Free Charming the Prince by Teresa Medeiros Page A

is so, my lord, then you must be a very devout man indeed."
      Bannor was taken aback. He had not expected to find his bride's wit as irresistible as her beauty.
      "I suppose children can oft be considered a blessing," she added, "but there are women who choose to wed for other reasons. Security. Rank. Riches." She ducked her head and slanted him an engaging glance. "Love."
      Bannor gave a scornful snort. "I know naught of love, my lady. Only of war."
      "You must have once loved the lady Mary and the lady Margaret."
      His brow furrowed. "I bore a great and most tender affection for both my wives. I chose them for all the virtues a man most admires in a woman and strove to be the most devoted husband I knew how to be. But love?" He shook his head. "Love is an affliction to be suffered only by fools and lads."
    "You were a lad once."
    "And a fool as well."
      Willow turned away from his cynical smile. As she stretched her hands toward the flames on the hearth, their crackling cheer failed to warm her.
      "We've spoken of the reasons a woman might choose to wed. But what about a man?" She turned back to face him. "What about you, my lord?"
      It was Bannor's turn to avoid her eyes. He paced to the window, then back again, stroking the hint of beard that shadowed his jaw. " 'Twasn't precisely a wife I was seeking."
      Willow folded her arms over her chest. " Tis the usual outcome, when a man plights his troth to a woman and has his steward stand before the priest and make his vows for him."
      "I'm well aware of that. But I had a more pressing need of a mother. Not for some child yet to be born, as Fiona might have led you to believe, but for the children I already have. Someone to care for them."
      Willow managed to keep all but the faintest trace of bitterness from her voice. "Then I suppose you chose the right woman. I all but raised my ten siblings."
      "So my steward assured me. But I must confess that   , when I sent Sir Hollis to seek out a bride for me, I expected him to bring back someone less... well, more..." Bannor never had any trouble barking commands at his men, but his eloquence deserted him in the face of Willow's unblinking gaze. "Someone who wasn't quite so... so..."
    "Me?" she offered.
    "Exactly!" he shouted, a smile breaking over his face.
    "So you are suggesting that we do not suit."
      Although Willow's expression did not betray so much as a flicker of reproach, Bannor's relief quickly faded to consternation. Hoping to soothe the sting of his clumsy words, he gathered her hands into his own.
    And froze before he could speak.
    Had he not been gazing into Willow's exquisite face, he would have sworn he was holding the hands of a peasant. Roughened and chapped, they sported nearly as many calluses as his own. He must have betrayed himself with a downward flicker of his eyes, the ghost of a pitying wince, for she tugged her hands away from his, but continued to meet his gaze with a pride as unflinching as any he had faced on the battlefield.
      Bannor knew then that he could not bear to strike that pride a mortal blow. He could not send her back to her family against her will or imprison her behind convent walls. He briefly entertained the notion of allowing Hollis to keep her as his wife, but his mind rejected the image of Willow in his steward's arms before it could fully form.
      Bannor hadn't earned his reputation as a master strategist on the battlefield and the chessboard for naught. Perhaps there was a way to make her believe she was still mistress of her own fate. If he could somehow goad her into spurning him, she could depart from Elsinore with both her pride and her innocence intact.
      It took him little more than a brief mental calculation, masked by an innocent blink, to plan his campaign. If he wanted to drive his opponent's queen from the board, he would simply have to send in his army of pawns to stage an attack.
      A single fortnight in the company of his children should