Had he seized her lips as roughly as he had seized her hands, she might have been able to resist him. But his mouth closed over hers with such unspeakable tenderness, she feared she might already be dreaming. A kiss so enchanting should have broken every curse, granted every wish, given even the saddest story a happy ending. As he explored the moist warmth of her mouth with his tongue, Willow knew she would not die a dried-up old virgin. When she lay upon her hard, narrow cot in the convent, gazing out the window at the falling snow and dreaming of this moment, her body would weep for him just as it was weeping now.

Bannor wrapped his arms around her, crushing his beard-shadowed cheek to the softness of her curls. "Stay with me, Willow," he said hoa.r.s.ely. "Be my wife. You"ll lack for naught, I swear it."

Even as she clung to his waist as if she would never let him go, Willow knew she had no choice but to leavehim. If she stayed, she would lack the one thing she could not live without.

Her pride.

She gazed up at him through a veil of tears. "If you have no use for my heart, my lord, then I have no choice but to offer it to G.o.d. Will you grant me my freedom, or will you keep me here as your wife against my will?"

Willow had never felt as cold as she did in that moment when Bannor lowered his arms and stepped away from her. His motions were heavy, his face grave. "I told you before that I"ve never sworn an oath I could not keep. If "tis your freedom I promised you, then "tis your freedom you shall have. Hollis will escort you to Wayborne Abbey in the morning. Since our union has never been consummated, an annulment should not be difficult to obtain." Bannor started for the door, then turned back, no longer able keep the bitter note from his voice. "I"d appreciate it if you could be gone before the children awaken. I"d prefer to spare them the pain of bidding a third mother farewell."

When he was gone, Willow staggered to the window and pressed her brow to the icy gla.s.s. Fresh tears scalded her eyes. She wanted to hate him, but the only contempt she felt was for herself. She had fled Bedlington hoping to escape the ghost of the pathetic little girl she had been, yet it was her tear-streaked reflection that gazed back at Willow from the window.

She was the same little girl who had surrendered her father to Blanche without a fight. And now that she had finally found a man who just might be worth marching into battle for, she was conceding defeat without ever bothering to take up her arms.

Willow furiously swiped the tears from her cheeks, watching the reflection of that girl disappear. A woman gazed back at her, her gray eyes burning with resolve.

Determined to seek out the one person who might be able to show her the face of the enemy, Willow jerked on her kirtle and shoes, s.n.a.t.c.hed up her cloak, and strode from the chamber.

"Who is she?"

Netta"s eyes flew open as the lady of Elsinore burst into her cottage, shedding feathers of snow like some molting angel of wrath. Netta peered over the brawny shoulder of the drunken knight moving between her legs, reluctantly admiring Willow"s aplomb. Bannor"s lady didn"t blush or stammer at the sight of the young man"s naked backside, which continued to plunge up and down with far more enthusiasm than rhythm.

"Who is she?" Willow repeated, as if the two of them were all alone in the firelit cottage.

Netta punched the knight in the arm. "Get off me, you oaf. We"ve got company."

"But I"m not done," he whined, his eyes still squeezed tightly shut. "I"ve paid my coin. The next fellow can wait his turn."

"Tis not a fellow, but a lady, you jacka.s.s," she hissed in his ear.

Groaning, he rolled off of her. Netta hastily jerked the sheet up to his waist, hoping to spare Willow from seeing anything more unsightly than she already had. She had only to draw her own skirt down over her legs, since she hadn"t deemed the callow dolt worth the trouble of removing it.

The knight squinted at the intruder, his aspect brightening as his eyes devoured her slender form. "And what have we here? A little lost lamb seeking a shepherd?"

"Get out!" Willow commanded, her tone icier than the wind whistling down the chimney.

He splayed his arms behind his head, an arrogant smile quirking his lips. "Don"t be so hasty, sweeting. I can a.s.sure you that my staff is vigorous enough to pleasure the both of you."

