Chapter Seven

A riana followed Otto into the castle feeling as if she were walking on air. Her husband had shown her more than kindness that morning. He’d introduced her to a level of pleasure she’d never believed possible. Although her gown was now demurely fastened, her skin still tingled from his kisses, and she imagined her decolletage must still bear the visible imprint of his ministrations. Surely, everyone they met could divine what they had been doing?

And he so darkly handsome, so fearsomely tall and broad, so unequivocally male. It filled her with satisfaction to recall that she had made a man so powerful hunger for her touch, too. She had made him groan. The memory made her insides quiver like a jelly. If only they hadn’t been interrupted at such a vital moment. Blood rushed to her cheeks as she imagined what might have happened if they had only enjoyed a few more minutes of uninterrupted time. The act she had once feared now called to her with incessant longing.

Once inside the stone-flagged entrance hall, Otto turned to face her. His fierce hunter’s eyes captured her face, and she pushed down the idea that he could read her thoughts, relishing what he had glimpsed in her mind’s eye.

“I have something to show you,” he said, taking her hand. She looked up at him, feeling dainty and feminine at the side of his height and strength.

Would he take her to his bedchamber? Finish the act they had begun? Despite herself, that was what Ariana hoped. She felt as if a delicious meal had been placed before her, then removed before she could take a bite.

However, Otto did not lead her towards the staircase, but beyond it. They walked together down a narrow corridor lit with torches and emerged at the back of the castle, an area she had yet to explore.

“In here,” he said, releasing her hand to push open a large wooden door.

“Oh.” She could not help her exclamation of surprise. For where most rooms inside Darkmoor Castle were overshadowed and imposing, this one was flooded with light thanks to a row of windows set into the south-facing wall. The air was fragrant with lavender from the fresh rushes on the floor, a small fire flickered in the grate, and comfortable looking chairs invited them to sit. Everything about the room projected an air of cheer and welcome. “What is this place?”

“The morning room.” Otto seemed to be enjoying her reaction. “In truth, it has not been used in many years. But I had the maids prepare it for you. I thought you might like it.”

“I do,” she nodded, with one hand at her throat as she looked out at the expanse of gardens. “I like it very much.”

“It was my mother’s room,” Otto flung out carelessly as he walked over to the windows. “My father shut it up after she died. There was little call for it, I suppose.”

Ariana stilled at this mention of his mother. It was the first time Otto had mentioned her. “Did you never know her?” she asked, greatly daring.

“Never.” Otto turned to her with a smile and a shrug. “My father told me I couldn’t miss what I had never known.”

She held her breath at this unanticipated reveal of such personal information. “And did you?”

“Miss her?” He raised his eyebrows. “Mayhap a little, but my father was correct. How can you miss what you have never had? Sit down, Ariana. I have something for you.”

Though his tone was light, she felt the reprimand in his words. The Earl of Darkmoor did not like to discuss any perceived weaknesses. She would tread more carefully in the future.

“But you have already given me so much,” she said, crossing over to an upholstered chair by the closest window. “I mean…” her sentence trailed off and she felt heat rise to her cheeks as she recalled their morning’s activity.

Otto smiled down at her. “There’s so much more I intend to give you,” he whispered, his breath warm on her skin. “But first this.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out something small. “Open your hand.”

She did as he asked, opening her palm to receive his offering. “What is it?”

“It is a token, in return for the one you presented to me.”

She brought it closer to her eye, smiling in genuine pleasure as she saw the delicately wrought broach studded with pretty stones. “It is a gift of greater worth than the one I gave to you.” She spoke without thinking, surprised by the generosity of the gesture.

Otto closed her fingers around the broach. “It once belonged to my mother.”

Her heart beat quickly at this. “Thank you,” she whispered. Otto had given her a gift, a personal gift. Husband to wife, lover to lover. It was far more than she had ever expected from him. Or from their transactional marriage.

“Will you wear it?”

“Of course.” He had asked the question lightly, but she could see her answer mattered to him. “Will you…?”

With his dark eyes burning into hers, Otto gently took the broach from her and fastened it to her bodice. The warmth of his hands transported her back to the riverbank where his expert touch had delivered such exquisite pleasure.

