The Golden Barbarian

by Iris Johansen

  The door closed behind him.

  Tess braced herself as she straightened her shoulders and marched down the steps toward Galen. “Good morning.” She kept her tone carefully casual as she moved across the courtyard toward the fountain where Said was holding the reins of the horses. “How is Pavda this morning?”

  “Pavda is very well.” Galen’s brows lifted. “And so is Selik. I believe Apollo and Daphne are similarly disposed.” He paused. “I’m in fairly good health myself.” “I was getting to that.” Tess stopped before

  the mare and reached up to stroke her muzzle. “Though I had no concern on that score. You seem well able to care for yourself.”

  “You’re annoyed with me.” He took a step nearer and murmured in a low tone. “I made you feel helpless last night, and you resent it.”

  “Yes.”

  “It wasn’t me who made you feel that way. It was your own nature. You could have fought me. All you had to do was say no, and I would have stopped.”

  She flushed. “You caught me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting you—”

  “You were expecting me to take but not to indulge in play?” He shook his head. “That’s not my way.” He took a step back, and his gaze went lingeringly over her from booted feet to the hood that loosely covered her hair. “Your new riding clothes are quite lovely on you.”

  She avoided his stare. “The fabric glitters too much. I thought it would be simpler.”

  “It is simple.” He studied her expression. “And I think you like it very much.”

  She did like it, but she was making no admissions to him when she was still feeling so vulnerable. The white divided skirt of the gown flowed when she walked, and yet gave her a sense of freedom she had never known. The loose hip-length hooded cape that completed the outfit was trimmed in rich gold embroidery and billowed gracefully with her every movement. “It will do.” She reached up and touched the barbaric golden pendant that hung from a rope necklace encircling her throat. “Viane gave me a great casket of jewels, and this was in it. She said you insisted I wear it whenever I go out.” Her lips tightened. “I have no liking for trinkets.”

  “Still, you’ll wear it.”

  “I will not be—”

  “It’s not an ornament. Only the members of my house are permitted to wear that pendant.”

  She felt suddenly branded, possessed as she had when she lay naked before him on the cushions last night. “Let Viane wear it then.”

  “She has one she wears when she goes abroad in the city.” His gaze raked her mutinous face. “Why do you argue? It will protect you.”

  “I’ll think about it.” She moved around to Pavda’s left side, passing Said, who was looking desperately into space, trying to appear invisible.

  “You’ll wear it or you won’t leave your chamber.”

  She glanced defiantly back at his grim expression. “I said I’d consider it.”

  He jerked his head toward the palace. “Leave us, Said.”

  The young man gave a relieved murmur and thrust the reins into Galen’s hand. “Yes, Majiron.” The next moment he was taking the steps of the palace two at a time.

  “There’s no question about this, Tess,” Galen said softly. “I know you’re looking for a battle to win from me, but it isn’t going to be this one. The pendant will keep you safe, and you will wear it.”

  “What?” Tess asked absently, her gaze on Said’s back as he entered the palace. She looked back at Galen. “Why did you send him away?”

  He blinked at the sudden change of subject. “I told you I meant to win this battle.”

  “And you didn’t want him to see my defeat?” She looked at him in surprise. “How very odd. My father never cared if servants saw my mother’s humiliations.” She held up her hand as he opened his lips to speak. “I know. I did it again. I’ll try to keep a more cautious tongue. Now, help me get on Pavda. I’m not at all sure I can swing my limb over her back. Do you suppose there’s a physical reason women ride sidesaddle?”

  He frowned. “We’ve not finished our discussion.”

  “But of course we’ve finished.” She scowled at him. “Am I not still wearing this gaudy necklace?”

  “But you will continue to wear it?”

  Her scowl vanished. “Help me onto Pavda.” He took a step nearer, lifted her, and she awkwardly threw her leg over. “I feel most … peculiar.”

  “That will pass.” He stood looking up at her with narrowed gaze. “Why aren’t you angry any longer?”

