Eadyth snorted in a very unfeminine fashion. “Go thee off to Jorvik and ease yourself on your mistress, but leave me alone.”
Eirik smiled, realizing his new wife was finding it hard to resist his considerable charms. She would completely lose her sanctimonious self-control if he had any say in the matter.
She stood, preparing to leave the dais.
“Did you suckle your baby?”
“What did you say?” Eadyth asked, plopping back into her chair. Then she noticed, with consternation, that he was staring at her breasts.
Eirik loved it.
She folded her arms again, glaring violet fire at him.
“Did you suckle John as a babe?”
“Why?” she choked out through deliciously soft lips.
Eirik shrugged, finding it harder and harder to hold on to his anger in the face of her seductive allure. “I just wondered if your nipples were still pink, or a dusky rose as some women’s are wont to be after bearing a child. And—”
“Argh! You are truly loathsome.” Eadyth jumped to her feet, scowling equally at Eirik and Wilfrid, who both chortled gleefully at finally breaking the shell of her haughty composure. This time she would not allow Eirik to pull her back into her seat. The tune of their laughter followed her as she stomped down the dais steps and through the great hall.
Eirik realized that Tykir had been right about the sway of her hips. His eyes followed her form until she started to climb the stairway to the second floor and her bedchamber.
* * *
Several hours later, when Eirik entered the dark bedchamber, he lit a candle, then chuckled aloud when he looked toward the bed. His recalcitrant wife was lying under the bed linens, no doubt sweltering in the May heat. She hugged the edge of the bed frame, pretending to be asleep.
Eirik grinned.
First, he pissed noisily in a chamber pot behind a screen at the side of the room, certain that this intimate aspect of married life would annoy his prickly wife. After washing his face and arms in a bowl of water, he removed all of his garments and slipped naked into the huge bed which dominated the center of the room.
He slid a bare leg over to Eadyth’s side of the bed, nudging her with his big toe. She jerked and almost fell off the bed. He smiled to himself, then exclaimed, “By the Faith, Eadyth! Why are you wearing so many garments?”
“I got a chill,” her weak, muffled voice said from beneath, the bed covers now pulled up to her nose.
“Show me yer legs,” another muffled voice, a mite more squawkish than Eadyth’s, called out from the comer where a dark fabric had been thrown over its cage. Then, “Would ye like to see me arse?”
Eadyth groaned and muttered something about making parrot porridge.
Eirik shook his head in wonder at the comedic turn his somber life had taken of late. Then he grimaced with self-disdain when he remembered that he was the target of the biggest jest of all—his lady wife’s grand charade.
“Take the damn shroud off, Eadyth. You will make the bed too hot for me to sleep with your body heat.”
She grumbled something under her breath, and Eirik could have sworn he heard Abdul snicker.
“At least, snuff the candle. ‘Tis immodest,” she demanded shrilly. When he did not immediately do her bidding, she turned in chagrin, no doubt intending to land him a good clout to the head. She inhaled sharply when she saw his nude body reclining indolently alongside her, with hands folded behind his head. Quickly, she turned her face away in embarrassment.
“Ah, well, I can understand a bride’s shyness with a new husband,” he said in a voice oozing with solicitude before rising to do her bidding. When the room was in total darkness, be returned to the bed, realizing that Eadyth had removed her gown in record time and was naked but already covered once again by the bed linens.
Oh, Eadyth, you are sadly mistaken if you think you can hide from me. You are going to pay for your deceit. In good time. In my own way.