life go on as if my son had never existed. I cannot do it.'
Hilda, hovering protectively behind Lady Anne's chair, glowered at Raffe. 'You need your rest, m'lady. I keep telling everyone that, but they take no notice.'
Lady Anne absently patted her arm and glanced up again at Elena. 'Perhaps it is for the best. I don't like the thought of having young girls sleeping in the manor when Osborn and his men are here. There are many in his retinue who believe that any comely maid is simply there to be plucked for their sport, like a squab from a dovecote, no matter how much she resists. And I can't keep hiding you out of sight in the kitchens. For your own safety, Elena, it is as well you should leave now.'
Hilda crossed herself. 'I swear I'll not be able to close my eyes while those brutes are here.'
Raffe snorted. You can sleep soundly, mistress. There's not a man alive who wouldn't sooner bed his own horse than try your virtue.'
She flushed angrily. 'What do you know of being a man, you -'
Lady Anne rose. 'Enough! There is nothing else to be said, go now. Leave me, all of you. Can't you see there are far more pressing matters weighing on my mind than a pregnant girl? I have lost my husband and my son, and now I have lost my lands too. I cannot bear any more. You cannot ask me to!'
But as Raffe guided Elena from the chamber, Anne added more gently, 'God in his mercy grant you a safe delivery, Elena, you and the child.'
Lady Anne was a good woman, Raffe thought, a saint, and she did not deserve to have that bastard Osborn foisted on her by King John in her own home, a home she'd spent a lifetime defending for her son. Raffe savagely kicked a stone on the track and heard it crack against the ice in the ditch.
There was a shriek behind Raffe and he spun round. Elena was crouching on the icy path, rubbing her knee. At once he was by her side.
'Have you hurt yourself?'
She shook her head and Raffe lifted her to her feet. She stood swaying unsteadily for a moment. Raffe realized she was shivering. In the vastness of the darkness that surrounded them the tiny figure looked more fragile than ever. Her eyes, round and bright as the moon, glittered in the torchlight as she glanced fearfully up at him.
Placing the torch into her hands for a moment, he unfastened his cloak and wrapped it around her. Then, taking back the torch, he clasped her frog-cold hand in his own. She stiffened, trying to pull away, and instantly his anger came surging back.
'Stop that prudish nonsense! You're as bad as that old hag Hilda, thinking every man wants to ravish you. It's slippery. You've already fallen once, next time you might not be so lucky. But if you want to take that risk in your condition, go ahead.'
He turned away and started off again, but he had not taken more than a couple of strides before he felt a small arm burrow into the crook of his own. His anger dissolved in an instant. He drew Elena close and they walked on, slowly this time. He felt a surge of unexpected joy as he sucked in the closeness of her and knew for the first time the warmth of her small body pressed into his. He could feel the movement of her slender ribcage against his arm, the bones so delicate that a man might snap them with his fingers. Her sweet breath hovered in a veil of white mist as she panted in the icy air.
They were the only two people awake in the world, one tiny ship of frosted light floating through an empty black ocean. A faint breeze rippled through the branches of birch and willow and through the long-dead reeds in the ditch, making them sing like soft waves breaking on sand. From a great way off came the yelping scream of a vixen. Elena shivered and pressed tighter into him.
Looking down at the top of that small head hidden beneath her hood, Raffe knew the overwhelming desire of a father or a lover to protect something so small and innocent. But he was neither of these things to her and she wasn't innocent. He had not forced himself on her as other men in his position would have done. He had kept