“Raine!” Alyx screeched in pain as his heavy body rolled atop her arm, scraping it against a rock. “You’re breaking me!” Already, her teeth were beginning to chatter.
“It would be small payment for what you’ve done to me,” he said, lying in the water as if it were a feather bed. “Before I met you my life was peaceful and calm. Now my own brother beats me.”
“Which you deserved!” she spat. “It’s the only way to make you listen. Now let me up and let me get dry before I freeze to death.”
“I know a way to keep you warm.” He began to nuzzle her neck.
“You great stupid boar,” she yelled into his ear, making him move away and shake his head to clear the ringing. “I’m cold and wet, and if you don’t let me up I’ll bring the whole camp to my rescue.”
“You think they’d come to rescue you or would they side with me?”
She pushed at him. “They wouldn’t recognize you with your great purple face.”
He chuckled at that and easily moved off her. “You look good, Alyx,” he said, his eyes alight, looking at her wet dress, which clung to her.
Alyx put her arms behind her and started to push herself up and found the wet dress to be very heavy. With another chuckle, Raine stood, lifted her and started toward the darkest part of the forest.
“The camp is that way,” she pointed.
“Alyx, someone should teach you that you shouldn’t always give orders. Perhaps you are right now and then, but sometimes you should listen and leave the commands to the men.”
“I have to do what is right, and if you need to be saved from yourself, I will,” she said arrogantly.
“You are leading up to a paddling such as you’ve never had before—if you’ve ever had one, which I doubt. That priest who trained you should have applied a lute to the bottom half of you now and again and perhaps you’d have a little humility.”
“I have as much humility as you do,” she said, watching him. “If you do foolish things, am I to stand aside and not raise my voice?”
“Alyx, you are going too far,” he warned.
“And how will you punish me for speaking the truth?”
“Not in a way that you’ll like.”
“How can you threaten me after all I’ve done for you? I’ve saved you from Roger Chatworth. I was nearly burned at the stake because the judges wanted your lands. I left with Jocelin to keep you safe in the forest.”
Raine grabbed her shoulders and held her at arms’ length, her feet off the ground. One half of his face was swollen purple, but the other half was red with rage. “You’ve gone too far,” he said through his teeth.
Before Alyx could take a breath, Raine had seated himself on a stump, pulled Alyx across his lap, bottom end up and tossed her skirts over her head. He gave her one strong, painful whack across her buttocks.
“You were not tried as a witch because of me,” he said. “You had your quarrel with Pagnell before I ever met you.”
Alyx didn’t have a chance to answer as Raine smacked her bottom again. “True, I was angry and perhaps should not have ordered Chatworth to be killed, but as we were in a secluded place, who would have known to tell the King? I am not as stupid as you seem to think and would not have left the body near my brother’s estate.”
Again, his hand came down. “I don’t like having my orders countermanded and especially not before my men. Is that clear?” Again he punctuated this with a blow.
Alyx, tears in her eyes, nodded silently.
“Good! Now, as for you and Jocelin, I don’t like games and jests at which I’m the butt. It hurt too much to see you with another man, and later when I found out it’d all been a trick, as if I were a dunce to be made a fool of, I could have killed you. And you risked the life of my daughter with your stupid jests.”
A very hard blow hit her. “You nearly lost my daughter to the fire as well as to the hazards of the road while you and Jocelin wandered about the country. I want no more of it, Alyx.” He struck her again. “Do you understand me? You are my wife and you damn well better start acting like it.”
With one more painful spank, he pushed her off his lap.
Alyx sat up, wincing with pain when her bottom hit the forest floor. There were so many tears in her eyes that she could hardly focus.
Raine stood, towering above her. “When you’re through sulking,” he said, “come back to the tent and I’ll make love to you so passionately you’ll forget who you are.” With that, he walked away from her.
For a moment, Alyx sat staring after him, then she closed her mouth and stood. No sulking in the world was worth missing a bout of lovemaking. As quickly as her stiff legs could carry her, she ran after Raine.