Free The Damsel's Defiance by MERIEL FULLER Page A

before him. ‘We can give you fifteen gold coins for the ship, mam’selle. Take it or leave it.’
    She had to take it.
     
    Emmeline scrubbed her slim white arms viciously with a soft linen washcloth, still fuming at Talvas’s offer to the Empress. How dare he interfere with her plans? He had effectively robbed her of ten gold coins, damn him! Ten gold coins…money that would have bought her mother and her much needed food over the lean winter months when La Belle Saumur would be unused, dragged high up on the beach for safety. But at least with the fifteen coins they would not starve and she still had managed to secure her own passage to England.
    ‘Shall I wash your hair now, mistress?’ Maud had sent one of her own maids, the docile Beatrice, to attend to Emmeline before the evening’s feasting.
    ‘Pardon…? Oh, I’m sorry, Beatrice. Aye, go ahead.’ As Beatrice poured a delicious stream of warm water over her loosened hair and down her back, Emmeline flexed the strained muscles in the back of her neck, rolling her shoulders forward to try and relieve the stiffness. Sighing, she tried to allow the heat of the water to steady her frazzled nerves, to temper her annoyance, to try to forget that man! But as she tipped her head back and Beatrice began to soap her scalp, vivid scenes of the day began to play exhaustingly in her mind; images that inevitably, inexorably, led to a pair of bright, disapproving eyes.
    The wrought-iron door latch clicked upwards.
    Emmeline’s eyes lifted to those of the servant, as her fingers drifted through the layer of sweet-smelling rose petals scattered on the surface of the water. ‘I don’t deserve this attention,’ she murmured.
    ‘No, you most certainly don’t.’ Talvas’s familiar tones cut across the chamber. Beatrice’s mouth widened to a large ‘O’. Emmeline criss-crossed her arms across her bosom. ‘Get out!’ she cried through gritted teeth, sinking down into the water,hoping—nay, praying that he couldn’t see over the high level of the wooden bath tub.
    ‘I came to see if you needed an escort to the great hall.’ Folding his arms high on his chest, Talvas leant against the stone wall. It amused him to see this virago at a loss as to how to deal with him, especially when she had no clothes on. The gleam of her pearly white shoulder hooked his glance, peeking above the edge of the tub. Beatrice flustered around, trying to find a towel to cover Emmeline, knocking her shin against an elaborately carved oak coffer in her haste.
    ‘I have no need of you ever again,’ Emmeline bit out, anger beginning to take precedence over the embarrassment of her nakedness. He couldn’t see very much from where he stood, of that she was certain. ‘You have caused enough trouble already. How dare you interfere with my plans?’
    ‘I was just trying to save the Empress some money,’ he replied. ‘You drive a hard bargain, mistress.’
    ‘I normally do.’ She whipped her head around, eyes sparking with anger. ‘At least I do when my plans aren’t scuppered by some infernal man!’
    Talvas grinned, the corners of his mouth turning up to make his face seem much younger than his years. ‘So glad that you hold such a high opinion of me,’ he countered. ‘But with thirty gold coins the Empress could have raised a whole fleet of ships to cross the Channel.’ His tone sounded laconic, amused.
    ‘She would have paid it—’ Emmeline seethed ‘—if you hadn’t interfered.’
    ‘Does it really mean that much to you?’ The green depths of his eyes drilled into her. ‘The money, I mean.’
    Incredulity washed over her face. ‘Are you completely mad? Of course it does! How else do you think my mother and I have enough to live on?’ She tore her gaze from him andstudied the surface of the water, water that was rapidly losing its heat. Jiggling her legs, the ripples pooling away from her knees and lapping the wooden sides, she tried to warm up. ‘Now get