Winter of Solace (The Executioner Knights Book 5)

by Kathryn Le Veque

  Hallam nodded patiently, daring to put both hands on her arms to still her rising angst. “I know,” he said. “And I agree with you. But you must not involve yourself in this. It is better when he is ignoring you. You do not want him to focus his ire on you, Alice, truly. You know how he can be.”

  His hands on her was her undoing. Alice softened, smiling at the man as he looked at her with concern. “I know you are trying to protect me, my darling,” she said softly. “But I feel strongly about this.”

  Hallam almost said something, but he looked around as if fearful they would be heard. “Come,” he said, taking her by the hand. “Let us speak someplace more private.”

  Alice gladly followed him into Covington’s elaborate solar. Since her husband was in the hall with guests, there was no chance of him coming in, but just in case, Hallam bolted the door. When he turned around, he saw that Alice was standing in front of the hearth, already having removed her furs and heavy cloak. She was clad only in her woolen dress, facing him expectantly. He paused a moment, taking time to simply enjoy the view.

  For him, she took his breath away.

  “I know you feel strongly about the treatment of Lady Emelisse,” Hallam said as he approached her. “But this is something that has been brewing long before you arrived. It would be best for you if you stay out of it.”

  Her smile faded. “Covington made me part of this when he married me for my uncle’s army,” she said. “I have a stake in this as much as anyone else.”

  She had a point, but Hallam shook his head. He again put his hands on her upper arms, caressing her through the fabric. “Listen to me,” he said softly. “Alice, you can do nothing about this. You must leave it to me and to Wolverhampton and his men. They will be the only ones who can convince Covington. He will never agree to anything you say because it will make him look weak, acquiescing to the demands of a woman. Surely you know that about him by now.”

  For the first time, Alice seemed less determined. She sighed heavily. “He is an arrogant beast,” she murmured. “That is what I know about him. And what I know about you is enough to make my heart sing. Would that you could have been my husband and not him. You are my heart, sweet Hallam. I could never love anyone else but you.”

  Hallam smiled faintly, a sad and remorseful gesture. “I knew the moment I first went to Dudley Castle with the marriage offer that I was in trouble. You smiled at me and I nearly forgot myself.”

  Her smile returned. “You should have lied to me and told me the marriage offer came from you.”

  He chuckled. “Had I been smarter or more devious, I would have,” he said. “Instead, I was truthful and now we find ourselves… here.”

  Alice’s hands came up, gently touching his face. Alice’s true beauty was in her warmth, her good character, something Hallam loved dearly. To him, she was beautiful. But being with her alone like this was dangerous and he knew it. It was extremely rare when they were alone together, mostly because he was afraid of what would happen if they were. He doubted Covington would have cared in the least if he discovered their feelings for one another, but Hallam didn’t want to put Alice in that position. She was a married woman and he didn’t want to jeopardize her reputation.

  She deserved better.

  “My darling,” she said as she looked into his eyes. “You are the man I have waited my entire life for. You will make some woman a very fine husband someday. I am just sorry that woman could not be me.”

  He knew he should pull away, but he couldn’t seem to force his feet to move. Her gaze was mesmerizing. He put his big hand over hers, turning his head so he could kiss the palm of her hand.

  “Do you think I could marry anyone else?” he said. “Nay, Alice, my heart belongs to you. It will always belong to you.”

  “Is that true?” she asked softly.

  He looked at her, nodding firmly. “I have never spoken those words to anyone but you. Do you doubt me?”

  She shook her head. “Never,” she said. “But I would not blame you if you married another. It is I trapped in a marriage with a man who has only touched me once and that was upon the eve of our wedding. Even then, he insisted the chamber was completely dark and called me by his dead wife’s name throughout the uncomfortable event. Did I ever tell you that?”

  Hallam grunted unhappily. “You did not,” he said, peering at her with an expression of pain. “He really did that?”

