The Burning Stone (Crown of Stars #3)

The man who had just entered dismissed his servants. He had a deep, resonant laugh, and a voice to go with it. “Is this the greeting I deserve? I beg your pardon, cousin.” But he did not seem inclined to leave. Liath was furiously embarrassed; after eight years alone with Da, she was not used to a constant audience—although Sanglant clearly was. “You have a bride hidden in here somewhere, I hear. I caught a glimpse of her when you rode in, and I confess myself eager to be introduced to her now.”

Sanglant took his time getting dressed and did not move out of the other man’s way. “Let there be no confusion. She is my wife.”

“Did I say otherwise? Surely, cousin, you do not think I intend to steal her from you as I might if she were only your concubine. Ah, but what’s this?”

She slipped out of bed, straightened her tunic, and stood. Duke Conrad, in the flesh, was rather like Sanglant made shorter and broader. He had the same kind of leashed vigor as Henry, and the powerful hands of a man who is used to gripping spear and shield. He stepped forward, took her hand, and turned it over to show the lighter palm, then held it against his own. His skin had a different tone; where hers was more golden-brown like sun burned into skin, his had a more olive-yellow tint. “Who are your kin?”

She extricated her hand from his grip. He was barely taller than she was, but she felt slight beside him. “My father’s cousin is the lady of Bodfeld. I don’t know my mother’s kin.”

He misunderstood her. “A Gyptos whore, no doubt. That would explain it. How comes she to you, cousin?” He had an open face, quick to laughter.

“God have brought her to me,” retorted Sanglant, looking annoyed.

“They whom God have joined, let no man or woman—even the regnant—tear asunder.” Quick to anger as well, that face. He boiled with it, a flush staining his neck and the tendons standing out. “Ride out with me, Sanglant. I offer you a place in Wayland.”

“Ride out with you?”

Conrad spat in anger. “Henry refused my suit. He will not let me marry Theophanu.” He swore colorfully, describing what Henry could in his opinion do with his horses and his hounds and whatever sheep he might come across in the course of his travels. Liath blushed. “I see no reason to stay feasting and drinking with a man who does not trust me to marry his own daughter! What do you say?”

“What kind of place? As a captain in your retinue?”

Conrad grinned, but with a subtle coating to it, cunning and sweet. “Nay, cousin. You have too fierce a reputation and I am far too respectful of your rank. I have certain lands that came to me in a recent dispute that I can settle on someone willing to support me, even against the king’s displeasure.”

“I will not make war upon my father,” said Sanglant stubbornly.

The door was still open. Conrad signed to his servants to shut it. “I do not speak of war, not with Henry. Even were I tempted, I don’t have enough support.”

The “yet” might as well have been spoken out loud, it hung so heavily in the air.

“I will not make war upon my father,” repeated Sanglant.

“Nor do I ask you to.” Conrad grunted impatiently. “I ride out in the morning. You and your bride may ride with me, or not. As you wish.” He looked Liath over once, in the way of a powerful man who has bedded many women and intends to bed many more, and when Sanglant growled low in his throat, he laughed. “So I heard, but I didn’t believe it. Is it true that you lived for a year among dogs, my lord prince?” He raised an eyebrow, seeing Sanglant’s anger. “Yet the dogs are scarcely different than the nobles who flock ’round the throne, are they not?”

With that, he signed to his servant to open the door, and swept out. The hard glare of the afternoon sun lanced into Liath’s eyes, and she had to shade herself with an arm until a Lion latched the door shut from outside.

Sanglant began to pace, then unfastened one of the shutters and took it down so they could get air into the room.

“He offered you land,” said Liath as she watched him. She dared not think of it: land, an estate, a place to live in peace.

He turned away from the window to sort impatiently through the contents of his belt pouch, which had fallen to the floor in his haste to undress earlier. He found a comb and with it in his hand steered her to the chair, sat her down, and undid her braid. With a sigh of satisfaction, he began to comb out her hair, which fell to her waist. The strokes soothed her.

“I don’t trust him,” he said as he worked through a knot. “But you are right. He offered me land. He will not contest my marriage to you. And unlike any other soul in this land, he will not care if my father contests it.”