Return of the Warrior (3 page)

“Your horse is tired, my lord, as am I.”

“We will reach a village within the hour.”

For the first time since their mad dash from the inn, she felt a modicum of relief. “Will we stay there this night?”

“Nay. I will leave you and your fool to eat something while I trade my horse for another, and then we shall continue onward.”

“With no rest?”

He shrugged. “I have no desire to give our enemies time to catch up to us. Do you?”

“We can’t fight them if we’re exhausted.”

“You’d be amazed, my lady, at what you can survive and how hard you can fight with no sleep whatsoever.”

Adara hesitated at his dour tone of voice. There was something in it. A hidden piece that she could sense he didn’t want to retread. “And what have you survived, to feel so confident?”

“Life, my lady. Sooner or later, it does make beggars and pawns of us all.”

Lutian applauded. “Spoken quite well, my prince. Quite well.”

Adara opened her mouth to contradict him, then caught herself. He was right. Here she was, a queen of great renown, far from home and being hunted like a frightened rabbit, and all because of one man’s lust for power.

She
was
a pawn…

And a fool.

“You have a wise prince, my queen,” Lutian said from beside them. “I would give him my fool’s scepter, except that I no longer have one, since I left it at home so that no one would know I was a fool.” He pulled a piece of lint from his tunic and held it out to Christian. “Take this as a token of my esteem.”

She half expected Christian to scoff and mock Lutian, as most people did.

Instead, he took the lint, thanked him for it, then put it on his shoulder as if it were some kind of prize.

She smiled at his actions, which made him even more handsome to her. And he was a handsome man who held her. One who made every feminine part of her feel alive and on edge.

“How long have you been on your own, Christian?” she asked him.

He didn’t respond.

Nay, he was a man of few words. A brave man who had left behind everything he’d ever known to travel about for reasons she could only guess at.

It must be awful to be a stranger in foreign lands.

“I can still feel the sting of my father’s death,” she said, confiding in him what she had seldom confided in anyone else. “He was a good man. A competent, merciful king who always placed his people first and lived his life in service to them. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him and wish I had his guidance and strength. I cannot imagine losing both parents so young as you di—”

“Enough,” he said, cutting off her words. “I don’t care for idle chatter, my lady. It plagues me.”

It was the underlying hurt she heard in his voice that kept her from being stung by his sharp tone.

“You travel alone?” Lutian asked.

“I have my horse.”

Adara sank her hand in the coarse black mane of the beast that carried them effortlessly. “Hardly a fitting companion for a prince.”

“True, he would be more fitting for a king or emperor.”

She smiled at that and was struck by the thought that she was currently traveling with her husband. A man she had spent countless nights trying to imagine.

But the prince holding her was so much more than the pale, gallant man she’d envisioned in her mind. She had imagined him as a polite, courtly youth like the ones in her palace. A man of poetry and culture.

This one was real. He was hard and serious. Deadly. Rugged.

Dangerous.

Christian of Acre was nothing like the other nobles she’d known who were pampered and frail. He lived his life like a pauper. Denied himself the luxuries he could have at home.

And yet he still carried himself with all the commanding presence of a king.

“Do you ever miss Elgedera?” she asked him.

He clenched his teeth before looking down at her. “Why do you persist in asking me questions?”

“Because I’m curious about you.”

“Why?”

“You fascinate me. I can think of no other noble who would refuse his destiny or a throne. Most men spend their entire lives trying to gain the very things you shun…You’ve never been home, have you?”

Christian focused his attention on the road ahead of them as old memories sifted through his mind.

In truth, he’d never had a home to go to. His parents had chosen to be pilgrims who traveled about. Before their deaths, the most he’d ever spent in one place was six months. Everywhere they went, his parents were always careful to let no one know their identities.

He’d never been to his mother’s home of Elgedera. He knew nothing of her half of his family ex
cept for his uncle Selwyn, who had come to tell him of his parents’ deaths.