  “I wasn’t ang—” She broke off as she met his gaze and then said simply, “You’re right, I don’t like to be made to feel helpless, but I can bear it as long as you allow me to keep my pride.”

  He looked away from her toward the stable. “A man also feels helpless when the rutting need seizes him. He aches and cannot sleep and wants only to thrust deep into a woman. I wanted to go to another woman, any woman, last night after I left you.”

  She stiffened. “And did you?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “We’ve just been wed.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “My movements are watched. I would not have anyone think I didn’t find you pleasing.”

  She blushed. “I’m no fool. I know all men are unfaithful. I wouldn’t care.”

  “I would care for you.”

  “You would?” She frowned. “You’re a very strange man, my lord.”

  “Admitted.” He smiled crookedly. “And since I met you, I’ve taken note that my actions are becoming even stranger.”

  “I would like our relationship to be … more clear. I do not like to play cat to your mouse.”

  “Not even a little? Tell me, Tess, don’t you find the situation ‘interesting’? Isn’t your heart beating a little faster because you don’t know what to expect of me?”

  “Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean I’m at all comfortable with the feeling.”

  He burst out laughing. “It will become easier. Lust cannot be maintained twenty-four hours a day. It must ebb and flow.”

  “It sounds a tedious process, and you don’t appear to me to be a patient man.”

  “Only when the prize is worth it.” His hand suddenly reached out and touched her thigh.

  She gasped, and her gaze flew to his face. She felt the warm heaviness of his palm through the thin material, and the memory of the intimacy of his touch last night flooded back to her. She moistened her lips with her tongue. “The guards—”

  “They can’t see.” His body was blocking the view of the guards by the palace door as he slowly rubbed back and forth, his gaze never leaving hers. He said thickly, “I can be a patient man, but I’m not a monk. That’s why there will be moments like this when I have to touch you.”

  His hand seemed to scorch through the material, and she found her breasts swelling, pushing against her bodice as she looked down at him.

  Then his hand fell away from her, and he stepped back. “But I’ve taught myself to wait.” He swung onto Selik’s saddle. “I’ve even learned to enjoy the anticipation, if it doesn’t go on too long.”

  She asked shakily, “And if it does?”

  For an instant she glimpsed a flicker of recklessness beneath the control of his expression. “Then nature would probably triumph over will. Let us hope that doesn’t happen.” He turned Selik and grabbed Pavda’s reins. “Grip Pavda with your knees, and keep your back straight. I’ll keep you on a lead until you become accustomed to the new rhythm.”

  “Hold, dammit.” Selik pounded behind, rapidly overtaking Pavda. “Rein her in, Tess.”

  Galen’s tone was sharp, and she supposed she should obey him. But, dear heaven, she didn’t want to stop. This morning the sky was blue and the sun hot and the wind tore at her hair, taking her breath and stinging her cheeks. The blood pounded through her body, and Pavda’s gait lengthened into a gallop that was like gliding on silk. She nudged Pavda to go faster.

  Then Selik was draw
ing alongside her, and Galen was grabbing the reins.

  “No!” she protested. “Not yet!”

  She heard his low chuckle as he pulled Pavda to a trot. “Another two miles and you’d have been halfway to Said Ababa.” His smile faded. “And you disobeyed me.”

  She laughed joyously. “Pavda wanted to run this morning.” She patted the mare’s neck. “And Selik was too slow.”

  “How odd that he still managed to catch you.” Galen’s lips tightened. “Never disobey me again, Tess. Particularly not when we’re outside the city walls.”

  “There was no danger. We’ve ridden this road every day for the last week and never chanced on anyone.” Tess gazed around the barren landscape to the green hills in the distance. “You see, there’s no one in sight for miles. I told—” She broke off as she pointed to a tall round structure on the second hill she had never noticed before. “What’s that?”

