Velvet Touch. Catherine Archer

heard anyone else speak of it. So inside her had grown the notion that she alone had the ability to find the magical spot.

      It was as if God were giving her this one rare gift in order to make up for the twisted ankle that had ordained her destiny from the day she was born.

      Only here could she forget for a time that she was not as other young women. In the water she need not walk with slow deliberation to keep from appearing awkward.

      With her careful, halting gait, Fellis moved toward the wide shelf of moss-covered rock that jutted out over the pond. With a rising sense of anticipation tingling along her backbone, Fellis went forward, pulling the heavy gray veil and wimple from her head…

      

      Stephen was dismayed to find the forest becoming denser and more difficult to traverse. The underbrush grew thicker as the land beneath Gabriel’s hooves became rough and uneven. Finally he had to dismount to pick his way through the growth.

      Yet another grumble from his stomach made his lips twist in self-derision. If he’d had the sense to stay on the main road, surely he would have been at Malvern by now, eating a hearty breakfast.

      At the gentle sound of water flowing close by, Stephen turned to follow the burbling noise. It was always a good idea to locate a body of water if lost. It must invariably lead to somewhere.

      When he had pushed his way through to the stream, he frowned as he saw how small it was. Mayhap he had made a second misjudgment on this ill-fated morn. Such a narrow trickle might indeed lead nowhere.

      But as he had no notion of how to go back, it seemed that following this course was preferable to heading off with no particular direction to follow. He continued on for a time, then once again cursed himself as he came up against a thick stand of trees, grown so closely together that they created what amounted to a solid wall.

      Stephen studied the situation with ever-increasing ire. Thinking there must be some way through the tangle, no matter how thick it appeared, he decided that he would tie Gabriel to one of the branches. After doing so, he was free to press past and attempt to find a better position to lead the horse from the other side.

      Choosing a spot that looked only slightly less dense than any other, Stephen closed his eyes and pressed his way through.

      When he opened his eyes, what met his gaze was a true wonder. A lily-dotted pool rested in the center of a verdant and otherworldly glade. It was a secluded spot, completely cut off from even the rest of the forest around it. He felt rather like a knight braving an enchanted hedge in a tale of chivalry.

      Stephen wasn’t quite sure why, but something inside told him to remain quiet. Mayhap it was the cathedral-like stillness he felt as he stood there and looked up at the arched canopy of treetops over his head.

      He moved forward slowly, almost reverently, through the dense growth of brush at the edge of the glade. It was then he looked up toward the far end of the pool and halted. He stopped thinking of anything, save the nude feminine form poised there on a rock that jutted out over the water.

      It was a woman, a nymph, a silver spirit of the forest. Jesu, what a woman.

      She stood tall, bathed in a shaft of pure golden light, her hair hanging down her back in a silvery curtain that reached to her knees. She reached high, hands over her head as if basking in the sweet warmth of that single bright beam of sunlight as it pierced the treetops. It shimmered on the perfection of her high, full breasts, narrow waist and gently curved hips. Her legs were long, slender and shapely, the muscles flexed as she paused there on one slender foot. Her very skin seemed to glisten with incandescent fire.

      Stephen was struck dumb by the sight of her. Never in all his twenty-seven years had he dreamed such a woman existed.

      Something, some inner sense of caution, told him to keep his presence secret. Surely he had stumbled upon this bright silver fairy maid by accident and she would disappear, did she become aware of his presence in her lair.

      Without pausing to reason out the wisdom or sensibility of his actions, Stephen hunkered down out of sight. But a need to see again that lovely creature, to reassure himself that she was indeed real, prodded him to move forward until he was able to part the dense brush at the water’s edge.

      When he did so, he saw but a flash of pale skin as she disappeared into the cool depths of the water scarcely a few feet from where he crouched. The only things to mark her entry therein were a faint splash upon his face, and the heady sweet scent of the water lilies that were disturbed by her passage. Stephen wiped at the water, feeling its wetness upon his palm, and knew that he could not have been imagining the beautiful woman.

      This was no dream, he told himself, and thus she was no wood sprite that would disappear if frightened.

      She was a woman, flesh and blood, and so beautiful his body ached at the thought of how she had looked only moments ago, poised upon that moss-covered rock. And that meant she would have a real woman’s reaction to being spied upon by a strange man.

      Stephen felt himself flush as he realized how it would appear to her if she discovered him here like this. Why, he must look like some lecherous knave lurking in the bushes.

      He ran an unsteady hand over his face as the unchivalrous nature of his behavior became clear to him. What in the world had come over him? Not in his life had Stephen acted so despicably.

      He realized he had to leave, and quickly, before the woman noted his presence. ’Twas surely the only way for her to keep her dignity.

      She was swimming now just a few feet away, her arms cleaving the water with firm, clean strokes, the sound of her passage drawing his rapt attention. And unconsciously he found himself watching for a glimpse of creamy flesh.

      Dragging his captive gaze away from her, Stephen chided himself once again. He had to leave now, though it was not easy. The thought of never seeing her again was more disturbing than he would have imagined, and his chest ached at the very notion.

      Then he reminded himself that such thinking was skewed. He knew nothing of this female, had no knowledge of who she was or anything about her.

      Besides, if she knew what he was doing right now, she would not welcome him. Of that Stephen was sure. It was obvious that she had come to the place in the utter certainty that she would not be seen. The very lack of self-consciousness in her gestures and actions gave proof of this.

      Could he simply walk away, never to know her name?

      And then he knew. He would have to find her again, no matter how difficult it might prove. He must discover what lay beneath that exquisite covering of delicate white flesh, must learn of the woman inside.

      But that could not be done now, not here in this secluded place.

      With cautious deliberation, Stephen edged away until he felt the wall of trees at his back. Only then did he turn and force his way through the tangle of branches to his waiting stallion. And away from the sensuous pull of that silver-haired beauty in the forest pool.

      

      Fellis felt the cool water glide over her bare skin with a shiver of pleasure. She moved her arms in long, sensuous strokes that pulled her forward smoothly.

      ’Twas her greatest sin, this desire to swim without clothing to hinder her enjoyment of the water and air. It made her feel so alive and so much a part of the gentle throbbing hum of the forest around her to go naked and unrestrained in the glade.

      The whole of her life was so ordered, so determined by her mother and others. This was the one place that she felt herself. And though she knew it was wrong to come here, there were times when she could not keep herself away. This morning had been one of those times. The day ahead of her stretched lengthy and filled with the many responsibilities that were her lot. Prayer, passing out alms and helping the poor, caring for her aged grandmother, these duties occupied her life.

      It had seemed almost a sign that Fellis had wakened long before her mother would be up and about. Mary Grayson was ever ready to chastise her daughter for any thought of deviation from her appointed