At that Talis swept Callie into his arms and she snuggled her body against him, her face in his shoulder, her arms tightly about his neck. “You will harm yourself carrying me,” she whispered, her lips against his ear. “Your back—”
“Save your breath; you need your strength,” he said tightly. “I can carry you to the ends of the earth, if need be.”
“Are you sure you need no help?”
Talis didn’t bother answering that. However, it was miles back to the hall and the rain was coming down harder with every minute.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, managing to turn her body so her breasts were pressed against his chest.
Water was dripping off the tip of his nose. “That I’d like to know why that stupid horse of yours ran off. That was very odd. And I’d like to know why you insisted on riding this far out when I told you there was going to be a storm today. Anyone with half a mind could see that a storm was brewing, yet you—”
At that moment Callie was sure that if any man in history had ever been romantic, it had been an accident.
“Oh, Talis,” she began to wail. “I am so sorry. I have been awful to you lately. Really awful and I wanted us to get away from everyone just to be alone. Like we used to do. I just wanted to tell you that I loved you and I am sorry that I have been so horrid. Can you ever forgive me?”
Callie knew that groveling from her was one of Talis’s favorite things in life. Abject apologies often got her what pride could not.
“Well, perhaps,” he began, blinking away rain that was cascading over his lashes, down his nose, and splashing straight onto Callie’s face.
“I am sorry it all worked out wrong.” She had to shout to be heard over the rain. “But I truly am in pain. Couldn’t we stop? Isn’t there any place we could…well, rest until this is over?”
“Are you talking about the farrier’s again? Is that where you want to go? Would you rather—”
“No, of course not. Isn’t there someplace near here?” she asked, trying to cut through the jealousy that was blinding him. She tried again to make him remember. “A hut or something? Someplace dry and warm.”
“This is hunting land, you know that. Callie, really, I’d think you’d have more sense than—” He cut off as he had a thought. “Yes, there is a place near here. It’s just a cellar and it has no door, but it’s better than this.”
Callie had to hide her face so he wouldn’t see her smile.
“No!” he said, shaking his head against the rain. “It is better to get you back home.”
At his words, Callie really did feel like weeping. “Talis, please, let’s stop. It’s raining so hard I can’t see and I’m so cold.”
“Since when has rain bothered you? We’ve walked for miles in the rain together. You love walking in the rain and now you’re not even having to walk. I’m carrying you.”
“But look at me, I’m soaked.” She moved her body away from his so she could show him her wet gown. She was not wearing a corset. In fact, she wasn’t wearing much at all under the thin white woolen bodice of her gown, and as a result, the dress was almost transparent. “Look at me! Talis, you are not looking.” But even in the rain she could see that his face was red. Obviously, he had looked.
Slipping her arms back around his neck, she pressed her breasts against him. “Please, if you know a place where I can get dry, please take me there. Maybe we could sit and rest. My ankle does hurt so much.”
Talis didn’t say a word but kept walking as though he meant to carry her to China.
“Oh, I see. You’re afraid to be alone with me,” she said. “How very flattering. I had no idea you thought I was so beautiful that you could not be alone with me. Some knight you will make! You can only keep your vows if you are not tested. Yes, I understand now.”
Talis turned so fast Callie had to clutch his neck to keep from spinning away from him and Kipp dug his fingers and toes into her waist as he held on. It really was cold and Callie really did have on a very thin gown with almost nothing on under it. Had it not been for the concealing cloak she would never have left her room wearing so little. But it was all for a good cause, she told herself.
Minutes later they were in the little shelter built into the side of the hill.
When Talis had gently placed Callie on a clean, thick bed of new straw, and Kipp had delightedly begun to burrow into the straw, he began to look about him with interest. Even when Callie let out a loud groan, he gave her only cursory attention, but kept looking at the interior of the shed.
“What is wrong with you?” she snapped, getting more frustrated by the minute. Why couldn’t he give his attention to her?
“Look you at this place,” he said. “Mere weeks ago this was no more than a shack. There was not even a door, but now the place has fine new straw in it and it—”
He broke off as, behind him, the door slammed shut. When he ran to the door, he found that it was locked! Locked from the outside. He spent several minutes running his hands over the door, examining it.
“Callie,” he said seriously, “something very strange is happening. This door has new forged iron hinges. The iron is not rusty.”
“Obviously, someone was preparing the shed for use.”
“If that is true, then why was the door standing open when we arrived? Rain rusts iron. And why isn’t this place being used now?”
“Perhaps the people plan to use it tomorrow and some lazy workman forgot to close the door.”
“What could this place be used for? It is too small for storage, too small for housing. And why would someone put a four-inch-thick oak door on a cellar that has a dirt and timber roof? The roof will melt before the door gives way. And, besides, this land belongs to Lord John, and since he bought it he uses it for hunting only. He has trespassers whipped.”
“Yes, well,” Callie said, her tone conveying how uninterested she was in what he was saying. “That must be it. This hut was to be used for a poacher-catcher. As a place for someone to spy from.”
