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words.
    ‘What’s this?’ a voice asked coldly behind Simon, interrupting them. ‘Fond farewells from your lover?’
    Lord Wolf!
    Horrified, Eloise realised she was still holding Simon’s letter. She could only imagine what it contained, intimate words of love that could earn her a whipping for wanton behaviour if her father or his lordship discovered it about her person. She thrust the rolled-up letter down into her bodice, and drew her shawl about her shoulders to hide it.
    Simon had flushed. He bowed to them both, stammered something about archery practice, and disappeared back up the steps into the palace.
    ‘How gallant of him to stay and defend your honour,’ Lord Wolf drawled. ‘Come, the morning is already half gone. It is time for us to depart. I have arranged for some of my men to accompany us back to Yorkshire for your protection. Some of the roads in the north can be dangerous for unwary travellers.’ He saw her worried glance at the litter, which would barely house more than two persons, and smiled. ‘Your father and I will ride alongside, so you will be undisturbed.’
    He handed her up into the covered litter where young Mary was huddled in the corner, looking very nervous at the prospect of her first long journey. Eloise settled back against the cushions, her face averted.
    To her dismay, Lord Wolf leaned forward. ‘Just one more thing,’ he murmured, and pressed a kiss on her lips.
    She sat still beneath his kiss, her heart beating violently. She could not help remembering how he had touched her in the garden, and the powerful surge of desire she had felt. Even now it was difficult not to respond, to keep her lips closed beneath his and not lean into his masculine scent.
    Then his hand slipped to her bodice, and he withdrew the letter she had hidden there.
    ‘Now what could this be, I wonder?’ he commented, straightening.
    He unrolled the letter, reading though it with a hard face. Then he tore the letter into a dozen pieces and scattered them across her lap.
    ‘Whatever Simon was to you once,’ he told her coldly, ‘I advise you to forget him. You are mine now; do you understand?’
    Lord Wolf did not wait for an answer, but jumped down from the covered litter and strode to his waiting horse.
    Eloise dropped the curtain down so she could no longer see him, and sat in silence, her maid staring at her in horror. She wondered what had been in that letter. Had Simon repeated his suggestion that they should meet behind her husband’s back and make love?
    If only she had thrown that damned letter in Simon’s face!
    The horse pulling the litter began to move. The whole litter jerked, curtains swaying. Mary gave a little cry and clung onto her seat.
    Outside, Eloise heard the jingle of harness and reins, Wolf shouting orders to his men in a curt voice, then the clatter of hooves beside the litter as the cavalcade made its slow, lurching way out of the courtyard and through the palace gates.
    She brushed the torn pieces of letter from her lap and sat in an angry silence for the first few miles of their journey, eyes closed as though trying to sleep, but frowning. She could not help touching her lips from time to time, still tingling from his mouth. How could he arouse such pleasure in her body with just one kiss?
    Whichever way she looked at it, there was no avoiding the truth of her situation. Wolf was to be her lord and master, and it seemed there was little she could do to escape him.

CHAPTER THREE
    Their first day of journeying was exhausting; the litter jolted from side to side as the roads worsened north of London. By the time they reached the wayside inn where her father had arranged for them to spend the night, Eloise was too weary even to contemplate dinner. She slept in the cramped chamber she was sharing with her maid, then she and Mary rose at dawn the next morning to breakfast and continue their journey.
    The next day was just as cold. A bitter wind snatched at the litter curtains,