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  Her perspective on him had changed.

  Rhogan never seemed to grow out of that aggressive, sometimes nasty little boy but, somehow, he also became rather humorous. And sweet. He would take her along when he went to play jokes on the soldiers and then protected her from their wrath when she didn’t run fast enough to get away. And his grin… God’s Bones, she remembered that grin to this day. He’d flash it at her, with big white teeth and a massive dimple in his left cheek, as if that grin made anything he did a forgivable offense.

  In fact, she’d been infatuated with him for quite some time before he’d gone away to foster and Juliana had been left heartbroken. She’d been six years of age and Rhogan had been eleven, and they’d lost touch after that. She’d heard snippets of news from her father over the years – how Rhogan was part of King Richard’s fighting force in France and how he’d distinguished himself at even his young age, but it had been ten years since she’d last seen Rhogan. As she and her family filtered into the great hall of Hollyhock House, she found that she was buzzing with anticipation.

  Would he remember her?

  Would he simply smile and pass her by?

  The suspense was building.

  “Come, Juli!” Charlotte couldn’t keep her hands to herself and tugged on her. “Let us go to the table with the food! There is a castle on it made from sweets!”

  By this time, Juliana’s younger brother and her youngest sister had joined them. Theo de Nerra and Sophia de Nerra were the two babies of the seven-child family, a second set of twins in a family where the oldest two brothers were also twins. But Theo and Sophia looked nothing alike, with Theo the exact image of their dark-haired father while Sophia was the one and only blond girl in the family. She looked like a little angel, but there was a devil spirit inside of that child. She was a brilliant little scamp. After throwing her cloak at her mother, she ran to her older sisters and grabbed Juliana by the hand.

  “Come!” she cried. “Let’s go in, let’s go in!”

  She was dancing her way into the hall, tugging at the barge of her reluctant older sister, while Theo got in behind her and pushed. Somehow, Juliana was shoved into the festival hall whether or not she was ready. In she went, and the crowd swallowed her up.

  Still in the entry hall, shaking the snowflakes off the cloaks, Val and his beautiful wife, Vesper, were trying to keep an eye on their brood. Once the children pushed into the warmly-lit hall, Vesper handed the last cloak over to a servant and took a few steps after her children, preparing to follow.

  “We should not let them alone in there,” she told her husband. “They will eat all of the food and claim victory over the entire table.”

  Val grinned. “Juliana will not, but the younger three… aye, you are right. We should not let them alone in there. It is a cruel thing to do to the guests.”

  Vesper turned to look at him, trying not to grin. “It is your fault,” she said. “Charlotte and Theo and Sophia are old enough to go and foster. They would learn better manners if they did. God help me, they are so much like your mother in so many ways. I see her boldness in everything about them. One child with her manner would be enough, but three? We are being punished somehow.”

  Val started to laugh, thinking of his aggressive, ruthless but loving mother who had passed away the year before. “I do not miss my mother so much when I look at them,” he said, his green eyes glimmering as he looked out over the crowd, spying his children near the big table laden with food. “I find such joy in the way they are. I am not ready to part with them yet. See what happened the last time I parted with one of my children. It nearly killed her.”

  Vesper sobered unnaturally fast, her mind going back six months to the moment when one of their elder sons, Gavin, brought his sister home from fostering with the Duke of Colchester. The parents’ joy at the return of their children had turned into horror when they saw that their daughter had been gravely injured while serving in the house of a royal cousin.

  It had been an excellent position for Juliana, so Val had thought, and he’d negotiated the position with the Duchess of Colchester even though he knew the woman’s husband had a bit of a dark reputation. The man was a cousin to the king, of noble blood but not of noble heart. There had been rumors of his dirty actions through the years, questionable dealings and unsavory incidents, but the duchess had assured him that she and the duke maintained separate lives. For the value of the experience he believed Juliana would have, he agreed to let her go.