Netta snorted. " Tis barely vigorous enough to pleasure the one of us."

Willow recognized him as the c.o.c.ky young knight who had praised the thrust of Bannor"s lance. With deliberate malice, she reached up and drew back her hood.

The knight"s eyes widened in horror. He jerked the blanket up to his chin, quivering so hard the entire bedstead began to rattle. "M-m-my lady, please forgive me. I had no inkling "twas you."

She pointed toward the door. "Out."

He shot Netta a helpless look, then scrambled out of the bed, clutching the sheet to his privates. He was so busy bowing and fawning he could barely hop up and down on one foot long enough to don his hose.

"You won"t tell Lord Bannor about this, will you?" he pleaded. "He"ll have my head for sure."

Willow smiled sweetly. "Considering the amorous nature of your proposal, sir, I doubt "twill be your head he seeks to sever."

Muttering beneath his breath, the knight s.n.a.t.c.hed up his sword and spurs and fled into the snowy night, slamming the door behind him.

Willow whirled around to face Netta, in no mood to mince words. "How do you bear it? I can"t imagine allowing anyone but the man I love to touch me that way."

"Not all of us can afford to be so finicky, my lady." Netta shrugged as she tucked her generous b.r.e.a.s.t.s back into her bodice and jerked the laces tight. "Besides, once you"ve had a dozen men, what difference does one more make? Or a hundred more?" She lifted her eyes to Willow"s. "At least that"s what my mother told me, to comfort me after she sold me for the first time. She was so relieved not to have to service an entire regiment of the king"s guard all by herself that she let me keep one of the shillings I had earned."

Desperate to escape the woman"s uncompromising gaze, Willow jerked off her cloak and tossed it across the stool in front of the hearth. "I suppose you"ve already heard what happened at Elsinore tonight."

Netta waved a hand at the door. "When Sir Lack-lance came bursting in, he was babbling all about it. Although I fail to see why the arrival of another b.a.s.t.a.r.d on Lord Bannor"s doorstep should rouse such excitement. Tis a common enough occurrence, is it not?"

Willow stiffened. Netta seemed to be deliberately baiting her. "I want to know who the mother of that child is. I want to know who they all are."

Shaking back her tousled mane, Netta gave her a sloe-eyed glance. "And what then, my fine lady? Will you have them tarred and feathered? Driven from the village? Stoned?"

Willow lifted her chin. "I might."

"And if I refuse to tell you? Will you do the same tome?"

"No." Before Netta"s mocking smile could spread, Willow added flatly, "I"ll have you cast into Elsinore"s dungeon until you decide to use that caustic tongue of yours for something more useful than pleasuring Bannor"s men."

Netta tilted her head to the side, eyeing Willow the way a mastiff might eye a harmless-looking kitten who has just raked b.l.o.o.d.y furrows across its nose. When she rose from the bed, her smile was more bemused than mocking.

"Sit, my lady," she said, pouring a stream of ale into a chipped earthenware cup and thrusting it into Willow"s hand, "and I shall tell you everything you seek to know about this woman who holds your husband"s heart in thrall."

Feeling her own heart falter at Netta"s words, Willow sank down on the stool. Although she rarely drank anything stronger than mulled wine, she took a hearty gulp of the ale, welcoming its fortifying warmth.

Netta perched on the edge of the bed, sipping directly from the flagon. "She first came to Elsinore on a snowy night much like this one. The wind was whistling down from the mountains, cold enough to freeze a man"s spit before it hit the ground. "Twas Twelfth Night, and even from a distance she could hear the sounds of music and merriment drifting over the castle walls. She clutched her little boy"s hand, terrified, yet knowing if she couldn"t find the courage to storm that mighty fortress, he would die. She"d already been forced to peddle her flesh to keep bread in his mouth, but now that flesh was wasting away because she"d been giving him her portion of their food."