Only a child, he hadn’t understood why the man had hated him so. Selwyn had shown up unexpectedly at the monastery in Acre where his parents had left him while they went to meet a friend.

“The boy is mad,” Selwyn told the ancient abbot after the abbot had refused to allow Christian to leave. In the event of their deaths, his parents had granted a trust to the monastery that would only be paid so long as he was a resident there. “He thinks himself a prince, but he’s just a Norman by-blow.”

“Have no fear, my lord. We brook no liars in a place of God.” The old abbot who proved himself true to his words. If Christian ever spoke of his parents or their heritage, he was beaten for it.

Then again, any time he spoke, he was beaten for it. So in time, he’d learned not to speak at all.

But it hadn’t been all bad. Brother Angelus, one of the Templar knights, had taken him under his wing and had taught Christian much. He’d been a good friend, and he had died trying to keep the Saracens from killing Christian.

“Nay,” Christian said at last to his “wife.” “I’ve never been to my mother’s homeland.”

“Not even when we were wed?”

He shook his head.

“But you were so close.”

“And my mother said there was too much po
litical turmoil in her house. She didn’t want any of us there until it was resolved.”

Adara nodded her head as if she knew exactly what he was talking about. “The
Latraimo
. Your mother must have sensed it was coming.”

He scowled at the unfamiliar word. “The what?”

Lutian answered him. “It is an Elgederion term for bloodbath, my prince, and it has become synonymous with Selwyn’s rise to power.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I was just a girl,” she said quietly as her hand brushed against his while she stroked his horse’s mane. Christian tried not to notice the softness of her cool hand touching his skin, or the gentle, feminine smell of her that filled his head. It had been far too long since he’d last had the pleasure of holding a woman for any length of time.

This one in particular was incredibly soft.

Not to mention, she was completely naked beneath her cloak…

That thought alone made him hard and aching. Especially since he knew she was more than eager to give herself to him for his pleasure. All he needed to do was push back the soft fabric a bit and he could touch the bare flesh of her stomach.

Move his hand lower and he could brush his fingers through the soft triangle of hair so that he could stroke her…

His groin jerked at the thought.

“I remember my family evacuating our palace in fear that the Elgederion hostilities would spill
over onto us,” she said, oblivious to the painful havoc she caused him. “For reasons no one knows, your uncle Tristoph killed your grandfather late one night. In a rage, his brothers drew swords against him and slew him before they turned on each other. In the course of a year, every royal member of their house, save you, was dead.”

“Dead and gone,” Lutian repeated. “The Elgederions need more than a king, they need a warrior-hero to release them from their tyrant.”

Ignoring the fool, Christian was confused by her words. Not all of his family was dead. “What of Selwyn? He’s my uncle, too.”

“Nay,” Adara said, “he calls himself that, but he is really only a distant relation who was a grand marshal to your grandfather. His only claim to the throne is that he married your grandfather’s third cousin, who died shortly after Basilli’s birth. There is no royal blood in him which is why he is trying to place his son on the throne. Only Basilli carries a blood tie, and it’s faint at best. After your parents’ murders, Selwyn came forward as regent, saying you were too young to be king, but that he was seeing you well schooled and trained for your future duties.”

Christian frowned at what she was telling him. “My parents weren’t murdered. They died in a fire.”

Her dark gaze burned him as she looked up at him. “Your parents were murdered by your youngest uncle, who was then slain by Selwyn.”

He couldn’t breathe as those words echoed in his ears. “Are you certain?”

She nodded. “It is well known by all what happened. Or at least Selwyn’s version of it, since he was there. Truthfully, I wonder if he didn’t kill all three of them at once and just claim that he was trying to defend your parents when he slew Carian.”

Christian’s head swam at what she was telling him. “Why did no one tell me?”

“Have no fear, my prince, they never tell me anything, either. Of course, I am simple and they fear I will forget it. Are you simple, too?”

