Her control over him was almost absolute. Almost. Duncan clung to those last precious drops of his freedom of will, freedom to think, to love, to be as he was. Even if he could not act in any of those matters.
She could not force him to change his opinion, and for that matter, she didn’t bother to muzzle his mouth. Although there was no way, and he kept trying to find some way around the command, but he could not hurt her, could not leave her. Which didn’t keep him from hating her.
Ursula found his weakness soon enough.
“You will feed, my child,” she said, dragging a woman by the hair into camp. The woman—girl really, not even twenty, with large, terrified eyes and dirty skin—groveled at Ursula’s feet.
“I will not.” Duncan barely looked at the girl. He wasn’t that hungry yet, and she w