“Really, Callie, that makes no sense. A spy cannot ‘hide’ in a place with a door that can be locked from the outside. A spy would—”
“Talis! I do not know what this place is for. I do not know why someone has gone to all the trouble to put new hinges and new crossbars on the door on this place. I—”
Talis looked at her, his head cocked to one side. “I did not say the crossbars are new.”
“Of course you did. And if you did not then I can see from here that they are new.”
Talis was thoughtful. “No, the crossbars do not look new. In truth, the wood has been taken from somewhere else. Callie, it is almost as though someone wanted the door to appear old. They are new but look old. I wonder—”
For a moment Callie looked at him and didn’t seem to have anything to say to his speculations. Then, she hugged her arms about herself and shivered. “Talis, I am cold.” To emphasize this, she sneezed three times. “You stand there talking about that door while I am freezing to death.”
Talis’s face was very serious. “Yes, I know you are cold and I will get us out of this. I swear to you, Callie, that I will get you home.”
With her lips tight, she said, “You cannot get out of here. This building has stone on three sides and a hill on the other. The door is four inches of stout oak and the hinges are new iron. You cannot get out.”
While she was saying this, Talis had turned to look at her as though trying to understand what she was saying.
She gave him a hard look. “Now, I think the best thing for us to do is to prepare for spending the night here. In the morning someone will come to fetch us.”
For a few moments Talis stood there, as far away from her as he could get in the small space, and seemed to consider what she was saying. Callie was so innocent, he thought. She still seemed to think they were children and they could sleep snuggled together with the guiltlessness of children. No doubt she imagined them together in the straw, holding each other and
sleeping in peace.
But Talis had only to look at her and he knew that, on his part, there could be no innocence. Her cloak was open, exposing that white wool dress that clung to a body with many newly formed curves. If she had grown breasts could she not have had the courtesy to grow them a bit smaller? Every man in England was going to look at her and—
Best to stop those thoughts, he told himself. Turning away, he looked back at the door. He had his sword with him so maybe he could somehow break the hinges. Or maybe he could cut his way out the door. Or perhaps there was a loose stone in the walls. Or—
At a sound from Callie, he turned back toward her. To his absolute horror, her cloak was puddled on the straw and she seemed to be unfastening her gown. She was leaning against the stone wall, standing on one foot in a way that made her hip jut out and her breasts thrust forward.
“What are you doing?” There was real fear in his voice.
She spoke to him as though he could see the obvious. “I am removing my wet clothes. I told you that I am freezing.”
Logic, Talis thought. Filling the brain with logic would help him keep his head cool. “And how do you plan to get warm once you are…are unclothed?”
She halted with her hands on the ties of her gown, which was now unfastened to her waist. Did she have nothing on under that dress? he wondered.
Callie gave Talis a sideways look. “I had not planned that. I…we could…”
It was innocence on her part, Talis was sure, but Callie was fluttering her lashes at him in a way that made him think of a couple of ways they could use to get warm. “The straw!” Talis said gleefully, as though he’d just had the most brilliant idea ever. “You can burrow under the straw. Deep, deep down inside the straw. Very far down into it. The farther down into the straw you go the warmer you will stay.”
“And what of you?” she asked softly. “Where will you stay to keep warm?”
“Me?” He gave a movement to show that his own comfort had not been a consideration to him. “I will of course spend the night trying to get us out of here.”
Callie’s face lost its calm, almost seductive look. “But Talis! You cannot stay awake all night! I have told you, the walls of this place are made of stone and the door is—”
At those words Talis knew that Callie doubted him. It was the first time she had ever done this, so it did not anger him. But her doubt of his abilities made him resolve that he had to show her he was able to take care of her. Also, it was about time he spoke to her with truth; he must show her that he was an adult, not the child she seemed to still think he was.
Going to her, he put his arm around her, then kissed her cold cheek. “Listen, my sweetheart, I have never failed you yet, have I? And I won’t fail you now. I do not mean to worry you but I do not think anyone will come for us in the morning. We are too far away from anywhere. We might stay here days and no one would find us. Now, while I am fresh and rested, I must do whatever I can to get us out of here. Do you trust me?”
Callie let her body in its half-unfastened gown lean against him limply. “Talis, my love, it is not that I think you cannot get us out of here. If anyone could, you could. It’s that…”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Nothing,” she said tightly. “Go on, spend the night hacking at the door and tearing your hands on the stones. What do I care? What does it matter to me? Go on, go do your honorable deeds.”
Talis had no idea what she was upset about but in the last year he’d never been able to figure out what was wrong with Callie. When she pushed away from him, she almost fell, but when he tried to help her stand, she pushed him fiercely. Her actions made Talis know that he had to get them out of there. He had to once again win her trust of him; he had to make her look at him with eyes full of belief that he could do anything. If he died trying, he was determined to get them out of there.
