Page 26 of Forbidden

“Did he? An odd thing for a friend to ask.”

“Not at all,” Amber retorted. “Erik had bound him hand and foot to my bed.”

“Mmmm,” was all Cassandra offered.

Amber said no more.

“You have few words,” Cassandra said.

“I follow your teaching, Learned,” Amber replied formally.

“Why are you so distant?”

“Why are you quizzing me like a stranger caught within the keep’s walls?”

Cassandra sighed and held out her hand.

“Come,” she said. “Walk with me in the hour that is neither day nor yet night.”

Amber’s eyes widened. Cassandra rarely offered to touch anyone, especially Amber, to whom touch was often painful and always uncomfortable.

Except for the stranger. His touch had been purest pleasure.

“Cassandra?” Amber whispered. “Why?”

“You look hunted, daughter. Touch me and know that I am not one of your pursuers.”

Hesitantly, Amber brushed her fingers along the other woman’s hand. As always, a sense of fierce intelligence and deep affection flowed from Cassandra.

“I want only joy for you, Amber.”

The truth of Cassandra’s words flowed through the touch like a bright scarlet ribbon.

A bittersweet smile curved Amber’s lips as her hand dropped to her side. She doubted that Cassandra knew what a joy touching Duncan was to Amber.

And if Cassandra had known, Amber doubted that she would wish more of it for her pupil.

When the wise woman turned and walked slowly toward the moonlight pooled in the meadow just beyond the cottage, Amber followed, walking by Cassandra’s side.

“Tell me about the man you have chosen to call Duncan,” Cassandra said.

The words were as soft as twilight, but the command just beneath them was not soft at all.

“Whatever he was before he came to the Stone Ring,” Amber said, “he knows none of it.”

“And you?”

“I saw the marks of battle on his body.”

“Dark warrior…”

“Yes,” Amber whispered. “Duncan.”

“Is he a brute, then?”

“No.”

“How can you be so certain? A bound man can do little save try to free himself by strength or guile.”