“You are a gracious hostess, Princess Gabrielle. Thank you for the royal invitation and accommodations for us to attend the Yuletide Joust.” Viviane turned to the humbled couple at her side. “May I present my dear friends Gaspard and Ghislaine of Brocéliande.”
“Enchantée.” Gabrielle smiled as Ghislaine curtseyed and Gaspard bowed reverently. “Please allow my attendants to show you to your rooms. I am sure you’d like to refresh after your long journey.” She smiled hesitantly, concern reflecting in her verdant gaze. “My father is quite ill—otherwise, he would be here to greet you as well.” She glanced nervously at Bastien. “Bastien informed me that you three priestesses are all gifted healers, exceptionally skilled with medicinal herbs.” Gabrielle looked down at her feet, then raised imploring eyes toward the trio of women. “I hope you might be able to examine the king—and perhaps suggest a treatment which might assuage his pain and improve his ailing health. Perhaps this afternoon, after you’ve had a chance to rest, I might send a servant to escort you to his royal chambers?”
Viviane responded without hesitation. “Of course. We will be honored to examine and treat your father.” She smiled knowingly at her two female companions. “We specialize in the healing arts and have our herbal supplies with us. Please, Princess Gabrielle, send an attendant in an hour. That will give us time to unpack our bags and refresh, so we’ll be presentable to meet King Guillemin.”
Esclados kissed his wife’s cheek in parting. “The rooms in the castle, we men will leave to you ladies. Gaspard and I will be staying in the tents with Bastien and Lancelot down on the tournament field. He’ll keep an eye on Gaston and Quentin while Lancelot and I officiate the competition. I’ve assigned several knights from Landuc to escort you to the opening ceremony tomorrow morning.Les commençaillesbegin at ten, so I’ll have the guards report shortly after nine. I’ll see you then, my love.À demain.”
Gaspard kissed his wife Ghislaine, and Lancelot bid adieu to his mother.
Tears of joy brimming in her proud amber eyes, Laudine kissed Bastien and murmured, “Good luck in the joust, son. My Yuletide wish is for you to win the tournament. And Princess Gabrielle’s lovely hand.”
Mine, too, Maman. If the royal decree arrives before tomorrow.Bastien brushed his lips against his mother’s soft cheek and said to his father, “I’ll stay here with Gabrielle while the healers assess King Guillemin. I’ll come down to the field and join you later this evening.” He waved goodbye as Lancelot, Esclados, Gaultier, and Gaspard exited the castle and headed back to the lists, while the trio of female priestesses followed the servants upstairs to their respective guest quarters.
Alone with Bastien in the empty foyer, her eyes alit with fragile hope, Gabrielle whispered, “I hope your mother, Viviane, and Ghislaine can identify the harmful herbs that Isnard was giving my father. Perhaps cleanse the toxins from his blood somehow. And offer a treatment for his stomach pain and excruciating gout.” She watched the men retreat from view as they crossed the castle grounds, then turned to Bastien and suggested, “Let’s share a small meal in my chambers before we bring the healers to meet my father. Come, I’ll have something brought to my room.”
Gabrielle opened the carved golden oak door of her elegant antechamber at the servant’s knock. The attendant entered with an appetizing platter of cold meats, cheese, bread, and fruit, which he placed upon the table. Pouring two silver goblets from the elaborate decanter, he placed the remainder of the wine in the center of the sumptuous array and discreetly disappeared.
Tracing the decorative edge of the pewter platter, Gabrielle’s pensive gaze fixed on the goblets of wine. When she raised her forlorn eyes, the fear and despair he glimpsed in their emerald depths pierced his heavy heart. “The messenger still has not arrived with the decree ofle Parlement de Paris. And the opening ceremonies begin tomorrow.”
Without authentication of his noble title, Bastien would not be permitted to compete in the Yuletide Joust. At the thought of Ugolin le Clou winning Gabrielle’s hand, his throat constricted; he couldn’t breathe. Clenching his jaw, he swallowed the bitter bile rising from his raging gut.
Gabrielle slipped across the room to stand before him, gentle fingers caressing the stubble on his cheek. “This might be the last time we’re alone together.”