“Nay, Lutian,” she said kindly before she looked back at Christian. “You never came home, my lord. When I was ten-and-four, Selwyn said that he had sent for you, only to find your monastery in ruins. Everyone thought you were dead.”

“Then why are we still married?”

“I refused to believe it without proof, especially since Selwyn immediately suggested that I marry his son to maintain our border and treaty. Somehow, I knew you were alive, so my father stirred up your people and demanded they present him with your body and with proof that the body was you. Selwyn couldn’t produce a body with your necklace and so our marriage stood.

“As your wife, I was to be accorded due respect, which kept them from invading our kingdom. Not to mention that as long as your people believe you are alive, neither Selwyn nor Basilli can formally ascend the throne or take control of the military.
By ancient law, only the rightful king, not his regent, can command the Elgederion troops. When the letter of your survival came a few years back, it was intercepted by an Elgederion steward, who made it known to all. My father and I had our proof that you lived.”

“For that we will always thank you,” Lutian said. “Otherwise my queen would be married to the beast and I’d be skewered on a pike for his pleasure, since he hates me.”

Part of Christian could understand that sentiment, since Lutian did seem to ramble on about nothing, and yet his words were harmless enough.

He turned his thoughts back to Adara. “If the army will only follow me, how is it that you are in danger of invasion?”

“Some grow weary of waiting for their prince to return and be crowned king. They are the ones who listen to Basilli. Unlike his father, he is charismatic and persuasive. He is slowly convincing your people that you should be abandoned and that a true, full-blooded Elgederion should be on their throne. Meanwhile, he is pressuring me to declare you dead so that he can, in turn, marry me.”

He scoffed at that. “And now you want me to return to a homeland I have never seen and depose him?”

“Aye.”

Christian was aghast at her simple logic. “Have you really thought this through, my lady?”

“Of course.”

Christian shook his head as he tried not to mock her plan. “So you propose that I just walk into the Elgederion throne room and demand my kingdom back?”

“Well, nay, it won’t be
that
easy.”

“It won’t be easy at all,” Christian said. “I have found in my life that no one gives up a throne willingly.”

“No one except you,” Lutian said.

Keep that up, fool, and there’ll be a wringing of your neck soon enough.

Christian cleared his throat. “Aside from me, most are more than willing to fight unto the bitter death for their powers. It would take an army.”

Adara’s brown eyes burned into him with her fiery passion and unyielding belief in her rightness. If only he shared her beliefs. “The Elgederion army will ride to your side, Christian, when you return. It is the law of your people.”

He snorted at that. “I assume it is also the law of my people that their royal family not murder each other so that a distant cousin can be regent, and yet that is what has transpired.”

“He has a point with that one, my queen.”

She directed a glare at her fool. “Fine, then. If you’ve no wish to be king, then give me an heir.”

Christian actually sputtered at her unexpected words. Did he hear that correctly? Surely she hadn’t just said what he thought she did. “Pardon?”

“If you refuse to be king, then allow me an heir
to take your place. Someone that the Elgederions will be forced to accept and follow.”

“And what makes you think for one instant that I will agree to hand my child over to you?”

“Because it is the right thing to do.”

Christian was aghast. “You think so?”

She didn’t respond to his question as she glared at him. When she spoke, her voice carried the full weight of her royal status that was used to commanding those around her. “You have to decide, my lord. Either you return and be king or you give me an heir to rule in your stead.”

“Nay, lady, I have a third choice. I do neither.”

“That is not an option in this matter.”

“Aye, but it is, and if you think for one moment that I would allow you to carry my child off into that nest of vipers, you are sadly mistaken.”

She glared at him. “I
need
your heir.”

“And that, Adara, is one thing I will
never
give you.”

Adara stared at the man who held her. “I’m not asking you to be a father, Christian, nor am I asking you to be a king. I ask you for nothing more than a few nights of passion, which I am sure you have given any willing female who has offered herself to you.”

