RulingPassion by Katherine Kingston Read Free Book Online Page B

she
admired him in return, but could find no appropriate words for her sentiments.
    For a long moment they held one another’s eyes. Rosalind
found herself trying to read possible futures in the smoky depths of his.
Several scenes rolled through her mind, though only one could she feel ready to
welcome with any joy.
    At last he nodded. “We’ll speak more of the future later.
For now, there’s cider and bread and cook’s plum jam to spread on it.”
    To divert her attention, he asked about her family and the
events of her childhood while they drank cool, sweet cider, and the warm bread.
She told him about her brother and sister, mother and father, trying to focus
on her early days and not recall that, save her sister, wed to a baron who
dwelt far to the north, all were now dead. There were sufficient pleasant times
to blunt the pain of the more recent memories. The love and affection her
parents had given her would stay with her always. She told him about the
practical jokes she and her brother had been wont to play, and had him laughing
loudly and long at the stories about her early attempts at cooking.
    “Was that rabbit truly so tough not even the hearth dog
could pull meat off it?” he asked.
    She shrugged. “I suppose he did eventually, by dint of much
persistence, gain a few morsels from it. My father threw what remained to the
crows and said it took them more than a week to dispose of what usually took no
more than an hour.”
    He slanted a wry eyebrow at her. “And I recall you offered
your services as a cook for me?”
    “Credit me with having learned from my experiences,” she
said, and then in the interests of honesty, added, “I seem to have no instinct
or gift for it, however. Maniga, our chief cook, regarded me as a trial she had
to bear.”
    “Why was it necessary that you, a lady, should know how to
cook? Surely they did not foresee you having to do for yourself?”
    “Nay. It was only to provide a better understanding of what
was needful for running the household.”
    “Ah,” he said, as though that were a great discovery for
him. “Are you finished?” he asked then, seeing she’d consumed all but a few
crumbs of the bread on her plate. “We have yet some time for ourselves, and I
would like to show you around the grounds. It appears the weather will be
pleasant.”
    She nodded, although she wondered if her abused body would
tolerate it. He rang for a servant to retrieve the clothes she’d worn the
previous morning and help her dress. He provided cloaks for them both, his
swung over plain breeches and shirt. The shirt was a soft blue that warmed the
gray of his eyes almost to the same shade. They traversed a long corridor,
descended a flight of stairs, crossed the echoing expanse of the empty great
hall, and followed a couple more twisting halls before he opened a nearly
unmarked door to the outside. Movement actually relieved some of her aches
rather than adding to them.
    This was apparently a side entrance, perhaps an emergency
escape route in case of siege, but it led to a walled garden at the side of the
manor house.
    Late winter had just given way to spring when Sir William de
Railles had invaded her family home. Calculating the time she’d spent as
William’s guest, the weeks when he’d thought he could persuade her to do his
bidding, then the time spent in his dungeon, she guessed it would be late
spring, mid-May, now.
    The breeze was still cool, but the midmorning sun warmed her
back through the cloak. Lord Jeoffrey took her arm and led her down a brushed
dirt path between two patches of vegetables. The garden was nicely ordered and
thriving. The new plants grew strong and healthy, pushing up strong stalks or
spreading bunches of leaves.
    They strolled quietly along the paths until they reached the
far end of the fenced vegetable plot. He guided her to a gate, where he opened
it and they walked through into a wilder area. Spring-flowering trees and
shrubs blooming in wild