He eased her toward him, now taking both shoulders and turning her so that she faced him fully. So close that her cloak’s hem nudged his boots. She felt small and soft beneath his fingers. “And so you heard the nonsense I spoke to Nick. I suppose it serves me right—for did I not overhear your private conversation with Hickory?” His smile felt forced. “I must leave, and that I have no desire to do so the reason I spoke thus.”

She looked up at him as if trying to determine whether he was merely being gallant or whether the words actually were truth. “I could not fathom that you would leave without a word of farewell….”

“I bid your father good-bye,” he told her, releasing her shoulders. They stood much too close. The smell of lemon and rosemary from her hair caught at his nostrils, mingling with the feminine scent of her. Dirick closed his eyes for a moment and forced himself to take a step backward. He turned into the stall to gather Nick’s bridle. “But I must leave now, my lady. I have spent—I have used your father’s hospitality much too long.”

Maris worked the candle into a cup appended to the wall of the stable, leaving it to light their way, and stepped toward him, unwittingly blocking him into the stall. She proffered the leather wrapped packet from under the folds of her cloak. “I’ve brought you cheese and bread, and there is a bit of salted venison here. I…did not know how long your journey would be.”

He took the packet, warmed by her thoughtfulness and tempted by her presence. “Thank you my lady. I was not able to break my fast and this will be a good meal for the road.”

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I am a traveling knight, my lady, and I go where I can find work,” he said. “I do not know where my next place of rest will be.”

Maris frowned, a charming line crinkling around her nose. “Then why do you leave? Papa has work for you. I’m certain he would hire you for as long as you wished.”

A sudden flare of anger twisted his insides. Verily, she saw him only as a charity case. A man who could not make his own way.

Despite the fact that he’d led her to believe just that, it rankled that she saw him in such a lowly light. “Nay.” He turned his back to her, taking his time to loop up the reins and bit, hoping she would leave before he mortified himself again.

Or before he gave in to the base temptation she presented.

“Sir Dirick, I vow, you make little sense of anything. You need work, and there is work to be had, but you must leave nevertheless. I vow, ’twill be good to have you gone!”

“Aye,” he said as he turned, his hands brimming with the leather bridle, “I am sure you will not miss my company now that your betrothed has arrived.” As soon as he spoke those bitter words, Dirick wished he could cut out his tongue. Foolish.

“He is not my betrothed,” she said tightly, the spirit draining from her voice.

“He will be anon, and well you know it. When that happens, I am quite sure Victor will be pleased to trail you on your treks through the wood, digging in the snow for berries and watching as you nurse to the ill.” He knew he should stop speaking, but the words continued to flow. “I saw you come in here with him last night. Your father and I were watching from above. Mayhap you didn’t realize you were seen?”

Maris’s expression altered, but he couldn’t read her thoughts. “Aye. He wished to meet Hickory.”

Dirick quirked one eyebrow and managed to look sardonic even as a barrage of unwanted images assaulted him. He well knew how comfortable the warmth of a stable could be when one’s arms were filled with the warmth of a woman. Hay might be a bit prickly against bare skin, but it was springy and warm. “And was there nothing more that he wanted? Mayhap he wished to taste the lips of the woman he is to wive.”

“Mayhap he did,” she replied, lifting her chin smartly.

“Foolish girl. What if he had wanted more than a taste? Did you not think to have a chaperon with you? ’Tis not meet for a lady to have assignations alone with a man in the stable of all places, particularly if she is not yet betrothed to him.”

Maris’s eyes snapped. “But here I stand with you, then. Alone in a stable, with no chaperone…and my virtue has never been safer.”

His resolve at an end, he dropped the bridle, reaching for her more roughly this time. “I would not say that your virtue is safe with me, my dear lady,” he said, pulling her flush against him. “In fact, Maris, I should say that you are treading upon very thin ice.”

He looked down at her and saw no fear in her eyes, only surprise, and he felt the warmth of her breath touch his face. His hands on her shoulders, he eased her backward until she felt the wall behind her and he imprisoned her there, holding her with his muscled legs.

Maris’s eyes sank closed as his tanned hands smoothed up the sides of her neck to cup the line of that stubborn chin. His thumb traced over her lips and her heart pounded madly beneath his fingers, pulsing in her long neck so that he could feel her unrest. Lifting her hair from the nape of her neck, he carefully pulled the long sweet-smelling tresses from the confines of her cloak. It was warm and silky and it twined like vines around his wrists and about her arms.