A tic started in his jaw. “You know me not, Your Majesty, to draw any such conclusion about my character.”

It was true, she didn’t. Still, she had to make him see reason. She had to do this to save her people. A child would guarantee that Selwyn and Basilli would never be able to threaten Taagaria again.

It was a new and perfect plan.

She hoped.

“Please, Christian. You may not care for your people, but I care for mine, and I cannot allow
them to be conquered by a man who lacks all mercy. An heir will solve both our problems.”

He shook his head as if aghast at her proposition. “This is a child we are talking about, Adara. Flesh and blood.
Our
flesh and blood. Not once in my life did my parents ever call me their heir. They called me their son.”

His pale stare pierced her as he continued to rant. “And how long do you think such a man as Selwyn would suffer our child to live? You just told me how every member of my family was killed by another. How my own parents were murdered and your cousin Thera could very well end up paying the price for helping you. I will not see my child dead over something so senseless.”

Why was he being so obstinate? He had to yield on some matter. Too many lives were at stake.

“I understand and I know that we are talking about
our
child. I would
never
allow my child to die. Believe me. I would protect him at all costs.”

His eyes mocked her. “Are you some Amazon, then? Some warrior queen to take up a sword against your enemies?”

“Nay, but—”

”There are no buts, my lady. My father was one of the finest knights of his age and if they could kill him as you claim…This is a chance I will not take.”

She turned in the saddle until she faced him. His handsome features were rigid, unyielding.

Still, she tried to argue her cause. “Then once
you return with me, stay there to protect our child.”

“Return to what?” he asked angrily. “A kingdom that never wanted me? One that has tried repeatedly to kill me? I have obligations here.”

“What obligations?”

“They are no concern of yours, but I take them most seriously.”

“Christian,” she tried again. “Please be reasonable. Our child would rule two prominent kingdoms that lie between Tripoli and Antioch. Think of the riches and respect. The power he would command.”

“And what good does it for a man to gain the world if he loses his immortal soul? There is much in this world that is cruel and harsh. Better my child be a simple smith who wants nothing more than his forge, than one who is constantly pursued by those out to kill him for what he possesses.”

“And it is the king and his justice that protects your smith and allows him his forge,” she argued. “If the king is corrupt, then villains will overrun his shire and imprison him wrongfully. He will have no forge, no dignity. It is our destiny to defend them.”

He was just as quick with his retort. “A king sits on his throne far away from the shire and has no knowledge of what happens there. But I know because I am in the shire, and so long as I am there, no one will ever hurt the smith.”

She let out a long, tired sigh. “You are indeed a
politician, whether you wish it or not. Few men can argue better than you.”

“You know, my queen,” Lutian said thoughtfully, “there is another solution that I see.”

She turned to look at Lutian, who was riding just behind them. “And that is?”

“All you truly need for proof is Prince Christian’s heraldic emblem. Return home pregnant, with it, and they will have no choice except to accept your word for the baby’s father.”

Christian was even more aghast at that proposition than he’d been at Adara’s. “And just who would be the father of her unborn child that she would pass off as mine?”

Lutian straightened up in the saddle. “I humbly submit myself to Her Grace’s will to use my meek and virile body in any manner she sees fit.”

Adara squelched a laugh at his kind offer. Leave it to Lutian to come up with such a solution.

But if looks could kill, Lutian would be severed in twain by Christian’s heated glare. “I beg your pardon, fool?”

Adara was almost amused by the anger in Christian’s tone. It would be nice if she could attribute it to jealousy, but she knew better.

“Aye,” she said, wanting to nettle her husband even more. “It just might work.”

Christian gaped at her. “You would bed the village idiot?”

Lutian snorted at that. “Pray tell who is the greater idiot? The man who would see his son king
or the one who is holding a beautiful woman in his lap, with full matrimonial rites to her, who refuses her, a throne, and a wealthy kingdom full of people to do his every bidding? I think, in the grand scheme of this, I am by far the wisest man here.”

