Two Heirs (The Marmoros Trilogy Book 1) by Peter Kenson Read Free Book Online Page A

seems very strange, milord. It certainly isn’t like that here. We were Manny’s women. We belonged to him.”
    “You say that you were Manny’s women, yet you know that he would have traded one or both of you for the Lady Falaise if he had the chance.”
    The two girls looked at the floor. “We know my lord,” Leyla whispered. “He was going to give me to that brute Torsten. I would have hated that but it would have been Manny’s right.”
    “No it wouldn’t, Leyla. That’s what I’m saying. Manny had no right to even think of treating you that way. Of trading you like a spare sword or a piece of jewellery.”
    “But Torsten’s dead anyway,” Mo said. “And you’ve just killed Manny so none of that matters anymore. We belong to you now.”
    “No, you don’t, Mo. I cannot own a woman. It makes you no better than a slave and I couldn’t live with myself if I treated you like that. I don’t care how Manny treated you. I don’t care if he thought of you as nothing more than a pair of attractive bracelets to wear on his arms. I cannot do that and I cannot and will not have you as my property.”
    At that, Mo burst into tears and the two girls flung their arms round each other. “So you’re throwing us out, milord?”
    “What will happen to us?” Leyla sobbed. “Where will we go? What will we do?”
    “Women,” he muttered as he stood up. “Always going off at the deep end.” He knelt down by the tearful pair and put his arms round them. “Listen to me. I never said anything about throwing you out. I only said that you are not my property. I don’t own you.”
    “What do you mean, my lord?”
    “Manny looked after you in his way. He put food on the table, clothes on your backs and a roof over your heads. Even if it was only a tent.”
    “He looked after us in other ways as well, my lord,” Leyla added.
    “Yes, I’m sure he did. But let’s just stick to the food and the clothes for the moment. He provided for you and I killed him. I, therefore, have a responsibility for the two of you and I will continue to provide for you. But with one important difference.”
    “What’s that, my lord?”
    “I am not Manny and you are not my property. I will continue to look after you for as long as need be, until you decide what you want to do with your lives. You may meet someone and fall in love. Or we may pass through a town and you decide you want to stop and settle down instead of a life of travelling. Whatever the circumstances, whenever it happens, you will be free to go and you will have a dowry and my blessing.”
    “So you weren’t throwing us out because you didn’t like us, milord?” Mo asked slyly.
    There was a tinge of exasperation in his voice as he replied. “I was never throwing you out at all. And certainly not because I don’t like you. I just wanted you to know that, with Manny’s death, you now have a choice as to what you do with your lives.”
    The two girls looked at each other for a moment. Held stiffened as he felt first one hand then another slip in beneath his shirt and a warm glow started to spread through his loins.
    “Then, milord…,” Mo started. “…we choose to stay,” Leyla finished.
    The white dreams did not come back that night.
    ***
    When he woke the next morning, the girls were already up and busying themselves around the tent.
    “Good morning, my lord,” they chorused. “Did you sleep well?”
    “You know very well how I slept. What little sleep you allowed me.”
    “You were very energetic, my lord,” Leyla giggled.
    “And ready to fight another day, it would appear, milord,” Mo added.
    “Alright. Enough already.” Held scowled at them as he made a grab for his clothes which had somehow been folded neatly at the foot of the bed. “And would you please drop this ‘my lord’ business. I am nobody’s lord… least of all yours. And if we are going to be sharing a bed together then you can’t keep calling me ‘my lord’ all the