The Dark One: Dark Knight by Kathryn Le Veque

reprimanded by Gaston when he removed every strip of
clothing from the waist up.  Antonius had the body of a Roman statue, muscular and
lean and completely beautiful and he was not ashamed to display his flesh.  It
tanned quickly underneath the hot sun, but Gaston put an end to it and angrily
sent the man to the sublevels to supervise the cleanup.
         But not before Jasmine had seen him half
nude from her bedchamber window.  At first she was embarrassed, but she quickly
discovered he was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen and was greatly
disappointed when Gaston put an end to her fun.  Yet she came away from the
window with her opinion of the male sex slightly swayed, a very large step
indeed.  Mayhap not all men were vile, horrid creatures.  There was apparently
one that was quite easy to look at.
         The castle provided minimum relief from the
heat.  Remington had seen to her morning duties dressed in a gauzy linen
surcoat that swept the floor behind her when she walked, the v-shaped neckline
draping beautifully between the swells of her breasts.  Her curly mane was
swept back into a gold net to keep it off her neck, but rogue tendrils escaped
and curled against her face and shoulders.
         By late morning it was far too hot to do
anything more than sit and embroider and she found her sisters doing exactly
that in the solar.
         Jasmine and Skye were working on Skye’s
loom.  The youngest sister was not particularly talented on the frame and
Jasmine was doing her best to repair the damage.
         “What are you making, Skye?” Remington
asked curiously.  She couldn’t for the life of her tell what the figures were.
         “I am trying to weave an Ariadne and a
spider web,” Skye said insistently.  “If Jasmine would leave me be, it would
work out.”
         Jasmine rolled her eyes, pulling at a piece
of thread.  “This is no spider web, Skye, unless it was woven by a drunk
spider.  And Ariadne looks as if her body has melted.”
         Remington giggled at Skye’s embarrassment,
opening her thin golden fan and waving it at herself swiftly.  “Keep trying,
sweetheart.  You shall catch on.”
         “What about Rory?” Jasmine asked, biting
her tongue between her teeth in concentration.
         Remington glanced through the narrow window
that looked out over the bailey.  “I intend to go and see her now, to make sure
she isn’t melting herself.”
         “Is the Dark Knight going to let her out?”
Skye asked.  She missed her closest sister. 
         Remington moved away from the window,
fanning herself.  “I do not know.  He said he would consider it, I think.”
         “Even after you tried to break her out?” 
Skye asked, wondering if the Dark Knight had punished Remington last night but
was afraid to ask.
         “I was not trying to free her, I was merely
attempting to speak with her,” Remington insisted.  “I was opening the door to
go in, not let her out.”  
         “Did you tell de Russe that?”  Jasmine had
stopped her movements and was looking up at her.
         “Nay,” Remington avoided her sister’s
gaze.  “I saw no point in it.  He would not believe me, anyway.
         “Well, I say there is no harm in trying,”
Jasmine said.  “He does not seem so quick to judge as Guy did.”
         Remington almost cringed at the sound of
her husband’s name.  The more time passed, the more afraid she was that he
would eventually return.  They had been so happy in his absence and she
couldn’t bear to think that life would again turn bitter when he came home.  If
he ever came home.
         “Yesterday, de Russe told Dane that he
would protect us from Guy,” she said softly, the hair on her face lifting
gently from the fan as she gazed at the window pensively.
         Jasmine and Skye looked shocked.  “He
did?”  Jasmine said incredulously.  “How can he say that?”