Lutian kicked his horse abreast of theirs and bowed low in his saddle to Adara. “Take me, my queen, and I will give you your heir. I will gladly lay myself down for your pleasure.”

Christian’s nostrils flared in warning. “You lay yourself down for her pleasure, fool, and you won’t be getting back up. Ever.”

Lutian went pale as he reined his horse away from them…out of Christian’s direct reach. “Very good, then, my prince.” He shifted his gaze to Adara. “My apologies, my queen, but you’re on your own.”

“Lutian,” she cried in feigned outrage. “What about my problem?”

Her fool took it good-naturedly. “Well, my lady, ’tis
your
problem. Sorry. I…um…I intend to live a long and
fruitful
life.”

“Fruitful?” Christian asked with a gimlet stare.

Lutian twisted up his face as he contemplated his choice of words. “Did I say fruit
ful
? Methinks I spoke too soon. Suddenly I fear I may be impotent. Truly, I can no longer rise to
any
occasion. I shall be old and fruit
less
. My fruit is shriveling even as we speak.”

Adara turned to glare at her husband and his
untoward reaction to Lutian’s plan. “This I don’t understand. Moments ago you couldn’t care less about Elgedera or my people, so what do you care now who sits on the throne?”

Christian fell silent.

“Answer my question.”

He turned that angry stare to her. “I am not one of your subjects, Majesty. I suggest you take a kinder tone to me.”

“I am sorry,” she said sincerely. “But I would like to know why you won’t allow this.”

His gaze burned into her, but beneath the anger she saw something else. Something she couldn’t place or name.

“First, my necklace is the last piece of my mother that I have in my possession. I have guarded it in the deepest pits of hell to make sure that no one stole it from me. Therefore I have no intention of letting it go now for any reason other than death. Second, for my beloved parents’ memory alone, I cannot allow the offspring of the village idiot to take my mother’s family throne.”

Lutian gasped. “On behalf of village idiots everywhere, I take offense to that.”

Christian cut him a murderous look.

“Well, my queen, he does have a point. It is on his head, but still he has one.”

She felt Christian tense as if catching himself before he lunged at poor Lutian, who immediately rode out of reach.

They fell silent as Adara grappled with the sense of failure and struggled to think up a new plan of action.

Not even Lutian spoke. He merely rode quietly as if fearful of pushing Christian past his limit.

None of this was going the way she had planned it.

How simple it had all seemed to come to this land, consummate her marriage, then return home with her husband to present to his people as their king.

Now she would be lucky to return home at all.

Still, she was undaunted. So long as she breathed, she had hope, and so long as she had hope, Basilli would not defeat her. She would find some way around Christian’s defenses and make him see the truth of what she offered.

But in the meantime, they had to get to safety.

Her heart stilled as she looked down and realized she was still naked beneath her cloak. This wouldn’t do!

Adara placed her hands over Christian’s on the reins. “Can we stop for a moment?”

“Why?”

“If we are to enter a village, then I wish to dress.”

Christian’s breath caught as an image of Adara’s bare body whipped unbidden through his mind. During their argument, he’d forgotten her state of undress, though how he’d managed that, he couldn’t imagine.

Lutian made a cry of surprise as he covered his eyes with one hand. “My queen is naked beneath her clothes? I should go blind should I glimpse her fair beauty.” He split his fingers apart over his eyes to look at her. “Or will I? Mayhap we should test this theory.”

“Lutian,” Christian said solemnly. “All people are naked beneath their clothes, and if you glimpse Adara’s flesh, then it is quite possible that you will become blind when I poke out both of your eyes for the affront.”

Lutian gave a devilish grin at that as he dropped his hand from his face. “No matter what he says, your prince is jealous of you, my queen. ’Tis a good sign.”

Christian scoffed. “I’m not jealous.”