“It looks well on you,” he said, dropping his arms to his sides.

“I shall wear it always.” A strong emotion swelled within her bosom and after a moment she realized what it was: happiness. Unfamiliar and unanticipated.

He nodded once, and he looked as if he might say something further on the subject, but then he pressed his lips tightly together. Outside, a cloud drifted over the sun and the morning room was cast into temporary dullness.

“There is another matter we should discuss.” Otto’s voice had become firm.

“Oh?”

“I know what Sir Althalos said to you last night.”

His abrupt words brought her free-floating emotions crashing down. Her hands fluttered into her lap where she folded them together, searching her mind for a suitable answer.

She pondered for too long. Otto sprang from his position by her chair and paced back to the far windows, his arms crossed over his muscular chest.

“It was a lie,” he stated, addressing the gardens.

A lie. His bold declaration made her flesh grow cold.

Why would he claim that Althalos was lying?

Ariana followed his gaze to the thin swoop of light falling over the well-tended lawns. She shifted uncomfortably in the chair, aware that with every beat that passed, Otto’s stance grew stiffer.

“I have known men such as Sir Althalos all my life,” she said eventually, forcing her words through lips that had become dry. “I know that they seek out ways to undermine the confidence of others. I have learnt to pay them little heed.”

Relief washed over Otto’s face. “The women I named will not come,” he stated. “When you are better settled in Darkmoor, we shall hold a banquet so you can meet our noble families. After that, you may select your own lady friends to stay with us.”

He smiled; no doubt assured his solution was one that would appeal to her. Ariana hastily buried the fears and insecurities his words had planted in her gut. A banquet . Where she must be on show for the whole of Darkmoor to see and judge and find wanting. She looked down, lest Otto somehow divine her true feelings. She must not appear ungrateful.

“You are too kind,” she managed.

One of his large, warm hands fell onto her shoulder, squeezing gently. “It is no more than you deserve.”

But his words of affection could not reach her, for she knew he had told her an untruth. And this untruth now sprouted roots, growing into a barrier which blocked the path to a heart which had been so newly opened. Ariana could only nod silently, her lips curling into another smile which did not reach her eyes.

Her heart beat shallowly as disappointment wrapped itself around her. She could not, in good spirits, accompany Otto to his bedchamber now. Please don’t ask me , she prayed silently.

Thankfully there came a knock at the chamber door.

“Come,” said Otto.

Gaius, the knight she had met last night, walked diffidently into the morning room and bowed low to both Otto and Ariana. He carried himself with his usual air of composure, but Ariana saw that his gray hair was ruffled and dried mud clung to the edges of his dark cloak.

“My lord, I’m afraid to report a disturbance has broken out in the lower field.”

Otto raised his thick eyebrows. “What kind of disturbance?”

Gaius hesitated, one hand at his chest. “There was some unrest among the squires.”

The change in Otto’s demeanor was instantaneous. Ariana was reminded of her first impression of her husband when he came to her bedchamber on their wedding night. Before her wary eyes, he transformed from a gentleman into a warrior.

His hands clenched into fists, making his muscles ripple beneath his loose-fitting tunic. “I shall not tolerate disobedience,” he growled.

Gaius inclined his head and allowed a moment to pass. “I understand that Merek, the castle physician, had to be summoned.”

A pulse jumped in Otto’s jaw and Ariana instinctively flinched backwards into her chair, making herself as small as she could.

But her movement attracted attention. Otto’s eyes flickered towards her, and he gave a curt bow. “I must attend to this situation.”

“Of course.” She made to get up, but Otto was already striding out of the room with the aging knight scurrying in his wake.

Ariana waited until the door had banged shut behind them before releasing the breath she had been holding. But her relief at the reprieve was short-lived. Fast on its coattails came a whirlwind of emotions which left her insides churning. So much had happened in one short day. She clutched her hands to her stomach, trying to calm her racing thoughts.

Otto had lied to her, without reason, and just when she had believed them to be on the cusp of something wonderful and new. He had proven himself to be considerate, kind even. They had conversed easily. She’d felt herself warming towards him. Liking him. Believing, readily, that there was more than one side to the Feared One .

