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As she watched, he reached up into the drying racks hanging over the tub and
chose a few flowers, some with the bloom of freshness still about them,
picked no doubt from the pots of plants set beneath the window. He sank back
down into the water, smiling at the maid sitting on a stool close by.
Between them was a table set up with a gaming board and playing pieces.
Edmee was fully clothed and already had sweet violets in her hair, to which he
added blue iris buds and pink roses, gently slipping each stem into the crown
of braids circling her head. The effect was that of a riotous spring garland.
The maid didn't move once during his ministrations. Her attention was focused
on the board.
"Take care, Edmee," he warned, tucking in the last flower. "If you check me
now, I'll have you mated in two moves."
The maid glanced up with sloe-eyed impertinence, then went back to
concentrating on the board.
He laughed again and removed one of the roses he'd just put in her hair. Steam
wafted up around him, dampening and straightening his chestnut mane into lank
strands and adding a silvery sheen to his skin. He brought the flower to his
nose and lazily twirled it, waiting for Edmee to make her move.
Ceridwen watched everything, fascinated and oddly disturbed by the scene, by
the sensuality of it, the hint of unknown dangers. What she saw was laced with
the forbidden, the more so for being observed by herself, yet the two of them
appeared so casual, Dain most natural in his nakedness. Women oft bathed men.
'Twas not that which brought a blush to her cheeks, but rather the play
between them. The air was ripe for something more.
Her gaze touched upon the studious maid and the chess game, then was drawn
back to Dain.
Candlelight marked him with shifting shadows; they slid around the sinuous
blue-black tore and the curves of muscle in his arms, and down the bared
length of his back. They hovered in the darkness of his eyes and dwelt in the
crease at the corner of his smile.
The rose brushed against his mouth, and he blew into it, separating the pink
petals and setting them aflutter, his gaze never leaving Edmee except when he
brought the flower back to his nose to inhale its scent, and he gave the bed a
discerning glance.
Ceridwen blanched. The look was personal, focused on her with an impossible
intensity. There was no way for him to see her in the depths of the great bed,
to know she was awake and watching unless he truly was the sorcerer Ragnor
thought him to be.
She lowered her lashes in defense, not knowing if the invasion she felt was
real or her own imagining.
She had believed in his magic in the great hall, when he'd swept in with his
cloak billowing about him and his dogs on either side. Now that vision seemed
more of a fancy, a glamorous trick to snare weak minds.
She did not suffer from that affliction. The strength of her mind, Abbess
Edith had assured her, would be the end of her one day. He would not snare
her. If he had power, most likely 'twas only the power to deceive& and the
power to fascinate, she admitted, her head coming up at the sound of his
laughter. He was unlike any other, playing both the spectral demon and the
Light-elf with equal ease; and the beast also, she was sure, when the mood was
upon him.
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Edmee made her move to check. The game ended quickly, just as he'd predicted,
in two moves, but
'twas Edmee who took his king, not the other way around.
"You witch's daughter," he said, laughing again. "You have beaten me. Be off
with you, then." He made a dismissive gesture. "Take your winnings and leave
me in peace."
He rolled over onto his back in the tub and rested his head on the rim,
seeming to ignore the maid as she walked up and down his rows of shelves with
a pleased sashay to her hips, picking and choosing what she would take.
"Not that one," he called out, "unless 'tis for your mother. She knows well
enough the use of crocus seeds."
Ceridwen saw the girl take one seed capsule and return the jar to the shelf
before moving on. When she was finished, she went back to Dain and spread out
her bounty on the gaming table for him to see.
"You play well and choose wisely, Edmee. Madron will be proud of you."
In reply, the girl made a gesture Ceridwen couldn't see, but Dain grew still.
" 'Tis never part of the bargains we make." And then, "Aye, you know well how
to please me, but& "
His voice trailed off as the maid dipped her hand beneath the water.
"Jesus," he cursed softly. "Your mother would put a hex on me to shrivel my
balls if she but knew what we did."
For herself, Ceridwen wasn't sure what they were doing, or rather what the
maid was doing to him, but she knew enough to understand that the hushed
noises he made bespoke pleasure, not pain. There was no mistaking the
encouragement lacing his whispered words, just as there was no mistaking the
effect those words had on Ceridwen herself. A flush of excitement coursed over
her skin, making her painfully aware of her body while at the same time [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]