Rain drummed loudly on the rooftop, and Eadyth examined the ceiling of the hall for moisture as she passed through. Apparently her workmen had finally repaired all the leaks, she thought with satisfaction. Next, she would set them to the chapel renovations.
Eadyth was about to mount the stairs to Eirik’s bedchamber when Britta called out, “Mistress, I would not be going up there now.”
“Why not?”
” ‘Twould not be wise,” Britta muttered, turning away sheepishly, just like Bertha.
Something was amiss. Something she would not like. And it involved Eirik. Her eyes narrowed and she started up the steps again, determined to put an end to the mystery.
“Oh, Lord,” she heard Britta mutter ominously behind her. “Now the goose feathers are gonna fly.”
Eadyth did not bother to knock on Eirik’s bedchamber door—their bedchamber door, she amended. Instead, she turned the handle and opened the door with a flourish. Then gasped with outrage at the sight before her.
Eirik was lying on the bed, propped on his elbows. He wore only a loincloth, and his body and slicked-back hair gleamed with moisture from a recent bath.
He was not alone.
A young woman—a young, beautiful woman—knelt on the bed with him, his foot on her lap.
Eadyth’s eyes widened in disbelief.
The Moorish woman was paring Eirik’s toenails, and he lay practically naked. In her lap.
“Eadyth, I did not know you were there. Come in,” Eirik said with seeming innocence. His slumberous eyes spoke of some other emotion.
Oh, the humiliation of it! Eirik had actually brought a mistress into her home in front of everyone. She would kill him! Perchance with that little paring knife the woman wielded. Mayhap she would kill them both.
In the midst of her anger, Eadyth’s eyes swam with tears of disillusionment. She had not realized until then how much she had grown to trust this man, her husband, and to look forward to their union. Oh, ’twas unfair. First Steven, and now this womanizing wretch.
What a foolish maid she had been, walking into this marriage with her heart wide open. Raising her chin angrily, she tried to hide her misery from Eirik’s probing stare. She was a strong woman, well accustomed to the harsh reality of loneliness. She would survive yet another man’s betrayal. Yea, she would.
Without thinking, she grabbed a bucket sitting next to his dirty bathwater and dumped the contents onto his still-reclining body. It soaked him and the bed linens and splattered the gown of the slut who sat back on her haunches on the bed staring at her in horror.
“Holy damnation, Eadyth! That water was ice cold,” Eirik exclaimed, reaching for a drying cloth. “Do you take exception to a man practicing good bodily habits?”
“Bodily habit’s?” she barely choked out and filled the bucket with dirty bathwater, approaching the bed again. The young woman screeched with alarm and jumped off the bed, darting around her and out the door.
Eirik stood and eyed her challengingly. “Do not dare to throw that filthy water at me, or you will suffer the consequences.”
Despite her fury, Eadyth had to admit that the man looked glorious standing there, bare-chested and bare-limbed. The light from the arrow slit played on the fine muscles that sculpted his shoulders and arms, highlighting the bunching sinews of long legs which had been honed by years of horseback riding. He threw the linen cloth onto the bed and put both hands on his hips with supreme arrogance. Amusement twitched at his enticing lips, and his pale blue eyes sparkled with some perverted pleasure.
A red haze of fury blinded Eadyth then. The man was laughing at her. He amused himself with another woman and found humor in her anger. He had promised her loyalty in the betrothal agreement and then committed adultery even before their marriage was consummated. Worst of all, he found that ignorant peasant attractive, and her… and her, his true wife, he could not even bear to bed.
She threw the bucket of water in Eirik’s face. Soapy water dripped from his hair and eyelashes and chin. Stunned with surprise that she had actually disobeyed his command, Eirik’s mouth dropped open. But only for a moment. His surprise swiftly turned to anger and he promised ominously, “You will regret, wife, that you did not heed my warning.”