by Traci E Hall
Mamie, Fay, and Catherine stayed quiet but remained at Bella’s back, as if to show their unspoken support if the queen decided a punishment was really needed.
Eleanor raised Bella to her feet, kissing both of her cheeks as she grinned. “Stop! You acted as a warrior, which helped my cause immensely. Now those royals will be talking of nothing else, and tomorrow when we show them what we can do, well, they will not forget the Queen’s Guard.”
Bella was so grateful for the queen’s quick forgiveness that her knees wobbled. Mamie held one of her arms, and Fay scooped her hand around Bella’s waist.
Catherine burst into nervous tears. “I thought Manuel was going to chop off your head!”
The queen’s eyes widened. “Catherine …”
Mamie used her free arm to bring Catherine close. “Didn’t you see how impressed he was?”
“Once he understood that Bella was not trying to harm his man or his leopard,” Fay clarified with a commiserating glance toward Catherine. “Smart, my queen, thinking to compliment his trickery.”
“We were all quick-witted today, flowers. And remember this: I have not yet met the man who doesn’t respond to flattery.” Eleanor shook off her cloak and slung it over the chest by the bed. “The closest I have come is my fair husband’s aide, Thierry. But then again, he is a eunuch, so he might not count as a man.”
Catherine wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “It’s so different here.”
“Lots of eunuchs,” Mamie agreed with a disapproving snort.
“Non.” Catherine elbowed her friend. “I meant the weather, the smells, the food, the customs. I miss my room in France.”
Fay released Bella and took Catherine’s hand. “You are homesick; that’s all. Me? I like all the different things here.”
Catherine exhaled and patted the short sword at her side. “I feel that I will never see France again.”
“What?” Queen Eleanor wrapped Catherine in a hug. “Gruesome thoughts after a successful day. Let’s talk privately later, you and I. For now?” She granted them each a broad smile. “I am proud of all of you. Bella, will you race to the kitchen and order wine and cheese to your room so that we can entertain Sarah, as we promised? I will be the judge of who tells the best story.”
“None of us can best Bella’s almost getting everyone killed.” Fay shook her head in exaggerated dismay.
“Oh-ho! We are talking amongst ourselves and even so the story grows.” Mamie clucked, following Eleanor out of the room and down the hall.
Bella descended the stairs quickly, unhampered by skirts around her shins. There were times the guard uniform was convenient as well as shocking.
Bella reached the first-floor landing and bent to slip a pebble from her shoe, when she was suddenly pulled back into the shadow of the stairs.
At first she stilled as she’d learned to do in her dead husband’s embrace, but then she remembered she was that scared girl no more.
She slammed her elbow back, hard, into a muscled belly.
“Oof!”
She whirled, her violet embossed dagger in her palm and ready to strike, but then she stopped in surprise as she recognized the sandalwood cologne and the knight’s blond hair. “Jonathon?”
He coughed and gasped for air. “Jesu, ma petite belle, you have a vicious jab.”
She lowered her blade, her hand trembling at what she’d almost done. Twice in one day! Injuring innocents. “You should know better than most that the queen needs us for more than our pretty faces.”
”I forget. I rarely see you train. It’s always in the gardens that we are together.” He lowered his voice and stepped closer. “How is Sarah? You’ve been gone all day, without leaving word. I was caught by the steward once and another guard a second time trying to get to your rooms to see her.” He swallowed, his face haggard. “The last I saw, she was covered in blood.” His mouth turned down bitterly. “I picked up the wine bottle and was almost arrested once I reached the courtyard. They take it quite seriously when we ‘heathens’ don’t mind the curfews. But I got the bottle to the queen.”
“Oh, Jonathon.” Bella reached out to clasp his forearm. “I am so sorry. Sarah is awake, and as of this morning, she had no fever but no recollection of what happened either. She said she didn’t bring a knife. Raoul took her dagger that first night. Remember?”
