Read With Her Kiss (Swords of Passion) for Free Online

too much, too quickly or her body will rebel. Without food and water for days, a human cannot begin again at once. She would spit it out. We want her to retain this to gather strength.”
    “But she does not even know we are here.”
    Beneath his fingers cupping her neck, Geoff felt an imperceptible flexing of her muscles. A reaction to Matthew’s name or voice, perhaps? A heartening sign. “In fleeting moments, I think she does.”
    “And can she know who we are?” his young knight asked, his tenor reflecting his age of nineteen, his timbre cracking with tension of their quest.
    “I cannot say. No matter. Our first priority is to move her.”
    She groaned deep in her throat, then coughed with the effort. Geoff brought her close to his chest, fearing that her racking movement might injure her delicate frame or her internal organs.
    Within minutes she lay limp in his embrace, her face to his doublet, her hands lax in her lap. If she was unconscious, Geoff could not say, but he had to charge onward with his plan for her.
    Geoff motioned for Domine James to come closer. “Now, we are ready for you.”
    The monk grew surly. “‘Tis my calling to give comfort, Geoff.”
    “Then do it.”
    “Communion is one thing. This other that you demand of me is not well done here in this hideous place.”
    Geoff scowled at the priest. “You will perform this rite for me.”
    “She may not wish it.”
    “God’s blood, man!” Geoff wanted to shake his old friend. “She needs my protection. Can you not see that? What better way to do that than to make her legally mine?”
    “Since when,” asked young Matthew, “must a woman agree to a marriage?”
    Geoff nodded, casting a proud grin to the monk. “The boy is right. You know it, James. Taking me to husband is the least of her worries. Do this. Now. For if she dies at John’s or Ferrer’s hands without my succour, I will send you to your Maker with my own sword.
    “Forgive me, James.” Geoff regretted his threat. “In another life, you and I fought side by side, hacking others to pieces, listening to their death rattles as we skewered them with our swords like animals on spits. We served for years with Richard, murdering thousands, praying for forgiveness and breaking more rules of the Church than we would admit to even on Judgement Day. I told you what I wanted on this journey. Never have I asked anything of you, save these cloaks and robes—and this one service. Never will I ask anything of you again. Now, as you love me, I beg of you, do this.”
    With a sigh and a shrug, James extracted a crucifix from beneath his robes and holding it, began a litany that soothed Geoffrey’s troubled mind. But on Matthew’s face, acceptance rivalled relief.
    When the Domine had finished and rose to walk towards the door, Geoff cupped Katherine’s cheek, brushed her lower lip with the point of his finger and urged her awake. “We would have you drink more, my pet,” Geoff crooned to her, brushing back her tangled tresses. “You must do this for yourself. I know you hate to hear it, but dawn comes and before that, we must be well away.”
    She breathed sharply again, a moan her complaint.
    He shifted once more, to hold her more securely, for he truly expected her to fight him if he fed her more. “The cup, Matthew. A sip or two now, Kat.”
    He placed the vessel to her lips. Slowly, she parted her lips and in the slim shaft of light, Geoff saw her eyes meet his, dart wide and hold. She was not interested in the sustenance, but fixed on his countenance. One of her fingers moved along his thigh and dug into his flesh. A desperate communication, it was one he understood.
    “I will take you with me, Katherine.”
    Another scratch.
    “Aye. Drink up, my love. You come away with me tonight and no one takes you from me ever again.”

Chapter Three

    Road to the River Severn

    She screamed, the torment of being jostled gnawing at her bones and sending raw pain of a thousand needles