Fairest Of Them All by Teresa Medeiros Read Free Book Online Page A

knowing any hasty flare of his temper might result in bloodshed. Better to save his hostility for the battlefield of the tournament, where he could vent it with honor for a worthy prize.
    Provided, of course, that he survived the humiliation of dueling with rhyme instead of steel. A flush of heat crept up the back of his neck as he envisioned the beauty from the garden, her dark head tossed in laughter, her eyes sparkling with merriment at his expense.
    He shot Carey a glower, but his efforts were wasted. His man-at-arms was gazing around, as wide-eyed and open-mouthed as if the pearly gates of heaven had parted to grant him entry. Austyn rolled his eyes. Carey was only two summers younger than his own twenty-nine years, but at times Austyn felt decades older.
    He resisted his own temptation to gawk. Castle Tewksbury was less a castle than a palace. Instead of a central hearth with a crude smokehole overhead, three pairs of stone-hooded fireplaces flanked the plastered walls. Crushed beneath his boots were not sweet herbs and stale rushes, but luxuriant Turkish rugs. Austyn could remember when Caer Gavenmore had been adorned with such treasures, before his mother died and they’d all been sold off to pay the taxes.
    At the far end of the vaulted hall sat a raised dais draped in white samite. Behind the platform, an oriel window sifted the sunlight through panes of colored glass, casting jade and ruby masks over the expectant faces clustered beneath it.
    Carey nudged him. “Looks like a bloody cathedral, doesn’t it?”
    “Aye.” Austyn nodded grimly, eyeing the virginal hue of the draped dais. “A fitting altar for an angel.”
    He could not help but notice that the crafty earl had admitted no women, noble or peasant, into the hall. He doubtlessly wanted every scrap of male attention riveted on the tournament*s prize. Austyn snorted cynically. The precaution was unnecessary. From what he had seen of the earl’s daughter, she embodied the unfulfilled desires of every man born into the world since Adam. With such a glorious Eve displayed before them, any other female present would have paled like the moon before the radiance of the rising sun.
    The scarlet curtain draped over the arched doorway at the side of the platform parted. Austyn’s pulse quickened in anticipation even as his gut knotted with dread.
    A squat man emerged. Had his saffron-colored surcoat not borne the Tewksbury coat of arms, Austyn might have taken the fellow for one of the mummers. Twas incomprehensible to him that the dwarfish creature could have spawned the willowy nymph Austyn had encountered in the garden. The man looked better suited to frolicking beneath a toadstool.
    His host”s identity was confirmed by a rousing cheer and a violent press to the fore as the challengers elbowed their way closer to the dais. They gave Austyn a wide enough berth, but he had to reach out and snatch Carey back by his tunic to keep him from being trampled. Austyn was content to linger on the fringes of the crush, knowing he would have a clear enough view over their heads.
    Stepping up on the dais, the earl lifted his stubby arms. His hanging sleeves swept open like mink-lined wings. “Welcome! Welcome all to Castle Tewksbury!”
    Austyn winced. All the majesty denied the earl in stature had been granted him in voice. Austyn’s head still ached from the blow it had taken the night before and Tewksbury’s bass cracked through it like thunder.
    The earl acknowledged the cheering and stamping of feet with a regal nod. “Many of you have traveled far and endured great hardship to accept ray invitation this day. Before we commence with the competition, I wish to provide you with a vision of inspiration.”
    Excitement rippled through the crowd, borne by whispers and murmurs of “The lady! He shows us the lady!”
    Austyn tried to unclench his fists, but found he could not He only prayed he could stop himself from rushing up on the dais to shield her from the