"So he took the girl, a maiden like you, and for want of a better word, raped her as brutally as he had any of us boys. In the middle of the night, he tossed her out of his room because he couldn't stand the sound of her sobbing. She was naked and bleeding, and I knew exactly how she felt. We'd all been there, but there'd been a fraternity among the King's pages that we would help each other, share the burden and the tricks we learned to make things easier. When the King chose her, he had no need for us, so the other boys – men by then, for the crusade took many years – were enjoying a night off. I'd been forced to stay to show the palace cooks how to prepare the King's new favourite foods, and was on my way back to my chamber when I found her, all alone. So I helped her. Took her to the tiny chamber that was mine, helped her wash and tended her wounds. She slept in my bed, while I lay on the floor.
"And in the morning, I started to teach her the ways I showed you. The ways to pleasure a man."
"So she became your mistress, as well as the King's," Ursula said slowly.
Bernard shook his head violently. "No. She was never mine. Some of the things I showed her could only be demonstrated on the actual body parts involved, though, so there were times when she touched me intimately because she wanted to know what she was doing before she dared to suggest them to the King. If she hurt me by mistake, it wouldn't matter, but if she accidentally bit or scratched the King…"
Understanding dawned in Ursula's eyes, quickly replaced by horror. "That's what she did, isn't it? She did something wrong and he ordered her death."
If only it was that simple. In her isolated valley, Ursula had never known the tangled web that was court politics, and Bernard hoped she never would. She was too sweet for court.
"No, for Dulcinea was a quick learner, and she knew her life depended on her pleasing the King. No, the King retired early and summoned her, when she was still with me, attempting to…oh, never mind. It doesn't matter now. When she didn't answer his summons, he came to her chamber to drag her out, and he found us together. He'd been inspecting the army that day, so he had a sword at his hip. He drew it and killed her. He just stood there, watching her die, not doing a thing to help her. Then he held out his sword and told me to clean the blade. The moment I took the sword, he called for his guards, and spun a tale about how I had been in love with the girl, but had killed her out of jealousy when the King himself chose her to be his queen.
"It was all a lie – she was his whore. He'd never intended to make her his wife. But it placated the Duke, her father, who loudly mourned the girl he called their lost queen for far longer than any man mourns a lost child. But his rise in favour came at a cost – I'd dishonoured my family, and made an enemy of the Duke, who had formerly been an ally of my father's.
"If the envoy from King Siward had not come to court, I think I might have been tried and hanged for a murder I did not commit, but with all the excitement over the lost kingdom and all, the murder was hushed up and I was pardoned, though not before my father had to hand over a great deal of money to the Duke, as he told me daily all the way here."
He longed to look at her face, but he didn't dare. He wasn't sure what he'd do if she didn't believe him.
"So why are you here?"
"My father told me if I wasn't useful to him, if I didn't find a way to pay him back all the gold he'd lost because of me, then he'd send me back to the King and have me tried, before publicly disowning me as his son."
"You told him to conquer Berehaven. That's how you planned to repay him. With our gold."
Bernard bowed his head. "I did. I believed the army here was a force to be reckoned with, based on what I'd read, and that Father couldn't possibly win. While we marched, I tried to learn to fight, but I was terrible with a sword, the laughing stock of the whole camp. So I knew Father wouldn't want me to fight, and he would lose and either die or retreat. I intended to slip away from the camp with whatever coin I could carry to start a new life. And with him gone, I would be free. Free to find my own way, or fight as a knight like Sir Gosse, or…something. Anything else. But then Father told me to come up here and secure the maidens' tower because I was good at killing girls, and I could not refuse him…"
"And when you woke, you found your father had won," Ursula finished for him.
"I don't understand. All the texts in the King's library said the army here was unbeatable. Even the history books from here say the same. Well, if you take away the fanciful accounts of immortal bears. The barons here called their men here bears, but the way your books describe them, they are merely normal men, fierce fighters who wear bearskins into battle. I mean, one was a baker, according to one of your ancestors. Here, let me find the passage." Bernard reached for the book and flipped through the pages until he found it. "Here it is. 'Pek slew the most men this battle, collecting more than a dozen swords and a fine axe which belonged to Lord Trumbauer that now has pride of place over the oven in his bakehouse.'"
"An army of bears…" Ursula said slowly.
Bernard laughed. "So the accounts say, from the men they defeated. I suppose it is less cowardly to be beaten in battle by a bear who slew fifty men than by a man wearing a bearskin."
But Ursula wasn't laughing. Instead, she was staring intently at him, as if measuring his soul.
"Your father will return for you when the snow melts, right?" she asked.
"If I could disown my father, I would. After all he has done here…and if leaving me here to die is any indication, he has most certainly washed his hands of me. I'm nothing like him, Ursula, I swear it. He ordered his men to slaughter children in their beds. Ordered me to kill you. He is no kin to me, though he will likely order me to leave with him."
She sighed. "Fine. Vauquelin will return, then. With his army, I presume."
Bernard nodded. "Most likely."
