Kiss of the Dragon

by Christina James

  “I have it! Be at ease, Evgenii. If we plan this carefully, the Dragon will be far from his lair when you make your move. Oh, oh, it will be so simple.” She clapped her hands together like a small child who had just been offered a sweet treat. “I could not have come up with a better scheme.” His look of skepticism was not lost to her. “You will not fail this time. Follow my instructions carefully and that little gypsy progeny will finally be out of my hair and you will receive your reward and our dealings will be at an end.”

  “What is your plan then?”

  A smile of pure malicious delight crossed her face as she came to sit beside him. She took his nearly empty cup and lifted it to her lips. She licked the place where his lips had touched before taking a long drink.

  “I will tell you, later, my sweet lover.” And then her lips were on his as her hands moved to unlace the front of his breeches.

  * * * * *

  Draco had no doubt that the Russian prince had made a hasty retreat back to his rooms even without the threat of being skewered. He chuckled as he made his way down the stairwell. The look on the man’s face had been priceless just before Draco forced him out the window.

  “What do you find so humorous at this ungodly time of the night, big brother?” Cynric stood in the shadows across the corridor from the door to Bianca’s new chamber. Draco hesitated as he glanced at the closed door.

  “How did you find me?” Draco asked.

  “I was told by a little bird who knows how to pleasure a man most thoroughly.” His wide grin showed his enthusiasm in his newly discovered pastime. The young scoundrel had made it his duty to bed every maid he could seduce since he had come into his own this last year. Everywhere they traveled, Draco had had to drag the boy from some wench’s bed and, on occasion, chased a wench from his young brother’s blankets when they were on the road. Cynric seemed never to lack for female companionship. Now he was apparently making the rounds of the Castle Neige maidservants. Draco shook his head and snorted in disgust.

  “I hope you are being a little more discriminating then you were at Lorraine. You were fortunate to escape with your man-parts intact when that serving wench’s new husband discovered you in her bed.”

  “Fear not, big brother. I am more careful these days. I have learned from my past mistakes.” He winked and then chuckled at the stern expression on Draco’s face. “Do not worry. I have only bedded one maid since we arrived at Castle Neige.

  “What are you doing here this time of the night, or should I ask?”

  “I have news, Draco. This news could not wait until morning.”

  Draco sighed with resignation. He should have known that spending an entire night wrapped in his lady’s arms would be too much to expect. With one last glance at Bianca’s door, he took his young brother’s arm and herded him down the corridor so that their conversation would not disturb her.

  “Come, walk with me as you inform me what has happened,” Draco instructed Cynric as they made their way down the long, winding steps from the tower room.

  “You will not believe it, but I have found the missing giant, Jabulani.”

  Draco stopped so suddenly that his brother toppled into him and, if Draco had been a smaller man, the two of them would have tumbled down the remaining steps. As it was, he managed to catch Cynric and steady both of them. “You found him?”

  “Yes, I am most certain that it is him.”

  Draco was not happy about the situation. If the giant bodyguard’s body had been found, Bianca would be heartbroken to finally know he had been slain. He thrust his hand through his hair in a gesture of weariness. “In what shape was the body? How cruelly was he killed? Was it swift? Or did the bastards torture him?”

  “No, none of those things happened.” Cynric slashed his hand through the air in his excitement. “Jabulani is, in fact, alive.”

  “Alive?” Draco stared at this young brother in disbelief and then relief washed over him. It seemed that his fortune had taken a turn for the good. He would not have to tell Bianca that her friend had been found dead. He heaved a sigh of relief both for her and for him.

  “Where is he, Cynric? Is he here? Did you bring him back to the castle?”

  “No, Draco, I could not. I do not think he wants to be found. In fact, as far as I could tell, Jabulani has no notion that I saw him. It was by accident that I did.”

  “Where is he?” Draco took hold of his brother by the shoulders and stared him down; his intense look would have frightened any other man, but Cynric was used to his ways and his moods. He knew that he was not actually the target of Draco’s vexation.

  “He is even now at the Rom encampment in the north woods. I was there visiting with a wo…” Cynric stopped his recitation and his face turned a violent crimson color. He looked everywhere but at his brother’s thunderous face as he cleared his throat and croaked out the rest of his explanation. “I saw him entering one of the gypsy’s wagons while I visited one of the fortune tellers. I saw him later by the campfires. He is not hard to mistake, Draco, not a giant like Jabulani, smiling as always.”

  “Did you find out what he was doing there?”

  “No, I was too occupied at first, but it was apparent he was not there for a visit. The gypsies seemed to accept his presence there as ordinary.”

  “Perhaps we should pay a visit to the Rom camp and seek out the jolly giant.” Draco started walking again, his face thoughtful as he reflected on the information that had just been imparted to him.

  “Should we not wait until first light, Draco?”

  “No, little brother. Surprise will be the ideal method here. I do not want anyone forewarning the giant that we have discovered his hiding place. It will serve our best interest if we catch him off guard. He has a lot of explaining to do and I mean to get the truth from him.” Draco’s thoughts went to Bianca who had been so devastated by the attack in which she had thought her servant had been killed. Yea, Jabulani had a lot to answer for and the Black Dragon was just the one to ask the questions.

