And then she forgot about Caerden completely as William’s mouth settled between her thighs. Right at the place she needed him most.
The first sweep of his tongue had her body bucking off the cushions beneath her.
‘William,’ she gasped, shocked at how something so strange could be so wonderful.
She felt his answering smile against the curve of her thigh. Never had she imagined a sensation so pleasant, so overwhelming. She wanted it to go on for ever, and yet it was building towards something, something that was shaping and changing her. Her whole world was his tongue moving over her. Everything else ceased to exist as William worshipped her body. Her fingers stole into his hair, pinning him in place. Awareness was building within her, becoming tighter and centring at her very core. It was glorious. And then it shattered, snapping out to every corner of her body. She cried out, unable to keep silent in the moment.
William stayed with her as the sensation slowly faded from her body, leaving her limp and bone-tired in an immensely pleasing way.
He seemed to realise when her body had gained some semblance of normality. He gently kissed her hip and then the soft flesh beneath her ribs, slowly moving back up her body until his face was level with hers again.
He kissed her lightly on her lips and then pulled back to look into her eyes. He was smiling at her, softly, as if they had just shared some big secret, which she guessed they had.
No one would ever know what had passed between them today. No one would ever know how much had changed since this morning. Now she could put a name on the sensation that had unfurled around her heart. She loved him. No one else would know that, too, not even him.
He was a knight, who would go off and work for the King for many years. He would marry his wealthy heiress and provide dowries for his many sisters. He was not fated to belong to her, but she would know that she loved him and that was enough. It was just one more secret she would have to keep to herself.
He would leave her, like everyone did eventually. But she would have the memory of what had happened between them to keep her warm and happy throughout the rest of her life.
He pulled her into his arms and she curled into his chest. She thought about covering herself up, but dismissed the idea as too much effort. His lips ghosted across her forehead and she sighed softly. She was strangely content, despite the unusual surroundings.
Beneath her ear, William’s heartbeat slowed from racing to a gentle, soothing thud.
‘We should get you dressed.’ His voice rumbled in her ear.
‘I suppose.’
Neither of them moved.
‘It will be hard for you to keep your male disguise if someone sees you now.’
Avva laughed softly.
Reluctantly, she pulled herself away from him, cool air rushing over her as she did so. She shivered.
‘Avva, I...’
She touched his chest. ‘Don’t.’
‘But I...’
‘There is no need to say anything.’
‘But there is much to say. If love was possible in my life, then please know that I would...’
She pressed her hand to his mouth. ‘Please don’t say anything more. What we have shared has been beautiful for me. Let’s leave it as a wonderful interlude. It will be something to remember with happiness, not with regret.’
She pulled her clothes back on, not looking at William while she did so. When she had smoothed the material out, more times than was necessary, she allowed herself to meet his gaze.
His brown eyes were filled with an emotion she didn’t recognise. He appeared on the point of saying something more, but the door to the room clicked open and real life came flooding back to them both in the sound of many hurried footfalls.
Chapter Fourteen
‘I thought you said you had dealt with the knight.’ William wasn’t sure, but he thought that voice belonged to Barwen.
‘There’s been no sighting of him since I sent men to deal with him.’ That was definitely Thomas. William would recognise his sycophantic voice anywhere.
‘Until tonight.’
Silence greeted that statement as cold fear wrapped itself around William’s heart. Not for him. The others would find out he was still alive soon enough, but if he had been seen, then surely so had Avva.
‘We don’t know for sure...’
‘My man was confident.’ Damn, William didn’t recognise this person’s voice. Just how many men were in the room?
‘And they think he was with the stable master?’ William glanced across at Avva—her eyes were wide but she showed no other sign of fear. She mouthed ‘Caerden’ at him. William nodded as his heart pounded painfully. They knew about her helping him. She was no longer safe and it was all his fault.
He was trapped in this alcove, unable to do anything as the men beyond the arras threatened Avva’s safety. With his aching ribs and battered body, William wasn’t completely sure he would be able to fight more than one man at a time. It went against everything he stood for, but he could not risk charging out of his hiding place right now.
He should have left Avva in the stable as he’d planned. He should have stuck with his convictions and not allowed her to come. Instead he had given in to his desire to have her with him at all times. He was a fool. Even more so because he couldn’t quite bring himself to regret his decision entirely, not after what had just passed between them. He was beginning to understand a little of what drove his parents’ relationship. He wanted to keep Avva safe above everything else, even over the safety of the King. The thought scared him—this couldn’t be happening to him right now.
‘Yes,’ said the unknown man. ‘Rowan said he clearly saw the knight with Aven Carpenter, heading towards the side of the keep.’
‘I should have killed that whelp when I had the chance,’ Caerden growled.
Beside William, Avva went very still. Everything inside William was roaring at him to charge from behind the arras and run Caerden through, but the unknown quantity of men in the room held him in check.
