Lady Squire Page 11

  "Take it outside." Roland, God and all the saints damn him straight to hell, chose that moment to butt in. "I like a good punch-up as much as anyone else, but some of us prefer to eat in peace."

  Tournament champion Guillaume has no mercy on rival knights - except for the one who is also the most ravishing woman he has ever beheld. But Matilda scorns chivalry, and aims to defeat him on the battlefield. Which means he must use other skills entirely, if he's to vanquish both her body and her heart.

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  MISTRESS TO THE NORMAN LORD

  MARIA LING

  She wanted it. And didn't want it. And worried that she'd do it wrong, annoy him with the wrong touch or the wrong words, lose her best chance for justice.

  With the prospect of action immediate before her, she'd found ample courage within her heart. Now, in this solitary waiting, her resolve began to falter, her certainty to wane. Perhaps he wouldn't hear her, after all. Perhaps he'd laugh at her, and take her as he chose, and dump her in some muddy ditch afterwards.

  God, she'd been stupid. Why hadn't she kept back, said nothing, escaped when she had the chance? Even if it meant staying with Osulf - at least she knew the worst of him, what he was capable of.

  This man, this lord - she knew nothing about him. Nothing at all. Only that he'd fought in some country far away, fought and killed and watched men die.

  What had he done to the women?

  He ought to come. It must be sunset now. Or nearing it, anyway. What could keep a man so long? They were supposed to like bedding women, weren't they? Osulf put effort enough into haranguing her for it. How she'd be in his bed, how he'd take his pleasure on her body. Over and over, she'd stopped listening, she didn't want to hear such words.

  They returned to her now, in awful clarity. Ones she didn't recall hearing at the time, but which must have lodged within her mind regardless. Aelfid shivered with open fear, and considered running away.

  But that wouldn't get Mother the farm back.

  She had to go through with it. No other option, nothing else she could do.

  She only hoped it would prove worth her while. That Lord Guy would listen, and understand, and choose to act on her pleas.

  God damn the man. She was ready for him. Why didn't he come?

  Returning from war in Normandy, Guy de Beriner wants only to enjoy the peace of his English estate. But when headstrong peasant girl Aelfid demands that he set right the depredations of his corrupt bailiff, Guy discovers that her passion and beauty play havoc with his plans for a leisured life.

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