Read Online Once a Bride by Shari Anton - Free Book Online Page A

waylay Kenworth if you can. The danger is past. Everyone can return to their pallets or duties.”
    With a nod, Simon herded her would-be rescuers from the room. Eloise hoped Roland would simply follow the others, a futile wish. The door closed with too loud a bang.
    He tilted his head, his brows arching—a demand for an explanation.
    Eloise raised her chin. “You should be ashamed of yourself. There was no call to raise an alarm.”
    Roland couldn’t believe her temerity. From the moment he’d smelled smoke his heart thudded hard against his ribs. He’d envisioned horrors. The room in flames. The women trapped, or worse. He’d seen and smelled charred flesh during the war with the Scots, and didn’t care to repeat the experience. He could still smell the stench, made worse by the pungent smoke that would linger into the night, perhaps for days.
    He flung a hand toward the door. “Had you been standing guard without and smelled biting smoke, would you not have raised the alarm?”
    She frowned. “You guard my door?”
    “My cursed luck to lose the toss of the dice.”
    “To whom did you lose?”
    “Simon, whose sleep we just interrupted. He takes on the duty later.”
    “Oh. Well, then, perhaps you should have taken a moment to fully assess the danger first so as not to disturb Simon.”
    “One does not take chances with fire.” He glanced at the now wet parchment still clamped in the tongs, assumed it the same parchment she’d picked up off the bed earlier.
    He’d dismissed it as unimportant, too busy noticing the coziness of the chamber, envisioning Hugh curled up with Eloise on the bed.
    “What is that you tried to burn?”
    She eased the tongs behind her. “ ’Tis none of your concern.”
    “Everything that happens at Lelleford is now my concern. Give over.”
    Eloise’s stubborn, beautifully carved chin rose higher. “ ’Tis private. ’Tis also unseemly for you to remain in my bedchamber, where you intrude without my leave.”
    “Perhaps you should have bolted your door!”
    “I have never had the need! No one has ever before dared enter without being invited!”
    He had no intention of begging her pardon. He took an intentionally menacing step toward her, casting her a scowl that had been known to set soldiers to quivering. “Either hand the scroll over or I shall take it from you.”
    “Cur!”
    Was a cur better or worse than a despicable toad? He decided not to ask, just held out his hand and wiggled his fingers. “Now, Eloise.”
    “You have no right!”
    He wasn’t about to wrestle her for it before a witness. To salvage some of his pride and spare Eloise shame, he issued an order. “Isolde, out.”
    “Again?” the maid mumbled.
    The maid must have caught her cursed insolence from her mistress. “ ’Twill not be for long, I assure you.”
    Eloise’s brow scrunched at that. Perhaps she finally realized he was serious. Surely she didn’t believe he’d issue an order, whether to a maid or a knight’s daughter, and not demand obedience.
    Isolde shuffled toward the door. “Ye mark her, milord, and there’ll be the devil to pay.”
    “Any marks she may suffer will be of her own doing.” Blast, why was he assuring a maid of her mistress’s safety? He didn’t have to explain himself to anyone!
    With the door closed, he found himself alone with an obstinate, glorious female whose wetted nightrail merely veiled her finely shaped, beautifully hued attributes. Dark, hardened nipples poked at gauzy linen, an erotic invitation to a man’s hands. His palm fairly itched to answer.
    Could he seduce her to his will? A tempting thought, and one he dismissed immediately. His mission to protect Lelleford included its inhabitants, most especially the lord’s daughter.
    He truly didn’t want to do battle with her, either mentally or physically. Unfortunately, Eloise utterly refused to accept his authority.
    His hand extended, he walked toward her. For each of his steps forward, she took one