  He glanced at the gray stone tower she had indicated, and his expression immediately became guarded. “It’s a watchtower. It was built by my grandfather in order that the sentries could watch over the passage of the wagons carrying gold from the mines in the hills to Zalandan and prevent bandit raids. It’s not been used for some time.”

  “Why not? Are there no longer bandits?”

  “Yes, bandits aplenty. Some things never change.”

  “Then why isn’t it—”

  “It’s time to go back.” Galen turned Selik with an abruptness that startled her. “I’ve wasted enough time this morning.”

  Yet he had not considered it a waste until she had caught sight of the tower. “It looks … lonely. Pauline once told me a tale of a witch who imprisoned the daughter she loved in a tower to protect her from the harshness of the world and keep anyone from stealing her.”

  “An unlikely story to have attracted our lusty Pauline’s interest.”

  Tess chuckled. “Not so strange. The daughter grew her hair very long, and let her lover climb it to reach her. Every night he would call, ‘Rapunzel, let down your hair.’ Then she would loose her hair, and her lover would climb to the tower and spend the night with her. It’s just the kind of intrigue that would appeal to Pauline.”

  “How did it end?”

  “I don’t know. Pauline was only interested in the part of the tale she told.” She glanced curiously over her shoulder at the tower. “May we go see inside it tomorrow?”

  “No!”

  The harshness of his tone surprised her, and she looked at his face. She inhaled sharply, her hand instinctively tightening on Pavda’s reins as she saw his expression.

  “Stay away from the tower, Tess.”

  “Why?”

  “Merde, isn’t it enough that I tell you to do it?” he asked fiercely. “Must you question every order? Stay away from the tower.”

  “It’s unreasonable of you not to tell me why,” she said, stung. “If there is danger, tell me.”

  “There is danger.” He enunciated precisely.

  “Bandits?”

  “No.”

  “Is the tower in disrepair?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t been there for years.”

  “Then I can see no reason—”

  “You don’t have to know the reasons.” His eyes glittered in his taut face. “It’s enough for you to know there’s danger for you there.”

  “But if there are no bandits, I cannot—”

  “From me.” Threat vibrated in Galen’s low voice. “From me, dammit.”

  He whipped Selik into a run and galloped away from Tess toward the gates of Zalandan.

  “I saw a watchtower in the hills yesterday, Sacha. A great gloomy place.” Tess kept her tone carefully casual as she glanced down at the chessboard. “Galen said his grandfather built it.”

  “Did he?” Sacha moved his knight.

  Tess studied the board. “Why isn’t it used anymore?”

  “Didn’t you ask Galen?”

  “Yes.”

  “If Galen had wanted you to know, he would have told you.”

  “You’re being most exasperating.” She looked up and scowled at him. “Why shouldn’t I know?”

  “You don’t have to know everything, imp.” Sacha leaned back in his chair. “For the past week you’ve dragged me all over the city, gobbling sights and information like a greedy little girl.”

  “Zalandan interests me.” She fingered the ivory queen in front of her. “I don’t see why Galen must be so secretive about the tower.”

  Sacha’s smile faded. “Stay away from the tower, Tess. You wouldn’t like what you’d find there.”

  “Cobwebs and mice.”

  “And memories.”

  “Memories?” She looked into his eyes. “You do know something about it. Tell me.”

  He shook his head.

  She muttered an oath beneath her breath. “Memories are no threat.”

  “Galen’s memories could be.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Galen’s memories are bitterer and more savage than most.”

  “What memories?”

  Sacha slowly shook his head. “Stop probing, imp.” He paused before adding, “Galen has always been two men, and there’s a struggle between them even now. As long as he keeps the memories at bay, he’s no danger to you.”

  She made a face. “You exaggerate. Galen is always in control of his emotions.”

  Sacha smiled curiously. “And you want to prod the tiger.”

  “Certainly not. I’m just curious.”

  “And impatient,” Sacha said softly.

