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“What’s the matter?” she was concerned he was uncomfortable with her sitting in front of him.

“Nothing, my lady,” he assured her quickly. “My…armor jabbed me.”

“Ah,” she nodded in understanding. “ ’Tis probably why William takes his off when I ride with him. I make his armor jab him.”

He almost laughed at her naiveté. In fact, it was so funny that he started to snicker. When she smiled at him because she had no idea what he was laughing at, he burst into hysterical gales. He laughed the entire ride up to the head of the column, drawing stares from his men.

He was still laughing when they reached the other knights and they fell in between Kieran and Michael. Jemma, in front of Kieran, scowled at Paris.

“I knew it,” she whispered loudly to Jordan. “He’s finally gone over the edge and driven himself insane. I suspected it from the first.”

Paris’ smile vanished unnaturally fast and he glared at Jemma. Jordan glanced at him and could see the merriment still in his eyes and was not the least worried that he would punish Jemma for her remark.

“Watch yourself, banshee,” he warned.

Jemma stiffened, but Jordan saw that she was up to enjoying a game of pass-the-insult. Perhaps that was the relationship these two were meant to have.

“How would ye know if I were a banshee or not unless, of course, ye have firsthand knowledge?” she asked. “Yer mother wasna a banshee, by chance?”

Jordan fought off a smile. She lowered her head but not before she glanced wistfully at William’s straight, tall back several feet in front of her. She wished fervently that she were riding with him.

“Understand that my mother was a fine, pious woman,” Paris said indignantly. “But I am sure the only females you understand are the ones that turn into bats in the middle of the night.”

Jemma’s eyes narrowed. “I shall have to take yer word for it that there are women as such. Ye must not know any differently since I suppose they are the only women ye can get into yer bed.”

Jordan’s head came up, sending a look of caution to her cousin, who was smiling triumphantly. But instead of returning the insult as Jemma was expecting, Paris did an immediate turnabout.

“What do you know of men’s beds?” he demanded harshly. “You had better know absolutely nothing…Kieran! Damnation, man, you slept with her last night. You better not have….”

Kieran looked at him with wide eyes. “What in the hell are you talking about?” Then his eyes narrowed dangerously. “You had better not be insinuating that I…..”

The beginning tirade was interrupted by William. He had reined his huge destrier back and flipped up his visor, his gaze hard enough to melt stone.

“I have never heard so goddamn much conversation,” he snapped. “Paris, you ride up with me and leave Lady Jemma alone. Kieran, wipe that bloody look off your face before I wipe it off for you.”

They obeyed without another word. Paris and Jordan rode up with William at the front of the column for a few hours, barely a word spoken between.

The sun had become unseasonably warm and the men were sweating rivers underneath their armor. Jordan, however, was blissfully content. It was wonderful to be anything other than freezing that several times during the ride she turned her face up to the sun and closed her eyes, basking in the rays. She could feel the heat permeating every corner of her body, warming her and chasing away the anxiety and sadness she was feeling. It was heavenly.

William caught her out of the corner of his eye the first time she turned her porcelain face upward in worship of the seldom-seen sun. His visor was down and he was able to watch her unaware for quite some time, marveling at her beauty. Every so often a soft smile would cross her face and he wondering what she was thinking.

Truth was, he missed her riding with him. It did not seem right to watch her riding with someone else, even if it was Paris. He almost felt empty not having her soft body to hold on to. But it was for the best, he told himself firmly. The sooner he got over his infatuation with her, the better off they would all be. It was infatuation, he reminded himself. Nothing else.

Emotions and love were a gateway to pain. His father had been a kind and wise man, but he never quite seemed to have enough time for his youngest son. William’s two older brothers seemed to warrant all of the attention, and his mother was so ill most of the time that he was never allowed around her. He’d loved his mother but he had been denied her. After a while the love was gone. And his father, well… by the time William was eight years old he was sent off to squire at Northwood and never saw his father alive again.

He did not want to have feelings for anyone, much less love. Yes, he was possessive and he would not deny that he felt a good deal of possessiveness for Jordan, but that could not be equated with love. At least, he hoped not.

As the army plodded along, he thought of his future. Certainly, he wanted a wife, eventually, and sons to carry on his name. But all of his logic fled when he realized that he wanted the mother of his sons to be Jordan. He wanted her and only her, and to think of someone else having her drove him so mad that his hands actually began to shake. Oh, God… what was he going to do?

As William was gripped with turmoil, Jordan was actually enjoying the ride even if she was not sitting with William’s strong arm around her. The countryside was starting to level out a bit, the sharp hills rounding off and dipping into beautiful valleys. Patches of wildflowers were everywhere, filling the air with their warm scent.

Jordan had never been this far south before and thought it was lovely. She wondered what Northwood would look like; would it sit in one of those lovely valleys she had seen or did it sit on a hill watching over the fields below? She would have asked, but she did not want to make conversation. William seemed to discourage it in the ranks and she did not want to rouse his ire.

The army rounded a crest of a hill and suddenly she was confronted by millions of wildly blooming flowers, in every color and shape imaginable. It was a wonderful, magnificent sight and she knew she had to have some.

“Stop, Paris.” she ordered eagerly.

He jerked the animal to a halt. “What is it?”