Seduced (27 page)

Letia reached to take Aubrey from his arms,
seeming too intent on grabbing at her son to even think on what he
had said. Raik took a step away. On hearing his mother's voice,
Aubrey released Raik's finger and sent up a lusty howl. Freki
lifted his head, stared at them then sighed and lowered it
again.

"Ye canna nurse yer son through that dirty
tunic. Though from the looks of it, ye have already drained yer
breasts near dry."

Raik hoisted Aubrey to his shoulder and
gently patted him, trying to soothe the bairn. He stepped backward
and glared at the wet circles on her clothing. Softness beneath his
right heel and a muffled gasp told him he'd stepped on Maud's toes.
He eased his foot forward.

"Do ye not understand the spoken word, Lady?
Or do ye
defy
me?" He glared at Letia. "Maud, help yer
mistress bare her breasts, else I will."

Freki stood. His head swung back and forth,
his body tense.

"Sit, Freki!" Raik glared down at the dog,
which flopped back down.

"You do not need to shout," Letia mumbled as
she grabbed the tunic's hem and bent, allowing Maud to pull it off
her. She untied the ribbon holding the shirt together before she
held her arms out for Aubrey.

Reluctantly, Raik gave her the squirming
child. "Ye are so intent on yer manly pursuits that ye have no
womanly skills." Reluctantly, the thought of her beneath him last
eve came to his mind. She did have one feminine skill at which she
was very good.

Bed sport.

"I am not pursuing a man's duties." She
settled Aubrey to her breast and draped a cloth over him, denying
Raik the sight of the child nursing.

"I suppose ye wear boy's clothing to visit
the weavers? No? Mayhap the chandler or the baker?" Awaiting an
answer, he tried to fix his gaze on hers, but her eyes shifted
away. His lips curled with disgust.

"Nay," she mumbled. "The children have not
practiced for the past sennight. If they do not, they lose
skill."

"Ye neglect yer son because their skills at
slinging rocks are more important?" His hands fisted on his
hips.

"Any warrior knows good archers and slingers
are made by starting their training at the age of five. By the time
they reach ten and six, they are experts at hitting their target,"
she said as if instructing him. Without a hitch, she added, "Your
shouting will sour the milk, my lord."

"Ye have not heeded one thing that I have
said since I appeared at the gates, Lady." Raik ground his teeth
and paced back and forth, trying to curb his angry frustration. "I
ordered that ye were to stay within yer chambers. Ye did not."

"We have already settled that my chambers
included the solar," Letia snapped back.

"But not the practice area! I also said ye
were no longer to dress as a man and be an archer but were to
assume the duties of a
lady
. Humpf! I dinna think ye have
the skills to be a mother."

"You know nothing about being a mother!"

"I know something about growing up without
one!" He turned his back to her and paced the room. Maud scurried
out of his way. "'Tis not right yer son must keen so when hungered.
He should have the comfort of his mother's arms." He stopped to
glare down at her. "Instead, he sought ease from my finger."

She kept her head down. Was she shutting him
out? Ignoring him? His arms flew up in frustration, his sleeves
flapping.

"Ye will not be allowed on any practice
field. And if ye can't follow my orders, I will confine ye to the
bedchamber and solar." Hearing her snort, his resolve hardened. His
voice turned soft, silky. "I can always have a tower cleared and
make quarters for ye there. A guard posted at yer door will see ye
remain within."

Freki bounded to his feet, his head swinging
toward the doorway, and placed himself between them and it. His
hackles bristled, his head lowered as he growled.

"Do ye not think that a bit harsh,
cousin?"

The deep baritone voice broke into Raik's
angry outburst. Ranald stood in the open doorway. His eyes found
Freki, and as the dog bunched his muscles to spring, Ranald held up
a hand and stared at him. Freki backed up.

Ranald surveyed the room, shaking his
head.

Raik's angry bellows had drowned out the
sounds of his cousin's party entering the castle grounds. His face
heated, for Lady Joneta stood behind Ranald and had witnessed his
outburst. He had requested Ranald to bring her here, for he longed
to lavish attention and comfort on the woman who had treated him
special in so many little ways when he visited Raptor as a youth.
He had not known then she was his mother, but he did now.

