Free WINDDREAMER by Charlotte Boyett-Compo Page A

man silhouetted against the night sky, blotting out the moon's glow.
    "Milord?" she called, putting the lantern on the floor at her feet.
    The man started down the steps toward her, his heavier frame making the stairs creak. Liza recognized Legion in the glow of the candlelight, and hoped she could hide her disappointment. Her thoughts had not been on her husband, but on the one she thought would follow her. She felt shame that her willful mind had imagined Conar's arms around her, holding her in this secret place with tender care.
    Legion stepped off the stairs and faced his wife. "You were expecting him, weren't you? Was he supposed to meet you here?"
    "Legion, please, I don't want to fight."
    "And you don't want to be with me, either, do you? I saw your disappointment. You were sure it was Conar who had come to check on you." He grabbed her arm. "You can't deny it!"
    She wincing as his fingers dug into her arm. "I am with you."
    "But you'd rather be with my brother, wouldn't you?" He shook her, ignoring her gasp of pain.
    "Aye, I am with you."
    "I won't let him have you! I'll fight him to the death before I'll let him take you away from me!"
    "Do you hear what you're saying?" she shouted. "You are that jealous of your own kin?"
    "I have eyes," he snarled down into her face. "I see the way you look at him, the way he looks at you. Everyone sees it! I hear the words you say to each other, but I also hear the words you do not say."
    "You are my husband. I..."
    "But he is your husband according to Multitude law, isn't he? And bastard that he is, he'll eventually call you to him, regardless of what he swore to me."
    "You're letting jealousy drive you mad! Conar is an honorable man. He keeps his vows."
    "And do you?"
    "Aye, I do!"
    Legion looked at her belly. His eyes grew hard as stone. "You're starting to show."
    Instinct made Liza cover her stomach with her hands as though to protect the fragile life growing there. She knew she only imagined the flutter of movement inside her. It was too soon yet for Conar's child to quicken.
    "Just one more tie to bind you to him," Legion growled, letting go of her arm. "One more reason to take him over me."
    "Are you forgetting our own children?" she yelled, more angry at him than she could ever remember. "Are they not ties that bind us together?"
    "I thought they did." Legion's gaze swept down her slender frame. "But it seems you have no trouble breeding by whatever McGregor male comes your way!"
    Her fingers raked along his jaw line. She fought hard as he tried to ward off her slaps. Struggling against him, she felt him scooping her into his arms even as she continued to pummel his head with her fists.
    He flung her to a cot inside a cell, covering her protesting body with his own.
    "Damn it, get up!" she yelled, feeling his hands fumbling with the hem of her gown. "Legion, stop it!"
    She squirmed, turning her head side to side, denying the hot, fevered kisses he rained on her cheek, neck and chin. He pinned her hands to the cot by her head, and thrust one leg between her own to still her kicking.
    " Stop it! " She tried biting his lips, but he jerked away his head, pushing her face against the moldy mattress.
    Legion's lips slashed across her cheek and found her ear, nibbled on the soft flesh. Liza wedged her knee between his thighs and slammed it into his testicles. He flipped off the cot and crashed to the stone floor, doubling over and cupping his groin with his hands.
    Liza scampered from the cot and ran, sobbing hysterically.
    "If you go up those stairs," he called, "if you leave me here, I will never forgive you!"
    She stopped to look back at him. He had dragged himself up. He leaned against the wall, then bent over, retching.
    "I am no man's whore, Legion A'Lex! Not even yours!"
    He pushed himself from the wall and staggered out of the cell toward her. "You told me you had made a bargain with the Darkwind, Elizabeth. Is that not whoring?"
    "Nothing ever came of it! I would have