Annelise took a deep breath. “I take your bargain,sir.”
He smiled, then tugged her closer, pulling her into his embrace. “This, my lady, is a wager that must be sealed with akiss.”
His kiss was as passionate and commanding as ever, his touch sending heat and desire surging through her. Nothing could have reassured her so much as her husband’s touch, and when he deepened his kiss, slanting his mouth over her own, Annelise knew she had made the rightchoice.
* * *
Rolfe’s hearttightened as he watched his bold bride prepare to tell her tale. She composed her features with a care that revealed the importance of what she meant to confess. He granted her the time she seemed to need, feeding the fire and seeing to her comfort as well as he could. Her expression was impassive and Rolfe knew that she was lost in some painfulrecollection.
It humbled him that she intended to share the tale with him. She could not be giving a performance, as Rosalinde would have done. Rolfe could see that this telling would be painful for Annelise—and her trust bode well for theirfuture.
Indeed, there was much about his wife that fed the admiration he had originally felt for her. He admired her boldness, her outright bravery, the way she lifted her chin when she did not want him to guess at her fear. He liked the passion with which she greeted life, the way she threw her heart into everything shedid.
Rolfe recalled the sweet press of Annelise against him. She had been relieved to see him. She had been glad of his survival and the certainty of that launched a warm glow within him. He had been wrong to doubther.
Rolfe refused to consider the last part of the djinn’s curse. No, he would not let a threat keep him from the prize of a marriage filled withtrust.
He would not let the djinn cheat him ofAnnelise.
He sat on the opposite side of the fire, wanting to watch her as she told her tale. Annelise kept her gaze fixed on the dancingflames.
Finally, she began hertale.
“Once upon a time, not that far from where we sit, a woman was given as bride to a lord. I do not know whether she was happy with the match or whether it was simply the arrangement of her parents. Perhaps she did not particularly care who she wed as long as she would be kept in comfort. It matters little what she thought, for the reality was destined to be vastly different from what any woman might hope to gain frommarriage.”
Annelise frowned and clasped her hands tightly together. Rolfe knew that this was no abstract tale, but was content to let her tell it in her own way. Was she the noblewoman in question? Or was this a tale of herparents?
“Her lord husband, she soon learned, was possessed of a temper. When he did not have his way, he beat anyone he could, and his wife, since she was convenient to his hand, soon came to bear the brunt of hisanger.”
Rolfe anticipated the direction of the tale. He hoped with all his might that Annelise had not been so abused, but then, he had been certain that she was a maiden when they first metabed.
“At first, it was an infrequent occurrence, and when the lady bore a son to her husband in short order, she escaped his wrath for a goodly time. It was said the lord was in uncommonly good spirits for severalyears.”
This could not be Annelise’s own tale, Rolfe reasoned. He knew she had not borne a child. How then did she know this unfortunate lady? It was clear she cared abouther.
Annelise shook her head. “But those years passed, and the lady did not ripen with the lord’s seed again. Worse, matters did not proceed well between him and his son; soon the boy defied him openly. It was said they were two of a kind, though some insisted the son was more cruel than his father. The lord was furious, however, at the boy’s defiance, and began to vent his wrath on both son and wife. The overlord, who was a perceptive man or perhaps one who heard many rumors, intervened suddenly. He arrived at their gates, insisting he must take the son beneath his care. The tale was that the boy would begin his training as a knight, but the father dared not protest too much, as he was owing his tithes to that samelord.”
It was a common enough practice for a nobleman’s son to be trained for his spurs by another nobleman, though Rolfe imagined this boy might have been younger than wastypical.
“The boy also was the lord’s sole heir. When the overlord refused to confess where the son would train, this vexed the lord mightily. The tale was that he had not yet decided which of his liege lords would do the honor, but in time, it became clear that the overlord had no intention of sharing the truth with the father. The concession and the secrecy enraged the lord. I have no doubt that the lady bore the brunt of her spouse’s frustration after the departure of theirguest.”
Annelise swallowed. “Of course, the overlord did not trust the father to leave the son in peace, but the violent lord perceived himself to be without issue, an affront to his pride and his fortunes. He demanded another son of his wife, but the lady’s womb did notripen.”
Rolfe expected the tale to worsen and he proved to beright.
“When the lord drank—and he did so often—his displeasure made itself known, and the servants would hear the lady cry out in the night,” Annelise confessed. “In the morn, she would sport bruises, usually hidden but always noted by her maids. No one dared to interfere, however, for fear that they would bear the weight of their lord’s fiststhemselves.
“The lord accused his wife of all manner of evil, even in front of the servants. She was a witch; she was a sinner; she was an adulteress; she deliberately denied him his sole desire or she was being punished for her sins—and he was the one to pay the price. The lady bore his abuses silently, probably because she did not dare incur yet more of his wrath by challenging himoutright.
“Remarkably, despite all this abuse, or perhaps because she knew there was only one way to make it stop, the lady bore fruit once more. The lord, needless to say, was delighted, and made great plans for thisson.”
Annelise swallowed, and Rolfe watched the light play over her features. Her voice, when she continued, wastight.
“The son, sadly, showed the poor grace to be born adaughter.”
Rolfe had a very good idea who that daughter must havebeen.
The boy then would have been Quinn, taken from the household before Annelise had even beenconceived.
