The Redeeming Read Online Free PDF Page B

lecher.
    Reminding himself that the audience he had been granted was not without time constraint, he said, “I know of this marriage from which you seek deliverance, Lady Gaenor.”
    Though she was hardly relaxed, clutching at her mantle and sitting the edge as she did, she stiffened. “As ‘tis by the king’s command, my marriage to Baron Lavonne is no secret.”
    “It is not, just as it is no secret that you fled to Wulfen to avoid it.”
    Gaenor stared at the man before her. He was too bold, and though she knew what he said was true, she was inclined to challenge him. “Is it not?”
    He smiled, a tolerant smile that, despite the anger it roused in her, forced her to acknowledge that Sir Matthew was not without attraction. Almost handsome, though not nearly as well-favored as—
    “In all of England,” he said, “there is no castle more impregnable. Thus, what else is there to conclude than that the Wulfriths hid their beloved sister here?”
    Beloved! She, whom her family intended to hand up as a sacrifice? She would laugh if not that the long months of believing Beatrix had given her life that her older sister might escape marriage had made her a stranger to such expression of emotion.
    “Why are you opposed to the marriage, my lady?”
    “Only a fool or martyr would put their head in such a noose as that which awaits the woman who weds a Lavonne.”
    The knight looked momentarily away. “You speak from the experience of having met these Lavonnes?”
    The man was insufferable! Wondering why she had let him convince her to sit with him, she said, “My family and our people have suffered much at the hands of that family. That is experience enough.”
    He nodded slowly. “Given time, mayhap the Lavonne you are to wed will prove different from the others.”
    “Ha!” It was as near a laugh as she was capable of producing. “And mayhap one day you, Sir Knight, will surpass my brother at swords.”
    “’Tis possible—given time.”
    Gaenor rose and swung away, but the knight was instantly at her back and turning a hand around her upper arm. Before she could retrieve her dagger, he pulled her around to face him.
    “What I spoke was not meant to offend, Lady Gaenor, only to encourage.”
    She opened her mouth to rebuke him, but his words seemed so sincere that she faltered.
    Looking up at him—a rarity for a woman as tall as she—something moved in her chest. He was not as handsome as the one who held her heart, but his face was well-formed. Forgetting they stood so near, she considered his defined chin, generous mouth, broad cheekbones, and long, straight nose. Lastly, she settled on his most intriguing feature—brown eyes flecked with gold, unlike her own eyes that could best be described as muddy.
    It took Gaenor some moments to realize the knight scrutinized her as intently, but though she knew she ought to be offended, she felt that movement again. And it disturbed her as she could not remember being disturbed the last time she had been so near a man. Why? And why this pang as if she betrayed the man she would choose to take her to wife—a man who did not want her?
    She drew a shuddering breath. “Why are you at Wulfen, Sir Matthew?”
    “As you have seen, I am training with your brothers.”
    “I have seen, but ‘tis boys and young men who seek training here, not men who have already earned their spurs.”
    The knight inclined his head. “On the battlefield, I discovered to my near detriment that my previous training was lacking. Thus, that I might not find my legs or life cut out from under me, I came to Wulfen.”
    “I see.” Not entirely, but it was much the same as Everard had told when she had questioned him about Abel’s student. “And have you gained what you sought?”
    His gaze drifted to her mouth, and the gold in his eyes seemed to shift amid the brown. “Not all, but methinks soon I shall.”
    Gaenor felt herself sway toward the knight. Horrified, she lurched back and he