Netta"s eyes grew distant. "A hush fell when they led her into the great hall. The lord of the castle presided over the high table, flanked by his beautiful wife and his handsome children. She drew her son in front of her. Swallowing the last of her pride, she whispered, "He is yours, m"lord. I pray you will welcome him into your household and your heart."

"The lord looked the boy up and down. Although he couldn"t have been more than six or seven, he planted his little legs and boldly met the gaze of the man he had been told was his father.

"The lord reached down to rumple his hair, then boomed out a hearty laugh. "Why would I want to claim the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of a wh.o.r.e" he inquired of the hall, "when I have all of these fine children of my own?""

Willow set aside the cup of ale, unable to urge another sip past her chattering teeth.

"At their master"s signal, his men-at-arms seized her and dragged her from the hall. They hurled her and her child into the snow outside the castle gates, laughing and taunting her all the while. Too shamed to seek shelter in one of the nearby cottages, she s.n.a.t.c.hed up her child and began trudging across the meadows. She thought only to return to her own village, but the wind whipped snow into her eyes, causing her to roam in ever widening circles. She believed if she could just sit down and rest her trembling legs for a little while, she would surely find the strength to go on. Hugging her son to her breast, she sank to her knees in the snow."

Netta fixed her gaze on Willow, her eyes as bleak as that snowswept vista. "The lad was strong and st.u.r.dy. She was not. When they found them the next morning, he was still clinging to her, crying so hard they swore he"d tried to melt the ice from her stiff, frozen body with his tears. It took three men to drag him away from her."

Willow surged to her feet, tears streaming openly down her own cheeks. "You"re lying! I know Bannor. I know what manner of man he is. He would never be so cruel and heartless as to cast a woman and her child out into a blizzard!"

Netta"s eyes blazed. "Of course he wouldn"t, you little fool. But his father would."

Willow sank back down on the stool, her knees betraying her. What would you have had me do? Toss the child back into the snow? Bannor had asked her, his eyes smoldering with primal fury.

Those same eyes had watched his mother die. Had wept scorching tears of anguish over her icy corpse. Had shone with compa.s.sion as he stroked his finger over the palm of the tiny, half-frozen creature given into his care this night.

A helpless wave of emotion broke over her. "The babies?" she whispered, lifting her tear-streaked face to Netta. "They"re not his, are they?"

"No," Netta said flatly. "They"re mine."

Twenty Six Netta came to her feet, her eyes glinting with stubborn pride. "I can"t claim the youngest two, but Meg, the twins, the babe you brought to the cottage with you that morning-all mine."

Willow was staggered by the memory of Netta cradling Peg in her arms-the tenderness in her touch, the wonder in her eyes. She had never dreamed the woman was gazing into the face of her own daughter.

As Netta"s words sank into her dazed mind, she frowned. "If Mags and the baby left at the castle gates tonight aren"t yours, then who do they belong to?"

"The one you call Mags belongs to a woman who already has twelve mouths to feed. The other babe was born this night to a girl of twelve, who believed the honeyed lies of a handsome young troubadour who pa.s.sed through the village nine months ago."

Willow shook her head. "I don"t understand how they could just abandon their babies."

"Abandon?" Netta all but spat the word. "Annie"s father threatened to drown her baby in a bucket if she didn"t rid herself of it. She was so weak from giving birth that she would have had to crawl to reach the castle gates. But crawl she would have, had I not promised to deliver the baby to Lord Bannor myself." Netta paced to the hearth, then whirled around, her skirts snapping. "What fate would you choose for your child, my lady? To have her raised as I was, as the daughter of the village wh.o.r.e?" She flung a finger toward the rumpled bed with its stained sheets and musky odor. "To have every man in the village expect her to take your place in that bed when you grew too old or eaten up with pox to endure their fumbling and grunting?" Her voice softened. "Or to have her raised as the cherished child of a lord, lacking for naught except a mother"s love?"

Willow bowed her head, deeply shamed. "Why didn"t he tell me?" she whispered. "Why did he let me believe the worst of him?"