  Unfortunately, the duchess hadn’t told the truth. In the duke’s quest to molest one of his wife’s ladies, Val’s daughter had gotten in the way. Colchester had beaten her, quite badly, but the parents knew nothing about it until their son, Gavin, had brought her home. Gavin had been in London at the time, serving at Westminster, and he had promptly brought his sister home to heal.

  But healing had taken awhile. Juliana had suffered broken ribs and a cracked skull, among other injures, and Val hadn’t forgiven himself for letting her go with the Duchess of Colchester in the first place. It was a good thing the duke had been killed shortly after the beating because, surely, Valor de Nerra would have torn the man limb from limb for what he’d done. But that incident had made Val extremely protective of his children, more than he already was, and wildly protective over Juliana in particular.

  Even now, his daughter wasn’t even fully out of his sight but he was starting to panic because she was away from him. Vesper understood his fears well but, in this case, she had to be the strong one. Val couldn’t take her fears, as well.

  “It was an unexpected happenstance,” Vesper said calmly, reaching out to grasp his hand. “You could not have known. The duchess explained what happened and she explained she’d done all she could to protect her women. You cannot blame yourself, Val, and you cannot let this deter you from sending our other children to foster. They are wild hooligans and need the discipline that fostering in a good household will bring them.”

  Val had his eye on Juliana as she moved by the table, her dark hair in carefully-styled curls. “Mayhap I will consider it this coming year,” he said, although it was reluctantly. “I will send them to de Lohr or de Winter or even to de Wolfe in the north. I will know the character of the homes I send them to, but Juliana… I am not ready to send her away again so soon.”

  “And you do not have to. I believe she wants to remain with her papa for a time.”

  Val nodded, thinking of his beautiful eldest daughter. “She still moves stiffly at times. And she tires easily.”

  “The physic said she would for a while. It is because of the cracked skull.”

  “I know.”

  There wasn’t much more to say to that. This was Juliana’s first big outing after her brush with death and Val intended that she should enjoy it. She should not have to worry about her father who was so terribly concerned for her. Therefore, he forced a smile and looked at his wife.

  “Shall we go and manage our brood?” he asked. “Before they tear the place down?”

  Vesper nodded, squeezing his hand as he pulled her close to him. The love, the adoration between them, was evident, something that all men envied. For certain, the love story between Val and Vesper de Nerra was the stuff of legends.

  With a wink at his wife, Val led his love into the glowing, lavish chamber.

  CHAPTER TWO

  YOU REMEMBER ME

  The eyes.

  He recognized the eyes but he couldn’t be sure that it was her. A lass from his childhood, a sweet girl he’d been very fond of until he’d left home to squire with a great knight who served the king. That had been ten years ago, but the eyes of the young woman standing at the table heavy with food and holiday spirits reminded him of the lass he’d known so long ago. They were lovely eyes, green, with a fringe of dark lashes, and bright… so bright that they looked as if an entire universe of stars was sparkling in them.

  Aye, he knew those eyes.

  It was her.

  “Aland,” he
muttered, elbowing the young lord next to him. “Over there; at the table. Do you see the young woman with the dark hair? The pretty one. She looks familiar.”

  Aland de Ferrers glanced over at the table. Tall and slender, with big eyes and a rather big mouth set over a square jaw, he was a childhood friend of Rhogan’s and part of the wealthy de Ferrer family. His father had died earlier in the year and Aland had inherited the estate in Hampshire, the same one he’d grown up on. Now, as Lord Hawkley, he bordered the de Nerra lands and he knew the family on sight.

  “Of course she looks familiar,” he said. “That is Juliana de Nerra. You have not been gone so long from home that you do not know her on sight?”

  Rhogan stared at her and a smile spread across his lips. “It has been a long time since I last saw her,” he admitted. “Even so, somehow, I knew it was her. I was hoping it was. The pretty little girl has grown into a spectacular woman.”

  Aland popped a candied almond into his mouth. “If you are thinking on setting your cap for her, don’t,” he said. “She would much rather marry me.”

