Hugh listened, somberly intent. Guy is wrong about her, he thought suddenly. His vengeance has blinded him to Kathryn's goodness. She could never willfully hurt anyone.
"I'll not disappoint you, Lady Kathryn." His gaze met Kathryn's, unerringly direct, In that instant, a silent current of understanding passed between them.
She touched his cheek. "I'll keep both you and my sister in my prayers, Sir Hugh."
She stepped back. At a signal from the earl, her palfrey was led over. Kathryn laid a hand on the horse's mane. All at once the earl was there to assist her in mounting. At the touch of his hands on her waist, she twisted away. After what he had done this day, his effort at gallantry merely made her angrier. She mounted unassisted, unaware of the tightening of his jaw as his hands fell to his sides.
A moment later they were passing through the gates. Inwardly devastated, Kathryn didn't dare look back for fear she would burst into tears. Her gaze stabbed into his back where he rode at the head of his troops. It was easier, so much easier to focus instead on her hatred of him. He was wrenching her away from Ashbury, from all that she loved. Yet even as her heart yawned empty and cold, her soul burned with a rage more potent than any she had ever known. She had lost this battle of wills, she conceded bitterly.
She'd not lose the next.
Chapter 5
So Kathryn was pregnant. . . she was with child.
Guy felt a flash of anger every time he thought about it, for it only proved she was the slut he'd known her to be. Oh, he could easily see how her predicament had come about—how her lover Roderick had been unable to resist her wiles. It struck him then that he assumed her Roderick was the babe's father. But what if he was not? Hadn't she offered herself to him just last eve, knowing she carried another man's child? Mayhap she had no idea who the father was! Indeed, she was a temptation few men could resist, he acknowledged silently. Even he himself was not immune to her beauty.
And that was the hell of it.
She refused to look at him the entire day, but Guy had no such qualms. Time and again he found his eyes drawn to her, as if he'd been caught in a web from which there was no escape. Slim and straight, she rode her mount as if she were a queen, her carriage proud and erect.
Guy despised himself for his weakness, but he had only to glance at her to visualize those eyes that flashed like emeralds in the sun, to remember the fascinating heat of that sweetly curved mouth trapped beneath his, the delectable roundness of her breast beneath his palm.
His mood grew ever more vile.
Twilight hovered on the horizon before he called a halt to the day's journey. They stopped on the outskirts of the forest. Nearby was a clear, babbling stream.
Kathryn heaved a silent prayer of thanks. If the earl had chosen to go any further, she didn't think she could stand it. She wasn't used to riding more than a few hours at most; her thighs and backside ached unbearably.
The earl was busy giving orders to his men. Kathryn reined Esmerelda to a stop and prepared to slide to the ground. One of the earl's soldiers appeared. Hands spanning her waist, he lifted her easily to the ground. Kathryn smiled her thanks— his hands displayed a tendency to linger. A single dark look from the earl and the knight hastily backed away.
Kathryn's muscles protested mightily at holding her weight after so many hours on horseback. But once on her feet she became aware of a rather urgent need.
Most of the earl's soldiers swarmed in the clearing beneath the trees. Kathryn started off in the opposite direction.
The earl's voice stopped her cold. "Hold!" he shouted. Four long strides brought him to her side. He grasped her arm. "What is this?" he demanded.
Of all the arrogance! Kathryn took a deep breath and struggled to control her rising temper. "I crave a moment alone." She couldn't look at him as she spoke. She could think of no way to convey her need to him.
His laughter grated. "What manner of fool do you take me for, mistress? A moment alone, so that you may flee?" He laughed again. "I think not!"
Kathryn twitched at her skirt. Vivid color stained her cheeks as she implored desperately, "For nature's call, milord."
"And I tell you again, lady, not alone."
His sharpness shattered her. He trampled on her dignity the way his soldiers trampled the fields. The knowledge that he would not allow her this privacy wounded her as nothing else had. At last she looked at him, dismayed and miserably embarrassed.
"I'll not flee, milord. This I swear."
His grip on her arm tightened. It was on the tip of his tongue to retort that, as Richard's niece, her vow meant nothing to him.
"Please," she whispered.
He saw her convulsive swallow. He saw the way her throat worked and swore violently to himself. Damn, but the wench knew exactly how to probe his every weakness. Yet he sensed the word cost her no small amount of pride.
"Begone, then," he said curtly. "But be quick about it," he warned. "And do not think to escape me—" A devilish smile dallied about his lips. "— lest you come upon some wild, ferocious beast with a fancy for your lovely flesh." He turned his back and retraced his steps toward his knights.
Kathryn picked up her skirts. Bah, she decided as she marched toward a clump of bushes, it was altogether likely the only beast in these woods was the Earl of Sedgewick!
She returned to the clearing several minutes later. A group of soldiers were busily erecting a tent. A roaring fire blazed nearby. A spit had been fashioned above it, from which some delicious odor wafted her way. But Kathryn was too tired to take much notice. Fatigue weighted her body like a stone. She made her way toward a stately oak tree and lowered herself to the mossy ground. Her shoulder propped against the tree trunk, she closed her eyes. She would rest for just a moment or two.
Sometime later a shadow fell over her form. She was asleep, Guy noticed, a sight that gave him pause. Her head was tilted against the tree trunk in what appeared a most uncomfortable angle. Arms crossed over her breasts, she huddled beneath the threadbare wool of that damnable excuse for a cloak. Perhaps it was the childlike pose, but she seemed very vulnerable and very young just then, and he experienced a sliver of remorse. He'd set a breakneck pace that day, stopping only to water the horses. Weariness was plainly etched on his men's faces, yet Kathryn had uttered not a single word of protest or complaint. Another time, perhaps, and he might have admitted to a twinge of admiration.
She was clearly exhausted. He debated whether or not to let her sleep, but decided she needed nourishment, if not for herself, then for the sake of her babe.
He clamped a hand to her shoulder and shook her. Her lashes fluttered open slowly. Eyes as green as fresh spring leaves, she stared up at him in obvious confusion.
It hit him like a blow to the stomach just how lovely she was, beauteous enough to turn a king's eye. Her lips were parted. Guy fancied he could see the gentle rise and fall of her breasts. Her cheeks were sleep-flushed and pink. But her beauty, he reminded himself scathingly, was only on the surface, for hadn't she proved once already how treacherous a creature she really was?
He had no doubt she would prove it yet again.
"Here. 'Tis time to eat." He thrust a trencher of wild fowl and crusty bread into her hands. A moment later, his own meal in hand, he sat cross- legged on the ground beside her.
At least, Kathryn thought, he didn't propose to starve her. Nearer the fire, the knights' talk and laughter grew boisterous. She risked a peek at the earl from beneath her lashes. The rigid cast of his profile discouraged conversation. Not that she was so inclined, she thought with a sniff. Only she'd had no one to talk to the entire day. . . But she'd keep her silence for a twelvemonth before she'd deign to converse with this arrogant devil! On that thought, she confined her attention to her food.
Once the meal was done, his men began to disperse. When she saw them preparing to retire for the night, her gaze traveled uneasily to the earl. He had retreated to stand several paces behind her near the tent.