"Then if we are to survive, if I am to survive, I will need an army to match his."
Bernard shook his head. "You'd need the mythical army from the stories. Even I dare not oppose him. If he calls, I must obey, for I am only one man against an army. An army who obeys him."
She bit her lip. "What if I told you I do have such an army?"
Bernard burst out laughing. "Then I wouldn't believe you. It's a myth, Ursula. One I wish was true, but it cannot be. When my father returns, you must hide in the same place you did before, so that he cannot find you. And know that wherever he makes me go, my heart will always be here with you. If there is ever a time I am free of him, I will return here, to Berehaven, to claim my heart."
She tilted her head to the side. "Are you saying you love me, Bernard?"
He seized her hand and pressed it over his heart. "With every heartbeat, every breath, yes, I love you, Ursula. And if I lost you, I'm not sure my heart would wish to keep beating."
"Would you marry me?"
He blinked. "I thought it was my job to ask such questions, but I admit I have not because I have little to offer you. I am a younger son, with no inheritance to speak of, little prowess with a sword or any other weapon, all of which would make me a poor husband."
"Your skills in the kitchen and the bedchamber have proved more use to me than anything you could do with a sword." Ursula blushed. "And as a husband, you would…"
"Show you every single one of those thousand and one ways, or at least the ones I remember. Especially the ones that are also in that much shorter list of a hundred ways for a man, for then the pleasure is shared." Desire left his mouth dry. He wanted to reach for her, to take her in his arms, lay her on the bed and start now. "It is my most ardent wish to take you as my bride."
She rose from the bed. "Then bar the door. Tonight, I wish you to show me what sort of husband you will be. And on the morrow…I will decide whether to show you the secrets of Berehaven."
Chapter 37
As Bernard crossed the floor to lift the bar across the door, Ursula made for the fire. She threw a couple of logs onto the blaze, heedless of the sparks that spat as the two lay together at
op the coals. She would do this. She would give herself to Bernard, because she loved him and wanted him and he was the man she chose to share her nights with.
She no longer needed a husband with a strong army to defend them, if it was true what he said about bears. Because if the tales were true, then she had an army of her own far greater than anything Lord Vauquelin could field.
But that was for tomorrow. Tomorrow she would wake the townspeople, and ask them to fight. But tonight…tonight was for Bernard, a man who was more lover than fighter. A man who said he loved her.
Ursula unlaced her gown, then her shift, and let both slide to the floor. She toed off her stockings, knowing Bernard's mysterious ways worked best skin on skin, with nothing between them.
When he turned, his eyes darkened with desire, devouring her even from across the room. Instinct told her to cover herself, but Ursula kept her arms by her sides. If she had her way, Bernard would touch every part of her tonight, so he should get to see it all first. A shiver of pleasure coursed through her at the very thought.
"You'll freeze like that, Goldilocks," he said, crossing the room to take her in his arms. He paused to give her a searing kiss, before lifting her off her feet. "Let's get you into bed."
The sheets were cool beneath her, but they would not be cold for long. Bernard crept into bed beside her, pulling the covers over the top of them as he settled between her parted legs.
"You're still dressed!" she complained, reaching for the buttons on his doublet.
Bernard pushed her hand away. "My lady's pleasure comes first, especially when it is her first time."
His other hand caressed her thigh, stroking ever upward until he slid a finger inside her, planting his thumb exactly where he knew she wanted it.
All week she'd craved his touch, and now it seemed her flesh flamed into life to feel him again. It seemed mere seconds before she arched her back and cried out his name.
Her back had barely touched the sheet again before she felt something warm and wet between her legs, and she gasped in surprise as she found he'd replaced his hand with his mouth. No, not replaced, she thought as his hands coaxed her to open her legs wider to give his tongue better access. Using a combination of his fingers and his mouth, he claimed her body so completely she could think of nothing else but him.
He pushed her to a peak more slowly this time, relishing each stroke as though he loved the taste. Then he slid another finger inside her, sucking just a little harder than before, and she fell apart with a scream. Stars filled her vision, making it hard to breathe.
When she could see again, she found Bernard had taken off his tunic and doublet, and as he removed his hose, his manhood sprang free. She reached for him, determined to give him as much pleasure as he'd given her.
But once again, he pushed her hand away, leaning over to kiss her deeply as his fingers slid inside her again.
She tried to protest, but the sound was muffled by his kisses, and she was soon lost in the twin sensations of his tongue dancing with hers as his fingers stroked her to even greater heights of pleasure.
Ursula felt the release building, arching her back up in anticipation. His thumb circled her slowly, prolonging the moment, as his fingers slid out of her, ready for one more thrust.
He timed it perfectly, pushing deep into her just as she let out a blissful scream.
But this was bigger than a finger, harder and longer and…
"Oh, Bernard!" she moaned as the mighty manhood she'd run her tongue along on other blissful nights filled her completely. She never wanted to close her legs again.
"Are you all right? You felt ready…"
She opened her eyes to find him gazing at her with concern. He slid out of her, then rolled to the side to lie on the pillows beside her.
