The Taming

by Jude Deveraux

  The more Liana heard about what Severn was doing, the more comfort she tried to provide Rogan. In the evenings she sometimes saw how torn he was, as if he warred inside himself whether he should give in to the pleasures of her solar or stay alone in his brooding chamber.

  His brooding chamber caused their second big fight. After he’d spent two nights alone in there, Liana went inside. She didn’t knock or ask permission for entry, she just walked in, her heart pounding in her ears. He’d yelled at her. He’d blustered and fumed, but there was something in his eyes that told her he didn’t actually mind her invasion.

  “What are those?” she’d asked, pointing to the stack of papers on the table.

  He’d argued some more, but at last he’d shown her his sketches. Liana didn’t know much about war machines, but she knew something about farm machinery and this wasn’t all that different. She’d made a few suggestions and they had been good ones.

  It had been a lovely evening, just the two of them together in that little room, bent over the papers. Several times Rogan had said, “Like this?” or, “Is this better?” or, “Yes, I think that might work.”

  As he often did, Severn had ruined the evening. He’d pushed open the half-open door, then stood gaping at the two of them. “I heard she was in here,” he’d said softly, “but I didn’t believe it. This room was sacred to our brother Rowland and to our father. But now you let a woman in here. And for what?” He nodded toward the sketches on the table. “To tell you how to build war machines? Is there nothing of the man left in you?”

  Liana was pleased to see that when Severn stomped away, he was scratching his arm furiously. She knew that once again lice were infesting his clothes and she hoped they ate him alive. She turned to her husband. “Rogan…” she began.

  But he was already on his feet. He left her alone in the room and as far as she knew, he had not visited the room since.

  Her heart went out to Rogan as she saw him fight within himself. Part of him wanted the softness and tenderness she offered, but part of him wanted to please his angry brother. He trained and worked many hours during the day, trying to be the leader of the Peregrines, to prove to his men and especially to his brother that he was still worthy of his position as their master. And in the evening he never fully relaxed during the pleasures Liana offered.

  She tried her best to keep her rage at Severn under control, but it was difficult. She wrote a letter to her stepmother, asking Helen if she knew of any young heiresses Severn might marry. If she could find a wife for Severn, perhaps he’d leave Rogan to her.

  It was the third fight that turned the tables and made Rogan side with Severn against her.

  Liana was boiling with rage when she stormed down the stairs into the Lord’s Chamber. Severn and Rogan were sitting at the table, calmly eating breakfast but not speaking to each other.

  Liana was so angry she could hardly speak. “Your…your brother was in bed with three women this morning,” she spat at Rogan.

  Rogan looked at Severn in wonder. “Three? The most I’ve ever had was four. I was worn out the next day.”

  “When was that?” Severn asked, as if Liana weren’t there.

  “A year ago at the tournament at—”

  “Not him!” Liana shouted. “Zared! Your little brother, that child, spent the night with three women.”

  The two men just stared at her stupidly. She doubted if they had any idea what was wrong with Zared’s being in bed with three women. “I won’t have it,” she said. “Rogan, you have to stop this.”

  To further increase her fury, Rogan’s eyes began to twinkle. “Yes, I will have to do something.”

  She advanced on him. “Don’t patronize me. That boy looks up to you. He idolizes you. He thinks the sun rises and sets on you and I’m sure he’s merely imitating you.”

  Severn grinned and slapped Rogan’s shoulder. “Just imitating his big brother,” he said, laughing.

  Liana turned on Severn, her anger at him coming to the surface. “At least Rogan is making an effort. But you! You, with a married mistress living in the same house as that innocent child.”

  Severn was on his feet and glowering down at her. “My life is none of your business,” he shouted at her. “And Zared is—”

  Rogan stood, cutting his brother off. “We will take care of Zared.”

  “As you take care of everything else—including your wife?” Severn sneered, then slammed from the room.

  Rogan watched his brother go, then sat down heavily in his chair. Severn’s words had upset him.

  “That man needs a wife,” Liana said.