  “Ah, so you mean to catch him while he sleeps and is off his guard.”

  “Exactly, Cynric. I have learned well in these last few nights, just how many people try this tactic.” Draco’s wry humor was lost on his brother.

  “And did it work?”

  “Well, no, as a matter of fact, it did not.”

  “Then why would you think that it would work this time?”

  “Because, it was I who guarded the lair at the time and I am seldom taken unaware.”

  Cynric smiled at his brother’s confidence.

  “Come, little brother. We have a night’s work ahead of us.”

  * * * * *

  But as with all great love stories there is always danger.

  And for this Knight and his Lady it would arrive in the form of another,

  Whose jealousy knew no bound.

  It was evil’s ambition to send the Fair Maid to ground.

  And if she refused not go of her own accord,

  Then hers was a lonely existence in a tower behind locked door.

  The design was made and the trap was laid,

  With no escape in sight for the Knight or the Fair Maid.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Bianca slept so soundly that she did not realize she had been left alone in the big bed until the light tapping at her door broke through her dreams. She awoke from her deep slumber and stretched her arms out, realizing the space beside her was empty. She opened her eyes and stared at the indentation in the mattress and sighed with disappointment that Draco had left her so soon. But a moment later, she was grateful he was not there.

  “Bianca. Are you awake?” The voice on the other side of the door called quietly after an insistent amount of knocking. It was Modesta. “Open the door, Bianca. Let us in.” Bianca thought about pulling the covers over her head and ignoring her cousin’s early morning intrusion but at Modesta’s persistent knocking, she gave a deep sigh and threw back the bed covers.

&n
bsp; It was then that she realized that she was naked. A rosy blush stole over her entire body as she thought back to the wondrous night she had spent in Draco’s arms. His ardent lovemaking still left certain parts of her body tingling and she groaned at the aches as she moved off the bed. Another knock on the door had her hurrying to retrieve her nightdress, which she slipped over her head, thrusting her arms into the sleeves. She glanced at her mirror as she moved by it to see if her appearance had somehow changed after a night of passionate lovemaking but her reflection showed only a rosy-cheeked maiden with unruly locks flowing about her shoulders. She thrust her hands through her hair to give it some semblance before she padded across the room and opened the door.

  Bianca was somewhat surprised to find not only Modesta but also Veryalda waiting impatiently for her to bid them enter. At the knowing grin on her grandmother’s face Bianca’s blush deepened noticeably. The older woman swept her from head to toe with a shrewd eye and nodded in satisfaction. It was not until then that Bianca realized that spending the night with Draco was no longer a secret.

  It was apparent that at least one other person knew about it. Veryalda with all her dark, mystic means had knowledge that Bianca had not spent the night alone. Indeed Veryalda acted as if she had expected nothing less. But of course, there was always the chance that one of the servants had found out about the lovers’ tryst and the shocking tidings now buzzed about the castle, going from ear to ear that the Lady Bianca had taken a lover to her bed. The thought that her indiscretion could be public knowledge drained the color from her cheeks. She stepped back to let the two women into her bedchamber, closing the door after them.

  “I suppose I am the talk of the castle.”

  “Of course you are, my dear. You are the Beauty de Neige,” Veryalda chortled. A sound that was very odd coming from one so old, but it was a joyous sound that echoed about the room and only escalated as Veryalda watched Bianca’s face turn from white to a lovely shade of deep crimson.

  “Oh, good Lord! You cannot mean it! What am I to do? I will never be able to face anyone in Castle Neige again, least of all Draco.”

  “Why is that, dear?” Modesta asked.

  “What?”

  “Why would you not be able to face anyone?” Modesta reiterated.

  “Because of what happened…last night.” Bianca’s words came to a slow halt as she noticed the questioning look on Modesta’s innocent face. What was going on here? She glanced at her grandmother and noticed the devilish twinkle in her eyes.

  “Something happened last night?”

  Bianca made an impatient noise as she sat down on the side of her bed and then fell backward drawing the bedcovers over her face. A muffled answer was all that was discernible.

  “Excuse me, dear. My ears are simply not as good as they use to be. What did you say?”

  Bianca lowered the bedcovers and glared at her grandmother. She glanced at Modesta and then back to the older woman giving her a pleading look that was supposed to remind Veryalda that the younger woman was also in the room and that Bianca was uncomfortable about revealing her night activities to her innocent cousin.

  “You know very well what happened last night.”

  “Yea. But so far I am the only one.”

  “But you said I was the talk of the castle this morn,” Bianca accused coming out from underneath the covers once again.

  “And you are, dear. Just as you have been every day from the day you were born, and will be until you are dead. And probably not even then will the gossips’ lips stop wagging about you.”

  “Oh, you! You are a terrible old tease,” Bianca scolded. Her grandmother’s calculating look had her blushing anew. But it was evident that Veryalda had no intention of demanding the details about last night, at least not at the moment. “We will talk later on your behavior, young lady.”

  But she had not reckoned with Modesta’s intuition.

