What had happened to Hastings? Why had she changed toward him? Had she dreamed about him? Did she feel guilty that she had not treated him as she should have?
He heard Gwent say quietly, “I do not yet know if Torric the steward is a thief. I do not calculate and figure as well as you do. You will have to see to it, Severin.”
‘Aye, I will see to it on the morrow. But today-” I know. Today and tonight it is your lady who will get all your attention.” Gwent stared after her. “I wonder,” he said slowly, “if your lady has experienced an epiphany.”
You mean, has a vision visited her and told her how to be a proper
wife?”
Something like that,” Gwent said, still staring after that laughing girl e dldn’t know. “Don’t muck up this miracle, Severin.”
1 1 9
“But-”
“Bend as she has bent.”
“Oh aye, but I’m too hard to bend, truth be told. She kissed me Gwent. It was a girl’s kiss, for she doesn’t know yet what to do with her mouth, but I will teach her, and it wasn’t bad, all soft and warm and-”
Gwent threw back his head and laughed deep and long. Other men joined in, not knowing why they laughed but seduced by the laugh from a man who could pound most of them into the ground in the practice field within a matter of minutes. Beamis laughed, picked up his little boy whirled him over his head, then tossed him to one of his waiting men. The child shrieked and shrieked with laughter.
Severin punched Gwent hard and strode into the great hall.
Had Hastings really had an epiphany? Or had she let another man in her bed and felt guilty for it? Was that why she had run to him, hurled herself at him, and kissed him? No, not Hastings. Why had she changed toward him? Would it last, this change of hers, longer than a goblet of wine?
r
i 9 n
dSé&
T T astings laughed as she leaned over his back, a sponge filled with her
1 1 lavender soap in her hand. His muscles were deep and hard. She was startled to find that she liked the feel of him, the texture of his flesh. He wasn’t very dirty and she was surprised at that. Surely he had ridden hard many days he had been gone, surely he had not been near too many bathtubs.
“Ah, that is good,” Severin said, leaning back against the edge of the tub, his eyes closed. Though at each of his keeps he had visited, the castellan’s wife or one of the ladies had performed this ritual for him, this was different. The way she touched him was different. He didn’t believe, at this moment, that he had enjoyed a scrubbing more. He wished it were her bare hand rather than the thick sponge.
You are very big,” she said at last, and her voice was just a bit thin. But then she laughed again. Mayhap that laugh was a bit on the thin side as WeN> but Severin didn’t care. He turned and grabbed her wrist. “Hastngs> he said. He saw indeed that her laughter was now forced, that her S e looked painful, her eyes a bit wild. She was chewing on her lower ‘P- This laughing bride of his wasn’t all that certain of herself or the new role she was playing with him.
thought of Gwent’s awed words about an epiphany, released her
i o i
wrist, and said, “Kiss me and then leave me else we won’t enjoy MacDear’s capon until tomorrow.”
Her eyes nearly crossed. Then she lightly touched her fingertips to his wet shoulders, leaned down, and kissed his closed mouth, her lips even more closed than his. Sewn together, he thought, but it didn’t matter. He waved her away with the thick sponge.
Hastings closed the door behind her and slumped against it. She drew a deep breath. This was all very strange. Because she had met him with kisses and hugs, he seemed a different man. Could Dame Agnes and Alice be right? All she had to do was laugh and feed him well and kiss him and then he would not force her again? He would go gently with her? He would no longer yell at her or shake her until her head snapped on her neck? She pushed away from the wall and walked quickly down the solar stairs.