  She hadn’t realized how transparent she had been. Dear heaven, she hoped Galen had not noticed. For the past week she had been aware that Galen had deliberately struck a balance between teasing affection and raw sensuality that continually kept her off guard. In the midst of a joke or discussion he would suddenly insinuate a glance, a touch, a word, between them that would send her flailing in the darkness of yearning. Tension was building in her; she waited breathlessly for his sweet, torturing words and looks. You would think she was eager for him to reach out a hand and take—

  She flushed and quickly stood up. “I don’t know what you mean. And I’m tired of this silly game. I think I’ll find Viane and go to the aviary. Are you coming?”

  He glanced down at the chessboard. “I think not. I’m leaving for Tamrovia this afternoon.”

  She whirled back to face him. “Why?”

  “Galen wants to know the moment your father learns you’ve left France. I seem to be the logical one to be on hand when it happens.”

  “It’s only been three weeks. He couldn’t know yet, could he?”

  “It’s not likely.” He pushed back his chair and stood up. “But Galen doesn’t wish to be caught by surprise.”

  She moved restlessly across the terrace to look out at the hills in the distance. “Belajo seems like another world. I like it better here, Sacha.”

  “So do I.”

  “At first I didn’t think I would. Most of the people here seem so stern, but I’m very fond of Viane, and I like Yusef and Said and—”

  “Kalim?”

  “How can I like Kalim? He freezes me to stone when he looks at me.” She grimaced. “I can’t believe Viane is going to wed him.”

  “Neither can I.”

  The underlying bitterness in Sacha’s voice made her turn and look at him. The expression on his face caused her eyes to widen. “Sacha?”

  The vulnerability vanished from her cousin’s expression as he made a rueful face. “Don’t worry about it, Tess. I’ll get over it.”

  “Viane?” She shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t understand. You’re not at all alike.”

  “Perhaps that’s why she touches me. It seems similarity is not a requisite for grand passions.” He shrugged. “All I know is that I took one look at her and felt calmer and more serene than I ever had before in my life.”

  “Serene? You?”

  “Perhaps that’s what I’ve al
ways been searching for.”

  She gazed doubtfully at him. Serenity and Sacha did not ride tandem, but who was she to know what would please her mercurial cousin. “Then you must have her,” Tess said. “There should be no problem. You’re far more charming than that scowling Kalim.”

  He chuckled. “You make it sound so easy.”

  “It is easy. We only have to think of a way to accomplish it. Galen would have no objection?”

  “No, but Viane would.”

  She gestured impatiently. “We’ll change her mind.”

  “You can’t alter nature to suit yourself, imp.”

  “We can try. Viane is kind and clever.” She frowned. “She lacks an independent spirit. I must try to instill that quality in her while you’re in Tamrovia.”

  He shook his head. “Worry about yourself, Tess.”

  “But I want to help.” She could feel the tears sting her eyes as she looked at him. “I have great affection for you, Sacha.”

  “So you want to set the world right to suit me?” Sacha reached out a hand to gently touch a bright curl tumbling over her temple. “Viane belongs in this world, Tess. Her roots are here.”

  “And you do not?”

  He wearily shook his head. “I’m not of the El Zalan, and they don’t accept strangers readily. I don’t belong anywhere.”

  And neither did she. Tess felt a curious pang. “You’re a prince of Tamrovia.”

  “Which means nothing to the El Zalan. Kalim has more stature than I do here.” He leaned forward and brushed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “I’m leaving within the hour. I’ll send you a message when I reach Belajo. Keep well, Tess.”

  “I’ll come to the courtyard to bid you farewell. God go with you.”

  At the doorway Sacha glanced over his shoulder. “Stay away from the tower, Tess.”

  He left and she shivered. She had no intention of pursuing her fascination with that dark, forbidding tower. Let Galen keep his secrets and his memories. She would only be here for a short time, and had no desire to knock down the barriers he erected against her.

  Still, it would do no harm to make Viane see what a splendid husband Sacha could be.