Read Online Ill Met by Moonlight by Sarah A. Hoyt - Free Book Online

wife.” She squeezed Will’s arm while she spoke in her low, sweet voice, of how if something went wrong in one sphere, it would go wrong in another. Will wanted to tell Silver that perforce he knew that mechanism, had learned it at his master’s knee when he himself was in petty school.
    But he couldn’t find the voice to interrupt her as she explained it. Her bosom pressed tight against his arm, and it felt warm and springy, like freshly kneaded dough. Her scent filled his nostrils, making his sportive blood rise.
    She so patently took him for a clod of the basest origin, incapable of knowing the simplest things, that Will couldn’t dispute it.
    Her intoxicating perfume, the grip of her hand on his arm, the way she moved like a vision floating, her superhumanly beautiful features, all of it conspired to keep him in awe-stricken, weak-kneed silence, unable to do any more than admire her. They walked down to where the river murmured amid the trees of Arden, and turned, following the path, toward the small town of Shottery proper, and Hewlands Farm at the outskirts of it.
    Will’s heart beat fast, very fast. Nan had been the only woman he’d ever touched, and never—even in dreams—had he thought to have such a fair companion as this dark lady.
    “So, you see,” she said, “I’ve suffered a great injustice. I should have been the rightful sovereign of the elven people, but my wicked relative usurped the throne, and because of that a great many calamities have come to pass, among them your father’s decline, and the loss of your wife. Only by killing the king so that I may regain the throne, will everyone get back their proper due and thus will the world be set right again.”
    Will couldn’t remember telling Silver of his father’s misfortune, but he must have, because she spoke of it knowingly, with such deep understanding.
    Her voice flowed like honey over warm bread: easy, sweet, and persuasive, penetrating and drenching every pore.
    Hewlands Farm—the bulky square stone building where the Hathaway family housed—came into view in the moonlight. The scent of roses and stabled beasts mingled with Silver’s perfume. No light shone from the windows.
    Will stared at the house, puzzled. If a woman was in labor within, wouldn’t there be more activity? But maybe it was all past, and the new mother contented with her child, and Nan, too, asleep somewhere within.
    He remembered Nan dancing in the forest and told himself it had to be a dream.
    And then that other piece of the dream, soft-spoken Lady Silver, still beside him, asked, in a seductive whisper, “So, will you be man enough to kill the elven king and regain your wife and daughter? Or are you only a boy, playing at being married?”
    Her question stung like a blow. He turned around to look at Silver’s perfect features, her smiling lips, her reflective, shiny, silver-colored eyes. “I’ll do what it takes,” he said, “to get my Nan back.” His voice echoed, seemingly much louder than hers and stronger.
    From the farmyard, a dog barked.
    “Whatever it takes,” Will said.
    That this lady made his blood boil and set desire throbbing through his veins as he’d never felt it, made his claim of Nan all the louder, more defensive. They’d been married six months and she was his own true love. He would not compare her to mad, fevered visions that couldn’t be real.
    Silver smiled. “Good boy. Only, I know you don’t half believe it.” She shrugged prettily, raising her shoulders and letting them fall again in a graceful movement. “No matter, you will. Go, go and make sure her kin hasn’t sequestered your dancing wife, and when you’ve not found her elsewhere, I’ll come to you again.”
    The lady smiled again and, suddenly, took Will’s head in her two hands and brought her mouth down on his.
    In the next moment, it stopped mattering whether she was true or a dream, as her hot mouth radiated heat to his body, her probing tongue acquainted