The Everlasting Covenant Read Online Free

It is impossible! ”
    “ I will think of a way. Keep our secret, sweet angel. Until next I find you -- and I will find you, Anne -- I will dream of you. ” And he had dashed away, disappearing into the sheet of rain, leaving her alone in the little shelter until the sky cleared and Minerva came frantically searching for her lost ward.
    Good to his word, Dylan had found her again. She had gone with her mother on a pilgrimage to a nearby convent, escorted by a few men-at-arms. As their horses were taken, the handsome stableboy glanced her way, his turquoise eyes twinkling with mischief. She almost gasped aloud, but quickly realized that she alone recognized him. As her mother slept, she crept from their loft and went to the stable, although his only invitation had been his brief grin and shining eyes. “ I am fortunate you are so young and innocent, ” he had said. “ You have none of the teasing, wily ways of these noble dames and you do not make me beg a kind word. ”
    “ Were you any other man, Dylan deFrayne, I would make you come through my brothers to get the smallest smile, but, alas, you are my enemy and I cannot even practice all the clever allures I have watched other maids use. But how did you ever find me here? ”
    “ I followed the troop from your home, traveling through the wood and keeping my distance. When your mother mentioned the convent to her escorts, I overheard and rode ahead to bribe the stablekeeper. A few silvers in his hand made the stable mine for the night. ” He had grinned brightly. “ But at dawn I have to curry the horses. ”
    “ You are indecent, the sisters are shamed. ” Her tone, as she well remembered, had been teasing and bright, for she not only liked Dylan a great deal more than she should, but the sheer adventure of sneaking behind her mother ’ s back to be with him was most exhilarating. Marcella was so caught up in the knightly accomplishments of her sons and a sound marriage for Divina, she had ignored Anne almost entirely.
    Anne had been nursed by a servant and consigned to Minerva when she was weaned. Divina had followed her mother around the keep, while Anne remained closer to her nurse than her mother. It seemed to Anne, sometimes, that her mother looked at her as though she did not know who she was. She was all the more ripe for love when Dylan appeared.
    Although Anne believed she had loved Dylan from the first moment their eyes met, it was that night in the cloister stable that the adventure turned from the youthful games of naughty children to the torment of forbidden lovers. And Dylan had been the first to see it through grown-up eyes. He touched her cheek with his hand and his warm lips touched hers briefly, lightly. His lips trembled and his voice was soft. “ I have fallen in love with you, Anne. And I am afraid I will ruin your life. Leave me quickly. Never come back to me again. ”
    “ Oh Dylan, nay. I cannot! I love you, too! ”
    He sighed deeply. “ They may find a way to tear us apart, my Anne. Promise me that no matter what we have to endure, you will not let a beautiful love make you bitter and angry. Let it be your joy, even if it is a brief, secret joy. ”
    A dozen times had been theirs since that rainstorm in Lincoln. Each encounter was more dangerous than the one before. That they had not been caught was one miracle, and that Dylan had not given in to temptation and compromised her virtue was another. The first miracle was nothing more than luck, and the second, a true test of his strength, for Anne was so in love with him that she could never have denied him anything. She wanted nothing so much as to be his in body and heart. A little girl on her first outing had smiled at him ; a woman was molded in his arms.
    Every night before she slept her head was filled with each small memory, brief moments they had stolen to be together. This night after the joust was no different. She had crept into the bower that she shared with Minerva and her