Choose the Sky: A Medieval Romance (Swordcross Knights Book 2) (16 page)

Luc first took her by
the hand, but the crowd of well-wishers followed them all the way up the flight of steps to the bedchambers, stepping on her skirts and slowing their progress. So Luc paused, turned, and picked her up in his arms.

Surprised, Mina let out a laugh, feeling suddenly weightless as Luc swung her around.

The distance to the door of the bedchamber was far too short, though. When he carried her through the door and cheerfully ordered someone to shut it tight behind them, Mina was no longer laughing.

“Put me down, please,” she said breathlessly.

He walked her to the bed first, then put her on her feet right at the side of it. He turned away, saying he needed something to drink.

“I might be sleepy,” she said, sliding onto the bed. She lay back, and the room spun slowly about her. She giggled at the sensation. She wasn’t sleepy. She was something else, something she wasn’t used to being.

“Do you want anything?” he asked, from where he stood.

“Rather late to ask what I want,” she said, though she wasn’t sure she spoke the words or whispered them to the smoke-scented air.

She closed her eyes, feeling the strange spinning sensation continue. It was not at all unpleasant, and she sighed, momentarily forgetting why she’d been so upset all day. It could be sorted in the morning, she was sure.

The spinning slowly settled, to be replaced with a sense of warmth floating over her skin. Mina intended to ask Luc something, but when she opened her mouth, all that emerged was a little contented moan.

“So you like that?” Luc asked, startlingly close.

He was kissing her. The spreading heat was a path marked by his mouth, scoring her skin as he peeled her gown off.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I like that.”

Mina opened her eyes to see Luc bending over her. In the dim light cast by the fire, she was entranced by him. He’d cast off his shirt, and the sight of his body made her all the warmer.

“Luc…” she whispered hesitantly. “Is it time? You’re going to bed me?”

“First I’m going to kiss you, Mina.”

“Oh. Yes.” She closed her eyes, again surrendering to the feel of his lips on her skin. He’d called her Mina. It sounded incredibly sweet to hear him say the name.

He’d been tasting her shoulders and arms. Now he moved to kiss her directly on the mouth.

This was the very first time he’d ever kissed her like this. Mina nearly cried out when his lips touched hers. She opened her mouth by instinct, and gasped at the touch of his tongue. No one warned her about this, about how she’d want more and more of it. Was it supposed to feel like falling into a fever?

Breathing seemed incidental, but eventually Luc pulled back enough to take a breath, sounding like he’d just run a mile.

“How do I taste to you?” he asked.

She didn’t have enough of her mind left to describe all she tasted. He tasted like heat, like summer, like daring, like secrets, like danger. He left her dizzy, dreaming of summer skies and endless peace, just her lying next to him, feeding off his incredible warmth. She felt a sudden desire to make him close his eyes while she sang to him, making every rest a kiss. But she couldn’t say all that, not now.

“You taste of wine,” she whispered. Oh, that wasn’t what she meant at all. Why had she drunk so much? The wine took away her ability to think, and she suddenly wanted to think, to remember everything.

“You taste of wine and honey,” he replied. He kissed her over and over and over, until she lost count and couldn’t even think of a number that matched the heat of his body.

She blinked once, it seemed, but when she opened her eyes again, she discovered she was naked. So was he. She closed her eyes again, alarmed at what the firelight revealed.

He was still touching her, and she wondered when she’d feel pain. She should have asked Margery for more information. She only knew that women were supposed to feel pain. She felt no pain, only this strange ache that made her moan every time Luc kissed her or touched her. Why did she want more of this?

“Luc,” she whispered, fear lacing through her veins at last, despite all the wine.

“Yes, Mina?”

“I…” But she forgot what she was going to ask. She forgot what she was afraid of.

“Mina,” he said. “Do you want me to keep going?”

“Yes,” she sighed. Why would she ever want to stop feeling like this? “Please, yes. I wish I…” She trailed off, the words getting tangled up in her mouth, possibly because Luc kissed her then, drawing all the words off her lips. Her mind drifted, lost in a haze of pleasure, then lost in dreams too deep to recall.

* * * *

Mina woke up suddenly, as if thunder clapped above her. She sat up in bed, only to hide her pounding head in her hands.

“Oh, mercy,” she moaned. She’d never felt so terrible.

She lay back down carefully. She’d call for water in a moment. She just needed to rest a little while.

That was the moment Domina realized she wasn’t alone in her bed. Luc lay sleeping beside her.

“Oh, mercy,” she repeated, with a different meaning. She’d married him yesterday. Which meant…last night’s strange dreams must have been real.

She recognized the ache between her legs as the consequence of the wedding night. He’d taken her virginity and she couldn’t even remember how it felt. What had happened?

She drank wine. She drank too much. Domina curled up on her side, desperate to either recall everything or forget everything about last night. Why could she summon only the vaguest images of what happened?

He kissed her. She remembered that. He kissed her everywhere, unless she dreamed some of it.

“God help me,” she muttered, hitting the mattress with a fist. She’d be damned if she made a fool of herself on her wedding night, considering the marriage already robbed her of her freedom and her happiness.

She froze when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Mina? Are you awake?”

Luc’s voice rolled over her. She’d never known how shocking it would sound to have a man speak next to her in bed.

After a moment, she nodded.

“Mina,” he said. “Look at me.”

She refused to turn. “I don’t feel well,” she said. “I’m thirsty.”

“I’ll call for a maid.”

“Don’t call,” she warned. She didn’t want to be seen. Not by anyone.

She tried to sit up again, but the dizziness surged, forcing her back on the pillow. She lay back, putting a hand over her eyes. “How hideous.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Luc laughed, the sound both familiar and strange, for she’d heard him laugh before, but never in a bed. “In fact, nothing about last night could be called hideous. Certainly not you.”