He raked his hair back from his forehead. “I have never seen so much blood on a woman.” He clutched the hilt of his sword. “A man in a fight, oui, but a woman? And someone I … know?”
Bella realized how foolish she’d been to not see the affection Jonathon held for Sarah.
“Sarah’s fine, Jonathon.”
His feelings could explain his odd behavior from the night before. Attacking Raoul. Too sick at seeing Sarah to help.
Raoul had handled the situation with confidence. No diplomacy but confidence. Then he’d rejected her girlish kiss. She rubbed her bottom lip with the pad of her thumb, the tingling sensation connecting to her belly.
Desire. It had to be, and for Raoul. These awakening feelings could be explored before leaving for Edessa. She hurt nobody with her decision to have Raoul as her bedmate. If he would consent. If it was wise …
“Bella, are you listening?”
She blinked, bringing herself to the present. “Hmm?”
“I said, Odo told me that Savoy, Auvergne, and Monferrat are coming across Italy to join the king, and they should be here within days. They plan to pressure King Louis into war. You know Odo’s opinions of the Germans, and now he doesn’t like the Greeks either. He doesn’t trust Emperor Manuel at all. He told me”—he took her chin and brought his mouth to her ear—”that he is going to advise Louis to join with Roger of Sicily and the reinforcements to sack Constantinople in the name of God.”
Bella felt sick and pressed her hand to her stomach as she pulled back. “That would be … It would be wrong.”
Jonathon backed up, hitting his head against the wall. “Wrong?”
“Well”—her mind spun with all the new information she’d received in the last few days—”King Louis asked the emperor for aid and sanctuary, and Emperor Manuel granted it. To betray him would be”—she searched for the right word—”dishonorable.”
“This is war, Bella.” Jonathon’s upper lip curled, and his eyes held a faint note of condescension.
“Don’t look at me like I don’t understand what’s happening. I may not have all the facts, but I would rather investigate the truth than jump to a harmful conclusion.”
“You do not understand.” Jonathon grabbed her upper arms and shook her. “You and the other guards are just women dressing in men’s clothing, without a care for what’s actually happening. Sarah has already been hurt. For your own safety, Bella, you must listen to me.”
She’d promised herself she would never let a man harm her again. Methodically, she pulled back her foot, then kicked Jonathon in the shin hard enough that he released her.
Bolting up the stairs, Bella barreled into Raoul on the landing of the second floor. She fell backward onto the slippery marble tile, sliding on her rear until she hit the wall.
“Lady Isabella?” Raoul dropped to one knee by her side. “Are you drunk?”
“Non.” She shook her head, her eyes misting with tears of embarrassment. She knew better than to cry. How many times must she play the fool in front of Raoul? “I’m sorry.”
“For running into me? I accept your apology. For trying to shoot my leopard? That I’m having a more difficult time with.” He brushed two traitorous tears from her cheeks with the calloused pad of his thumb.
Bella, vulnerable and trying so hard to fight her physical reaction to Raoul, pulled away from his caress. It would’ve been better to run over King Louis than to have Raoul’s pity. She wanted him to see her as a desirable woman. She cleared her throat. “I was trying to shoot you.”
His face darkened.
Bella clenched her teeth, refusing to be a coward in addition to a foo
l. “Not really. It looked like Serena was going to eat you.”
Raoul’s brow lifted. “You thought to save me?”
”It was a passing thought, and now it’s gone. The beast can have you.”
His lips twitched, but his eyes bore into her as if he could see beneath her skin. “I’m not as tasty as goat. Bella, why are you crying?”
“I’m not.” She lifted her chin, her eyes dry. “Anymore.”
“Good. I hate tears.” He reached down and hauled her to her feet, not in a gentle embrace but grasping her wrist and pulling her up so fast she grew dizzy.
“It’s been a long day. Overwhelming.” She scuffed her shoe along the marble tile. What would it take for Raoul to see her as a woman who could be his equal?
He looked down at her. “Were you punished for what happened earlier?”