“He sounded jealous to me,” Lutian said loudly from behind his hand. “
Very
jealous.”

Christian let out a growl that reminded her of a ferocious bear as he glared at Lutian, who took his surly mood in stride.

Reining his horse, Christian stopped before a small copse of trees while Lutian rode a little farther away from them. Christian dismounted first, then helped her down.

As she slid down beside him, her cloak opened, showing him a glimpse of her lean, beautiful body.

Christian hardened even more at the small glimpse of heaven that she gifted him with.

Adara paused as if she knew what it was she did
to him. “Are you sure I can’t interest you in a quick consummation, my lord?”

In truth, he hungered greatly for her. How sweet she would be lying in his arms, her body wrapped around his. But this wasn’t about his baser urges. This was about getting her to safety and extracting himself from a most unwanted position.

“Do you tempt every man you meet this way?”

“Nay. Only my husband.”

Christian’s stomach jerked at the reminder. By law and right, she was technically his to do with as he pleased. That knowledge was most potent against his will.

She reached up and placed one silken palm to his cheek. “You are even more handsome than I thought you would be…and far more stubborn as well. I should have known that you would be much more than the boy of faint memory.”

As she spoke, he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze from her well-curved, tempting mouth. It was all he could do not to pull her into his arms and taste her lips. They were red and inviting. No doubt they would be even softer than her hands…

Luckily Lutian started singing an off-key harmony that reminded him they weren’t alone and that they weren’t free for even a few minutes.

“We have people after us, my lady,” Christian said, as much for his own benefit as hers. “I would caution you to haste.”

She nodded before she withdrew from him.

Still her sweet, jasmine scent clung to his body.
He couldn’t help but wonder how much more pleasant she would smell if he buried his face into that wealth of midnight hair.

How warm her body would be lying beneath his while he spent himself deep inside her…

Turning his back and grinding his teeth to force that image aside, he went to tend his horse before he let his errant thoughts lead him down a pathway he’d best not venture.

Adara watched her husband through the trees while she struggled to lace her gown. He tended his horse with a gentle touch and a high regard even while Lutian was annoying him with questions and comments.

“I don’t think your horse likes you to stroke him there,” Lutian said while Christian rubbed it down. He bent over and picked up two clumps of grass similar to the ones Christian was using, then studied them closely.

Christian continued without pause. “I’ve owned this horse a long time and I know what he likes.”

“Aye, but how do you
know
he likes that? Has he ever told you so?”

“He’s not kicking me. I take that as a good sign.”

“I’m not kicking you, either, but that doesn’t mean I like you or that I’d be grateful for your rubbing clumps of dirt over my body.” Lutian held one of the grass clumps to his cheek and rubbed it against his skin. “Hmmm…although, it could be pleasurable, perhaps…”

Lutian turned around and poked his rear toward Christian. “Here, rub some on my flank and let me judge.”

Christian looked horrified by the mere thought. “I’d most certainly rather not.” He indicated with a tilt of his chin a small clearing where wild seed grew. “Why don’t you go over there and pick something for the horses to eat? Not much, lest it make them sick, but enough to keep their strength up.”

Lutian dropped the clumps of grass he held and went to do Christian’s bidding.

Adara smiled as Christian let out an extremely audible sigh of relief, though to be honest, he’d been far more patient with Lutian than any other man she’d ever known. Which was why she’d allowed Lutian to come with her. Xerus and the others were prone to pick on the poor man from time to time, and without her there to watch over him, she was afraid they might intentionally hurt his feelings.

Or finally make good their threats to see him dead for his nettling.

But Lutian didn’t mean anything by it. He was a tender soul with a great heart, and he had been her one true friend in life. He alone had comforted her after the death of her brother and her father. No matter how badly she felt or what happened to her, he could always make her smile or laugh.

Her father had always said a person could tell
much about a man by the way he dealt with animals, simpletons, and children.