Lion's Bride - Iris Johansen [41]
He reached down and carefully drew over her the wool blanket at the bottom of the bed.
A chill rippled through him; the motion had been done without thought, purely instinctive.
He could not let it be the woman.
When Thea opened her eyes, it was after dawn. One moment she was asleep and the next fully awake as if she had been called.
He was still sitting in the chair beside the bed, his head tilted back. He appeared…different in sleep. Not helpless; even in slumber the tension and wariness were still present. She studied him curiously as she never could when he was awake. She had not noticed before what long black lashes he had. When his eyes were open, one paid heed only to that searing blue. His mouth was well shaped and actually quite beautiful….
“Stop looking at me.”
Her gaze flew up to meet that glittering blue glance.
“I meant no—I was half-asleep.” Why was she stammering? She had done nothing wrong. She sat up and swung her feet to the floor. “It’s dawn. I must go to Haroun. You should go to your bed. You cannot be comfortable there.”
He grimaced. “Comfortable? I can’t move, and I’m sure this crick in my neck will never go away.”
She started to get up. “Then lie down as I told you and all will be—”
“Stay where you are,” he snapped.
She froze and then deliberately got to her feet. “I cannot help that you’ve drunk too deep and have a bad head. I’ll not be ordered about.”
“Because you’re a free woman,” he said mockingly. “There is no such thing. A woman is only as free as her husband permits her to be.”
“But I have no husband. Nor will I ever.” She added harshly, “Do you think I’d risk joining myself to a man? No man, no country, not even the Church gives fairness to women. We are nothing to any of you. My mother told me of a council once held at Nantes where great nobles and churchmen gathered to decide whether women were human or beasts. I’m convinced the only reason they decided we were human was to avoid being put to death for the crime of bestiality.”
“You could be right. It would certainly give me pause.” He went back to the original subject. “You have such a hatred for slavery?”
“There’s no use talking to you. You cannot understand.”
“Then make me understand.”
She frowned in puzzlement. “Why are you angry?”
“I’m not angry. I’m just telling you that freedom is not such a prize. Some prisons can be more comfortable and pleasant than the world beyond them. All captivities aren’t as cruel as the one you suffered at the House of Nicholas.” He paused. “Did he beat you?”
“When I was a child. Later I learned…” She shrugged. “What do you wish me to say? I had ample to eat, a clean place to sleep. When I showed promise, Nicholas had me taught languages and numbers so that I could speak knowledgeably with the merchants who came to buy the silk. There was even a walled garden outside the women’s quarters where we were permitted to go in the evening after the light failed. My mother said we were more fortunate than many.” She folded her arms across her chest. “But as years went by, I began to hate it more and more. I could not breathe. I watched Selene bent over her loom from dawn to dusk, and I wanted to pick her up and carry her away to where there was sunlight and the smell of flowers and—” She broke off and drew a shaky breath. “It wasn’t fair. No one should be allowed to own another person.”
“So it was for Selene you ran away?”
“No, I could have waited until conditions were better, if I had only Selene to consider.” She met his gaze. “A prince from Florence came to see Nicholas to buy some bolts of silk for his wife. He had a fondness for fair-haired women and decided he would like to buy me as well.”
“Nicholas sold you?”
“Why not? The prince offered a great sum for me. It’s true my skill made me valuable, but if my body is worth more…” She smiled bitterly. “But Nicholas is a wily trader. The negotiations went on for days. I didn’t wait for them to be completed.”
“Bastard.”
“He never considered himself to