Pride reared its ugly head as she realized she was not behaving as a guard. Running from Jonathon’s words of war and betrayal, from his lack of faith in the Queen’s Guard, had been a silly thing to do. Something a coward would do. A guard exuded confidence.
Bella adjusted the quiver of arrows on her back. “This Crusade is our first official outing as the Queen’s Guard. We are still learning as we go. She forgave my transgression.”
“You play a ridiculous game, though I admire how fast you drew your weapon.”
She frowned and crossed her arms. “Saving the queen’s life is no game. She attracts dangerous situations just by being the queen. We’ve prevented a knave from abducting the queen from her room. We’ve caught an assassin posing as a priest and a crazed beggar who thought he could cure his leprosy if he bathed in the queen’s blood.”
”Well done,” Raoul conceded. “But all things the king’s guard could’ve accomplished.”
“Yet they didn’t.” Bella uncrossed her arms and faced him. “Each of those situations happened when no men were around, and if we had not been trained to protect and be on guard, my queen could be dead.”
Raoul tightened his jaw as if he wanted to argue but held himself back.
Bella pressed her point. “She has enemies, as do all royals. You know this is true with Emperor Manuel.”
He shrugged noncommittally.
She shook her head, refusing to back down. “You’re one of his favored guards, yet you don’t spend every moment together.”
“We don’t have to. I make appearances to warn others that I am watching. That’s enough.” He knocked a fist against his broad chest. “Because I am a man with a fierce reputation I have earned through brute strength.”
She tossed the long tail of hair that had come loose from the tie over her shoulder. “I don’t need to have a fierce reputation. To protect the queen, I have my quiver of arrows, my short sword and dagger, and my life.”
“Poetic nonsense that would get you killed in the face of real danger.”
Anger bubbled from her toes upward. The man was too stubborn to reason with. And she’d thought to lie with him? Not in her wildest dreams. “Are we done with this conversation?”
His lip curled upward into something close to a smile.
She put her hand on her hip and studied him, suddenly aware of where they were. “What were you doing in this part of the palace? Were you looking for me?”
”No.” He glanced away.
“You lie to me?” How like the arrogant man to talk and talk of honor and then …
His shoulders straightened, and he looked down the stairs before meeting her gaze. “I left a message with your maid.”
Bella gritted her teeth, realizing he meant Larissa, which meant he’d dared come to the forbidden ladies’ section of the palace to see her. “What did it say?”
He shifted, visibly uncomfortable, which made her wonder if he was as impervious to her as she’d feared. “It is … I thought you might like …”
Bella tilted her head, her hope for a common ground blossoming.
“To visit the leopards tomorrow.”
“The beasts? The same animals you offered to feed my dead body to?” Is he crazy?
To her surprise, Raoul reached for her hand. “I would show you they are not beasts. I shouldn’t have joked with you about them.”
Bella paused, taken aback by his admission. “They have sharp, deadly teeth, and they eat meat.”
“You are too scrawny,” Raoul said dismissively. “They prefer goat.”
Heat flamed up the sides of her neck. “I’m afraid I have another engagement tomorrow.”
Raoul snorted as he eyed her short tunic and leggings. “Are you a coward after all?”
“Ha!” Bella straightened, feeling his gaze as if she weren’t clothed at all. “The queen lost a wager to the emperor today. The bet was a private showing of our skills as her guard. Tomorrow afternoon sometime.”
“I would see this too.”
“To learn from us?”
He grinned, his gaze sharp. “I am in need of entertainment.”
If she weren’t a guard, she would stomp her foot in frustration. Instead, she said in cool tones, “I don’t like you.”
“I wish that were true. Instead, I feel your attraction to me, which ignites mine for you, and we bicker like old maids instead of fuck.”
Bella’s jaw dropped, and her fingers curled. “Crass.”
“I am not known for my honeyed speech.”
She tried to slip by him, but he caught her arm.
“Release me.”
He did, though the heat of him remained as he crowded her. “Why do we ignore what we both feel?”