Elyne, Ranald's sister, bobbed up and down
trying to peer over his shoulder.

"Drat it, move, Ranald. I would see Letia and
her son." Elyne shoved her brother aside, skirted around Raik and
the dog and ran to hug her friend.

Joneta's eyes darkened with pain as she
studied Raik's face, then went over to pat his cheek. "Such anger
and wed but a day? I have had such high hopes that you would find
happiness in marriage. Even Elyne's dreams foretold such."

Raik wrapped his arms around her in an
unexpected hug. When he released her, Joneta smiled and made
flapping motions with her hands toward the door. Raik called Freki
to come with him, but the dog stayed back. He did not seem to
distrust women, but stared at them with interest and went over to
stretch out beside Letia's chair. Raik let him alone.

"Go," Elyne commanded. "The two of you
compare the latest battles between Matilda and Stephen. Leave us
women to dote over the bairn."

Raik was only too happy to get out in the
open air with his cousin. Clambering down the stairwell, he heard
Ranald chuckling behind him.

"What amuses ye?"

"The way ye looked when I came upon ye."

"A man near ready to strangle his wife was
mirthful?"

"Nay. 'Twas the picture ye made. Ye looked
like a giant, colorful bird, yer wings flapping the air with
anger."

Raik snorted over his shoulder.

"Truth to tell, had I yer temper, Ranald, I
would have appeared like a dragon. Sparks would have shot from my
eyes and the bedchamber would have been set alight."

"I gathered a bit of the, er, problem was yer
wife's attire?"

"Aye." Raik shook his head as they strode out
into the sun-filled bailey. "Look at me." He turned and walked
backward in front of Ranald. "It is as if our roles in life are
exchanged. I was fresh from bathing and dressing to greet ye; Letia
was sweaty and grimy from hefting stones in slings, her boyish
attire stained with milk seeping from her breasts."

"Ah. Ye feel ye have no command over Letia.
That she usurps yer control."

"I need a wife with all the skills to run a
keep and raise bairns. I dinna want a squire that fights alongside
me during the day then crawls between my sheets when the sun falls.
Lucifer's shriveled prick! 'Tis unmanning!"

"Best ye turn and watch yer step. Ye're about
to slip in horse shite."

Raik froze on one leg, looked down and behind
him before placing his foot carefully on safe ground.

"That would be in keeping with what's
happened since I rode up to Seton yestermorn."

"That bad, eh?" Ranald draped his arm around
Raik's shoulders.

He listened carefully as Raik told him of
Letia's hostile greeting and of how he had forced her head to bob
in answer to their wedding vows.

"Did ye also have to force her to yer bed?"
Ranald quirked a brow at Raik.

"Nay. She came willing enough." He ran his
fingers through his hair, freeing hanks from the leather tie
holding it back. "But in all else, she refuses to obey."

"Never have ye had a woman do aught but say
aye to yer every whim. She is used to being Warin's right hand,
used to taking care of him and everyone here. Mayhap she feels you
usurp her former responsibilities."

"Now she has no need to command the defenses,
why can she not act as a woman? She should place her bairn first."
He stopped and faced Ranald, a thoughtful frown wrinkling his
forehead. "I thought 'twould be difficult accepting another man's
child as my heir to Seton."

"It was not?"

"Nay. I had only to look at his face. To
touch him. Never have I felt such for a youngling. That is what
caused my temper to explode afore ye came. Aubrey tore my heart
with his cries. Letia wasna there to feed him. He latched on to my
fingertip and tried to nurse. I felt such a powerful possession
toward him. Wanted to protect him from even his own mother!"

Ranald nodded and studied Raik's face. "Aye.
Ye felt as a father would for a son."

"If I feel this strongly about Aubrey, how
will I feel for my own sons?"

"The same."

Letia finished feeding Aubrey and they moved
to the solar. While she washed and dressed, Joneta and Elyne
waggled a sewn leather toy half-filled with beans to make the
pleasing sound that attracted a babe's attention. He grasped the
handle and shook it, sending spittle bubbles flying when he
cooed.