But an hour later, Talis had made no more headway in getting them out of their cold prison. Callie had tried to interest him in something or other that she was doing, but Talis was concentrating on his mission and didn’t so much as look around. He knew that now she was buried up to her neck in the straw and she was angry at him, so angry that it was something he could feel, like the wet of his cold clothing. But the more he felt her anger, the more determined he was to get them out of their prison. He could bear most anything except Callie thinking he was incompetent.
A scream from her finally got his attention. Turning abruptly, he saw her flailing about under the straw. The monkey, asleep nearby, looked up in interest.
“Fleas!” she screeched. “There are fleas in here.”
Instinctively, Talis took the one step to close the distance between them, just in time to catch a naked Callie in his arms as she rose from the straw as though she were some golden creature rising from the sea.
“Help me,” she cried. “They are everywhere on my body. Help me find them.”
For seconds only, Talis ran his hands over Callie’s delicious body as he tried to rid her of the fleas that were, according to her, scurrying over every inch of her body.
But he could not stand such torture long. Pale, shaking, sweat on his forehead in spite of the cold room and his nearly frozen wet clothes, he jumped away from her. Then, as though he were some great animal of uncommon strength, he used his sword to hack a hole through the dirt roof. Dirt flew everywhere, great clods of it flying about until Callie had to put her arms up to shield her face, Kipp screeching in protest at his disturbed slumber.
When Talis had cut a space barely large enough for his body, he grabbed a beam and hauled himself out into the cold, driving rain. Within seconds, he flung open the door. But Talis did not look at Callie, still standing in the midst of a pile of straw that hid her naked body from the knee down. He kept his back to her.
Very sternly, as though she had no other choice, he said, “Callie, put your clothes on. We are going home.”
“But Talis,” she began. “I think we should stay here. I think—”
He kept his back to her. “Then I will go and get a horse and come back for you.”
“You cannot. It is too far. It will take too long.” There were tears in her voice.
“I will run.”
“Talis, you cannot run all that way. It is miles.”
He lifted his hands skyward. “Callie,” he said in exasperation, “I could run for miles and days. Perhaps for years. I could run to the ends of the earth. I could—” But he didn’t say another word before he began to run, run as fast as he could move to put distance between himself and Callie’s beautiful nude body.
But he didn’t have to run far for he found Callie’s horse with its reins caught in some bushes, so he was able to return to Callie very quickly.
Later, after he was able to rescue her, Talis was quite proud of himself for what he had done. But for some reason Callie was so angry that she wouldn’t speak to him and her unjustified rage made Talis angry. When did girls, people you could have fun with, turn into women, who were incomprehensible?
Their ride back to Hadley Hall had been in silence and Callie didn’t thank him even once for rescuing her.
38
And what are you smiling about?” James asked Talis as he stretched out beside him, Philip taking the other side. “In truth, you have been most pleased about something these last weeks.”
When Talis didn’t answer, Philip also began urging him. “Come now, you can tell us. We are your brothers.”
Talis was lying on the bank of the river that ran not far from Hadley Hall, his hands clasped behind his head and looking up at the azure of the sky. Nearby Hugh stood with his horse as it drank from the river. All morning Talis had been training with his brothers, but there were times when he could hardly keep his mind on what he was doing.
“Tell us!” James demanded.
Knowing the value of making his listeners wait to hear the story—something he’d learned from Callie—Talis took a moment before he answered.
&n
bsp; “Callie is trying to seduce me.”
That was not what James and Philip had expected to hear. But the words made their minds whirl with the possibilities. They were always trying to seduce the girls who worked about the hall, and here Talis was saying that a woman was trying to get him to…to…
“What has she done?” James whispered, awe making his voice almost inaudible.
Talis’s face had a dreamy expression as he looked up at the sky. “Locked us alone together in an old cellar. She’d had a new door put on.”
James looked at Philip across Talis’s inert form and wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh yes, I am sure this is true. If I see a shed with a new door then I know it is because a beautiful woman is trying to seduce me. Do you not also find this true, brother?”
“Most certainly. It is one of the certainties of life. A new door equals a lustful woman.”
Talis was grinning broader. “Laugh all you want but she never stops. It is night and day.” Images began to float through his head: Callie naked in the shed; days later holding her dress up to show her bare legs when she was crossing a pond that was hardly deep enough to cover her toes; the frequency with which she tore the tops of her gowns.
“Yes,” he said happily, “Callie is trying to seduce me.”
“How do you know?” “I doubt if she is.” “You probably just think she is,” his brothers replied in unison.
“Every time I look up, she is naked or at least partially so,” he said softly, and in his mind he began to list the things she’d done in these last weeks since the time in the shed. He would have died before he admitted that he had not figured out what she was doing that first time in the storm. But since then he had understood and driven Callie nearly mad with feigned stupidity. He was praying that the more naive he was, the harder she would try.
“Perhaps you ‘boys,’ ” Talis said, to sound as though he were the oldest and wisest of the three, “would suggest to her that she rise from the sea wearing nothing but her hair. Or, since there is no sea near here, the cow pond would do as well. Yes, I would like that. Callie wet and wearing just her hair.”