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into ambush.”
    “It was a woman’s treachery that led us
to ambush,” Simon said flatly, setting the mug down with a
thump. “The whore Marie bewitched Robert, and then she
cuckolded him with any man who caught her fancy.”
    “She wasn’t the first wife to do so,
nor the last,” Dominic said. “But I couldn’t
leave a Christian woman to the mercy of the Saracens, no matter
that she lived among them since she was stolen as a
child.”
    “Nor would your knights have allowed
it,” Simon said sardonically. “They were bewitched by
Marie’s harem tricks.”
    Dominic smiled slightly. “Aye. She is a
skilled whore,and I have need of such to keep
my Norman knights from seducing Saxon daughters and causing more
strife.”
    Leaning back in the heavy oak chair that had been
brought up from the lord’s solar for the Glendruid
Wolf’s comfort, Dominic fixed Simon with shrewd, quicksilver
eyes.
    “Sometimes I worried that Marie had bewitched
you,” Dominic said after a few moments.
    “She did. For a time.”
    Dominic hid his surprise. He had always wondered
just how deeply Simon had succumbed to Marie’s practiced
lures.
    “She tried to bewitch you, too,” Simon
pointed out.
    Dominic nodded.
    “You saw through her cold game sooner than
I,” Simon said.
    “I am four years older than you. Marie
wasn’t my first woman.”
    Simon snorted. “She wasn’t my first,
either.”
    “The others were girls with less experience
than you. Marie was…” Dominic shrugged. “Marie
was trained in a seraglio for the pleasure of a corrupt
despot.”
    “She could have been trained by Lilith in
hell and it would all be the same. Marie cannot stir me
anymore.”
    “Aye,” Dominic said. “I watched
her try the whole journey from Jerusalem to Blackthorne Keep. You
were polite, but you would handle a snake sooner than her.
Why?”
    Simon’s expression changed. “Did you
send for me to talk about whores, lord ?”
    After the space of a breath Dominic accepted that
he would get no more from Simon on the subject of Marie.
    “Nay,” Dominic said. “I wanted to
ask in private about your coming marriage.”
    “Has Ariane objected?” Simon demanded
sharply.
    Black eyebrows shot up, but all Dominic said was,
“No.”
    Simon expelled a pent breath.
“Excellent.”
    “Is it? Lady Ariane has little taste for
marriage.”
    “Blackthorne can’t survive a war over a
Norman heiress who was jilted by a nameless Scots warrior,”
Simon said bluntly. “Ariane will be my wife before the moon
sets tonight.”
    “I am reluctant to give you over to such a
cold union,” Dominic said.
    Faint amusement showed on Simon’s face. With
a speed and skill that had unnerved more than one enemy, he drew
his belt dagger and casually speared a piece of cold meat. Strong
white teeth sank into the venison and chewed.
    An instant later the tip of the dagger flicked out
like a snake’s tongue. A brief movement of Simon’s
wrist flipped the slice of meat toward Dominic, who caught it
deftly.
    “Your marriage was little warmer, at
first,” Simon pointed out as his brother ate the venison.
    Dominic smiled slightly.
    “My small falcon was a worthy
adversary,” he agreed.
    Simon laughed. “She fair ran you ragged,
brother. She still does. I’ll settle for less passion and
more ease in my marriage.”
    The Glendruid Wolf’s silver-grey eyes weighed
Simon for a time. Beyond the stone walls, an early winter wind
howled around the keep so fiercely that heavy draperies
stirred.
    The room was luxuriously furnished, having been
designed for the lady of Stone Ring Keep. Now it was serving as
temporary quarters for Dominic and Meg, Lord and Lady of
Blackthorne Keep. But even the stout stone walls, thick draperies,
and slit windows could not wholly turn aside the ice-tipped talons
of an unseasonable storm.
    “You are a passionate man,” Dominic
said simply.
    The quality of Simon’s eyes changed from
clear blackto something deeper, more distant,
night in