They rode around trees and bramble until they came to a small patch of grass. They’d ridden around long enough to find it and, in that time, they had seen no one.
This place was private.
He slipped out of the saddle, light on his feet. He lifted his arms to her, and she fell into them. He kissed her and then carried her to a giant tree and set her under it. “Would you have me out here in the open under the trees?”
“I’d have you anywhere,” she said, kissing his mouth. “Anywhere you want me.”
“I want you all the time.”
She giggled as he softly bit her lip, then her chin. She lay back, pulling him with her.
“No man has ever treated me the way you do, Nicholas. I’m so glad the brooch sent me back to you.”
He smiled, parting her lips with his tongue, untying the laces of her dress. He moved his body over hers, loving how she felt under him. He grew harder for her and ran his palms under her skirts…over her arse in her lacy panties.
He didn’t want to wait. He could not wait much longer. He was hard, stretching his hose to its limit.
With a flick of his wrist, he untied the laces of his hose and released himself into his hand. He held his velvet tip to the lacy barrier between them.
He wanted to tear it away. It would have taken nothing, but he pulled them down instead. Slowly, sensually, he took her full rump in his hands while she took him into her body, snugly at first and then sleeker as she molded to him.
Nicholas looked down into her eyes and his heart melted within him. He wondered how he had ever lived in a world without her before.
“I feel as if I have been surviving from one battle to the next. Then you appeared and I began to live.”
She lifted her hips beneath him and gasped softly when the full size of him filled her. She rubbed herself against him and he thrust with more conviction.
“You made the most terrifying and terrible thing in my life bearable…and then enjoyable. You saved my life and my heart right along with it. You’re a man in full splendor, and I’m never letting you go.”
She tightened her grip on him and he drove himself deeper and then withdrew. They both held their breath for an instant, until he sank within her again, this time with the evidence of his passion filling her.
She clung to him and cried out into his shoulder as her passion poured out onto him.
Nicholas held her in his arms, in the grass, beneath a giant tree. Birdsongs sounded from the branches above. A cool, refreshing breeze rustled the leaves and her hair.
A perfect day thanks to her. He smiled and swept a tendril of hair away from her eyes. But he didn’t want the king changing his mind because they’d kept him waiting.
“We should be getting back.” He kissed her and then rose up to pull his hose back on.
She was sizing him up and smiling when he turned back around to look at her. He did the same while she pulled up her panties and let down her skirts.
They didn’t talk about the king on the way back. Kestrel was still set on begging him not to fight against Henry. He understood that altering time was forbidden and dangerous, but after what Richard had done this morning, the idea of abandoning him didn’t sit well with Nicholas.
“Did Elizabeth ever mention Henry to you?” he asked her. Now that the danger to Kestrel was over, Elizabeth bombarded his thoughts. What kind of clever, dangerous enemy to Richard was she? How long had she felt animosity toward him—enough to lure him to his death?
“She never did,” his wife replied, resting against him. “And she only spoke of the king when she was asked about him. She mostly wanted to know what happened to me, was my memory getting any better? She asked a lot of questions about you.”
“What kinds of questions?”
She shrugged and he kissed the top of her head. “Questions like was I responsible for all your smiles.”
“What did you tell her?” he whispered against her ear.
“That I wasn’t responsible for all your smiles.”
“Not true,” he laughed softly. “You are responsible for all of them, all my laughter, all my hopes. Everything. What I do with it all is my choice. You awakened me and now I want it all with you.”
He felt her take in a long, deep breath and then let it out as if all her pain rode on the breath of that wave and left her body. “I love you, Nicholas.”
“And I love you, Kestrel.”
When they reached the castle, they dismounted and were on their way to their room when they were stopped by a group of his men.
“King Richard wishes to see you as soon as you return,” said one of the guards. “Forgive us, my lord, but we are to escort you.”
“Is something wrong?’ Kestrel asked him, looking up.
“No, love,” he reassured. He wished he felt the confidence with which he spoke. Had something happened? He didn’t want to alarm Kestrel, so he said nothing.
They were escorted to Nicholas’ solar, where the king awaited them.
Sitting in a chair beside the king, with a drink in his hand, was Reg. Why did Nicholas’ blood run cold in his veins? “What is going on?” he asked the king.
He noticed more guards filing into the solar. Some of them were the men Nicholas had relieved of duty yesterday.
“Nicholas,” the king said, looking forlorn. “I thought you were on my side.”
“What are you talking about?” Nicholas growled.
“How could you take a Lancaster as your bride? And now, she may be a witch!”
No! Nicholas’ murderous gaze went to Reg as even more guards filled the solar. Five men came at him immediately while four others took hold of Kestrel.
When they put their hands on her, Nicholas fought against his captors