If anything happened to him, then Avva would be unprotected, not a great situation to be in when Caerden had just all but threatened to kill her.
‘We must assume that Sir William is within the keep and that he knows something about what we are up to. We must hunt for him and this time there must be no doubt that he is dead. I want to see his body for myself.’
‘Come now, my lord,’ said Thomas. ‘Sir William cannot know about our plot to kill the King. In all my dealings with him, I gave nothing to suggest that we didn’t wholeheartedly support His Majesty.’
Avva flinched as a loud thud followed by a muffled groan sounded. ‘Thomas, you’re an ignorant fool. You should have overseen the killing of him yourself. Your squeamishness has got us into the situation we find ourselves in now. Sir William will hardly think we are in favour of the King. The very act of trying to kill one of the King’s Knights makes it obvious we are not on the same side as Edward. No, I’ve had enough of your ineptitude, Thomas. Rokas, take him to the dungeon.’
‘You can’t do that,’ protested Thomas. ‘I know too much.’
There was a long pause. Beside him, Avva held her breath as they waited for Caerden’s next move.
‘Good point. Rokas, ensure Thomas is not able to tell anyone of our plans.’
‘No, you can’t...’ William could hear the panic in Thomas’s voice. By threatening Caerden he had invited his own death and there was nothing now that would change that. Thomas would not live to see tomorrow. William shrugged—he couldn’t bring himself to care about the fate of a man who didn’t care about anyone other than himself.
‘I think you’ll find I can, Thomas. I should have done it years ago. You’ve become a liability in a game where the stakes are too high to make any mistakes. Come on, we have no time to waste. We need to find this knight
and put an end to his stay at my castle. Barwen, you will search the upper levels. Rokas, when you’ve done with Thomas, begin the search outside. I have some business to attend to. I will join you when I have finished. Let us be quick. This will all be over within the next few days—let’s make sure we are on the winning side.’
William gripped his sword, his soul rebelling on letting the men move out of the room, a creeping dread that he was failing at every turn settled over his body.
‘I need to get to my brothers.’
William jumped. In the heat of the moment he’d almost forgotten about Avva. He turned to her. Her eyes were blazing with emotion, but not fear or anger like he’d expected. She should be berating him for getting her into danger. Right now, he hated himself for doing it. Instead she looked as if she were about to march into battle. Fear gripped his heart at the thought of her doing just that. She must be kept safe at all costs.
‘You can’t,’ he told her. ‘You have to hide. You heard Caerden. He is going to kill you if he catches you.’
‘You don’t understand. I know how Caerden and Barwen act. When they can’t find me at the castle, they will send men to fetch my brothers. It won’t matter that Dylan and David don’t know where I am and that they have no idea who you are. At best they will be punished by association. I don’t even want to contemplate the worst.’
‘No, Avva. I forbid it.’
Avva ignored him and began crawling out of the alcove. He grabbed her ankle, the gesture so different from the loving way he’d held her only moments ago. ‘Avva, I will not let you put yourself at risk like this.’
She kicked out, trying to shake him off. He gasped as her foot connected with his ribs, but he only held on tighter.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?’ She half turned back to him, her eyes filled with concern.
Her touch had hurt, but that wasn’t the point right now. ‘It’s fine.’ He waved away her concern. ‘What is not fine is your belief you can help your brothers at this point. The best thing you can do for them is to remove yourself from the situation.’
‘No.’ She pushed herself away from him and slithered out of the alcove, landing in a heap on the floor below. William followed her, but not quite quickly enough to stop her. She pulled herself up and skirted around the Baron’s table, almost reaching the side door before William managed to untangle himself from the arras.
‘Avva.’ Her hand just brushed the wood of the door before William’s hand encircled her upper arm. ‘Listen to me for a moment.’ She didn’t struggle from his grip. He was far stronger than her, but he would die rather than hurt her.
‘You must find and deal with Caerden and his men.’ Her voice was cool and calm. He might almost think her unaffected if it wasn’t for the fine tremble running through her. ‘I must protect my brothers. There is nothing to discuss.’
William’s heart contracted painfully. He knew what she was saying was right. He had a duty to go after Caerden. He had sworn an oath and his very existence was meant for the protection of the King. He had to leave her and the thought was killing him. ‘The moment you leave the safety of my side your life is in danger. I cannot...’ He shook his head, words failing him.
She reached up and lightly rested her fingers against his chest. ‘My brothers are all I have left in the world. If Caerden and his men go after them to get to me, then I will never be able to live with myself. I have to go to them and warn them.’
His whole body screamed out that this was wrong, even as his mind worked through the possibilities. He couldn’t go after Caerden himself and keep her safe. The ideal would be to keep her hidden, but perhaps the next best thing would be to remove her from the castle.
‘Do you promise that you will head straight to your brothers’ home? You will not go to the stables to collect anything on the way or stop to talk to any of your friends.’