  “You regret what happened between you and Lord Draco, then?” At the young maiden’s outrageous question both Bianca and Veryalda turned and stared at her. Modesta did no more than blush prettily as she forged on. “I am not as innocent as you would like to believe, cousin. I too have tasted the sweet pleasures of being in love.”

  Modesta’s face turned the most brilliant red at her admission. And at Bianca’s skeptical expression, she continued, “It is true. Lord Charles is a very admirable lover. His kisses literally take my breath away.” Her ingenuous notion of lovemaking was truly naive and it proved that Lord Charles courted Modesta with gentleness and patience.

  “No!” Bianca exclaimed fervently. “I am not ashamed of what has transpired between us. But I do not want to brave the sense of outraged righteousness of others either. I know it is too much to ask, but I want my life to be my own. I want to experience delight at the tenderness that has grown between Draco and me, for the joy and pleasure he has given me. Is that so wrong?” Bianca lifted one hand to wipe away the wetness that covered her cheeks as her emotions threatened to swamp her.

  “Do you understand that I want Draco to be mine forevermore?” Her whispered plea for comprehension brought a sob from Modesta who rushed to her side and wrapped her arms about her shoulders. “Oh God, I want him to love me as much as I love him! I want to hear the words from his lips that Draco loves me above all else so that I might share my feelings instead of holding back the words. I want to be able to tell him that I love him and know that he will not look upon me with disdain, and turn from me.” She turned her tear-stained face to her grandmother, her eyes begging for assurance that she knew no one could give her.

  “No, my child. No.” Veryalda had moved across the room and sat down beside Bianca. She gathered her granddaughter in her arms and tried to comfort her. But her words were not very reassuring. “I understand perfectly well what you want, Bianca, but what we want from life is not always what we are granted. And unfortunately you cannot expect to have your way in this without mutual acceptance. Because of your position in society, certain rules and traditions bind you.

  “And Lord Draco understands this. He does not see himself as good enough for you. He is after all, a bastard first and foremost, and that makes him unworthy in the aristocracy no matter that he is the king’s champion. It would behoove him to take you as his wife for your wealth and beauty but he is a man of great integrity and he will not saddle you with one so disdained. In your choice of mate, you are bound to select a nobleman who is acceptable to your social milieu.”

  “No!” Before Bianca could protest further, Veryalda placed a finger to her lips. “I did not say that I agreed with these conditions, but you have to make a choice that you can live with for the rest of your life. Choose wisely, my dear.”

  It was suddenly apparent that to her that her grandmother was pleased with the turn of events. In fact, it suddenly occurred to Bianca that was the reason the old woman had come up to her room. She had come to let her know that she supported whatever the younger woman decided on the matter of the Black Dragon and her claim to keep him.

  It took Bianca only a moment to decide. She smiled at her grandmother’s words and turned then to glance at Modesta who sat at her side giving her comfort and support by just being there. Her cousin had covered her mouth with her small, slender hands and there were tears in her eyes. It was evident that she was upset and trying not to interrupt.

  “Worry not, cousin. I know what I must do.” She stood resolutely and turned to face the two women who sat on her bed watching her expectantly. And her courage wavered.

  “I love him so much, grandmother. What if I cannot hold him? What if he simply rides away in two days’ time?”

  “He is a hard man to read, my child, a man who has been stung by past indifference and coldness when he offered himself and all that he was. His uncertainty in his adequacy is understandable. The Black Dragon guards his heart well. He may need a bit of a push before he declares his true feelings.”

  “Do you propose that I tell him how I feel?”
Bianca wanted to know.

  Veryalda gave her a long, soul-searching look and then slowly nodded her head.

  “But what if he does not love me?”

  “Then he does not love you. You cannot force a man to love, just as you cannot force a bird to sing, or a fish to take the hook.”

  “I suppose you are right.”

  “Of course I am, Bianca. Now get yourself dressed before the gossips talk about what a slug-a-bed you have become and everyone starts to wonder about it.” A sly wink followed her witticism.

  * * * * *

  Draco was fast becoming irritated. He had come to the Rom encampment hoping to speak with Veryalda but when they had arrived in the early hours of the morning, she was nowhere to be found. The only information he could get from one of the younger men was that she had gone on an errand and had not yet returned. Upon hearing that news, he had had thoughts of pursuing his quest to find Jabulani by questioning the man about the giant but he did not think he would get an honest answer.

  Draco would wait for the old gypsy woman. He knew she would not give him the information he wanted without a little persuasion, but he trusted that whatever she told him would be the truth. Draco was not so certain that the rest of the community would be so inclined to help him. Bianca’s grandmother would be more forthcoming, knowing that her granddaughter’s happiness was at stake.

  They had made the early morning journey to the north woods just as the east began to grow light. As a cover, they had let it be known that they had come seeking the old healer. But now that their alibi had fled the encampment, they had to think up another reason to remain. It had been Cynric’s pleasure to offer a motive even if it meant that he had to sacrifice himself. After a few terse words about self-discipline and restraint, Draco gave his young brother leave to visit a sloe-eyed young beauty in her wagon for a short interlude of pleasure. That had been a while ago and Draco began to wonder if the boy would ever slake his youthful lust.