Lord of My Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

men. Madeleine, however, was here in Mercia “learning about her land.” That was how Matilda had described it, adding that such a great heiress would not want to be at court where she would be fought over like a rabbit thrown to the hounds.
    Wouldn’t she?
    Madeleline suspected the real problem was her right of choice. The king and queen must have come to regret promising her some say in the choice of her husband.
    Madeleine stretched and raised her loose brown hair from her neck. It was a warm day, even in the shade. All she wore was her shift and a simple blue linen short-sleeved kirtle. This was girdled with a plain leather belt holding two pouches for leaves and roots, but her main object at the moment was not collecting but taking inventory of nature’s storehouse.
    She left the path to study a low-growing bush, and her skirt caught on a twig. Impatiently she hitched it higher into her girdle, upsetting the careful folds achieved by her tiring woman, Dorothy, and achieving a length more suited to a peasant than a lady.
    Dorothy would have a fit to see her so, Madeleine thought with a grin, but Dorothy was some way back resting against an oak and sewing, and so in no position to object.
    The bush proved to be dwayle, as she had hoped.
    Madeleine stored it in her memory. Though the berries were dangerous, the leaves could soothe those who were agitated or in pain.
    Back on the path she noted witch hazel, elder, and some mosses growing on an oak. She saw brambles which would bear fruit later. If the management of Baddersley continued as she had witnessed during her week here, wild foods might be all that stood between them and starvation in the winter.
    She now knew why all her Uncle Paul’s enterprises came to naught. He blustered and roared and plied his whip, but he could not organize people to purposeful work, nor could he look ahead and guard against disasters.
    Aunt Celia was almost as bad. She had more notion of management than her husband, but her ranting abuse of any shortcoming, and her constant belief that everyone was trying to deceive her, did not lead to good service.
    Angrily, Madeleine snapped a dead branch from an elm. This was her land, and it was being abused. The first thing she would do when she had chosen a suitable husband was to throw out Paul and Celia. And they knew it.
    At least they were happy to have her out of sight, and so made no objection to her exploring the nearby land as long as she took Dorothy and a guard along. Dorothy complained at “being dragged all over the place,” and so Madeleine left her to sit in the shade. Paul’s men were as idle as they could be, and happy to guard the maid rather than the mistress. Madeleine was left to explore in peace.
    She never wandered far, however. The people here were cowed but still unfriendly, and she no more wanted to meet any of them alone in the woods than she wanted to encounter an angry boar. She looked back and checked that Dorothy and the soldier were still in sight.
    Then she glimpsed water through the trees. She went forward eagerly for there were many beneficial plants which grew in marshy ground at a river’s edge.
    A large splash halted her. Just a fish? Or some large animal? She moved forward more cautiously, and peeped out from behind a strand of willow.
    A man was swimming.
    The smooth line of his back was clear—long, golden, and slick with water. When he turned to swim toward the bank, she could see his face but could make little of it. Young, though. But she’d guessed that from his body . . .
    Still in deep water, he stopped swimming, stood, and began to wade toward the bank. Madeleine gave a little sigh as his body was revealed bit by bit.
    His shoulders were broad and sinuously strong, sloping down into hard breasts; between the flaring ribs ridges of muscles formed a perfect central cleft which was emphasized by the faint line of water-darkened hair disappearing into the river.
    Naked and a part of nature, he was