Immortal Warrior Read Online Free PDF Page A

in all things. Obey them and grant them each the respect due to me, and see that every man and woman on this manor does the same.”
    “Yes, my lord.” They both bobbed their heads at him and at Brand, and were gone.
    Ivo stood, stretched, and shook out the kinks. He had a final sip of wine. He stretched again.
    “You delay like those stairs lead to the gallows,” laughed Brand. “Are you truly ready for this?”
    Ivo closed his eyes, picturing her as she’d looked there by the door, her color high and her red hair blazing in the torchlight. Brand was right. She was too quick by half for comfort. But she was also fair beyond pretty, and more to the point, she was his. He blew out a long sigh. “I may never be ready for her, but by the gods, I do want her.”
    He took the stairs two at a time. Below him, he heard Brand, still chuckling.
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    CHAPTER 3
    SHE WOULD TAKE nothing that was not her own.
    Alaida ignored the silk chainse that was part of her grandfather’s court dress and dug to the bottom of the big chest to find her own best sindon chemise. There would be no use for it at the abbey, of course, but the holy sisters could sell it as part of her dower. Her best gowns plus her jewels would surely be enough to buy her a place in one of the wealthier chapters. She would go to Durham . . . or farther south, perhaps. She’d heard of an abbey at Helenstowe in Oxfordshire. He would never find her there.
    “Where are you going, my lady?”
    She whirled, startled, clutching the soft linen to her breast. Behind her, the lid to the chest crashed down and she jumped. “Oh.”
    “I do not bite. At least, not after a good meal.” The amusement in Ivo’s voice made her blood roil. Twice already he had laughed at her, and he had not yet been here one night.
    “You startled me, monseigneur , that is all. I did not hear you enter.”
    “You had your head deep in that chest.”
    Presenting a charming view from the door, no doubt. She released her death grip on the chemise and draped it more loosely over her arm in an attempt to look less embarrassed. Or guilty. “Do you want something, my lord?”
    “Yes, you . . . to answer my question. Where are you going?”
    “Nowhere,” she lied.
    “Odd.” He picked his way past the women’s bedding and over to the foot of the great bed, where a stack of neatly folded clothing lay next to a small wooden casket. He picked up the corner of a gown and fingered the embroidered hem, then tipped open the lid of the casket and lifted up the silver girdle that lay on top. “You appear to be packing for a journey.”
    “I only thought to remove my things.” Her heart was pounding so loudly, surely he must hear. “The chamber is yours now, like the rest of Alnwick.” She failed to keep the bitterness out of her voice.
    “There is no need.” He dropped the girdle back in with the other things. “I will rest in the hall tonight.”
    “Tomorrow, then, I will—”
    “Tomorrow, you will not need to remove your things. Tomorrow, we will be married. That is what I came to discuss.”
    “There is nothing to discuss.”
    “You must know the king has gifted you to me along with the land.”
    “The king! The king is . . .” She could not summon words to describe what she thought of William. “I am not a chair to be given away so some knight can sit more comfortably in my grandfather’s hall.”
    “The marriage will strengthen my claim,” he admitted, running his hand down the heavy green linen that curtained the bed. “But that is not the only reason I wish to wed.”
    His meaning was clear, as he intended. She felt the heat crawling up her neck and turned away so he would not see.
    Or at least, she tried to turn away.
    Her gown was caught on something, so firmly she could move only inches. With his gaze still fixed on her and the color creeping into her cheeks, she reached behind herself, trying to trace the source of the snag.
    “Well, I do not wish it,” she said, groping about, flustered. “Find some other woman who will have you