She turned and her heart skipped at the sight of him, even though his hood was drawn over his head and she could not see hisfeatures.
She would exhaust him, she decided in that moment, exhaust him and steal a look at him in the night before he could stopher.
“What is that?” he asked as he came to a halt beside her. His arm slid around her waist and Annelise turned to him, lifting her face for his kiss. He did not disappoint but kissed her with sweet heat, his tenderness convincing her even more that he was a man of greatmerit.
“I meant to ask you as much. I found it here, just thismoment.”
He leaned over and opened the book, scanning its contents. “Ah, written in the script of theinfidels.”
“Can you readit?”
He shook his head. “Not me.” She felt the weight of his glance upon her. “Can you readit?”
“I can read Latin, thanks to the nuns, but notthis.”
“The nuns,” he echoed. “Tell me about thenuns.”
“There is little to tell. I was sent to the establishment of the Sisters of Ste. Radegund for myeducation.”
There was laughter in her husband’s words when he replied. “And who was taught to consider the world in a new way? The nuns oryou?”
“You mockme!”
“I tease you, my Annelise. I cannot imagine that you found it easy to be consigned to silence andobedience.”
He did not say that as if it was a badtrait.
“I did not. I despised itthere.”
“Yet you were intent upon returning to that cloister when you arrivedhere.”
“I meant to escape an arranged marriage,” Annelise admitted. “We departed from Beauvoir keep at dawn, but became lost. The path to the convent was obscured by the snow.” She shivered in recollection. “Then the wolvesattacked.”
“And instead of escaping an arranged marriage, you were required to accept anotherone.”
“That is true, sir.” She spared him a smile. “Though the terms were not marriage or death the firsttime.”
“Which explains your change of perspective.” There was no condemnation in his tone and Annelise thought perhaps he sympathized with her plight. He gestured and she sat down, then he sat opposite her. “And what do you mean to do about that, if ever you leave thispalace?”
“Do?” Annelise frowned in confusion. “I do notunderstand.”
“Will you seek an annulment?” His tone was light, but she felt his intense interest in herreply.
How strange that she already came to rely upon his presence in her life, even after so few days, even knowing so little of him. She spared a glance to the palace and tried to imagine being without her enigmatic, resolute, passionate spouse. Shefailed.
Did he mean to abandonher?
“Our match has been consummated, sir,” she said withcare.
“You could accuse me of claiming what was not mine totake.”
“I would not do as much!” Annelise was appalled by the suggestion. “We are wed. We have exchanged our vows. We are bound to each other, sir, until death us dopart.”
The words seemed to startle him rather than reassure him, much to her surprise. “But there are no witnesses of our vows, Annelise, and no record of them in any parish church. You could deny them and it would be only my word againstyours.”
A lump rose in Annelise’s throat. “I have your ring, sir,” she reminded himtightly.
“And so you do. I wonder only if you might choose to lose it once you know more ofme.”
