The Velvet Promise (Montgomery/Taggert 2)

“Come,” he said and took her hand, helping her rise. There were catcalls and jeers, obscenities by the dozen when Gavin led his bride out of the great hall, but neither looked back. They strolled outside. The fields were full of spring flowers, which swept along the skirt of Judith’s long gown. To their right were the tents of tomorrow’s tourney participants. From each tent crown flew a pennant which identified its occupant, and everywhere was the Montgomery leopard. The banner held three leopards, placed vertically, worked in glittering gold thread, set on a ground of emerald-green.

“They are all your relatives?” Judith asked and Gavin looked over her head.

“Cousins and uncles. When Raine called us a clan, he meant it as such.”

“And are you happy with them?”

“Happy?” He shrugged. “They are Montgomeries,” he said, and that seemed to answer the question for him.

They stopped on a little hillside, from where they could see the tents below. He held her hand as she spread her skirts and sat down. He stretched out beside her, full length, his hands behind his head.

Judith sat with her back to his face. His legs stretched before her. She could see the way the muscle curved out above his knee then rounded toward his thighs. Judith knew without a doubt that each of his thighs were bigger than her waist. Unexpectedly, she shivered.

“Are you cold?” Gavin asked, at once sensitive. He raised himself on his elbows and watched as she shook her head. “I hope you didn’t mind leaving for a while. You will think I have no manners—first at the church and now this. But it was too noisy, and I wanted to be alone with you.”

“I too,” she said honestly as she turned to face him.

He lifted one hand and took a curl of her hair, watching it wrap itself about his wrist. “I was surprised when I saw you. I had heard you were ugly.” His eyes sparkled as he rubbed the curl between his fingers.

“Where did you hear that?”

“It was common talk that that was the reason Revedoune kept his daughter hidden.”

“It was more that I was hidden from him.” She would say no more, but Gavin understood. There was little he liked about the bully of a man who beat anything smaller than himself and groveled before anything larger.

Gavin grinned at her. “I am quite pleased with you. You are more than a man could hope for.”

Suddenly Judith remembered the sweet kiss in church. What would it be like to kiss again, at leisure? She had so little experience with the ways of men and women.

Gavin’s breath stopped as he saw her gazing at his mouth. A quick glance at the sun told him it was still many hours before he could have her all to himself. He would not start what he could not finish. “We must return,” he said abruptly. “Our behavior will set tongues wagging for years as it is.” He helped her stand then, as she stood so close to him, he looked down at her hair, inhaling the spicy fragrance of it. He knew it was warm from the sun, and he meant only to place a chaste kiss on the part of it; but Judith lifted her face to smile at him. In moments, his arms were around her, his lips on hers.

Judith’s small education about men and women had come from her maids, who giggled and compared the lovemaking of one man to another. So Judith reacted to Gavin’s kiss, not with the reticence of a proper lady, but with all the enthusiasm she felt.

His hand went behind her neck, and her lips opened under his. She pressed her body close to his. How large he was! The muscles of his chest were hard against her softness, his thighs like iron. She liked the feel of him, the smell of him. Her arms tightened about him.

Suddenly Gavin drew back, his breath coming in short, shallow gasps. “You seem to know too much of kissing,” he said angrily. “Have you had much?”

Her mind and body were too full of the newness of tingling sensations to be aware of his tone. “I have kissed no man before. My maids told me it was pleasant, but it is more than pleasant.”

He stared, knowing an honest answer when he heard one. “Let’s return now and pray for an early sunset.”

Judith turned her reddened cheeks away from him and followed his lead.

They walked back toward the castle slowly, neither of them speaking. Gavin seemed to be absorbed in the erecting of yet another tent. If he had not held his wife’s hand so tightly, she would have thought he’d forgotten her.

With his head turned away, he did not see Robert Revedoune waiting for them. But Judith did. And she recognized the rage in his eyes and braced herself.

“You little slut!” Robert hissed. “You are panting after him like a bitch in heat. I’ll not have all of England laughing at me!” He raised his hand and brought the back of it across Judith’s face.

It took Gavin a moment to react. He would not have imagined a father striking his daughter. When he did react, he plunged his fist into his father-in-law’s face until the older man sprawled on the ground in a complete daze.

Judith glanced at her husband. His eyes were black, his jaw flexed to granite.

“Don’t you dare touch her again,” Gavin ordered in a low, deadly voice. “What is mine I keep—and care for.” He stepped toward Revedoune again.

“Please, no,” Judith said and grabbed her husband’s arm. “I am unhurt, and you have repaid him for what was only a little slap.”

Gavin did not move. Robert Revedoune’s eyes went from his daughter to his son-in-law. He knew better than to speak. Slowly he got up and walked away.