"Letia, it seems a good thing that Raik was
so angered when he thought the bairn suffered from hunger," Elyne
said. "He must care for him. 'Twas like in my dream before Aubrey
was born. I saw Raik holding him and thanking you for his
son
. That must have meant Raik would accept your child as
his own."

"He was born in early May?" Joneta lifted
him, frowning. "Should he not be heavier for being two months? He
suckled well, so he is getting ample milk."

Letia's heart near stopped. If they learned
Aubrey was small because he had come ahead of his time, they might
suspect Warin was not his father. "Sybilla said I, too, was smaller
than normal when I was born. Mayhap that is the reason?"

She decided it was best to distract them.

"Elyne, have you had foretelling dreams of
late? Catalin wrote that you walked to the top of the north tower
and, had the guard not noted you and led you back to your room, she
feared you would have come to harm."

"Aye. I was dreaming about Muriele. I was
with her at the Convent of Mary Magdalen standing on the front wall
walk. Raik galloped toward us leading a troop of warriors. When we
asked why he had come in such haste, he said he had word that
someone was trying to pry Muriele from the convent."

Before they could discuss it further, Maud
entered, carrying fresh sleeping garments and cloths for Aubrey's
bath. Joneta carefully removed his soiled clothing and admired the
naked boy.

"Saints! Warin endowed him with ample, um,
tools to please the ladies when he is grown."

Elyne giggled and grabbed his soiled linen,
placing it between him and Joneta in time to shield a hot stream
that would have soaked her aunt's chest.

The women made soft noises to the baby as
they bathed him, laughing when he slapped the water or kicked until
water soaked them and the table.

Joneta lifted him, his back to her, from the
shallow tub into Elyne's open arms covered with a drying cloth.
Joneta stilled her hand long enough to run her fingers over
Aubrey's left buttock. She turned startled eyes to Letia.

"He was born with that strange little mark,"
Letia told her. "I think as he grows, it will look like a butterfly
or something with wings. What think you?"

What was the matter with Elyne? Her mouth
gaped wide. And Joneta? They stared at each other. Elyne turned
Aubrey in her hands and stared at his hip. Oh, saints! Was it an
evil sign of some kind?

"What is it? It is not ugly. Unseemly.
Surely, it is not something that will cause him trouble? It will be
well-hidden all his life." Letia did not understand why they looked
so startled.

"Nay, it is not ugly." Joneta studied Letia's
eyes and cleared her voice. "What month was Aubrey conceived?"

"A time of year could cause such a thing?"
Letia had never heard of anything such, but then, the Scots were a
superstitious lot. "August," she blurted out.

Joneta, with tears in her eyes, kissed
Aubrey's mark, and wrapped him in the cloth. Letia took him from
her, afraid now and fearing something was terribly wrong.

"Ye are sure it wasna September?" Elyne
probed.

"It was August. Why do you question me?"

Joneta cleared her throat, then patted
Letia's arm. "Does Raik know of the mark?"

"Nay."

"He knows nothing about Aubrey?" Elyne's eyes
were huge with worry.

Letia hugged the baby tight to her chest. His
fist came up, batting at her cheeks and she turned her face to kiss
it.

"You are both frightening me. What should he
know?"

Joneta touched her hand to her trembling lips
as she looked at Letia then down at the baby.

"That Aubrey is his son."

Letia forgot to breathe. Somehow she knew
they would not believe her if she denied Raik was Aubrey's father.
Freki stalked over to stand in front of her, separating Letia and
the babe from the two women, his eyes watchful.

"Why do you claim Aubrey is his son?"

"The day I birthed Raik, I saw the same mark
on his left nether cheek, the same mark his father also bore."

"You are Raik's mother?"

"Aye. It has been a secret for way too long.
I have lost so many years because of it. But my brother Broccin
insisted, whether from fear of shame for me or for him, I'm not
certain."

Letia felt her heart sink. She could not deny
Joneta the joy of knowing her grandchild, but would she be angry at
the way the babe was conceived?

"Letia?" Elyne drew her attention. "Dinna be
afeared. Raik's mark has long been a source of teasing at Raptor.
Did ye, um, not see him naked afore?"

Letia shook her head and flushed. "Surely a
birthmark in the same spot is not unusual."