The Velvet Promise (Montgomery/Taggert 2)

Stephen returned his brother’s grin. “Now we understand each other. I thought you didn’t know how to treat a woman. Is she asleep?”

“Yes. She will stay there the night.” Gavin lifted one brow. “I thought you would have a hogshead of wine ready.”

“I do,” Stephen grinned. “I didn’t want you to feel the lesser man by my drinking twice as much as you.”

“You!” Gavin snorted. “My younger brother? Didn’t you know I got drunk the first time before you were born?”

“I don’t believe you!”

“It’s true. I’ll tell you the story though it is a very long one.”

Stephen slapped his brother on the back. “We have all night. The morning is when we’ll repent what we’ve done.”

Gavin chuckled. “You shall repent with your ugly Scottish bride, but I will wearily lay my head in my beautiful wife’s lap and kindly allow her to cosset me.”

Stephen groaned. “You are a cruel man!”

For both brothers, the night was a special time of closeness. They celebrated their release from Demari. They celebrated Gavin’s good fortune in his marriage, and they commiserated together on the prospect of Stephen’s forthcoming one.

“I’ll give her back to her people if she disobeys me,” Stephen said. The wine they drank was so bad that they had to strain it through their teeth, but neither of them noticed.

“Two disobedient wives!” Gavin said in a slur as he raised his mug. “If Judith were to obey me, I would think a devil had stolen her mind.”

“And left only her body?” Stephen leered.

“I will call you out for that,” Gavin said as he fumbled for his sword.

“She wouldn’t have me,” Stephen responded as he refilled his cup.

“You don’t think so? She certainly seemed pleased with Demari.” Gavin changed from happiness to sadness in moments, as only a drunk could.

“No, she hated the man.”

“But she bears his child!” Gavin said, sounding like a little boy about to cry.

“You have no sense, brother! The child is yours, not Demari’s.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true. She told me.”

Gavin sat at the thick table silently for a moment then started to rise, but his head swam. “You’re sure? Why didn’t she tell me?”

“She said she wanted to keep some small thing to herself.”

Gavin sat down heavily. “She considers my son a small thing?”

“No. You don’t understand women.”

“And you do?” Gavin asked archly.

Stephen refilled his brother’s mug. “No more than you do, I’m sure. Perhaps even less, if that is possible. Raine could explain what she said better than I. She said you already had the Revedoune lands and Alice, and she would give you no more.”

Gavin’s face blackened as he rose. Then suddenly he calmed and sat down again, a slight smile on his face. “She is a witch, isn’t she? She swings her hips before me until I am blind with desire. She curses me when I merely talk to another woman.”

“One you have freely admitted you loved.”

Gavin waved his hand as if that didn’t matter. “And yet she holds the key that would unlock all secrets and free us both from the strain that is between us.”