He pulled her down onto the bearskinrug, where they lay on their sides whispering soft words of lovewhile rediscovering each other’s bodies.Talon straddled her andprobed between her thighs with the blunt head of his cock until theache between Lara’s legs became a throbbing need.Her breath caughtas he slowly buried himself inside her, filling that need.She lether breath out in a low moan as her intimate muscles tightenedaround him.
“I’m sorry, my love,” hewhispered, his voice low and rough.“You feel so good, and it’sbeen so long, I fear I can’t hold back.”
“Then don’t,” shewhispered back fiercely.“I won’t break.”
But she did.She broke atop the peakof their passion, shattering into a thousand shards of light andflame and raw nerves, then melting back into her boneless,weightless self, held together by his body wrapped aroundhers.
***
Talon
Talon threw the outside bolt to thedoor, then mounted the sorrel’s bare back and nodded to Lara, whosat in the roan’s saddle with Isabeau snug in her sling.“Let’s gohome.”
Home.The first one he could call hisin years.
He turned the sorrel’s head southeast,with Lara following and Wolf herding the two milk goats.He’d beenat the Hollow for twelve days, and he’d savored every moment ofthem with Lara and Isabeau, but it was time to return to CrossroadsKeep, to assume their new lives as lord and lady of the keep withtheir daughter.A life he’d left his old one as a soldier forwithout regret.A life he looked forward to.
He also looked forward to dealing withNithard.Lara told him what she’d heard the men say before they’dtorched her house, that they’d been ordered by Nithard to burn heralive, and though they had no other proof, her word was enough forTalon.Plus, if Lara’s dream had been true, and they always wereone way or another, then she was Nithard’s illegitimate niece.Bothsituations which Talon intended to confront as soon as theyreturned to Oloron.
But before he dealt with Nithard orthe keep or anything else, he intended to marry Lara.
They made the Abbey St.Marie atnightfall, where the Abbot Rogert took one look at Lara and thebabe and fell to his knees.
“Thank God.”He raised hishands to the sky.“Thank Mary, Mother of Jesus, you survived.Mother and child survived.”
Lara pushed the blanket back from thebabe’s head as the abbot stood.“Abbot Rogert,” she said, “meetIsabeau Juditha.”
“To be christened IsabeauJuditha Guiscard,” Talon added.“Right after you marry her motherand father.”
The abbot placed his hand over thecrown of the babe’s head and smiled down at her as she blinked upat him.“Isabeau,” he murmured.“Welcome home.”
The reverence of his voice, hismanner, stood Talon at attention.“You knew,” he said.“You knewLara was Isabeau’s daughter.”
The abbot dipped his head with abeatific smile.
“How long?”
“Since the day Sophiebrought her down from the mountains as a one-year-old child and hadme write her name and birth beneath the recording of her parents’marriage, which I officiated at in this very church.”
CHAPTER 23
Countand Countess of Oloron
Talon
Talon woke without the familiar jab ofhis daughter’s foot in his belly, filling him with a strange mix ofelation she’d finally slept the night through in her crib, yet alsofear that she’d slept in her parents’ bed for the last time.Ofcourse, his fear likely had to do with Lara waking up in the middleof the night, crying out Isabeau’s name and reaching for theirdaughter between them, panicking when Isabeau wasn’t there.Talonhad showed her Isabeau sleeping peacefully in her crib, then he’dheld Lara and whispered soothing endearments into her hair untilshe’d calmed and fell back to sleep, as he had so many nights alifetime ago.
Today was the summer solstice, twoyears to the day since Lara had stood him off in the river withWolf.Two years since he’d chased the thorny wildcat down and kepther captive in his chamber.Two years since she’d captured hisheart and soul, and eight months since they’d married and becomethe Count and Countess of Oloron.
The Abbot Rogert had returned toCrossroads Keep with them after marrying them and christeningIsabeau, bringing with him the abbey’s book of records, whichproved Lara the legitimate daughter of Isabeau Midered and HaraldRousell, and rightful heir to Oloron Manor.Nithard and Ravenna hadfled the province the day after Talon had ridden in and discoveredthe two new graves under the oak, leaving no other Midereds in theprovince to contest Lara’s inheritance.
The people of the valley had welcomedtheir new count and countess with great cheer and hope.Both ofwhich Talon and Lara were determined to deliver on.Their first acthad been to declare Crossroads Keep their home, for neither of themwished to live in Oloron Manor, which would remain the county seatand where Talon held Mallus the first Saturday of every month.Thevery first Mallus he’d presided over, with Lara at his side, they’dpledged a living wage for the field workers and promised that noperson would go hungry through no fault of their own.
Phillipe stayed at the keep as thecaptain of Talon's personal guard, which consisted of Oswald, Tree,and Dardinel.With Oloron Manor to maintain as well, they installedAnglbert and Berta as stewards, where they would live until Isabeauwas of age to claim her birthright.Though they lost Berta as headcook for the keep, Enid gratefully took over the position withMarta as her helper.
Marta and Denys lived in the new housebuilt over Sophie’s old house, a gift from Talon for Denys’s ploywith the goats, which had, no doubt, kept Nithard from searchingfor Lara after he’d burned her out.For her part, Lara had deededthe land and Shadow over to them and continued to teach Denys thehealing arts as they tended the valley’s peopletogether.
Twenty of the brood mares’ bellieswere thickening with foals, the orchards were ripe with summerfruit, and the fields green with grains to be harvested come thefall.The miller who’d come to the valley with them from Tours wasso busy, he’d hired three new helpers, and kept his axe sharpenedand on his shoulder every time Phillipe came around hisdaughter.