  “A wife?” Rogan said. “Iolanthe would tear the woman’s eyes out.”

  He looked so dejected sitting there that she wanted to say something to amuse him. “We’ll have to find a woman strong enough to handle Severn and Iolanthe.”

  “There is no such woman.”

  She caressed his forehead. “No? I have handled you, and you are stronger than twenty Severns and Iolanthes.” She meant her words as a jest, but Rogan didn’t seem to take them as such. He looked up at her with eyes glittering with anger.

  “No woman controls me,” he said under his breath.

  “I didn’t mean—” she began, but he stood, his expression still angry.

  “No woman controls me or my family. Go back to your sewing, woman, where you belong.” He left her alone in the room.

  He left her alone all that day, that evening, and that night. She was frantic with worry and she was sure he’d gone to another woman. “I will kill her so slowly she will pray for death,” Liana seethed as she paced their chamber.

  At midnight she went to Gaby, woke her from Baudoin’s arms, and had Gaby find out where Rogan was. It didn’t take Gaby long to return and tell Liana that Rogan was getting drunk in the Great Hall with half a dozen of his men.

  Somehow the news made Liana feel very good. He was as upset about their argument as she was. No more was he the man who ignored her, who couldn’t pick her out from a group of women.

  When at last she went to bed, if she didn’t sleep soundly, she did sleep.

  She was awakened before dawn by the unmistakable sound of steel on steel. “Rogan,” she said, her heart tight with fear. She threw a robe over her nakedness and began to run.

  The Howards had tried to sneak into the Peregrine castle before dawn. They tossed great hooks over the parapets and started climbing up the ropes.

  It had been so many months since the Howards had attacked, and the Peregrines had been so involved in their own internal squabbles, that there had been a feeling of safety. Watchfulness had lulled; senses were no longer as alert.

  Twelve of the twenty Howard attackers were over the wall before the sleepy guards on the parapets heard them. Two Peregrine knights died without ever waking up.

  Rogan, in the Great Hall, lying on the floor in a drunken stupor, had difficulty rousing himself. Severn was there before he was fully aware of what was happening.

  “You sicken me,” Severn said, then tossed his brother a sword and ran out of the room.

  Rogan made up for lost time. If his head did not clear instantly, his body remembered its long training. He kicked his men awake and within seconds he was in the courtyard fighting beside Severn and Baudoin.

  It didn’t take long to kill the Howard attackers, and as Severn meant to slay the last one, Rogan stopped him.

  “Why?” he demanded of the man. “What does Oliver Howard want?”

  “The woman,” the Howard man said. “We were to take her and hold her.” The man knew he was going to die. He gave Rogan an insolent look. “He said his younger brother needs a wife and the Peregrine brides make excellent Howard wives.”

  Rogan killed the man. He thrust his knife into the man’s heart and twisted and kept twisting until Severn pulled him away.

  “He’s dead,” Severn said. “They’re all dead. As well as four of our men.”

  Fear was coursing through Rogan’s body. If Se
vern had not been here…if he’d been a little drunker…if his men hadn’t heard…They could have had Liana by now. “I want this place searched,” he said. “I want every granary, every garderobe, every chest searched. I want to make sure no Howards are here. Go!” he shouted at the men standing near him.

  “At last you care about the Howards,” Severn said. “But only because of her. You have placed all our lives in danger—me, Zared, yourself. You risk what little property we have left because of her. Is it nothing to you that tonight four of your men were killed and a dozen others wounded while you were in a drunken stupor? And why? Because of a quarrel with that woman? You have killed two brothers over a wife. Will it take the deaths of the rest of the Peregrines to satisfy you?”

  At that moment Liana came flying down the stairs, long blonde hair streaming behind her, her robe opening to show slim bare legs. She threw herself at Rogan, her arms about his neck. “You’re safe,” she cried, tears wetting his shoulder. “I was terrified for you.”

  For a moment Rogan forgot the bloodstained men around him, as well as his scowling brother, and hugged her trembling body to his. It was only luck that she was still here and not taken by Howard’s men. He stroked her hair and soothed her. “I’m unhurt,” he whispered.

