She didn’t see Joss start at her words. He had no idea she knew his history.
“I’ll grow a beard and you, as a boy, will not be known. We’ll sing together, play, and we’ll be able to earn our keep.”
Pagnell was her first thought, but she brushed it away. For the first time in her life she wasn’t going to think of herself first. “Raine has had so much tragedy in his life. His sister’s death was so recent, and now...”
“Make up your mind, Alyx, and get your clothes off. If I’m right, Raine is coming this way now.”
“Now?” she gasped. “I need time to think.”
“Choose,” he said, close to her. “Dead and yours or alive and someone else’s?”
The image of Raine quiet, forever silent, made her throw her arms about Jocelin’s neck, her lips seeking his.
For many years, Jocelin had been an expert at removing women’s clothes, and it was something he had not forgotten. Even if Alyx did wear boy’s clothes, it was amazing how quickly Joss’s skillful fingers rid her of them. Before she could come up for air, both of them were nude from the waist up, bare flesh against skin.
Jocelin entwined his hands in Alyx’s hair and pulled her head back and kissed her hungrily as her eyes flew open in alarm.
She did not have a second to consider Joss’s kiss because Raine’s powerful hands pulled them apart, sending both of them flying across the stream bank.
“I will kill you,” Raine said under his breath, his eyes boring into Jocelin’s.
Alyx, dazed from the flight Raine’s hands had sent her on, thrust her arms into her shirt as she saw Raine drawing his sword and bellowed, “No!” loud enough to make the trees drop their nighttime dew. Give me strength, she prayed as she stood.
She placed her body before Joss’s. “I will give my life for this man,” she said with feeling. As she saw the looks on Raine’s face changing from bewilderment to hurt, to anger, to coldness, she felt them in her heart.
“Have I been a fool?” he asked quietly.
“Men are like music,” she said as lightly as she could manage. “I cannot exist on a diet of love songs or alone on dirges. I need it all. I must have variety in men as well as in my songs. You, ah, you are a song of fury, of cymbals and drums, while Joss”—she fluttered her lashes—“Joss is a melody of flutes and harps.”
For a moment, she thought perhaps Raine was going to tear her head from her body, and instead of feeling fear she was almost welcoming him. Her soul was praying that he wouldn’t believe her. Could he truly believe that music meant more to her than he did?
“Go from my sight,” he whispered from deep inside himself. “Let... your friend care for you from now on. Leave tonight. I do not want to see you again.”
With that he turned to leave, and Alyx was several steps toward him before Joss grabbed her arm. “What can you say to him now except the truth?” he asked. “Leave him alone. Break the tie now. Wait here and I will return in a short while. Do you have any other clothes or other possessions?”
She shook her head and was barely aware that Jocelin left her alone.
There didn’t seem to be any thoughts that went through her head as she waited for him to return. Raine believed her, believed that she thought her music was so very, very important. The people of the camp were willing to believe she was a thief and were eager to see her punished. Yet what had she ever done in her life to make anyone trust her, believe that she was a good person?
“Are you ready?” Jocelin asked from beside her, Rosamund a silent shadow behind him.
“I am sorry I have caused you—” she began.
“No more,” Joss said firmly. “We must look to the future now.”
“Rosamund, you will look after him? See that he eats? See that he doesn’t train too hard?”
“Raine will not listen to me as he does to you,” she said in her soft voice, her eyes devouring Jocelin.
“Kiss her,” Alyx whispered. “Someone should give their love and not hide it.” With that she turned away, and when she looked back she saw Rosamund clinging fiercely to Jocelin. When he returned to Alyx there was a look of surprise on his face.
“She loves you,” Alyx said flatly before they started the long journey to reach the outer edges of the forest.
PART II
August 1502
Chapter Twelve
