Love Everlasting Read Online Free Page A

each other in
private,” King Henry said, “you may use the anteroom, or the
garden.”
    “Thank you, my lord.” Royce swallowed his
anger and made a low, formal bow to the king. After a quicker bow
to Julianna, he offered his arm. Her fingers were light and cool on
his wrist. He noted her clean hands and neatly pared nails. She was
not slovenly. He supposed that was one small thing for which he
could be grateful.
    “The garden, I think,” he said to her. “The
anteroom is hardly a private place.”
    “Whatever you wish, my lord.”
    “What I wish,” he said, ignoring the
interested glances of the courtiers as he guided her through the
crowded anteroom and into the corridor, “is that you will speak
above a whisper and look at me. And, for the love of heaven, tell
me what you are thinking!”
    “I cannot believe you want to know,” she
said, her voice a little louder. “I have never yet met a man who
cared about a woman’s thoughts.”
    “Well, that’s honest, at least. Do you care
what a man thinks?”
    “Not particularly.” The slight upward tilt at
the corners of her mouth was quickly smoothed away into the bland
expression she apparently wore by habit.
    Royce found her expression perversely
interesting, for it suggested that a great deal lay hidden behind
it. Perhaps she believed it would be dangerous to reveal her
thoughts. He observed her out of the corner of his eye until they
reached the garden. Not once did she look toward him. Her gaze was
fastened on the stone corridor floor, and then on the pebbly gravel
path.
    The garden was small, enclosed by high stone
walls, and at this late season, with the sun lower in the sky every
day, most of the plants lived in complete shade. A few faded roses
drooped half-heartedly from bushes that looked ready to give up for
the year and retire to winter dormancy. The lily blooms were
finished; the narrow leaves at each tall stem were yellow. Only a
patch of green mint showed any sign of life. Even the stone bench
in the corner was damp and uninviting.
    Royce surveyed the late autumn garden and
found it a suitable image for a marriage that neither partner
wanted. Yet, he and Julianna must make something positive from
their forced association, or else their lives together would be
unbearable. He caught himself in shocked surprise at his own
thought. If King Henry was correct in his suspicions, then Royce
and Julianna had no hope of a life together and he was a fool to
think of a future with her.
    “You know we have no choice,” he said,
regretting the situation even as the smoothly correct words flowed
from his tongue. “You need a husband. King Henry has ordered us to
marry. We must obey.”
    “I neither need nor want a husband,” Julianna
declared with surprising vehemence, given her quietness until that
moment. “If only men would cease their continual interference, I
could manage my own properties, by myself.”
    “It’s possible you could,” Royce said, the
remark earning him a quick, startled glance from her. “The problem
is, men will not stop interfering, and a lady with so much property
presents a sore temptation, especially to those who are
unscrupulous. In your case, your estates in Normandy and Flanders
are particularly tempting to King Louis of France.”
    “What do you mean by that?” She looked at him
with such wariness that Royce came instantly alert.
    “You appear frightened,” he said in as mild a
tone as he could muster. “Has someone approached you on behalf of
King Louis?”
    “Why should you think so?” She stepped away
from him. Clasping her hands behind her back, she faced him like a
bound prisoner standing before a judge.
    “From your reaction, I assume it has already
happened,” Royce said with a shrug that he hoped would suggest he
considered such an approach inevitable, and not very important.
“What response did you give to Louis’s emissary?”
    “That’s the trouble with spies,” she snapped.
“You always think