  He looked up to see the face of one of his men, one of his father’s men, a man who’d followed Rowland into battle, and he saw disgust on the man’s face. Disgust that a Peregrine would be standing here in the early dawn, two dead men at his feet, and cooing to a woman.

  Over the past few weeks, Rogan knew that his men had sided with him over Severn because Rogan had never slacked in his training. And they hadn’t seen the way Rogan sat in the solar with his wife in the evening and listened to women singing. Nor had they seen Rogan allowing his wife to help him design machines of war.

  But now, as Rogan looked into the eyes of his men, he knew their loyalty had just changed. How could they follow a man who, because of a quarrel with his wife, was too drunk to hear an attack? How could he control them? In the village play, the peasants had portrayed him as being “tamed,” as a man whose wife had put a collar on him and led him away. At the time, the idea had seemed too absurd to consider, but now he saw some truth in the play.

  He had to establish his control before his men or lose their respect forever.

  He abruptly pulled Liana from him, then shoved her away. “Get back to the house, woman, where you belong.”

  Liana had some idea of Rogan’s embarrassment. She straightened her shoulders. “I will help. How many wounded are there?” She turned to the man who’d been watching Rogan with so little respect. “Take these men to the kitchen, it’ll be warmer there. And fetch—”

  Rogan had to stop her. “Obey me!” he bellowed.

  “But there are wounded men here.”

  His men, wounded and well, were watching him intently and Rogan knew that it was now or never. “I married you for your money,” he said evenly and loudly enough for all his men to hear, “and not for your advice or your beauty.”

  Liana felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. She wanted to reply, but her throat closed and she couldn’t speak. Around her she could feel the men’s smirks. Here was a woman who had been put in her place. Slowly, she turned and started back into the castle.

  For just a moment Rogan almost went after her, but he didn’t. “Get these men up,” he said. He’d make it up to her tonight. Maybe a gift. She had liked that little doll from the fair so much, maybe—

  “Take them where?” Severn asked.

  Rogan saw respect once again in his brother’s eyes. “The Great Hall,” he said. “And get a leech to sew them up. Then bring me the men who were on guard duty.”

  “Yes, brother,” Severn said, and for a moment put his hand on Rogan’s shoulder.

  To Rogan, the hand felt heavy with responsibility.

  “He did it,” Severn said proudly to Iolanthe. “I knew that when we needed him, he’d be there. You should have seen him yesterday morning. ‘I married you for your money, not for your advice or your beauty.’ That’s what he told her. Now maybe she’ll stop interfering in Peregrine business.”

  Io looked at him over her tapestry frame. She’d heard all about what had happened yesterday. “Where did your wise brother sleep last night?”

  “I don’t know.” Severn hesitated. “With his men, maybe. He should have broken the bedroom door down. That woman needs to be taught a lesson.”

  Io watched Severn scratching. It had been so good when, for a while, he was clean. “You have nearly got the castle back to the way it was. Your brother is sleeping with his men, and I imagine he is as unhappy as he ever was. I don’t guess he’s smiling now, is he?”

  Severn stood and walked toward the window. Zared had said Severn was jealous, and part of him was beginning to wonder if that was correct. Yesterday Severn had won. He’d forced Rogan into publicly denying his wife, into making her retreat from him. And what had he won? The last twenty-four hours had been miserable. He hadn’t realized how much Rogan had changed since he’d married that woman.

  The old Rogan had returned in full force. On the training field he was a vicious taskmaster. He had broken the arm of one knight who wasn’t quick enough. He had gashed the cheek of another. And when Severn had protested, one blow from Rogan had sent him sprawling.

  Severn turned back to Io. “Rogan is as angry as he ever was.”

  Iolanthe could read his thoughts. There wasn’t a malicious bone in Severn’s body—which is one reason why she loved him. But he was like most men in that he didn’t like change. He had loved, worshiped, his older brothers and one by one he’d seen them die until only Rogan was left. And now he was afraid of losing him, too.

