Defy Not the Heart by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page B

here given to him so easily. And ’twas obvious now that Rothwell had been right in at least one thing. If there really had been a contract with Rothwell, the lady was indeed ignoring it. She was planning to marry someone else.
    “Then the date is—finally fixed?” Ranulf asked.
    Theo took advantage of the giant’s distraction to lean closer and bring the washcloth around to his chest. “Only my lady can answer that.”
    “And who is the fortunate husband-to-be?”
    Theo was out of his league now, for Reina usually fended off such questions. How could he say it was de Lascelles, when if de Arcourt should miraculously show up first, Reina would pick him instead? He tooka chance that Ranulf Fitz Hugh did not know that a name had never been given, and would not admit to being excluded from that knowledge if he thought it was known by the man who had sent him.
    “’Tis not widely known, but surely Sir Henry would have told you?”
    Ranulf grunted in answer. The boy was being evasive again, and he liked it not. If the planned wedding was to be soon, and the lady would certainly want it to be soon after coming so close to capture this morn, what was so secretive about the name of this man she was taking in Rothwell’s place? He could not be her father’s choice, if Rothwell had spoken the truth. So it had to be the Earl of Shefford’s doing, done after Roger de Champeney’s death. No woman would presume to arrange an alliance for herself or break a betrothal. The scorned man would doubtless send an army after her, or a mercenary, as Rothwell had done. Then why would the earl leave her unprotected all this time? If he wanted to give her to another man, it should have been done immediately, for she was fair game until the deed was done.
    It was a puzzle, but one that did not really matter. Ranulf’s duty was to take the lady to Rothwell, and so he would. It was nothing to him who eventually held Clydon through her. He could envy the man such a prize, for Clydon was magnificent. That it came with a tiny, childlike woman who gave orders like a general was the only drawback, but of little account, for she could be a crippled hunchback and still be desirable as long as Clydon was hers.
    With his thoughts wandering, Ranulf had not been paying attention to Theo or what he was doing, so it was a jolt to find the boy on the side of him now, hisarm in the water in front of him, his hand with the washing cloth in it moving up the inside of Ranulf’s thick thigh. He stiffened, disbelieving the suspicion that leapt to his mind. The lad could not be that suicidal. And yet giving him the benefit of the doubt hanged him, for that hand continued on. In the same second that it touched Ranulf where it had no business touching, he turned to the boy and caught the glazed eyes on him, and then his reaction was instantaneous.
    His bellow of rage shook the rafters, and with a single swipe of his arm he sent Theo tumbling across the room. “Christ’s toes! She sends me a catamite!”
    Theo scrambled to his feet, but in his disappointment he said sulkily, “You could have just said nay.”
    “Nay?” Ranulf shouted incredulously. “You misbegotten little cur, you are lucky I do not rip your prick off and shove it up your arse! Get you gone before I change my mind!”
    Ranulf watched with fire-banked eyes as Theo tripped over his own feet racing out of the chamber. He should have known by the girlish manner, should have been more alert, but the lady had sent the boy to him, so all he had suspected was that he was to be grilled for information—which he was not. By the rood, did she think he was a God-cursed sodomite, then? Did he look so? But there was no look to it, was there?
    His temper moved down to a slow simmer as he admitted that to himself. Even the king, an intrepid warrior, a giant among men, was rumored to prefer a boy in his bed. There were men who would have it either way, and men who would have it only one way or the other.