Read Online shadow and lace by Teresa Medeiros - Free Book Online Page B

were resting well when I came to the chamber. I did not see fit to awaken you."
    "How thoughtful." His even tone implied the opposite.
    Rowena looked away to escape his mocking gaze. Tapestries ringed the walls, their rich burgundies and russets granting an illusion of coziness to the chamber. Directly above her head in a delicately painted mural,the bright, dark eyes of a serpent beguiled a naked and demure Eve.
    A loud crunch made her jump. Gareth stood a hand's breadth from her, cradling a half-eaten apple in his palm.
    "Fruit?" he asked cheerfully.
    Never one to refuse food, Rowena took the apple and snapped a hearty bite out of it. As her eyes glided between Gareth and the serpent, she handed the apple back. He smiled and took another bite before holding out his other hand to her. "Come."
    Rowena paled. Had she escaped his attentions in the night only to earn them now? She touched her hair, praying that sleep had left her rumpled and dirty. If Gareth's sparkling eyes were any indication, she was not rumpled enough. She slipped her hand into his, then held her breath as he brought it to his lips. He paused, studying the thin line of calluses marring her palm. His brow furrowed and Rowena feared she had somehow angered him. She knew he must be accustomed to the downy softness of a lady's hand. She would not need dirt or untidy hair to repulse him. She tried to draw back her hand, feeling unaccountably ashamed, but he gently tucked it into the crook of his arm and led her to the window. She followed, intensely aware of the warmth his touch had ignited.
    He leaned an elbow on the stone ledge. The apple core fell from his fingers to disappear into the mist below. "Welcome to Caerleon. The grandfather of my grandfather christened it after Uther Pendragon's Caerleon. He was a romantic soul. Quite touched in the head. He adored the Pendragon legend."
    "Irwin told me stories of the Pendragon and his court. Your Caerleon must be as lovely as his."
    The castle sprawled below was not fashioned of black obsidian as Rowena had fancied in the pouring rain, but of deep gray stone kissed with the wearing of rain and wind. Mist drenched the battlements. Outside the castle walls, the early morning sun slanted through the fog, burning it away in patches to reveal a forest so thick it glistened black instead of green. In the distance, cut off from its hill by a shimmering platter of mist, stood another castle with pennons flying a red and yellow welcome in the ethereal light.
    "Ardendonne," Gareth said when he saw her lips part. "I expect to see Blaine's banner come flying over the hill at any moment. His curiosity is insatiable, especially when it involves a comely damsel who scorns his advances."
    His gaze strayed from her lips to her eyes. Rowena propped her hip on the ledge and began to braid her hair. The clean strands slipped through her fingers like corn silk.
    "Allow me," Gareth said, plucking the coil from her hand. "I thought to provide you no maidservant."
    Rowena hardly dared to breathe as his broad fingers intertwined the sections of hair with a deftness that implied an intimacy with womanly grooming she did not care to examine. Such lazy grace in a man of his size was jarring. Rowena stared at the top of his head. His hair was still tousled from sleep.
    "Irwin said I was too lazy to tend to my own hair."
    "But not too lazy to be up at dawn to hunt the game to stuff his plump face."
    Rowena started to nod, then stopped, squirming under a pinprick of disloyalty. "Little Freddie helped me with my braids."
    "Hmmm," he said noncommittally. "Would Little Freddie be the gray-eyed gallant who sought to bash me over the head with the cooking kettle?"
    Rowena's jaw tightened at the memory. "He would."
    Gareth finished one braid and started on the other without a pause. "Tell me, Rowena—has your dearest betrothed ever touched you in an untoward manner?"
    Rowena snatched her braid out of his hand. "Indeed not! I'd have cracked his skull