She looked up to see Sir Thomas, heavily stained from travel, standing in front of her. He had left the castle with Warrick over a month ago. She looked hopefully beyond him.
“Is Warrick returned?”
“Nay, Mistress, he is still at Ambray Castle.”
“And you are to take me there?”
“In all haste.”
The color drained from her face. “He is wounded?”
“Certainly not.”
“Well, you need not say that as if ’twas a stupid question,” she snapped. “What else was I to think when you say we must make haste?”
“’Twas my lord’s order,” he explained. “But we will not travel so swiftly that you end up looking as begrimed and weary as I. I rode through the night, but I am allowed a day and a half to bring you safely to Ambray. If you would but make haste now to gather a few clothes and what you will need, we can ride at a more leisurely pace.”
Rowena’s brow knit curiously. “Do you know why I am summoned?”
“Nay, Mistress.”
She suddenly gasped as one reason occurred to her. “Is Ambray taken?”
“’Tis still under siege, though safe enough for you to venture there for a time.”
Then this summons made no sense.
Chapter 43
There was one other reason that Rowena could think of for being summoned to Warrick’s presence. It had her beset with dread the entire journey, but ’twas definitely possible—nay, likely. Warrick could have seen Gilbert from the battlements and recognized him. She could be going to face his blackest rage, his cruelest visage. He could want revenge again, mayhap even to use her against Gilbert, torture her before the battlements, hang her—nay, nay, he would not do that. But she remembered the walloping Beatrix had got. She remembered the dungeon. She remembered being chained to his bed—well, that had not been so bad in retrospect—but that beating…
She was so afraid when they reached the camp that surrounded Ambray, she barely noticed the silent castle towering in its midst. She was taken straightaway to the tent set up for Warrick’s use, but he was not in it. That did nothing to soothe her jumbled nerves. She was here. She wanted whatever she would have to deal with to be over.
But she had no time to even build up a bit of annoyance that she was to be kept waiting, for Warrick walked in less than a minute later. There was no time either to judge his mood, for she was yanked right into his arms. And that left no opportunity to get a single word out, for his mouth covered her gasp, the entreaties she would have made, the excuses.
For endless moments she was overwhelmed by sheer possessiveness, for that kiss said she was his and he wanted to consume her. Her anxieties did not return immediately when she was allowed to breathe again, did not get through her aroused senses at all until she was lowered to Warrick’s pallet and saw him throw his sword belt aside just before he dropped to his knees to descend on her.
“Wait!” she cried, thrusting both hands up to hold him back from her. “What does this mean, Warrick? Why am I summoned here?”
“Because I missed you,” he replied, defying the pressure she was exerting against him to lean down and say the words against her lips. “Because I felt I would go mad if I had to wait another day to see you.”
“Is that all?”
“Is that not enough?”
Her relief was so great, she kissed him back with more passion than she had ever shown him. His hands came to her breasts, claiming them. Hers went to his hips, pressing him closer. But ’twas an unsatisfying embrace, hampered by clothes he would not stop kissing her to remove.
When he did finally get around to yanking off his tunic, it was with such haste he caused her to laugh. “You ruin more clothes that I must then repair.”
“Do you mind?”
“Nay, you can rip mine, too, if you like.” She grinned at him. “But I might be able to be rid of them quicker do you let me up.”
“Nay, I like you just where you are. You cannot imagine how often I saw you just so in my mind.”
She ran her hands up the chest he had bared for her touch, then leaned up to lick one nipple. “As often as I imagined doing that?”
“Rowena…do not,” he said raggedly and tried to push her back down, but she held on tight and attacked his other nipple. “Desist, or I will come the very instant I get inside you.”
