Two to Conquer by Marion Zimmer Bradley Read Free Book Online

you. All things come in their proper time.” She felt stupid, prim, as she mouthed the old proverb. “It is unseemly to ask me this at our handfasting!”
    “You said you hoped you might come to love me—”
    “At the proper time,” she said, and knew her voice was shrill.
    He retorted, “This is the proper time, and you know it! Unless you know something I do not, that your father plans to play me false and give to another, meanwhile binding me to him!”
    Carlina swallowed, knowing that he really believed this, and really sorry for him.
    He saw her hesitation, sensing her pity, and put his arm around her, but she drew back with such distress that he let her go. He said bitterly, “It’s true, then. You do not love me.”
    “Bard,” she begged, “give me time. I promise you, when the time has come, I will not shrink from you then. But I was not… not told of this, I was told I should have a year… perhaps when I am older—”
    “Will it take a year to resign yourself to the horrible fate of sharing my bed?” he asked, with such bitterness that she wished she did not feel this dreadful reluctance.
    “Perhaps,” she said, faltering, “when I am older, I will not feel this way—my mother says I am too young for wedding or for bedding, so perhaps when I am old enough—”
    “That is folly,” he said scornfully. “Younger maidens than you are wedded every day, and bedded too.
    That is a ruse to reconcile me to waiting and then to losing you altogether; but if we have lain down together, my sweetheart, then no living person can separate us, not your father nor your mother… I give you my word you are not too young, Carlina! Let me prove that to you!” He took her in his arms, kissing her, crushing her mouth under his; she struggled silently, in such dismay that he let her go.
    She said bitterly, “And if I refuse you, will you put compulsion on me, as you did on Lisarda, who was also too young for such things? Will you put enchantment on me, so that I cannot refuse you whatever you want from me, so that I must do your will whether it is my own desire or no?”
    Bard bent his head, his lips pressed bitterly together, a thin angry line. “So that is it,” he said. “So that little whore went wailing to you and filled your mind with evil lies against me?”
    “She did not lie, Bard, for I read her thoughts.”
    “Whatever she says to you, she was not unwilling,” Bard said, and Carlina said in real anger now, “No; that is what is worse; that you forced her will so that she did not want to resist you!”
    “You would find as much pleasure in it as she did,” Bard said hotly, and she replied with equal anger,
    “And you could accept that—that I would not be Carlina, but only some wish of yours forced on my real self? No doubt I would do your will, and even do it willingly, if you put that compulsion on me—
    just as Lisarda did! And just as she does, I should hate you for every moment of the rest of my life!”
    “I think not,” Bard said. “I think, perhaps, when you were rid of your silly fears, you would come to love me and know that I had done what was best for us both!”
    “No,” she said, shaking. “No, Bard… I beg you… Bard, I am your wife.” A guileful thought touched her; she was ashamed of herself for trying to manipulate him this way, but she was frightened and desperate. “Would you use me as if I were no better than one of my maids?”
    He let her go, shocked. He said, “All gods forbid that I should show you dishonor, Carlie!”
    “Then,” she said, pressing her advantage swiftly, “you will wait until the appointed time.” She drew quickly out of reach. “I promise you,” she said, “I will be faithful to you. There is no need for you to fear you will lose me; but all things come in their proper time.” She touched his hand lightly and went away.
    Bard, watching her as she went out of sight, thought to himself that she had made a fool of him. No, she was