"Because he swore to me that no one would ever know those babes were not his. I made him promise that they would never have to endure the stares, the ugly whispers, the shame of being the misbegotten b.a.s.t.a.r.ds of a wh.o.r.e."

Willow didn"t know whether to laugh or cry. To protect the children entrusted into his hands, Bannor had been willing to let her believe he was naught but a rutting stallion, eager to mount every mare whose scent drifted to his nostrils. He had been willing to let her leave Elsinore with Sir Hollis on this very morn, never to return.

She laughed softly, but with a trace of bitterness. "He warned me that he has never sworn an oath he could not keep."

"Aye," Netta agreed, sinking down on the edge of the hearth. "He is a man of his word. When I left the first babe outside of his gates one chill November eve, I never dreamed he would claim her as his own. I could only pray that one of the laundresses or maidservants might take her in." She shivered. "When two of his men-at-arms appeared on my doorstep the next day to escort me to him, I was terrified he was going to have me cast into the dungeon, or perhaps imprisoned in the stocks, so that everyone would know the dreadful thing I had done."

Willow almost smiled, remembering how reluctant Bannor had been to so much as spank his rebellious son.

"I was trembling like a leaf when they brought me before him." Although Willow would have sworn it was impossible, a becoming blush crept into the woman"s cheeks as she bowed her head. "When he dismissed his guards and turned away to pour a goblet of mead, I began to disrobe, thinking that he meant for me to trade my favors in exchange for his mercy."

Willow arched one eyebrow. "That must have been quite a shock for him."

"Oh, it was," Netta a.s.sured her. "At first I thought he was going to bolt from the chamber. But then he realized my knees were knocking with fright. He jerked a tapestry down from the wall, wrapped it around me, and bade me to sit in a chair by the fire before I collapsed. "Twas then that he told me about his mother, and promised me that no child would ever be turned away from the gates of Elsinore, not so long as he was lord there."

Willow recognized the fierce glow in Netta"s eyes. She had seen it in the eyes of her own reflection only a short while ago.

"Why, you"re half in love with him, aren"t you?" Willow regretted the words almost immediately, sensing that nothing else she could have said would have so cut Netta to the quick.

Netta"s lips tipped in a rueful smile. She did not bother to blink back her tears. "How could I not be, my lady?"

"Aye," Willow murmured, reaching out to clasp the woman"s rawboned hand. "How could you not be?"

Willow slipped through the darkened pa.s.sages of Elsinore. "Twas not yet dawn, and the castle was silent except for the whisper of her cloak against the flagstones. "Twas almost as if its inhabitants had fallen beneath the same enchanted hush as the snow-glazed world beyond the windows.

As she traversed the second level, a half-ajar door beckoned her forward.

A peculiar pang seized her heart when she saw that Bannor"s children had reverted to their old habit of sharing the same immense bed. In truth, she could not blame them on a morning as cold as this. The fire had dwindled to glowing embers, and she could see the ghost of her sigh drifting in the air. Desmond"s crow dozed on a perch near the window, his head tucked into his sleek breast. His yellow tomcat was curled up at the foot of the bed. As Willow drew nearer, the cat opened his one golden eye and blinked at her.

A tousled flaxen head rested next to Desmond"s chestnut one. After being banished from her own bed, Beatrix must have sought sanctuary in theirs. Willow wondered what Desmond would do when he awoke to find the girl nestled against his back, naked except for a fur pelt. She smiled. He"d be lucky if the shock of it didn"t cause him to tumble out of the bed and crack his noggin.

When she"d first arrived at Elsinore, she"d seen the children as naught but a pa.s.sel of faceless brats, but as she traced their slumbering faces with her gaze, she realized she had come to know them in a way she had never known her own brothers and sisters.