  “He did,” she said, smiling sadly. “How ironic that the consummation was with a man who pretended I was someone else when I, in fact, was pretending he was someone else. I pretended that he was you. Only I was wise enough not to call out your name.”

  Hallam simply hung his head at the very sad revelation. She’d never told him that before.

  “I do not know what you want me to say to that,” he murmured.

  “Say?” she repeated. “Say nothing. Put your arms around me and say nothing, Hallam. We may never have a moment like this again. Let me feel your arms around me. Give me something to live on for the rest of my life.”

  He didn’t think that was too much to ask, as painful as it was to hear. The truth was that he wanted to feel her in his arms, too. This gracious, warm-hearted woman he could never have. Without another word, he pulled her into his embrace and buried his face in her neck. She was warm and soft, smelling faintly of roses.

  In his arms, he could feel the gentle sobs wrack her body.

  But he also felt something else.

  There was an overwhelming need to kiss her, something he could not resist, and he pulled his face from her neck, his lips claiming hers, just for a moment. That was all it was ever intended to be. But Alice responded instantly, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him with all of the pent-up anguish and passion she felt for him. It was a moment they might never have again. But what began as something meant to be momentary grew into something more permanent.

  Hallam couldn’t pull away, not now.

  Instinct took over.

  They had utter, complete privacy in Covington’s lush solar. Ironic that the man’s wife would be kissing another man here, taking advantage of that privacy, but it was generous retribution for the weeks and months of hell Covington had put her through. It was sweet vengeance in a sense, but this was no petty action. This was a moment of deep and abiding emotion.

  Alice couldn’t stop, either.

  She wanted him, too.

  Covington may have claimed her virginity, but that didn’t matter. Her innocence had been something protected, something quickly lost to a careless man. But at this moment, Alice knew what it meant to be kissed by a man she loved, by a man who made her heart sing with joy. It was her right to know Hallam in the intimate sense. She’d loved him the moment she first saw him and she always would.

  Even as Hallam kissed her furiously, Alice’s hands moved to his tunic, moving to pull it over his head. When Hallam realized what she was doing, he hesitated, but only for a moment. When the woman’s warm hands snaked into his breeches and sought out his semi-flaccid manhood, he knew he was lost. He couldn’t deny her.

  He didn’t want to be denied, either.

  Hallam had to pull his tunic off in order to remove his mail coat. Due to the cold weather, there was a myriad of clothing on his body and Alice helped him yank them off, unwilling and unable to wait. He was wearing a woolen tunic underneath everything, but it stopped at his hips, so he was unconstrained when Alice unfastened his breeches and they fell to his knees.

  There was a powerful sense of urgency now, of a desire so fierce that they were overwhelmed with it. Hallam lifted Alice onto Covington’s big table, pulling her legs apart and wedging himself between them. She threw her skirts back and wrapped her legs around his waist, taking gentle hold of his already-rigid phallus and guiding it into her warm, slick womanhood. Rolling her hips forward, she was ready for his entry and he didn’t wait. Holding her tightly, Hallam impaled her upon his manhood.

  Alice gasped with the ecstasy of it
, her arms going around him, her nails digging into his back. It was the first time she had ever joined with someone she loved with all of her heart. It fed her soul as she could have never imagined as Hallam held her tightly, thrusting into her willing body. This was their moment, something they would remember for the rest of their lives, come what may.

  It was everything she had ever hoped it would be.

  Hallam was a man possessed. He couldn’t get enough of her fast enough, repeatedly driving into her as she gasped with joy. Alice’s hands found his bare buttocks, squeezing them, and he found it wildly intoxicating. With a few more thrusts, he spilled himself deep into her heated, lush body, stifling her cries with his mouth as she found her own release. He could feel her throbbing around him.

  It was bliss.

