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“Ask Duncan,” Cassandra said scathingly, “for you seem to believe he has none.”

A chorus of shouts made Erik turn toward the revelers. Amber had one hand around Duncan’s neck and she was whispering in his ear. Whatever she was saying made Duncan smile with a sensual heat that blazed as brightly as the fire.

Then Duncan lifted Amber’s hand from his neck, kissed her fingers tenderly, and smiled at her once more. It was a different smile, for it promised safety as well as passion, caring as well as burning, peace as well as ecstasy.

“Look at them,” Erik demanded in a low voice. “Look at them and tell me how I could have kept them apart short of death.”

There was a savage silence followed by a sigh. Cassandra’s fingers touched Erik’s clenched fist.

“I know,” she said softly. “That is why we rage at each other. It gives us the illusion we were once in control of Amber’s destiny—and we chose wrongly—when in truth we never had that kind of control at all.”

Hand in hand, Duncan and Amber approached Erik.

“We ask your leave, lord,” Duncan said, “to seek our rest.”

A roar of laughter went up from the knights.

“Rest?” Erik asked, covering his smile by smoothing his beard with his hand. “By all means, Duncan. If you aren’t to bed soon, the cock will be up well after dawn.”

More laughter gusted through the knights.

Erik’s smile changed as he looked at Amber. He reached out to her, but stopped just short of touching her cheek.

“Be joyful in your marriage,” Erik said.

Amber’s smile was incandescent. It didn’t dim even when she deliberately turned her head so that her cheek brushed against Erik’s fingers.

The surprise that murmured through the gathered knights was reflected in Erik’s expression.

“Thank you, lord,” Amber said softly. “Your kindness to me has been that of amber itself, pieces of sunlight shining no matter how dark the day.”

Erik’s smile was both sad and so beautiful that Cassandra felt pain twist through her. The love Erik had for Amber was as clear as the tawny color of his eyes. Yet it was a love that held no sexual desire, despite Amber’s beauty and Erik’s forthright masculinity.

Abruptly, fear replaced pain in Cassandra.

He knows. By all that’s Learned, he knows!

Is that why he risked so much? Is he trying to repay her for what was taken from her at her birth?

No answer came from within the well of serenity that held Cassandra’s Learning.

“Will you give me your good wishes?” Amber asked, turning to Cassandra.

“You are my daughter in every way that matters,” Cassandra said. “I would give you Paradise if I could.”

Smiling, Amber glanced at her husband from beneath her long lashes. Though she said nothing, the fire reflected in Duncan’s eyes burned higher.

“Thank you,” Amber said, looking at Cassandra again. “Your good wishes mean a great deal to me. I love you as a daughter would.”

With her free hand, Amber touched the other woman’s cheek. The murmur of surprise was repeated throughout the gathered knights and ladies. Despite the clear affection between Amber, Erik, and Cassandra, never had the people of the keep seen Amber touch the lord or the Learned woman.

Tears glittered once more in Cassandra’s eyes. She turned to look long and hard at the dark warrior whose fingers were interlaced with Amber’s.

“You have been given a gift beyond price,” Cassandra said distinctly. “Few men are privileged to know its like.”

The splinters of darkness that lay deep within the clarity of Cassandra’s eyes made coolness ripple down Duncan’s spine. His instincts stirred, warning him that danger lay within this woman as surely as night lay within sunset’s vivid colors.

Then realization came. It wasn’t menace that lay darkly within Cassandra. It was knowledge.