Read Online Medieval 02 - Forbidden by authors_sort - Free Book Online Page A

said nothing.
    The temptation to touch him and discover what he was feeling almost overwhelmed Amber. She fought her own hunger, her own need.
    And she lost.
    Her fingertips smoothed lightly over Duncan’s clean-shaven cheek.
    Anger .
    Bafflement .
    A loss so great it couldn’t be described, only felt like thunder from a distant storm quivering through the air .
    “Duncan,” Amber whispered painfully. “My dark warrior.”
    He watched her with eyes that were narrowed, glittering, the eyes of an animal caught within a trap.
    “Fighting yourself only wounds you more,” she said. “Let yourself grow used to the life you have now.”
    “How can I?” Duncan asked in a rough voice. “What of the life I left behind? What if there is a lord expecting me to honor my vow? What if there is a wife? Heirs? Land?”
    When Duncan spoke of lord and land, Amber sensed the dark seething of his memory. No such response came at the mention of wife or heirs.
    Her relief was so acute that Amber’s knees weakened. The thought of Duncan bound by sacred vow to another woman had been like a knife turning in Amber’s heart. She hadn’t known how great her fear had been until it was banished by the unspeakable certainty that lay beneath Duncan’s elusive memory.
    Pray God that his memory doesn’t return. The more he remembers, the more I fear .
    Enemy, not friend .
    Soul mate .
    In shades of darkness Duncan came to me. In shades of darkness he must remain .
    Or die .
    And that thought was even more unbearable than Duncan alive and bound to another woman.
     
    T HE merlin’s quick, shallow wing-beats brought it swiftly toward the lure Duncan was casting with smooth, powerful sweeps of his arm.
    “Well done,” Amber said, clapping her hands in excitement. “You must have cast the lure many times before.”
    The lure jerked, then resumed its steady circling.
    Instantly Amber regretted her words. For the last five days she had refused to discuss Duncan’s past in any way at all. Nor had his memory returned, though it had been nine days since he had awakened.
    After that first, swift look at Amber, Duncan concentrated only on the smooth circling of the lure, calling the winged predator down from the cloud-tossed sky. Without warning the small falcon stooped, hit the lure with deadly speed, and settled to the ground to feed, mantling its wings protectively over its “prey.”
    Quickly Amber lured the merlin with a bit of meat and piercing whistles. After a few sharp protests, the falcon surrendered and came to Amber’s wrist.
    “Don’t sulk, little beauty,” Amber murmured as she smoothed the jesses so that they hung evenly over her gauntlet. “You did very well.”
    “Well enough to earn a true hunt?” Duncan asked.
    She smiled. “You sound as eager as a falcon.”
    “I am. I’m not used to being shut up in a cottage with only a wary maid and my own thoughts for company—or lack thereof,” he added ironically.
    Amber winced.
    Duncan had shown little interest in her prescribed course of rest, food, and more rest. When the cold rains came, it wasn’t difficult to keep Duncan indoors, for all that he paced like a caged wolf.
    But today, when the sun poured down until mist lifted in great silver flags from the land, keeping Duncan inside hadn’t been possible.
    “I was afraid,” she said.
    “Of what? I’m not ice to melt in sunshine or rain.”
    “I feared enemies.”
    “Who?” he asked swiftly.
    “The Disputed Lands are…disputed. Landlessknights, ambitious bastards, second and third sons, outlaws. All of them roam, seeking prey.”
    “Yet you went to Stone Ring Keep alone to bring clothes for me?”
    Amber shrugged. “I don’t fear for myself. No man will touch me.”
    Duncan looked skeptical.
    “’Tis true,” she said. “It is known throughout the Disputed Lands that Erik will hang the man who touches me.”
    “I have touched you.”
    “Besides, you grumbled so about having to wear bed covers, like a