‘I don’t have any friends.’
‘Avva.’ He hoped his voice carried some of the desperation he was experiencing, because this was an intolerable situation and this solution was the only way he could find it in himself to let her go.
Some of what he was feeling must have come across in his voice because she nodded. ‘I promise I will head straight there. I will not go anywhere else, no matter what happens.’
‘Thank you.’ He pulled her tightly towards him and kissed her thoroughly.
And then he let her go.
They might never be alone again.
She would never know what she meant to him and what it cost him to walk away from her. He wasn’t entirely sure himself, only that she had become important to him in a way no one else had done before.
But she would be safe and he would do his duty as he’d been trained to do.
Although he said none of these words, something of what he was feeling must have been evident in his face because her gaze became stricken. She dropped her head until she was intently studying his chest.
‘Thank you, Avva, for everything you have done for me.’
She nodded. ‘I wish you luck, William. Please know that the time we have spent together has meant everything to me.’
Slowly, he released his grip, his fingers trailing over the back of her hand until he finally let go.
‘Hurry, Avva.’
She turned and fled.
William ghosted down an empty corridor.
From Thomas’s tours of the castle, he knew the basic outline of the keep. On this level were the Great Hall and Caerden’s private chambers. Below him were the kitchens and several other rooms of industry and above them was the long chamber, the one Thomas had shown him as suitable for the King’s visit.
He paused. Where would Caerden suspect William to hide? He hadn’t seemed to believe that William would head to Caerden’s private chambers, which was the first place William would check if he had been in the man’s position.
William leaned against the wall and listened.
The faint murmur of many people talking could be heard coming from the front hall, along with the scurrying of servants bringing and taking food away. There was no sound that William would associate with the urgent hunt for him. No shouting or running footsteps.
He turned back on himself and made his way to the large chamber. That was cavernously empty, too. He ran softly through the remaining rooms on the upper floor, but they were eerily deserted.
William returned to the large chamber and stopped still. Could Caerden have known he was in the room? If so, everything he’d said while in there could have been a lie. Or not all of it—Thomas’s fear had sounded real, but the rest, that could all have been said to send William running off in the wrong direction.
Whatever the truth was, Barwen was not up in these rooms and William was wasting time searching through them.
* * *
The darkness of the corridor didn’t stop Avva from running. She had to get to her brothers, she had to warn them that she had put them in danger by the very fact that they were related to her. She would give her brothers time to hide and then she would go back to William. She would help him, even if it meant death to her. She was too far in this now to back out, she had to see it through to the end.
She burst through the side door and tripped over something. She sailed through the air, her breath leaving her in a whoosh as she hit the ground.
‘Do you know, I never had siblings to play with at home and I always wanted to try that one. Thank you, Aven, for falling so spectacularly. It was very enjoyable to watch.’
Avva lay where she’d fallen, unable to catch her breath and unable to believe what she was hearing. Her worst nightmare, Caerden taunting her through the darkness.
‘Do you think you’ve already killed the whelp?’ Barwen asked. Bile rose in Avva’s throat, at the realisation he was here, too. She would not live to see another day, but if there was anything she coul
d do right now to keep William and her brothers safe, then she would do it. Whatever it took.
‘No. I don’t think he’s dead yet.’ A boot connected with her ribs. ‘He’s still breathing. Tell me, Aven, is Sir William about to come hurtling along after you, or is he searching for us within the keep?’
‘Caerden, we don’t have time for you to toy with the lad. Two of my best men are hunting for Sir William. We should go before that blasted knight slows us down.’
Caerden ignored Barwen. ‘I want to know what the knight knows, Barwen. I want to know whether he has found another way to warn the King. We put a stop to his squire’s meddling in our plans, but that doesn’t mean William can’t have found another way. Aven can tell us that.’
Avva closed her eyes. She had no doubt Barwen and Caerden would torture her to find out the information she had. At least they would not need to bother with Dylan and David—hopefully her brothers would get through this. She had given them the best start she had been able to. She was only sorry she wouldn’t have a chance to say goodbye to them.
‘I’ll take Aven to the dungeon master,’ Barwen said. ‘He’ll get the information we need out of him while we leave. We can have him send a messenger with the information he is able to obtain.’
‘No, please.’ Avva would rather die here, out in the open, than at the hands of the dungeon master. She had never set foot inside his domain, but she had heard the screams, and sometimes the smell, emanating from the place. It was impossible to ignore when someone was being tortured.
‘It speaks.’ Caerden’s tone was mocking and hard.
‘I’ll tell you what you want to know. Please don’t take me there.’
‘So you’ll help me now, little brother?’ Caerden bent down, so close that his breath whispered through her hair. ‘Did the knight send for reinforcements?’
Avva’s mind scrambled to keep up, pain radiating down her side.
The Knight's Maiden in Disguise Page 17