Read Online The Taming by Jude Deveraux - Free Book Online Page B

we will wait while they talk of hawks.”
    â€œSince he is to be my husband, I assume we must wait,” Liana said coolly. She’d had enough of Helen’s complaints about Rogan.
    Helen kicked her horse’s ribs and went to stand on the far side of her husband. Liana could not hear what was being said over the noise of the crowd, but she could see Helen’s anger. Gilbert remained impassive and even leaned back in the saddle while Helen talked angrily to Rogan, but Rogan merely looked across at her with unseeing eyes.
    Liana hoped he would never look at her like that. After a moment Rogan looked about him, as if seeing the crowd for the first time, and as an afterthought he looked at Liana sitting quietly on her horse. Liana held her breath as his cool eyes scanned her from toe to head. She did not see any recognition in his eyes and she was glad, because she didn’t want to risk his refusing to marry her. When his eyes rose to meet hers, Liana lowered her lashes, hoping to seem modest and obedient.
    After a moment, she looked up to see Rogan returning to the church steps and Helen riding toward her.
    â€œThat man you plan to marry,” Helen said with a sneer, “was asking for twelve more knights’ fees. He was saying he would walk away now and leave you here if he didn’t get them.”
    Liana’s eyes widened in alarm. “Did my father agree?”
    Helen closed her eyes for a moment. “He agreed. Now, let’s get this over with.” She kicked her horse forward to ride behind Liana.
    Gilbert helped his daughter from her horse, and she walked up the stairs to meet her husband. The ceremony was brief, the vows no different from what they had been for centuries. Liana kept her eyes lowered throughout, but when she vowed to be “meek and obedient in bed and at board,” the crowd cheered her. Twice she stole looks at Rogan, but he merely seemed impatient to be away—as she was, she thought with a smile.
    When they were pronounced man and wife, again the crowd cheered and the bride and groom, their family and guests went inside to mass, for the wedding was of the state and therefore outside the church, but mass was of God. The priest blessed their marriage and began the mass.
    Liana sat quietly beside her new husband and listened to the Latin incantations for what seemed to be hours. Rogan did not look at her, did not touch her. He yawned a few times, scratched a few times, and sprawled his long legs in the aisle. At one point she thought she heard a snore coming from him, but his brother punched him and Rogan sat up straighter on the hard bench.
    After mass, the wedding group rode back to the castle while the peasants threw grains at them and shouted, “Plenty! Plenty!” For three days and nights every man, woman, and child would have all the food and drink they could hold.
    Once over the drawbridge and into the inner courtyard, Liana sat on her horse and waited for her husband to lift her down. Instead, she watched as Rogan and his brother Severn dismounted and went to the wagons loaded and waiting along the stone wall.
    â€œHe cares more for your goods than for you,” Helen said as a groom helped Liana from her horse.
    â€œYou have had your say,” Liana snapped. “You do not know all there is. Perhaps he has reasons for his actions.”
    â€œYes, such as not being human,” Helen said. “There’s no use reminding you of what you’ve done. It’s too late now. Shall we go in and eat? It is my experience that men always come home when they’re hungry.”
    But Helen was wrong, because neither Rogan nor his men came in to the feast Liana had spent weeks organizing. Instead, they stayed outside, going through the wagons that were packed with her dowry. She sat alone at her father’s right side, the groom’s place next to her empty. All around she could feel the tittering of the guests as they looked at