  As their passion cooled, their kisses transformed from wild and passionate to soft and gentle. Hallam tasted her deeply, his hands roaming as he gently suckled on her mouth, moving under her garment, which had been loosened, and up her torso to her breasts. He fondled her nipples as their kisses trailed off. Alice tossed her head back, her eyes closed as Hallam toyed with her breasts tenderly. He knew that this would more than likely be the last encounter they would have, and he wanted to remember everything about it.

  About her.

  “Alice?” he murmured.

  She was groaning with pleasure as he caressed her. “Aye, my darling?”

  “Tell me you love me.”

  “I love you, for always.”

  “And I, you. For always.”

  To the snapping of the gentle fire in the hearth and the howl of the snowy winds outside, Hallam fondled her breasts until he finally lay her back on the table, on top of maps and papers Covington kept, and tossed her skirts up all the way, kissing her belly, finally suckling gently on her breasts.

  Alice let him. She let him go on and on, doing what he wished to her, as the night deepened. When he took her again, she didn’t protest. She was a willing participant. For the lonely nights she was forced to face, from now until the end of her life, she would keep the moment tucked away to bring her comfort. To remind her that she was loved and worthy of love.

  To remind her that her love for Hallam was the most important thing in her life.

  Every moment they spent together was another moment when their tryst could be discovered, so there came a point when Hallam knew he had to leave. But it was with great sorrow. When they finally parted that night, Hallam off to find materials to help secure Lady Emelisse’s shutters and Alice off to her chamber, it was a parting of souls.

  Parting, yes. But never separated.

  From this night forward they were, and always would be, as one.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Hallam had been gone for some time, yet the situation in Emelisse’s chamber hadn’t changed.

  It was still the same, with Caius on the floor and a struggling woman in his embrace. He was glad that Hallam had gone after Lady de Wrenville as she went on her altruistic mission to intervene on behalf of Emelisse. Although Caius appreciated the lady’s great concern for her husband’s prisoner, it simply hadn’t been a wise move on her part.

  Hallam saw it that way, too.

  More and more, Caius was coming to trust the knight. The man was proving himself worthy, little by little. With Lady de Wrenville being tended to, Caius could focus on the wildcat in his arms, but as he did, he began to wonder where he seemed to have grown a heart. He wasn’t usually concerned for others that were not his immediate circle. He’d made a career out of keeping his emotions bridled. Therefore, he tried not to let his sudden burst of concern for people he didn’t know unsettle him, for in his line of work, emotions like that could have dire consequences.

  With his arms still around Emelisse, he sat up, taking her with him.

  “Come along,” he said, grunting with effort as he stood up and pulled her to her feet, all of this while keeping his arms around her, which was something of a feat. “Let us get off the cold floor and onto something more comfortable.”

  When he moved, it seemed to stir her out of her stupor and she began to struggle against him again.

  “Let me go,” she insisted.

  “I am not letting you go.”

  “I do not want you here!”

  “And I do not care.”

  Thwarted, she growled and grunted as he dragged her over to a small table which now contained a large platter of food and a full pitcher of wine. He could see it steaming. He tried to sit down with Emelisse on his lap, but she stomped on his feet and tried to kick him in the knee, so he rethought that strategy.

  It had been easier on the floor.

  He couldn’t very well stand up with her all night, or even lay on the cold floor. Somehow, he had to secure her so he wasn’t on his guard all night long, for he knew he could not leave her, not until this madness passed.

  If it ever would.

  One big arm held her fast as he used his free hand to unstrap the belt at his waist, the one that secured his sheath for his broadsword. It took some doing as she continued to fight. At one point, she got away from him, but he grabbed her by the hair. That effectively stopped her, but she tried to beat him with her fists as he separated his belt from his sheath, and the strips of leather that secured the sheath to his belt and to his thigh.

  On and on it went, with him holding her by the hair and her trying to kick him and hit him. All the while, she never said a word and neither did he, but they didn’t have to. The stakes were established. Caius knew what would happen if he let her go, and Emelisse was trying her very best to force him to release her.