  Rhogan looked at him with a frown. “How would you know that? Have you asked her?”

  Aland chewed noisily on the almonds. “Because any woman would rather marry a lord than a mere knight,” he pointed out. “You aim too high, de Garr. Any de Nerra is meant for someone of a greater station.”

  Rhogan cocked an eyebrow at his arrogant friend. “Who says anything about marriage? At least I can speak to her.” Over to his left, something else caught his eye and he quickly turned his back. “God’s Bones, there is that princess what’s-her-name again. She keeps trying to capture my attention.”

  Aland looked off to his left, casually, to see the object of Rhogan’s rejection. “Ah, yes,” he said. “Princess Augusta of Brabant. Rhogan, truly, if she is trying to get your attention, go to her. Why would you not?”

  Rhogan began eating the candied almonds out of the bowl on the table he was now facing. “She keeps rolling her eyes at me and giving me a look that suggests she wants to suck my face off,” he grumbled. “If I am going to suck any woman’s face tonight, it will not be hers.”

  “Why not?”

  Rhogan shrugged. “I have had my fill of French women.”

  Aland fought off a grin. “Not that French woman,” he said, turning around to fight for the candied almonds that Rhogan didn’t want to share. “Her mother is Marie, Princess of France, and her father is the Duke of Brabant. She is named Augusta after her mother’s brother, Philip Augustus, so with a mother who is a princess and an uncle who is the King of France, little Augusta is wildly wealthy and already has her own army.”

  Rhogan was trying to pretend he wasn’t interested, but the truth was that he hadn’t heard all of that from the brief introduction to the young princess. Their host, Hugh de Winter, had made the introductions. But it had been a rather group-like introduction with Rhogan and several other people being introduced to the princess who simply stood in the corner of the hall with her nurse. But after the introduction, she’d been casting him flirtatious expressions every time he glanced in her direction and he was growing rather weary of having to dodge them.

  “Little Augusta is right,” he snapped quietly. “She cannot be more than fourteen or fifteen years of age, far too young for my taste. And at second glance, she is not even very pretty.”

  Aland snorted. “What she lacks in beauty she more than makes up for in wealth.”

  Rhogan shook his head. “Forget it,” he said, looking off to his right, away from the winking princess, to notice that Juliana and her siblings had somehow drawn closer. He swallowed the nuts in his mouth. “I think I need to see an old friend.”

  With that, he headed in Juliana’s direction, moving around guests, making a path between the furniture, until he came up behind Juliana as she stood with a few children at the table. He was about to say something to her when the younger girl next to Juliana happened to turn around and notice him. Her eyes widened and she suddenly tugged on Juliana, hard. Irritated, the woman swung around to scold the child when her gaze abruptly fell upon Rhogan, standing directly behind her. He smiled and she immediately dropped the tart in her hand, spilling it onto the floor.

  “Oh!” she gasped as she and Rhogan dropped to the ground to pick up the tart. Juliana found herself looking right in Rhogan’s eyes as he handed her the pieces of her broken tart. “Thank you, my lord.”

  She stood up with goo in her hands, trying to be discreet about setting the broken tart on the table and wiping the sticky stuff on a cloth that Charlotte handed her. But Charlotte was smiling very openly at Rhogan and ended up punching her sister in the left breast as she tried to hand her the napkin. Juliana struggled not to react to the hit as she took the cloth and wiped off her fingers.

  If Rhogan noticed the clumsiness, he didn’t let on. He was smiling at her quite warmly. “My lord, is it?” he said. “You have never called me ‘my lord’ and I do not expect you to start now. Greetings on this snowy night, Lady Juliana. It has been a long time since we last saw one another.”

  Juliana’s heart did flips. “You remember me?”

  “Of course I remember you. How could I forget you? The fairest lass in all of England.”

  Juliana flushed a violent shade of red. “It has been a long time,” she said, listening to Charlotte giggle next to her. “My father told me that you have been in France but I had not heard of your return.”

