We will see. The Healer did not know if her potion would help her. have the girl Glenda sewing the gowns for your mother. She is skilled, surprised me. Your mother will have a new gown to wear on the morrow. I am willing to wager that it will fit her nicely.”
Severin walked to the bed, sat on the edge, and sighed. “Thurston is a good man. He will do his best, but it isn’t enough, Hastings. What he needs is a good wife. Perhaps soon he can gain a knighthood.” ‘Can you see that he is knighted?”
“Aye, I can.”
“If you knight him, then I will find him a wife who will see that the reeds are sweet-smelling, the meals are prepared well, the jakes are limed and everyone goes about their duties without sullen faces.”
“Ah, and where will you find this paragon?”
She examined her fingernails. She was humming softly.
“Hastings?”
“I am thinking,” she said. “Perhaps your mother will have a proper lady in mind when she awakens.”
“Think you she sleeps too heavily?”
“Aye, the potion is strong.”
He nodded, rose, and began to remove his clothes. “Can you keep your screams in your throat? ”
She gave him a slow smile. “And you, my lord? You bellow like a bull.”
He grinned at her. “We will do our best, but I must have you. It has been a very long time.”
Since the previous night, she thought, very pleased. The evening had been warm, the stars had filled the heavens, slanting light down through the oak branches. He’d led her into that ancient oak forest after they’d eaten roasted rabbit by the camp fire. There they’d caressed each other untifTîastings had gasped, “Please, Severin, come to me else I’ll expire.”
But he hadn’t. When finally she had cried out, he gently reached his hand up and closed it over her mouth. When she had eased a bit he’d come into her and found his own pleasure.
“Aye,” she said now, still studying her fingernails. “A very long time. I have felt neglected. I have felt like a cow left overlong in the pasture.’
“Now you want me to milk you? Your jest went a bit awry, Hastings.”
She grinned at him. He patted her cheek with his hand, leaned down, and kissed her. He was whistling when he began to unweave his cross garters. He was jesting with a woman. Nay, not just a woman. He was jesting with his wife. He had wanted to strangle her not that long ago-
to
h d been strongly tempted to beat her. When he’d left Oxborough to
• ‘ his other holdings, he hadn’t ever wanted to see the witch again. Then
iracle. The epiphany. He remembered when he had forced her.
M not really forced her, for he had used the cream, but still, she hadn’t
wanted him. She had hated him.
She no longer hated him. Why? he wondered. Now she smiled at him, welcomed him, and many times treated him as though he was the king. It made him feel very good.
He knew he should keep his mouth shut, should not question what God had wrought, but he didn’t. He waited until she was on her back and he was balanced on one elbow over her. He was looking down at her breasts. Not ordinary breasts at all. They were full and white and so very soft. He was lightly rubbing his finger over that soft flesh of hers. “Why did you change toward me? You hated me. You said I was an animal. You wished I would disappear from your life.”
She became utterly still.
“Hastings?”
“Will you push and push until you batter me down?”
“Nay, I am your husband. There should never be any need near for me to push you. It will be your joy to always tell me what it is I wish to know.”
“Very well. I can see that you will be Edgar the wolfhound with a beef bone. Dame Agnes and Alice told me to. Dame Agnes said that I had not enough experience in a woman’s ways to deal well with you. They told how this dealing worked with men. And since you are a man, they decided it would work with you as well. A smile and a kiss, and a show of interest in you, Severin, that is what they told me to do. I don’t think ame Agnes believed I would succeed though. I believe she thought I would bite you rather than kiss you. But I did kiss you and it was very mce-l believe I tasted your surprise.”