  “So what are you going to do to get them back together?” Io asked as she couched gold thread onto the needlepoint background.

  “Together?” Severn gasped. “Have Rogan lounging about in the solar all afternoon? The place will fall apart. The Howards will kill us in our sleep. They’ll—”

  “Rogan is going to kill you with work if you do not rectify your interference.”

  He opened his mouth to contradict her but shut it and sat back down in the chair.

  “I guess she’s not so bad,” he said after a moment. “And maybe the place did need a bit of cleaning.” He looked at Io. “All right, a lot of cleaning, but she didn’t have to—” He stopped, not knowing what else to say. “She didn’t have to take him away so completely,” he said at last.

  “She loves him,” Io said. “That’s a fatal thing to happen to a woman.” She looked at Severn with love, but he didn’t notice. Iolanthe admired this pale, plain Liana, who’d been able to do what Io could not. “Send Liana an invitation to supper, make it from Rogan, then send Rogan an invitation from Liana.”

  Severn scratched furiously at his shoulder. “Do you think she’ll have my clothes washed?”

  “If you give her back Rogan, I’m sure she will.”

  “I will think about it,” Severn said softly. “If Rogan gets worse, I’ll consider it.”

  “Does he think he can win me back so easily?” Liana asked Gaby. They were alone in the solar, Liana having sent her other women away. “Does he think that a single invitation from him will make me come crawling back to him? After the way he humiliated me?”

  “But, my lady,” Gaby said pleadingly, “sometimes men say things they don’t mean, and it’s been a whole week now. Baudoin said Lord Rogan is worse than he ever was, that he never sleeps or lets the men rest. He doubled the guards on the parapets, and any guard who so much as blinks is flogged.”

  “Of what concern is that of mine? He has my money; he has what he wants.” The deep, deep hurt she’d felt at his words had not abated in the past week. She had been lying to herself in thinking that he cared anything about her. He had married her for her money and money was all he wanted from her. Well he had that now and he no longer had to put up with her. She wouldn’t try to come between
him and the peasants. She wouldn’t nag him to allow her to judge the court cases. In fact, perhaps she’d just take her ladies and go to that other castle he owned, or maybe she’d retire to one of the estates of her dowry—if he could spare the revenue.

  “You mean to refuse his invitation?” Gaby asked.

  “I will pack a bag full of gold plates and put them on the chair in my place. That should satisfy him. Then he wouldn’t have to look at my ugliness.”

  “But, my lady, I’m sure he didn’t—”

  Gaby kept talking, but Liana didn’t listen. The thought of the gold and her lack of beauty had given her an idea. “Fetch the blacksmith to me.”

  “My lady?”

  “Send the blacksmith to me. I have a job for him to do.”

  “If you will tell me what it is, I’ll—”

  “No, this is my secret.”

  Gaby stood where she was. “Do you mean to accept the invitation?”

  “Oh yes,” Liana said. “I will accept my husband’s invitation and he will get my gold and he will not have to look upon my plain face.”

  Gaby still didn’t move. “Sometimes it is better to forgive and forget than to keep on with the fight. Marriage is—”

  “My marriage is based on gold and nothing else. Now, go!”

  “Yes, my lady,” Gaby said meekly, and left the solar.

  Three hours later, Liana was dressing to attend the supper her husband had invited her to. Joice was helping her, as Liana didn’t want Gaby’s disapproval—and disapproval she knew it would be.

  Nor did she want the Lady’s disapproval. As Liana mounted the solar stairs, she’d seen that the Lady’s door was unlocked and standing ajar. “I will always be here when you need me,” the Lady had said, and it was true. Whenever she’d come to a crisis with Rogan, the door had been open.

  But tonight Liana did not want to talk to the Lady, because Liana did not want to be dissuaded from what she was about to do. Her hurt was too deep and too raw to do anything else. Was she to say she forgave him? If she did, what would he do to her next time? He could humiliate her daily and expect her to forgive him anything.