Knight and the Witch 02 - A Summer Bewitchment by Lindsay Townsend Read Free Book Online Page A

him, being entered by him in such a loving, masterful way spurred her response. As far as she could, she rose back, rocking against him, clenching her teeth to stop from howling out her satisfaction. A blistering release burst through her, shimmering in a wave of dizzying joy. She felt him charge within her, harder and harder yet, glorious and furiously fast, plugging every inch of her as heat flung off him like lightning off a storm. In a rapturous, unending groan he gifted her with himself, with his seed, and the blissful transported peace after was as awesome as the pleasure had been.
    What next? Elfrida thought, drifting into sleep. Do I care? How very masterful Magnus is these days, as if I am no witch at all… Does that matter? What will happen tomorrow and tomorrow night? What…?

Chapter 6
    Elfrida felt sinfully languid the following dawn, the more so when Magnus took his leave of her with a long kiss and a whispered promise. “Until tonight, wife.” He and half his men clattered openly from the manor, Tancred yawning and tousle-headed in their midst, too sleepy to complain at the lack of breakfast.
    Father Jerome and three more of Lady Astrid’s party had also joined the gathering of horses, dogs and men in the yard and set out. Elfrida watched them leave. The priest’s sudden appearance had been a surprise, especially as he proved to ride as swiftly as the others. Waving them off, Elfrida peered through the standing clouds of dust and considered the day ahead.
    What Father Jerome and his men do not know is that Magnus has already sent Mark and his best tracker on ahead to Warren Bruer, with half of Rowena’s shift for their hounds. They will start at the church there and look for the track of a single horse, tethered somewhere close to the church. Let them find something.
    “Please, Holy Mother, let Magnus recover Rowena and the others, safe and well, untouched and untroubled. And let no malice touch his company this day.”
    The stranger prays to the mother, too, and he is handsome. But my Magnus is more of a man. The Holy Mother will surely like him the better of the two.
    Alarmed, Elfrida repeated her prayer seven times for luck, sent up a wish for calm, good weather and returned indoors.
     

     
    Lady Astrid, on the outside bench, crossed one leg over the other and leaned back. She squinted into the new day as if the rising sun had personally offended her. “You do not have a stills room?”
    “Not yet, I fear,” said Elfrida, keen to talk of the missing girls. “Tell me, my lady, does Rowena help you with your potions?”
    “She had no skill in it.”
    “I find such things often run in families. Is Rowena’s mother interested in cordials?”
    “Rowena’s mother preferred to play with her dogs, and to ride to hounds.”
    “My lord uses many kinds of dogs in his hunting and tracking, particularly the tracking. When the families of the other girls came to you for help, did they give you anything to take scent from for your dogs?”
    “They did not.”
    I am not sure I believe her, but she does not deny the families came to Warren Bruer. This stranger, whoever he is, knows that area.
    Leaning back farther, Lady Astrid showed off the lush curves of her body. “The hunting is reasonable in this country, especially in the royal forest. You cannot ride well enough to hunt, can you? Why is that? Did you learn late?”
    “I had never ridden a horse at all before last winter.” She speaks of Rowena’s mother and Rowena herself as though both are long past, dead and buried. “And Rowena’s father, my lady?”
    “A lord and knight, like yours.”
    “What is his name and title?” Nobles were usually keen to discuss genealogy.
    “William the fair, of Normandy. But your potions…they are really quite good. So how do you manage?”
    Sitting beside her mistress, her green-blue gown covered by an apron, Githa was picking over fresh salad leaves. She tossed Elfrida a look of pity.
    “By doing my