’s eyes.
    “Aye,” Cassandra said raggedly. “You know . I salute your courage.”
    “While you deplore my common sense?” Amber asked.
    Cassandra looked back at the girl who was her daughter in all but birth. Tears glittered like ice in Cassandra’s eyes.
    Amber was too stunned to speak. Never had she seen the Learned woman weep.
    “I deplore only that God has asked this of you rather than of me,” Cassandra said in a low voice. “I would rather the suffering be mine.”
    Before Amber could answer, another toast came from the knights. She raised her goblet, smiled rather fiercely, and drank a small swallow.
    When she put down the heavy silver goblet, Duncan was standing in front of her. He held out his hand. She rose as gracefully asflame and went to him, putting her hand in his.
    The moment Duncan’s flesh met Amber’s, pleasure rippled through her. The lines of strain that had drawn her smiles as fine as a knife’s edge vanished like mist beneath a fiery sun. Her mouth softened, shadows retreated from her eyes, and she gave Duncan a smile that squeezed Cassandra’s heart.
    “Now do you understand?” Erik murmured in Cassandra’s ear. “She needs her dark warrior even more than I do.”
    “I understand everything save what you will do when he awakens Duncan of Maxwell and kills her—”
    “Nay,” Erik interrupted in a low voice.
    “—touch by touch, her heart bleeding—”
    “Silence!” he hissed.
    “—from ten thousand cuts no one else would have felt,” Cassandra finished relentlessly. “What will you do then, mighty lord?”
    “Duncan will love her in spite of all! How could a man not love a maid who looks at him with such transparent joy?”
    “‘He will love her in spite of all,’” Cassandra mimicked with icy sarcasm. “This from the sorcerer who believes only in lust between a man and a woman? I would laugh at you, but I fear my soul would break at the sound.”
    “Duncan will love her. He must .”
    “Could you love a woman who had betrayed you?”
    “I am not Duncan.”
    “You are a man. So is Duncan. When he understands how much Amber has cost him, he will hate her.”
    “What would you have done in my place?” Erik demanded in a low voice.
    “I would have surrendered Stone Ring Keep to Dominic le Sabre.”
    “Never,” Erik said flatly.
    “That is pride speaking.”
    “What good is a man with no pride?”
    “Ask Duncan,” Cassandra said scathingly, “for you seem to believe he has none.”
    A chorus of shouts made Erik turn toward the revelers. Amber had one hand around Duncan’s neck and she was whispering in his ear. Whatever she was saying made Duncan smile with a sensual heat that blazed as brightly as the fire.
    Then Duncan lifted Amber’s hand from his neck, kissed her fingers tenderly, and smiled at her once more. It was a different smile, for it promised safety as well as passion, caring as well as burning, peace as well as ecstasy.
    “Look at them,” Erik demanded in a low voice. “Look at them and tell me how I could have kept them apart short of death.”
    There was a savage silence followed by a sigh. Cassandra’s fingers touched Erik’s clenched fist.
    “I know,” she said softly. “That is why we rage at each other. It gives us the illusion we were once in control of Amber’s destiny—and we chose wrongly—when in truth we never had that kind of control at all.”
    Hand in hand, Duncan and Amber approached Erik.
    “We ask your leave, lord,” Duncan said, “to seek our rest.”
    A roar of laughter went up from the knights.
    “Rest?” Erik asked, covering his smile by smoothing his beard with his hand. “By all means, Duncan. If you aren’t to bed soon, the cock will be up well after dawn.”
    More laughter gusted through the knights.
    Erik’s smile changed as he looked at Amber. He reached out to her, but stopped just short of touching her cheek.
    “Be joyful in your marriage,” Erik said.
    Amber’s smile was incandescent. It didn’t dim even when she deliberately turned her head so that her cheek brushed against Erik’s fingers.
    The surprise that murmured through the gathered knights was reflected in Erik’s expression.
    “Thank you, lord,” Amber said softly. “Your kindness to me has been that of amber itself, pieces of sunlight shining no matter how dark the day.”
    Erik’s smile was both sad and so beautiful that Cassandra felt pain twist through her. The love Erik had for Amber was