Dirick let his breath out slowly as his hands ran through her hair. She was not afraid, he noted, although if she had any sense, she would be. It was all he could do to keep from tearing off her clothes and tossing her onto the bed of hay in the next room.

When his hands stilled on her shoulders, and he eased back on the pressure from his thighs, she opened her eyes to look up at him. “Maris,” he said softly as their gazes met. He would never see her again, and she was not yet betrothed. It was a moment of madness, but not a sin. “I cannot leave without kissing you once more.”

He did not wait for a response, pressed her into the wall, his mouth descending to hers.

When his mouth closed on hers, Maris felt the same tide of pleasure wash over her as the day in the woods. Her lips opened beneath his and suddenly his tongue was in her mouth, sleek and strong, exploring and tasting her. She was as hungry to sample him and responded with fervor, tasting the faint mint of his mouth, sliding her own lips over his soft, slick ones.

Dirick dragged his lips away, kissing the corner of her mouth, nibbling at her lips and chin. She sighed, her arms creeping around his neck as she leaned into him. She felt a rush plunging through her body, and the responding shudder that came through him, the heat burning into her from where they pressed together. Hurried fingers worked the clasp at her throat as he covered her mouth again as if to stifle any cry of protest she might make. The fur lined cloak fell into a heap at their feet and his hands smoothed down the sides of her body in its trail, resting on the curve of her hips.

Maris was barely aware of the divestment of her cloak, but the pressure from his warm hands as they brushed the sides of her breasts caused her to draw in a sharp breath. Her nipples surged hard and she felt a heaviness descend upon her lower abdomen, a pleasant, insistent twinge. She dug her fingers into his hair, surprised at its silkiness. He pulled her hips flush with his and she was startled to feel a hard length pushing against her as the rough wall scraped her from behind. The pleasure grew and a tiny groan erupted from the back of her throat. She tilted her head back, exposing her neck to his warm mouth and sleek tongue. Dirick’s hands smoothed over the curves that had been hidden in the bulky cloak, and he held the swelling of her breasts and the roundness of her hips.

Suddenly, he realized where he was, what he was doing, and he jerked away, nearly sending her spinning to the floor. “’Sblood!” he groaned, staring at his trembling hands. His breath rasped harshly, as if he’d just felled a man in battle, and his heart thudded painfully in his chest as he realized how very near he’d come to taking her right there.

Maris had pulled back as if she too had just become aware of herself and her comport, and she stooped quickly to retrieve her cloak.

Dirick found his voice, hoarse as it was, and attempted an apology, “My lady, I cannot—”

“Enough, my lord,” she cut in flatly. “Have we not been through this act before?”

Pushing a hand through his tousled hair, he stood, attempting to regain some semblance of order within. He could not understand why he made a living fool out of himself in front of this woman. “Aye we have—but that doesn’t change the fact that my conduct was inexcusable. Mayhaps ’tis best that I do be on my way.”

She looked up at him, an indefinable emotion flickering in her gold and green eyes. “Aye. ’Tis best that you do.”

He brushed past her, accidentally catching her hair on a nail in the wall, and paused to free the curl. His fingers slid down the shiny brown length and he brought it to press a light kiss to his mouth.

Then he turned away, annoyed at his sentimentality, and bridled the neglected Nick. She watched in silence. Feeling her gaze on him made his fingers clumsy beyond belief, causing him to hurry and thus tangle it up even more. At last, he led the destrier from the stable, aware that she followed behind, watching in an unusual silence.

Outside, where their breaths showed white puffs under the starlit morn, he swung up on Nick and looked down at Maris. She’d covered her hair once again, drawing the veil closely about her neck. Dirick reined in and gave her a nod of farewell.

“Go with God, Dirick,” she whispered.

“Fare thyself well, my lady. I am certain Victor d’Arcy will be a fine husband to you,” he forced the words from between bitter lips, making them sound sincere. “Your father wishes only the best for you, know you this, my lady.”

“Aye.”

“May the Lord keep you,” he said, turning Nick to ride away. “Adieu, my lady.”

And then he was off, giving Nick his head to unleash his stored power, feeling the green gold gaze that followed him into the darkness.

CHAPTER NINE

Breakston possessed a forbidding looking keep, set near the top of a low lying mountain. It was much smaller than both Derkland and Langumont Keeps, and it was not in the same pristine condition that those lands and buildings were in. Dirick could see parts of the walls crumbling even from a fair distance.