AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did you enjoy that?” Gervais asked.
“Oh, yes. Thank you. It’s very thrilling. And she’s so beautiful. It’s a pity to keep her captive in the mews.” Matilda tucked the gauntlet in her saddlebag and accepted Gervais’s help in mounting her steed.
He lifted her up by the waist and adjusted her stirrups while she smoothed down her skirts.
“A pity?” he said belatedly. “She’s safe in the mews. There’s no competition for food.”
“But she can only fly free when you let her. Is that not cruel?” Agitated, Matilda fingered her reins. Would Gervais understand the hidden message in her question?
Gervais stroked the palfrey’s mane. “It’s the only life she’s known. She was born in captivity, bred to hunt.”
“But if she hadn’t been? What if she refused to hunt for you, or won’t come to the lure?”
He ceased caressing the mane and touched her hand, stilling it. “Do you think I would destroy her because she can’t be tamed? And regardless, is it not the ultimate quest of a good falconer to win over the trust of his bird?”
“Yes. It is his duty, is it not?”
“So, you need not fear for your Diana, she might not survive in the wild, but she’ll not be forgotten in her mews and although she can hunt, she will never experience the threats or challenges that the darkest acts of nature conjure up. For what if she cannot find a mate, or fails to build a nest for her young? What if she travels to the wrong land, and suffers at the hands of those who would bring her harm?” Gervais’s hand squeezed Matilda’s harder.
“I understand. She is captive and yet still free to hunt, but not to live as her cousins do, or her neighbours. She must enjoy the pleasures of a lesser freedom, the morsels given to her, and trust the strictures of the mews and its guardian.”
“Yes, you do understand, I think. And I shall breed from her. Tobias will be tasked with finding her a mate. Such a bloodline must be maintained. As for my Artemis, she will be the last. There are no other sakers in the land.” He lowered his arm and collected the reins of his horse.
She trotted over to his side. “Poor creature. Is that not unfair? Is it not best for her to be released and find her way home?”
Gervais mounted and wheeled his horse around to face the castle. When he spoke, he wasn’t looking at her. “She’ll not fly away. I tried to release her, and she came back.”
She blinked a tear away. “For some captivity is necessary, it seems.”
He said nothing. With a kick of his heels, he cantered ahead of her, and she followed slowly with the others and the birds.
Chapter Twenty-Three
She lay on her belly, purring contentedly. Gervais’s hand rested heavy on her bottom, his fingers slotted between the warm cheeks, the tips of them tickling her furrow. The last trembles of her orgasm washed away, and he removed himself from her side and flopped back on the bed.
“You know me too well,” she murmured into the pillow.
“My little bird,” he said. “Perhaps I should use feathers to tease you.”
She turned onto her side. “I should be intrigued by the notion, but part of me is worried tickling me with feathers might incur your displeasure.”
He propped himself up on his elbow. “How so?”
“I shall giggle myself into a fit, and not achieve anything desirable. I’m very ticklish.” She coiled a strand of her hair around her finger.
“Coyness will not save you. There is only one way to find out... but for now, you must depart.” He shifted his gaze to the far door.
The embe
rs of the fire lit the path she must take. Every night it was the same pattern, and although the daytime progressed, especially since they both enjoyed flying their falcons together, the nights ended bluntly, crafted to please him, and not her.
“Why?” She had asked the question many times, and he offered a curt reply that reminded her of obedience.
“Try to understand, Tilda, I have never slept with a woman. It is unnecessary.”
Another weak explanation, she thought.
She gathered up her robe and wrapped it about her nudity. With a dutiful curtsy, she left him reclining on the bed, naked and apparently satisfied. The corridor leading to her apartment was dark and the candle she carried lit up only a few strides in front of her. The stone walls dominated, crowding her progress, and the oppressive structure added to her frustrations and worries.