And then he had kissed her. And partially disrobed her. And awakened her desires so her body still ached for his touch. As a crowning moment, he had presented her with this beautiful broach. Her fingers sought it out, proving with their touch that it had been no dream. They had been stumbling together towards real feeling. Real affection.

Why? Why had he lied?

Unable to sit still, Ariana pushed herself up from the chair and followed her husband’s pacing path to the windows and back again.

Last night, on the stone-flagged floor of the entrance hall, Althalos’s words had affected her hardly at all. She knew him to be a poisonous snake who sought only to cause her pain. But back in her bedchamber, with her curiosity burning like an itch that demanded to be scratched, she had casually enquired of her maid if she knew anything of a Lady Elspeth or a Mistress Lucietta.

Allys had answered her readily enough. Mistress Lucietta was an accomplished horsewoman. The daughter of a knight. Lady Elspeth, she said, was a beautiful lady with golden ringlets and the singing voice of an angel, who had once been a favorite of Lord Otto.

As she uttered those final words, Allys had flushed and grown so nervous that the pins she was extracting from her mistress’s hair had scattered to the floor.

“I’m sorry milady,” she stammered. “’Tis not my place to tell such tales.”

Ariana had waved away her apologies as unwelcome knowledge settled in her stomach with the weight of a stone.

Althalos had been telling the truth. Otto had bedded this Lady Elspeth.

But when the maid had left and Ariana was alone with peace and time to reflect, she’d scolded herself for her naivety. So Otto had a past. What of it? She had never expected the Earl of Darkmoor to be an untouched virgin. Laying in her clean, white sheets, she even smiled at the thought. He was a young, virile man. Of course he had taken lovers. The important thing was that since her arrival in the castle, he had treated her with unfailing kindness. And honesty. Ariana gazed out of the tall window with unseeing eyes. Usually, a couple of deep breaths helped to calm her, but not today. Perhaps not ever again. Otto’s passionate kisses had awakened more than just her desires, leaving her mired in a sticky marsh of unfamiliar emotions. Possessiveness, jealousy, a craving for his touch.

He had undermined her hard-won self-control. And then he had lied to her.

The truth, she could have handled. Even if a flare of jealousy brought warmth to her blood and a series of unwelcome images to her mind. A beautiful lady with golden ringlets and the singing voice of an angel. How could she hope to compare?

But Otto’s needless evasion was so much worse.

With a sigh of frustration, Ariana gripped the sleeves of her gown and forced herself to focus on the present moment. If she concentrated hard, she could discern a far-off clamor of horses’ hooves and shouted instructions. Somewhere beyond the morning room, a door closed, and rapid footsteps sounded on a stone floor. She breathed in the scent of lavender, fixed her gaze upon the gardens, and considered that Otto had made special instructions for this lovely room to be furnished especially for her.

It was no good, her mind refused to be calmed.

What else was the earl keeping from her? she wondered, as a strong breeze lifted the branches of the distant trees. Was this Lady Elspeth still his lover? Was that why he lied?

Although how could she anticipate honesty, given the secret she was hiding herself?

At once, her anger subsided leaving a chill of apprehension in its wake.

What start to married life was this? Lies and deceit, even as they grew closer in mind and body. Otto did not trust Ariana with the truth about his lover. She could never hope to share her intentions to rescue Ysmay from Traitor’s Gate.

Her beloved aunt.

The woman he held responsible for his father’s death.

At once the full weight of their situation fell upon Ariana’s shoulders. It was a burden that threatened to bury her. Her lips parted in fear as she recalled how quickly Otto’s temper had flared when he learned of unrest amongst the squires.

“I shall not tolerate disobedience.”

How then would he react were he ever to find out about her true intentions to rescue Ysmay?

The answer crystalized in her mind. He must never find out.

She gripped her beautiful broach unconsciously as the realization flooded into her veins. With every moment she spent with Otto, she put herself in greater danger. The Earl of Darkmoor had got under her skin. With his smiles, his unanticipated understanding. His kisses. She was forgetting herself and the real reason she had come to Darkmoor.

She was falling in love with him, that was the unwelcome truth of it. But she must never forget that the man her heart increasingly craved was the Feared One .

And she was the traitor in his castle.