He grasped her hand and turned an anguished face to kiss the inside of her palm, his breath ragged and rough.
She slid into his embrace, wrapping her other arm behind his neck, rising onto her toes to kiss the thundering pulse of his throat. “Please, Bastien…make love to me.”
A jolt of desire shot through him like a bolt of lightning. Cradling her upturned, pleading face within his two calloused hands, he claimed her mouth with ravenous, possessive lips and probing, insistent tongue. The rosewater scent of her luxurious tresses filled his lungs with her intoxicating essence, her taste evoking waves of desire that crashed into him like the thunderous surf pounding against the cliff below the castle.
He unhooked her bodice, his clumsy fingers fumbling with the laces, his body straining, throbbing, and aching. Sliding the velvet down to expose her bare shoulders, he cupped her soft breasts, lapping and sucking the pert pink nipples as she moaned and swooned against him.
Bastien unstrapped his scabbard and dropped his sword, which clattered on the cold wooden floor. He threw off his armor, chemise, sabatons, and hose to stand naked, shaking with ardor, before his beautiful, flame-haired Valkyrie.
Nude, visibly trembling, she stepped out of the gown, which pooled on the floor as she slid toward him. Desire danced in her emerald eyes as her gaze rove hungrily over his aroused body. Her quavering hands caressed the dark hair on his chest, her swollen lips sampling the skin over his muscled torso.
A guttural groan poured from the back of his throat.
He pulled her supple body against his, his rough fingers caressing her smooth back and silky bottom, the sleek skin a sensuous delight against his hardened muscles and coarse hair. His ardent desire pressed firmly against her soft, yielding flesh, he eased her toward the bed and laid her down upon the edge, opening her soft, creamy thighs.
She wrapped long, lithe legs behind his waist, her arms around his tensed back, kissing and sucking his shoulders, pulling him deep into her welcoming warmth with desperate, impatient limbs.
His feet planted firmly on the floor, his hands cupped under her rounded hips, he pounded her until thunderous waves of pleasure crashed over them both as he filled her with his copious seed.
Legs shaking from the intensity of their passion, he crawled onto the bed and drew her into his protective embrace, showering her rose-scented tresses with soft, appreciative kisses.
She rested her head over his galloping heart, burying her nose in his chest hair as he smoothed her long, tousled mane. “I love you with all my heart, Bastien. I pray the royal messenger will arrive in time for you to win my hand. I will die… if I am given to another man.” Gabrielle kissed his chest, inhaling deeply, as If drawing his scent, his essence, into her lungs. “I want only you. Now…and forever. In my heart, I shall always be your wife. Even if I am wedded against my will to another.”
He brushed away a strand of hair stuck to her tear-stained cheek. Wrapping his hands behind her head, Bastien pulled her face to his, seeking her salty lips with his own.
Rising onto her knees, she straddled him, rubbing the silky flesh between her thighs against his thickening body. Tumbling tresses wrapped him in cascading flames as she parted his lips with her own and slipped her tender tongue inside.
Between her legs, his aroused body probed, seeking entrance, desperate for her luscious warmth. Gripping her hips, he pulled her down onto himself, moaning in relief with each powerful upward thrust. Soon, she collapsed onto his chest, convulsing in pleasure, extracting every drop of his seed as her body clamped upon his in the clenching contractions of climax.
His arms wrapped around her back, he held her against his chest and stroked her damp hair. “As much as I hate to leave this bed, we must get dressed. You promised to send an attendant to fetch my mother, Ghislaine, and Viviane for them to examine your father.”
Gabrielle rose, removed her legs from the straddled position over him, and sat down on the bed. She smoothed the hair away from her face. “Yes, I want to introduce them to Papa. Reassure him that they are gifted healers who mean to help.” She stood up and collected her gown from the floor as Bastien donned his breeches and chemise, fastened his chest plate armor, and pulled a tunic over his head.
He eyed the appetizing food, the aroma of fresh bread, meat and cheese making his mouth water. “I’m famished. Let’s eat before we go.” He watched longingly as she tightened the laces of her bodice, his body stirring at the sight of the soft swell of her breasts. By the Goddess, he longed to devour them again…