  But he wouldn’t.

  Somehow, he managed to maneuver her into a chair and, using his belt, he tied her wrists and secured them to the back of the chair. He feet were a little more challenging and at one point, she kicked at him so hard that she topped the chair backwards, onto her arms. That was a painful fall, but as she lay there mostly unmoving because it hurt her arms the way the chair had fallen, he managed to tie off both of her ankles to the legs of the chair.

  Finally, when she was completely secured, he righted her. Wearily, he sat down on the chair opposite her.

  “Now,” he said, his patience strained. “Lady de Wrenville was kind enough to bring you food and you will eat it.”

  Trussed up, with no way to escape, Emelisse simply turned her head away from him. “You cannot make me.”

  “You are mistaken if you believe that.”

  Mostly, she was right. He tried to feed her some bread with butter, but she refused it. When he did manage to cram some of it into her mouth, she spit it all out at him. The first time, it went on the floor, but the second time, he had been too close and it hit him in the chin. Every time he tried to put food in her mouth, it came spraying out at him.

  If it hadn’t been so frustrating, it would have been comical.

  Patiently, Caius wiped the bread from his chin and neck, wiping his hands on the cloth that had come covering the food. He could see that the solid food wasn’t going to work, but if he could get her to drink enough of the wine, perhaps she would pass out from the drink. Perhaps sleep would give her the time she needed to recover her wits.

  He knew that he could use the reprieve.

  Pouring a full measure of warmed wine into the cup, he stood up and came around behind her. Emelisse eyed him warily, almost panicky when he stood behind her. Reaching around her head and trying to avoid her teeth, he pulled her head up against his torso, hugging her tightly to keep her from moving around, and pinched her nose shut. The second she opened her mouth to protest, he poured the wine down her throat.

  Emelisse sputtered and coughed, but the wine made it into her belly. The second time he tried it, however, she was smarter about it and tried to spit it out, but he held her mouth shut and she had no choice but to swallow. Caius continued that until he was able to force the entire cup down her throat, more or less. Because she hadn’t eaten in more than a day, the effect of the wine
was almost immediate.

  She started weeping again.

  “Why?” she gasped as he poured more drink into her mouth. She swallowed and coughed. “Why do you care what happens to me so much? Why would you do this to me?”

  While she was sobbing, he poured himself some of the wine and drained the entire cup. He let go of her head and went back to the table, shoving bread and cold beef into his mouth.

  “Why would I keep you alive?” he said sarcastically, chewing. “Because I would be a careless fool, indeed, to let you kill yourself. I told you before that it is the coward’s way out. You seemed like a calm, reasonable woman when I first met you, but I am coming to see that I was wrong. Maybe you are weak and foolish. Will that be my impression of the House of de Thorington?”

  That brought a reaction from her. “My family is not weak and foolish,” she said. “But everyone has their limit. Everyone has their point of no return, when you are at your wit’s end and cannot fight any longer. What is your point of no return, Knight?”

  He looked at her. “I do not have one,” he said. “But you… you are faced with what you consider something insurmountable and your only reaction is to try and kill yourself? There are people willing to help you, my lady. You shame their efforts, not the least of which are Lady de Wrenville’s efforts. The woman is willing to plead your case to her husband and she does not even know you. Would you truly show such disregard for her?”

  Emelisse looked at him, those dark blue eyes swirling with turmoil. Her manner seemed to calm a good deal at that moment, reflecting on his words. The fire of panic in her eyes flickered and faded. From a raging madwoman only moments before, it was as if a candle had been blown out. She sagged and dimmed, the fight gone out of her.

  “It was not my intent to show her disregard,” she said. Then, she swallowed hard and lowered her gaze. “It was not my intent to show any of you disregard. But I have lost my father today and my home. You have just told me that there is a plan to marry me to my family’s worst enemy. You will forgive me if my behavior is not as it should be.”