  Rhogan could see the flush to her cheeks and it only made a beautiful woman more beautiful. He was enchanted.

  “I am only recently returned,” he said. “I have been to see my father and mother but little else. I’ve not yet made it to Selborne Castle to visit you and your family, and more’s the pity. I should have made it my first stop.”

  Juliana was blushing so deeply that she was sure she was about to go up in flames. Beside her, Charlotte could no longer keep quiet. “My sister has spoken of you often,” she blurted. “I heard your name tonight and saw someone talk to you! I told her you were here!”

  Mortified, Juliana stepped on Charlotte’s foot and the girl yelped, having no idea why her sister should do such a thing. As she scampered off, rubbing her offended toes, Rhogan stepped closer, coming to stand beside Juliana at the table.

  “Ah,” he said softly. “Out of the mouths of babes. So you have spoken of me often, have you? I would have thought that you surely had forgotten me.”

  Juliana was wishing the floor would open up and swallow her at that point. She turned to the food, pretending she was more interested in the presentation than in speaking with Rhogan. The way the man was looking at her was causing her to feel faint.

  “I often speak of friends from my childhood,” she said casually. “It was a long time ago, but I do remember how you used to play with my brothers. I remember when you would pretend that you and Gabriel were knights and Gavin was the evil wizard who held me hostage. You threw rocks at Gavin and hit him in the forehead. He still bears the scar.”

  Rhogan snorted. “That is his punishment for holding you hostage,” he said. “How is Gavin, by the way? I’ve not seen him here tonight.”

  Juliana shook her head. “He is at Westminster,” she said. “I do not know if he will be here tonight. He serves in the elite guard at the palace. Garret de Moray is his commander. Do you know Garret?”

  Rhogan nodded. “I know of him,” he said. “He is one of the king’s favored knights.”

  “Aye, he is. His wife is my dear friend. She is pregnant with their first child, in fact, and it is all Garret can speak of. You have never seen such a proud man.”

  Rhogan pretended to be interested when, in fact, he didn’t want to speak of someone he didn’t really know. He wanted to talk about Juliana.

  “Then all is well in the world,” he said. “And you, my lady? Have you married since last we saw one another?”

  She shook her head. “Nay,” she said, hoping he might take the hint that she was free to receive int
erest. “Papa says I am not old enough but my mother says that I am.”

  Rhogan’s eyebrows lifted. “A dilemma, to be sure,” he said. “I would say that you are more than old enough. How old are you now, anyway?”

  “I shall see seventeen years in March.”

  “Then surely you have had more than your fair share of suitors.”

  Juliana glanced at him, a smile playing on her lips. “No suitors,” she said. “Papa chases them all away.”

  Rhogan laughed softly. “He is being protective of his daughter, as well he should be,” he said. He sobered, his gaze lingering on her. “In truth, he was chasing them away because he knew I would return for you. He would not dare chase me away.”

  Juliana looked at him in surprise; handsome, square-jawed Rhogan with a flowing mane of wavy blond hair. The man had made many a maiden swoon with his broad-shouldered, comely looks, and Juliana was no exception.

  But the words from his mouth… God’s Bones, she wished them to be true. She’d wished them to be true practically all of her life, but she was certain that he was jesting with her. It seemed to her as if the subject turned personal very quickly, but she was glad for it. Thrilled, in fact. But she couldn’t be certain that he wasn’t jesting with her. So, to avoid embarrassment, she would jest in return.

  “All you need to do is ask him to see if he will chase you away,” she said, wondering how he would react. “But surely you are spoken for after all of these years. A man of your skill and background would make a proud husband for any woman.”

  He frowned at her. “God’s Bones, lass. I am far too young to marry.”

  “How old are you now?”

  “Only around six years older than you are. Do you not recall?”

  She did, but she pretended that his “too young to marry” comment didn’t bother her. “But you just said you would return for me,” she said. “When did you plan to return, then? Next year? In ten years? Did you really believe I would wait for you so long?”