Page 153 of Forbidden

Duncan smiled strangely. “Aye. They were childhood friends, much as you and I were. He and a Learned witch called Cassandra are Amber’s closest friends.”

A gust of wind blew through the camp, stirring Meg’s robes and setting hidden golden bells to crying. The sound caught Duncan’s attention.

“You never used to wear such jewelry,” he said. “Did you?”

“No. They were my husband’s gift. Golden jesses for his small falcon.”

Duncan looked back down at Amber’s face. He stroked her cheek tenderly. It was warm beneath his touch.

The icy fist that had squeezed Duncan’s heart eased somewhat. With a silent prayer of thanks, he pulled Amber even closer to his own warmth.

“What do you remember of the time before you came to the Disputed Lands?” Meg asked.

“Very little. Not even my true name.”

“Duncan is your true name.”

“Nay. Duncan is the name Amber gave me when I awakened with no more memory than a babe has.” He brushed his lips over Amber’s eyelids. “She touched me,knewme, and named me dark warrior. Duncan.”

A single black eyebrow rose, emphasizing Dominic’s skepticism. But a quick warning look from Meg ensured his silence.

“How did you find Amber?” Meg asked.

“I didn’t. Erik discovered me inside Stone Ring, at the foot of the sacred rowan.”

Meg became very still.

“I was naked,” Duncan said, “senseless, and had nothing of my possessions with me but an amber talisman.”

His head snapped up suddenly.

“You gave it to me,” he said to Meg.

“Yes.”

“I remembered that as in a misty dream, the color of your hair and eyes, but not your name or where you were or why you would give something so valuable to me.”

“Are you certain you were foundinsidethe Stone Ring?” Meg asked, ignoring Duncan’s implied question.

“Yes. That—and the talisman—was why Erik brought me to Amber. All things amber belong to her.”

“Is she the one called Untouched?”

“Yes,” Duncan said huskily. “Until I came to her.”

“And then?”

“She burned at my touch, but there was no pain. I burned at her touch and found Paradise.”

Duncan looked up at Meg, wanting her to understand what he himself was still discovering.

“There has never been another woman like Amber for me,” he said slowly. “There never will be. It is as though God made her solely for me, and me solely for her.”

Simon and Dominic exchanged a look, but neither man spoke. There was nothing they could say to parry the certainty in Duncan’s voice.

“So Erik brought you to Amber,” Meg said carefully, “because all things amber belong to her.”

“Yes. I lay senseless in her cottage for two days.”