Page 187 of Forbidden

“Ask Duncan,” Dominic said quietly. “He is the one whose back is turned to her. He is the one who wishes for both wife and leman.”

“Duncan,” Cassandra said.

There was that in her voice which could not be denied.

Abruptly Duncan turned to face the Learned woman.

“Let Amber go,” Cassandra said simply.

“Never. She ismine.”

Cassandra’s breath came out in an aching sigh. When she spoke again, her voice was soft. And it carried through the hall like the sound of a sword being drawn from a steel sheath.

“Amber said exactly the same thing to me,” Cassandra murmured, “and in exactly the same way, when I suggested taking you back to Stone Ring before you recovered your senses.”

A tremor ripped through Duncan. It was so small that only someone looking for it would have seen it.

Cassandra was looking for it with a falcon’s predatory eyes.

“Tell me,” Cassandra said distinctly. “Will dishonoring Amber salve your honor…or only wound it more?”

Duncan said nothing.

“Let her go,” Cassandra said.

“I will not.”

Cassandra smiled with a savagery that made Dominic’s hand itch to hold a sword once more.

“Will not?” she repeated mockingly. “Nay. Youcannotlet Amber go.”

Duncan neither moved nor spoke.

“Once I thought I would destroy you when you finished flaying Amber’s soul from her body,” Cassandra said. “Now I know I will not.”

“Mercy from the Learned witch?” Duncan asked, his voice as mocking as hers.

“Mercy?”

Cassandra laughed. It was worse than her smile.

“Nay, dark warrior. I would rather you survive and learn too late what you have done.”

Duncan became still.

“Then,” Cassandra said, “I will watch your soul die in the same way you are killing Amber’s…one cruel breath at a time.”

21

AMBERlay awake in the luxurious bed that had been hers since she had married Duncan. Each time the wind shifted or sleet rattled against stone or a voice drifted up from the floors below, her heartbeat doubled.

Then she would hold her breath, listening with every fiber of her being for the sound of footsteps approaching her door.

Duncan will come to me tonight.

He must.

Come to me, dark warrior. Let me touch you in the only way you allow yourself to be touched.