“Christ, Lara.”He tappedthe back of his head against the wall, the muscle on the side ofhis jaw ticking.“You do know what I’m asking of you?”
“To become what everyother person in the valley’s had me for months now.Yourmistress.”
“To the eyes of the world,yes.But to me…” His gaze bored into hers.“You are the one personI want and need more than any other in this world, or the next itturns out.”He held both her hands in his.“Tell me, my prophetess.What will we be to each other?”.”
Lara loved him, plain and simple.Shehadn’t meant to, and she’d certainly tried her hardest not to.Yether head had given way to her body and her heart had followed.Shewas his, married or mistress.Sophie had been Orlando’s mistressfor five years, and swore she’d never regretted a moment of them.Five days, five months, or five years, Lara would take whatevertime she could get with Talon, however she could.Plus, beingconsidered a witch had its advantages.People might talk about herbehind her back, but they weren’t going to say anything to herface.
She stared into his somber gray eyes.“We shall be what we are, m’lord.”He blinked once and let out aheavy sigh.“Lovers.”He gave a slow smile.“As if I could refuse aman whose vows to me are fair warning and no promises.”
Talon chuckled.“It must be thatthorny, troublesome streak in you.”He rubbed her fingers over hisscarred palm, then pressed his lips to her hand, her wrist, slowlykissing his way up her arm.
Lara stood and pulled away.“I need totend the pheasant.Though I’m not sure feeding you meat is thesafest thing to do right now.”
She’d just given the pheasant one lastturn when Wolf, whom she’d sent off on his mission four days ago,came loping out of the hedges with a happy bark.
“Wolf.”She laughed andpetted him from head to tail as he wagged circles around her legs.Then she untied the kerchief from around his neck, unfolded it, andhanded Talon the parchment from inside the pocket.
Talon read it out loud.“All goodhere.Tongues wagging.See you…” He held the message with a drawingof a waxing half-moon up to Lara.
CHAPTER 19
Idyll
Talon
The cure to his curse, Talondiscovered, wasn’t to tame the wildcat, but simply to take her asshe was: wild and thorny and imperfectly perfect.A thing he foundas easy as breathing in the quiet peace of the Hollow.As for therest of the world, they’d deal with it when they returned toOloron.For now, Talon was happy to be with Lara in their ownlittle Eden that was the Hollow, a place he was exploring andlearning more about each day while walking about with the help of achestnut walking stick that had belonged to Sophie.
The cabin, Lara told him, had beenbuilt as a hunting lodge by Count Gerhard, Nithard’s and Reginald’sfather.Neither of the brothers had been hunters, but Orlando,captain of Reginald’s guard, had.He’d also been Sophie’s lover,not, Lara admitted, her second husband.It was Orlando who’d firstbrought Sophie to the Hollow.They’d come for a time every summerfor five summers, until Orlando died in battle and came home nomore.
It was to the Hollow that Sophie tookLara as an infant, and where they’d stayed for the first year ofLara’s life, from one autumn to the next.They’d spent a month hereevery autumn since, as well as an odd month each summer or spring,stocking and planting and tending the place until it wasself-renewing.
The sturdy cabin, built of good timberto begin with, had been well maintained, making for a warm andcomfortable home.The barn, built to stable the mounts of a fullhunting party, were twice the size of the cabin, and almost asairtight, its meadow thick with good grass.Talon had never seenthe Black so lazily content.Even Fulrad’s bay, whom Lara calledShadow, was growing fatter and friendlier by the day.
An earthen aqueduct such as Talon hadseen in old Roman towns moved water from a year-round stream to theorchard and the garden.There was a pond where Lara netted fishthat she cooked with wild, bitter greens that grew along the pond’sedges, and the orchard was ripe with apple, plum, peach, and peartrees, as well as a row of grapevines that separated the orchardfrom the vegetable garden full of yellow and green squashes,onions, garlic, and green-topped roots they’d been eating indelicious stews.
A hedge of rosemary and lavenderbordered the garden on the other side, and vining mint and licoriceroot grew along the stream from which Lara made a sweet-tasting teathat calmed a person’s head and belly.She’d taught Wolf to leavethe covey of quail that lived in the meadow alone, guaranteeingthem a steady supply of eggs, along with the squirrel, rabbit, orpheasant she trapped or Wolf caught.
Talon was sitting on the porch,shelling a boiled egg after his afternoon nap, when Lara came outof the woods beyond the meadow, carrying a basket full of somethingheavy by the way she was moving, Shadow on her heels.Wolf lopedalongside them.Talon eased to his feet, intending to help her withthe basket, but she pointed a finger at him.
“Sit.”
Talon and Wolf both sat.
Lara laughed and set the basket downat Talon’s feet.“There.”She nodded at the basket full of piecesof ash, chestnut, and beech.“That should keep your backside downand your hands busy.”She reached into her skirt pocket and pulledout Talon’s carving knife.“There are thirty-two pieces of woodhere,” she said, handing him the knife.“By the time you’ve carvedthem, I’ll have the top of an old table from the barn dyed like agame board.”
“You want me to carvepieces for a Shah game?”
She rubbed the dirt from her hands.“It’ll give us something to do at night.”
“I can think of plenty ofthings to do at night.”Talon gave her a leer that brought a rosypink to her cheeks.“But making a Shah game does sound intriguing.I’ve never carved so many figures at one time.”He eyed the piecesof wood, sizing them up in his mind.“It’ll take me two to threedays at least.”
Lara grinned, looking quite pleasedwith herself.“Good.”She sauntered past him into the cabin, wherepots and pans were shuffled around.
“What’s for supper?”Hepicked a long piece of blonde ash from the basket and turned itabout in his hand.
“Bee’s knees and butterflywings.”That was her answer when she didn’t yet know what she wasgoing to cook and he was already pestering her about it.
“Yum, my favorite.”Hesettled back on the bench, put his knife to the ash, and made hisfirst cut, pleased with the color and grain.“Aye, this will do formy white queen.”
