THE CURSE OF EXCALIBUR: a gripping Arthurian fantasy (THE MORGAN TRILOGY Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

notice me, and come over. He glanced around himself before he walked over. He must have been checking for Uriens. He came, and slid an arm around me, holding me around the waist, steadying me.
    “I don’t need your help,” I said, irritably.
    “No, my Lady, you may not need it, but you might benefit from it,” he said, close and quiet. I glanced up at him. There was real concern in his eyes. “Where do you want to go?”
    “I need to go back to the stores.”
    He nodded, and went with me. I resented my own weakness, but I was glad to have someone to lean on, and for him to hold the torch as I picked out what I needed. It smelled pleasant down there, of apples and old wood, of dried herbs and cool stone. When I had collected what I needed and tucked it into the sleeve of my dress, I turned around to leave, and found Accolon closer behind me than I had thought. I felt my heart give an unconscious flutter of excitement. He leaned forward, sliding an arm around my waist, resting his hand at the small of my back, stepping tentatively closer. I tilted my face up towards his, placing my hand against his cheek. I heard him give a low groan of anticipation as our noses brushed together, and I felt his hot breath against my lips.
    “Accolon,” I whispered, “do you know how to forge a sword?”
    He gave a low laugh. “I can forge a sword for you, Morgan.”
    Our lips met, and I sank against him with a slight tremble of desire. It could not be here, it could not be now, but it would be soon. I felt sure enough of Accolon now to have him as my lover, and perhaps even more than that. I would wait for that, though, until I was sure.
    I pulled away from his kiss slowly. I could see the hunger in his eyes, the desire, and I was pleased. It was too long since a man had looked at me that way.
    “Soon,” I whispered to him. He gave me a gentle smile, and helped me out, and back to my room. Conscious of Uriens close by, and the danger that he might happen upon us if we lost ourselves in a kiss, I only brushed my fingers lightly against his lips as I said goodbye. I felt their softness against my fingertips long after he had left. It would be soon.

Chapter Four
    Autumn came, and I felt my strength return to me fully. Elaine chirruped about how I looked my old self again. But it was not enough. Nimue had not answered my letters, and I needed to know if she had learned Merlin’s secrets from him. Uriens’ ominous promise that I could not keep him from my bed hung around me, and though he had not tried to come to me, now I was recovered from my childbed weakness I was afraid he would try again soon. I had prepared the mixture for him as I had done before, but I had precious little of the herbs I needed for it left, and I warily kept them for when I might have urgent need of them.
    As the leaves were turning red and beginning to fall, I called Accolon to my chamber in secret to show him Excalibur, when I knew that Uriens had ridden out to hunt. When he came through the door, he shut it behind himself, and I saw the excitement on his face; but I had a different kind of excitement in mind. I was holding Excalibur in its scabbard behind my back, and when he stepped forward to take me in his arms, I held it out before him. I saw his eyes widen, and a gasp escaped his lips. I drew the sword, and held it out in front of him, feeling its Otherworld lightness, as I held it aloft in a single hand. He gasped again.
    “You do not need me to make you a sword if you have a sword like that ,” he murmured.
    I rested the blade against his upturned palms, and he ran a hand down the flat of it, whistling through his teeth. My hand was still around the hilt, and he let his hand brush over mine as he stroked it down the sword. He looked up at me, and our eyes met. When he saw the look of sly ambition on my face, a smile of intrigue curled across his face.
    “This is Excalibur, isn’t it?” he asked, quietly.
    So, he had heard of it. I nodded.
    “I