Emptiness. No. A moan of loss slipped from her lips.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you…"
Ursula managed to get her breathing under control, and finally found her voice. "Why did you pull out?"
He looked surprised. "You mean I didn't hurt you? I did something right for once?"
She almost laughed at the shock on his face. "When it comes to giving pleasure, you've never been wrong. Everything you do in bed is just right."
"Then if it doesn't hurt too much, maybe we should try one of those ways that's on both lists…" He pulled her over, so that she lay on top of him, her breasts pressed against his chest.
They'd never lay like this before and it felt so…sensuous. Ursula rubbed her body against his, enjoying the sensation. Hardness against softness, and the intoxicating combination was just right, like everything he did.
"Here, sit up a little," Bernard said, helping her.
Ursula straddled him, feeling his manhood hard against her thigh. "I want to feel you inside me again. That was…wonderful," she admitted.
"If you're sure…"
Ursula nodded emphatically.
Bernard grasped her hips, positioning her just right as he thrust upward and into her.
"Yes!"
He laughed softly, tracing a finger down her spine as she squirmed, relishing the feeling of fullness again. His fingers tangled in her braid, unravelling it, as she began to move, rocking her hips.
"My God, you're perfect, Goldilocks," he said, matching her timing with a rhythm of his own.
Some vague thought in the back of her mind said she should thank him for the compliment, but the time for words and conscious thought was over. There was nothing else in the world but her body and his, and how perfectly they fit together.
Chapter 38
When morning came, Bernard wished it away, for such a blissful night could only have been a dream. Yet when he opened his eyes, Ursula lay in the bed beside him, her legs tangled with his and her possessive hand on his already eager to please cock.
He blew out a breath he hadn't know he was holding. It had all been real. Ursula screaming his name as she straddled him, that golden mane of curls bouncing around he as she rode him, arching her back to place her breasts close enough for him to kiss…
He wanted to wake her up to do it all again, but he knew better than anyone to be cautious. For last night passion had definitely overridden caution and she would surely be aching this morning. Why, he was aching – but that was his leg, and that was normal.
"Bernard?" Ursula sat up, her hair a tangled halo around her face. "Oh, good. I was afraid it was all a dream."
He chuckled. "I thought the same, yet here we are."
"If only we could stay abed forever, but alas, we cannot. For we are not married yet, not truly, and we must be," she said.
"As soon as the snow in the pass melts, I will travel with you to the nearest priest, and I will be yours," Bernard promised.
This did not seem to satisfy her. "What if I told you there was a priest here in the valley, who might be able to marry us today?"
Bernard relaxed in relief. "Even better. I fear it would be a slow journey, otherwise, for we have no horses."
She wet her lips. "Then we should dress, for there is much to do today." She sat up, wincing as the cold air hit her bare skin.
"As my lady wishes, of course."
By the time Ursula fastened her cloak, he'd barely managed to put his tunic on over his hose.
She stood at the door, looking torn.
He was loath to admit weakness, but his leg pained him particularly badly this morning. "Go and rouse your priest from his hiding place. I will be in the kitchen, keeping an eye on Gosse to make sure he does not follow you, and I will have your breakfast ready, on your return."
The doubt clouding her eyes cleared in a moment. "Truly?"
He grimaced as he stood up. "Truly. Though you should know, if you marry me, you are marrying a cripple. I fear my leg may never heal the same as it was, and even walking swiftly will be more than I can manage. Only half a man, when you deserve a whole one."
She crossed the room to stand before him. "You are more than man enough for me,
Bernard, as you showed me last night. And if you walk with a limp, who is to blame more than me, for 'twas I who injured you in the first place? I love the man you are, and no one else." She stretched up to kiss him, pressing her body against him as she had last night.
If only their clothes would vanish…
Bernard forced the thought out of his mind. There would be time enough for such things later, when they were properly married. Last night should not have happened, but he could not bring himself to regret the blissful hours of having her in his arms.
"I shall return!" she said, laughing, as she swept out of the room.
Chapter 39
More than once, Ursula glanced over her shoulder to make sure the rat knight did not follow her. She trusted Bernard, but it would take him some time to make his way from the tower to the kitchen, and if Sir Gosse took it into his head to follow her…
In a week, the snow had melted so much there were clear patches on the ground, and the streams were full. It was time to wake the sleepers, before Vauquelin arrived.
She stopped at the church, going inside to light candles. She stayed there for some time, until she was sure she had not been followed, before rising to her feet and setting off for the cave where her people slept.
Higher and higher Ursula climbed, and more than once, she had to step carefully where the path had become a meltwater stream.
Finally, she arrived at the cave where she'd last seen her people. She stepped inside, letting her eyes adjust to the dark before going in any further.
Large, furry lumps lay everywhere, just as they had when she'd left. But there were differences between these bears and the three she'd first shared a cave with, the night her family died. The townspeople had stretched out on pallets, pulling blankets over them that did little to cover them.
20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection Page 11