Juliana Garnett by The Quest Read Free Book Online

Dragon of ballad and nightmare, the hard-faced man whose savagery was legend.
    “My lord,” Sir Guy began, but le Draca had already wheeled his great horse around, leaving her more shaken than she would have liked to admit. No words were exchanged as the knight nudged his mount forward again.
    Nothing in her life had truly prepared her for this sort of circumstance. Leaving the shelter of her girlhood home had been simple, as she had done so at an early age, receiving her training in wifely arts in the castle of Walter de Montmorency. When she’d married, war often raged and though she was accustomed to her husband’s absences, she had never been in immediate danger.
    Once, at Montmorency, she had endured a siege by a warring vassal, but it had been short, and she had not been inconvenienced in any way but the tending of the wounded. This was vastly different and terrifying. Not even Luc d’Arcy’sfrequent rages could compare to the icy ferocity of Rolf le Draca.
    The day became an unending blur of jarring motion and thick silence broken only by the changing thud of hooves from hard roadbed to leaf-cushioned forest floor. There was a curious crackle of dried leaves and twigs snapping, the labored breathing of the horses, and the clink and clank of harness and armor. Trees crowded close around them at times, tangled brush snaking across narrow paths. The woods were dark and hushed, huge oaks rising like specters in the gloomy shadows, seeming to peer out with faces older than time in the twisted trunks and branches.
    Shuddering, the lady clasped her arms around her body as if chilled. A faint tremor shook her limbs.
    “Are you cold, my lady?” Sir Guy asked close to her ear, not daring to speak loudly enough to alert Rolf. He could feel the lady’s quivering even beneath his mail, and worried.
    She shook her head, but that action must have brought stabbing pain, for she gave a soft cry. Immediately Guy reined in his mount. The horse’s sides heaved with strain and exhaustion, and the lady’s skirts were damp from the lathered hide. Steam rose, thick with the pungent smell of horse. Shifting position slightly, the lady glanced over her shoulder at him.
    Her breath frosted the air in front of her face, her words giving the lie to her actions. “I am but slightly chilled, Sir Knight.”
    Sympathy prompted him to remove his cloak from the saddlebow to sling around her shoulders. “Shall I ask again for a halt?”
    “Nay I would not have your lord chastise us for being laggard.” A faint smile twisted her lips. “Though I could wish for a more even-gaited palfrey.”
    Grinning, Guy nudged his destrier forward. “A frail horse such as that could not bear our weight, milady. But I shall endeavor to keep a more even pace.”
    After a moment of silence broken only by the clopping of hooves against roadbed, the lady shifted again to look at him over her shoulder. “Sir Knight,” she whispered softly, and there was a quiver in her voice that betrayed her fear,“I do beg a boon of you. I can pay well for a moment of inattention and a horse.…”
    Guy was half expecting it and had already begun to shake his head when the lady tugged at one of her long, slim fingers and removed a ring. She held it up so that it caught the light in a sparkle of blue glitter. Quickly he closed his first around ring and hand to hide it.
    “Nay, milady,” he said harshly. “Do not ask of me what I fear you will—I am sworn to yon knight and would be ever loyal.”
    Her lashes cast long shadows on her pale cheek. The sapphire-and-diamond ring in her palm and his fist would have bought an entire suit of armor, a horse, and p’raps a year’s lodging. But even if he were inclined to betray Rolf, the dishonor of it would have killed him ere that fierce warrior could do so. He shook his head again, his voice kinder.
    “I understand your desire to flee, but have more faith in my lord’s honor.”
    As he released her hand and she slid the