Brandt’s grin broadened. “He will be a strong knight.”
“The strongest,” she insisted. “You have given him a great standard to live up to. He will not fail you.”
Brandt took his eyes off her belly and looked at her face. She was round and rosy, but she looked very tired. He stroked her head with his big hand.
“And his mother?” he whispered. “How is she feeling?”
Ellowyn’s smile was back. “So you noticed the mother, did you?” she said, laughing when he did. “I am feeling quite well. Hungry and tired most of the time, but quite well.”
He leaned down and kissed her reverently, a sweet gesture that quickly turned hungry. Ellowyn wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling the familiar passion warm her veins, the heat of contact that flashed so brightly between them, but when he refused to do more than kiss her lustily, she backed away.
“Why do you not touch me?” she whispered hungrily. “I have not had my husband in weeks, yet you do not touch my body?”
He gazed back at her rather fearfully. “I do not want to injure you or my son,” he told her. “I cannot make love to you although I would dearly love to.”
She frowned. “That is ridiculous,” she said. “You will not injure me.”
As he lay there indecisively, she struggled to sit up in bed. He helped her, wondering where she was going, when she pulledoff her shift and displayed her naked, pregnant body for him. She was beautifully proportioned with her swollen belly and full breasts, and he had to admit he was wildly aroused. Her pert breasts were perfect, large, and very perky, and her belly was so beautifully round. She was perfect.
He folded. Silently, he pulled her down to him and turned her around so she lay facing away from him. Pulling off his breeches, he pulled her back into his embrace and suckled on her shoulders and back as his hands roamed her breasts and belly. Ellowyn closed her eyes, savoring every touch as he wordlessly told her how very much he loved her. She could hear every syllable as if he had shouted the words.
She was hot for him, aroused as she had never been aroused in her life when he finally entered her from behind. He was careful about it, not wanting to hurt her or the babe, and the slow pace was both erotic and maddening. Her senses were so highly aroused that in little time she was climaxing, feeling the release more strongly than she ever had. The pregnancy seemed to magnify the sensations.
When he found his own release, she wouldn’t let him withdraw. She kept him trapped deep inside her until he grew hard once more and they made love again. It went on four times that morning until Brandt fell into an exhausted sleep and Ellowyn, feeling energized and relaxed, rose from bed to get on with her day.
The Black Angel was evidently weaker than a pregnant woman.
*
By early afternoon,they had unexpected visitors.
Ellowyn was in her solar working on her knitting alone because Annabeth was with Dylan and Bridget was withBrennan. She had given her ladies permission to spend time with their respective interests and in truth she was enjoying the quiet time. As much as she loved her ladies, and she very much did, she was coming to crave being alone.
One of her three big windows faced the bailey, so she could hear the sentries when they began to sound off the alert that visitors had arrived. It wasn’t unusual for the sentries to announce various visitors, and there always seemed to be people coming in and out of Melesse, but this announcement seemed different. It seemed to go on and she could hear soldiers in the bailey shouting back to the sentries on the wall. Curious, Ellowyn set her knitting aside and struggled to her feet. Making her way over to the window, she peered outside.
The day was dry and sunny, and a fairly strong breeze kicked up from the west. Brandt was flying the dark green and black standards of the Duke of Exeter upon the walls, and when Ellowyn didn’t spy the visitors right away, she glanced up at the snapping standards because there were two of them in her line of sight. She’d seen them hundreds of times but never particularly paid much attention to the details of the standard. However, they were snapping loudly on this blustery day and she happened to look up at them. They were moving so swiftly in the breeze that all she could see was part of the talons from the Exeter dragon.
The sight of the talons gripped her. She began to feel a creeping sense of foreboding. She had seen those talons before, of course, but she was experiencing an odd sense of déjà vu as she looked at them. They looked just like the talons in her dream, those emblazoned on the breastplate of the faceless knight who lay dying beneath the tree.Dear God….
“My lady?”
Jolted from her thoughts, she whirled to see Bridget and Brennan standing in the entry to the solar. Bridget smiled when Ellowyn’s gaze fell on her.
“My lady, there are visitors in the bailey,” she said. “They have introduced themselves as heirs to the Dukedom of Exeter and say they have come to see the duke.”
Shaking off the odd feelings that the talons had provoked, Ellowyn looked at Bridget curiously.
“Heirs to the dukedom?” she repeated, confused. “Did they give their names?”
Bridget shook her head but Brennan, standing behind her, spoke. “They are two young women, my lady,” he said. “Knowing the duke has two daughters leads me to believe they are his children.”
Startled, Ellowyn pushed out of the room with Bridget and Brennan on her tail. “Good Heavens,” she exclaimed softly. “Do you really think so?”
“It is very probable, Lady de Russe.”
Ellowyn was still quite baffled by the whole thing. “But how did they know he was here?”
“Most of France knows he is in residence at Melesse,” Brennan replied. “News travels. Mayhap it has traveled to his daughters.”