“Last night.” She swallowed painfully, mortified at what she had to confess. “I…I don’t remember.”

“No?” His voice sharpened a little, as if he didn’t believe it.

“I drank rather more wine than I should have,” she said, still skirting around the truth, which was that she’d drunk exactly as much wine as she intended to.

“How
much
more?” Luc sounded even sharper now. “You’re telling me you don’t recall anything?”

“I remember you were kissing me,” she whispered, wishing she remembered more. “Our marriage is, ah….”

“Consummated.” He paused, then added, “Just as you asked me to do.”

“Oh.”

Oh.
That was all she had of her wedding night. A lost memory and a puzzle of a husband.

Then the bed shifted as Luc got up, moving away from her. Perhaps she didn’t even have a husband, after all.

Luc dressed himself, and told
Domina to remain in bed. “At least until your temper has recovered,” he added, with a certain amount of unfairness. Still, his own temper was up, and he couldn’t help himself.

He thought to hear a snappish remark back. Domina excelled at cutting comments, and with a little more practice, she’d actually fit in very well at court, where wit counted for much.

She said nothing, however, and when he glanced back, he saw that she had curled up on her side, her face buried in the pillow and her mass of red curls a protective cloak against the light of the morning.

Or against Luc. Whatever she might have thought of him last night, it was clear she was a miserable bride this morning.

Should he have guessed something was off? Domina never lacked for a quick tongue, yet in bed last night, she’d been unusually quiet. She’d simply offered herself and those maddening little moans every time he kissed her, and she had told him to go on. How the hell could he know she’d secretly drunk herself to near oblivion? He’d never seen Domina in any state where she wasn’t completely in control of herself.

Yet now Mina had no memory of their first night together. Or at least that’s what she claimed. Still, Luc was furious that she felt the need to take a single sip of wine on his account. He’d told her before the wedding that he wasn’t her enemy, that the marriage would keep her safe. Didn’t she understand that meant he’d never mistreat her? Evidently not.

When Luc left the chamber, he saw the maid Constance almost immediately.

“Let Domina sleep awhile,” he warned her in a low voice. “But she’ll be thirsty when she wakes.”

Constance frowned in confusion.

“She had a little too much to drink last night.”

“My lady never drinks more than a glass of watered wine,” the maid objected.

“She did not account for the toasts, then,” Luc said, unwilling to reveal the true reason for Domina’s overindulgence. “Let her sleep.”

“Yes, my lord.” Constance curtseyed. “If you go to the great hall, Ancel would like a word.”

Luc nodded, already intending to go there. Anything to take his mind off the revelation that Mina had apparently decided she couldn’t face her wedding night with Luc when she was sober.

The steward approached while Luc was breaking his fast at the table. He bowed and asked if Luc had leisure to hear of the household accounts.

Luc could tell Ancel was delighted a master was in residence again, but he couldn’t bear to listen to a litany of problems stemming from two years of hardship.

“I’ll hear it all later,” he said. “While the sun is bright, I have another task that can wait no longer.”

“What’s that, my lord?”

“Domina spoke of some trees encroaching on the castle’s grounds. It’s been bothering her for some time, so I intend to fix that.” At least he could fix something this morning.

“Haldan was going to…” The steward stopped, remembering Haldan’s undignified exit from the castle. “I suppose no one is in charge of the task now.”

“Now I am,” Luc said grimly. He ordered that any man who could be spared should join Luc at the woods. His own retinue volunteered immediately, of course, for they truly had few obligations. Several castle servants and most of the small garrison also appeared. Anyone who could find an axe or a saw brought one along.

So the people of the castle weren’t lazy. Perhaps Haldan never even tried to organize a group.

Luc led a small number of workers to mark out a line where the cutting should stop. Then he declared that any tree growing closer to the castle walls was doomed. Ban marked each doomed tree with an x.

The din from the chopping and sawing was immense, made louder by the shouts of the workers and the baying of dogs who’d somehow joined the crowd. Everyone seemed to put full effort into it, and soon enough, wagons and carts were pulling loads of chopped logs to the castle, where they would meet their eventual destiny as firewood.

Luc smiled in satisfaction as the edge of the woods slowly shrank back to an acceptable line. Domina had been quite correct in her assessment. A force of enemy fighters could have used the trees for cover, getting far too close to the castle before being sighted.

As the sun marched quickly across the winter sky, Luc was conscious of aches and pains in his body. He was used to the pains of training with his sword. Chopping at trees used other muscles, and he’d hurt tomorrow. Yet the labor saved him from thinking too hard about the situation he’d put himself into, specifically whether he’d made an error in judgement about Domina.

One of the workers hailed Luc, offering a cup of warm spiced ale from a bucket brought down from the castle kitchens. Luc drank it gratefully, wondering if Mina was recovered from her headache.

* * * *

Mina slid into an uneasy sleep after Luc left her, but she was woken again when her headache sharpened into something far worse.

The pounding in her ears was so horrible that she moaned aloud. Unknowingly imitating a lioness, she called out for Constance. Mina buried her head in the pillows to try to drown out the awful noise, and only stirred when Constance put a hand to her shoulder.

“My lady?” the maid asked anxiously. “Are you well?”

“No, I’ve the worst headache of my life,” she replied. “The pounding is so loud in my ears. As if a dozen axes are striking over and over.”

“Ah, my lady, axes
are
striking.”

Mina opened her eyes. “What?”

“The master has taken a group of men outside, and they’re cutting back the trees even now.”

“The master…” Luc. Of course. He was master here now. “He’s down there? With them?”