Lady Thief - By Rizzo Rosko Page 0,22
doing as he pleased to vent his anger? And what could she do but let him?
Marianne’s face heated. Several servants had probably seen her trying to lunge for their young master. Many more heard it no doubt. What would they say about her on the morn when the gossip spread throughout the entire castle? She promised William a wife, not an animal.
William’s grip on her wrist tightened, bringing her out of her pitiful thoughts.
“He is not to show his face to me unless he comes with an apology for myself and you.”
Marianne’s breath hitched, and though she wished to ask him she could not speak. He was defending her, truly defending her. He did not even know what it was he defended her from.
She looked at him and felt happiness swirling through her, more so than since before she came to his castle. Then he stopped and turned his hard gaze upon her and she felt her blood freeze. They were alone. She raised her nose, ready for whatever he might say or do.
When he smiled at her, a real smile instead of some vicious little grin, she could not decide whether or not she should be more or less frightened.
His grip on her hand softened, and when pulled her forth, she jerked back.
“Where are we going?”
His grip tightened. “Just leave here with me.”
Surprised, she let him lead her into the castle and soon they arrived in their bedchamber. Then she was against the wall.
“You are to never humiliate me like that again. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
Her temper flared. Back and forth he was with his emotions. She could never read him. “So the next time he decides to provoke me I am to stay as silent as the wind, is that it?”
William raised a brow, and Marianne felt herself falling into his gray eyes. With a start, she realized that she had become accustomed to him, his sharp eyes that cut through her and even the few little silver hairs on his head. She still thought of him as a handsome man, but now he seemed to have more of an effect upon her. She had expected this to happen but certainly not so soon.
She blinked and pinched her wrist, shaking the distracting thoughts from her head. His appeal to the eye made no difference to her circumstances. He would hardly care to know it so she would keep it to herself.
“You and I both know that the wind can hardly be so silent, especially during a storm. So expecting you to stay as ‘silent as the wind’ as you put it, is not expecting much.”
Marianne turned away from him, her face hot. “I suppose not.” But then she did not intend to stay silent. “For a moment, I thought you would strike him,” Although her father had never laid a hand on her for discipline, he held no such restraint regarding her brothers when they were still alive.
William’s kindness shocked her. He could have easily used his power as lord of the castle over his son, and Blaise would have naught to say about it. But he did not.
She wished her brothers had been so lucky.
He ignored her statement and pressed his body closer to hers. Her breath quickened as the heat radiating from him enveloped her as he held her shoulders and lowered his already deep voice. “Pray tell, now that you are calm, what did my son say to evoke such wrath?”
William’s voice slid over her body and wrapped her in a thick blanket. Damn him and damn her useless virgin lust. In the same house with her husband for no more than a fortnight and already she was having thoughts of lying with him, naked in the bed they shared. And where had these thoughts come from? Had she not been frightened of punishment only moments ago?
Virgin or not, she knew what took place between lovers after she accidentally walked in on her servants in the act of love at Holton. The thought of herself and William in such an awkward looking position made her blush, but it also filled her with impatient fire. The servant girl certainly did not seem to mind the attention her lover bestowed upon her.
“I see, he made you a proposition, is that it? You wanted him as your husband once, perhaps he offered to aid you in convincing me to allow you to petition for an annulment in exchange for taking you to his bed, is that