Gangly Ennis, who strove to be the voice of reason; sober little Mary with her amusing habit of always looking at the glum side of things; generous, sweet-natured Hammish; chattering Edward; Kell with his sunny hair and sarcastic quips; strong-willed Mary Margaret; Meg and the twins, looking like a litter of cherubs with their plump limbs and dimpled cheeks.

And Desmond-still a boy, yet poised on the brink of manhood, revealing more of his father than he knew in his fierce protectiveness toward his brothers and sisters and his kindness to animals that no one else wanted.

Willow might have drifted right past the nursery had it not been for Fiona"s rattling snores. The old woman was curled up on a narrow bedstead at the foot of a wooden cradle. Peg and Mags slept side by side in the cradle, bundled up like a pair of fat, woolly lambs. Willow touched both of their downy cheeks with her fingertip before turning to go.

She was almost to the door when she heard a soft sound-not quite a whimper, not quite a coo. She slowly turned. A wicker basket rested on the hearth. She knelt to find the newborn baby nestled within. A baby who would soon grow into a st.u.r.dy little boy. A boy who would never lack for bread or have to sit shivering in the snow and watch his mother draw her last breath.

Seized by a strange urgency, Willow tucked the blanket around the baby and slipped from the chamber. As soon as she was out of earshot of the nursery, she broke into a run. She raced up the stairs and threw open the door of Bannor"s tower without bothering to knock. The chamber was deserted, the grate cold. The feather mattress bore no imprint of his body. A goblet was overturned on the hearth, as if someone had flung it there in a fit of anger.

Willow flew down the stairs to the great hall. Although the yeasty aroma of baking bread was beginning to drift out from the kitchens, most of the stragglers who had sought shelter from the snowstorm were still sleeping off the effects of the ale that had been served after Lord Bannor had welcomed his new son into his household. When Willow tripped over one of the tumblers, he simply mumbled an oath and snuggled deeper into his cloak.

Bursting into the deserted bailey, she spun around, at an utter loss. The sun drifted over the eastern horizon at that moment, striking the snow with a force that nearly blinded her. It wasn"t until Willow shaded her eyes against the dazzling glare that she spotted the lone man standing between the merlons of the battlement high above her, his dark hair whipping in the wind.

By the time Willow reached the wall walk, she had managed to steady her breathing, but not the hammering of her heart.

Bannor stood gazing across the snowswept meadows, his hands resting on the stone embrasure between the merlons. He did not turn, not even when he heard the crunch of her slippers against the crust of snow. "Did it never occur to you, my lady," he asked, his voice as hard as the glittering crystals of ice that laced the scattered trees, "that I might also seek to spare myself the pain of bidding a third wife farewell?"

Despite the chill in Bannor"s voice, his words warmed her. He had never before addressed her as his wife. "Did it never occur to you, my lord, that I might seek to spare you that pain as well?"

"Quite frankly, it did not."

"I just came from the nursery." She dared to draw nearer despite his lack of welcome. "Your new son is pinking up nicely. I dare say that, thanks to your kindness, he"ll be battling wee Mags for a teat before the day is over."

"I"m pleased that the babe will survive, but I"m in no mood to be lauded for my generosity. Not when the cost of it is so high."

Willow kicked at the snow with the toe of her slipper, keeping her voice deliberately light. "Oh, I haven"t come to praise you for your charity, but to chastise you for your pride."

He snorted. " Tis the second time I"ve been accused of such a sin in as many days. Have you been talking to Desmond?"

"No, I"ve been talking to a friend." Willow was thankful he could not see the wry twist of her lips. "One who is more devoted than you realize."

"Devoted enough to brand me an arrogant fool, it seems."

"Arrogant perhaps, but not a fool." She paced behind him, expelling a mocking sigh. "If I were a mighty warrior, so feared that my name was spoken only in whispers by my enemies, I might also prefer that everyone believe my seed was as potent as my sword. "Twould no doubt damage your ferocious reputation if word got out that you were so tender of heart, you couldn"t bear to turn a child away from your gates." She stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. "Even one you did not sire."