“I am not a whore to lift my skirts because you find me fetching.”
“You are not wearing a skirt. Man’s breeches and a tunic too snug to fight in.”
She blinked, her mouth focused on his lower lip instead of the conversation. “I have learned to value myself, and I will not give a piece away too cheaply. It was a lesson hard won.”
“Your dead husband was a lecherous bastard.”
“Oui.” She laughed dryly. “That he was.”
“You leave soon.” His breath was warm, alluring.
She stilled, wondering if he knew about the rumors concerning King Louis and the possible threat to his city. That secret wasn’t one she could honorably share. “It’s for the best.” Cornered, Bella spoke the truth in the area she could: her feelings. “You’re not good for me, yet you tempt me.”
”You speak of passion.” He reached out and caressed her cheek.
Her skin sang, and she realized at that moment she would have no control once under his captivating touch. Heat spiraled from her cheek, down her throat, to her breasts and below as she imagined his fingertips all over her bare flesh.
Bella’s defenses rose to the fore, and she said the one thing guaranteed to keep him away. “I don’t engage in trysts, monsieur. Fornication solely for the sake of pleasure, without love, is not something I can do.” Although she wanted to, desperately. He’d been right about that.
He jerked his hand away as if her skin burned. “I said nothing of love.”
Bella swallowed, her body reacting with actual pain at being offered what she wanted most but denying it. She couldn’t lose what control she had. “I know. Now let me pass.”
He gripped her shoulder, lifting her chin so she was forced to drown in his dark, mysterious eyes. “Wait. You love me?”
Bella’s breath caught. A part of her stood on the ledge, poised to dive in and test the waters of desire. Her mind heard his question as if from a distance and finally deciphered the words. She pulled free, horrified. “Non. I don’t know you.” Nervous and babbling, she continued, “I cannot be around you, because you threaten my composure. That’s definitely not love.”
Bella straightened her tunic, feeling his eyes go to her breasts, safely hidden behind her leather armor, and down to her legs, making her acutely aware of the fact that she showed more of herself than she wished. Perhaps tomorrow she’d convince the queen to let her wear a robe and a face veil.
“Good evening,” he said with a curt bow. “I don’t understand exactly what you want from me. You don’t want love, and I don’t want love. But we both want carnal satisfaction.” He paused, then grinned. “Be fair warned, my lady. I desire you, and I plan on having you.”
“You will never force me,” Bella said in a voice of steel. Never again would she submit.
“I won’t have to.” Raoul captured her mouth in a punishing kiss, ravaging her lips until she saw stars. Before she could throw her arms around him and beg for more, he released her.
Stumbling, Bella turned and ran up the next set of stairs, knowing Raoul watched the quiver of arrows smack against the small of her back and—she gulped—probably her behind.
Raoul blew out an explosive breath as he studied Bella’s gorgeous arse. Heart shaped in men’s tight breeches, it peeked from beneath the tunic with her every step. She was fast, and the trip ended too soon for his liking.
“There you are,” John said, breaking his concentration. “I sent a slave to find you, and he said he heard shouting and refused to come up the stairs. Who were you yelling at this time?”
“I was not yelling. Stating my opinion. Those silly slaves are scared of their own shadows. They’re afraid of me.”
“Can you blame them?” John laughed. “Have you heard that the queen is having her guard put on a private show for the emperor tomorrow? And we are invited.”
“Yes.”
John raised a brow but shrugged when it became clear Raoul wasn’t going to elaborate. “I’m looking forward to the spectacle. I can’t wait to see Lady Isabella with her bow. It’s all Empress Irene and her cousins could talk about—how you almost were shot by the lady’s arrow.”
Raoul’s chest puffed as he considered ways to pay the lady in kind. Kisses, caresses, nips. John, being an observant commander of men, noticed.
“I was wondering if the ebony-haired Athena was the one to pique your interest. My suspicions were aroused when the cost of the food and play tickets came to the steward’s office while I was there. Not just gathering information, eh?”