Part 44 (1/2)
”Nay.” She turned her head to hide her weakness.
”It was just so wonderful.”
He rolled to his side and drew her gently into the circle of his arms.
”Aye. It was beautiful.” He pressed his lips to her eyes and tasted her salty tears.
”And it is perfectly natural to cry at something so dazzlingly beautiful.”
”You do not think me a foolish child?”
”Nothing you do or say would seem foolish to me. And,” he added with a tender smile, ”you are far from a child. You are the most beautiful, desirable woman I have ever met.”
She sniffed.
”More beautiful than the women you met at the Court in France?”
He bit back a laugh at her artless attempt to be rea.s.sured. ”No woman at Court could match your beauty, my lady, including the queen herself.”
”Her ladies-in-waiting thought I resembled Queen Mary.”
He caught a strand of her hair and watched as it sifted through his fingers, catching and reflecting the light of the fire.
”Your coloring, perhaps. And the fact that you are both small and slender. But you are a rare beauty, Meredith. And far more lovely than our queen.”
She grew silent for a moment, gathering her courage for the next question. With a swallow she asked haltingly,
”Is it always like this?”
”Loving?”
She seemed relieved that he understood.
”Aye.”
With his index finger he traced the line of her brow, the curve of her cheek. His voice was low with feeling.
”I fear that many people are never blessed with what we have just discovered.”
”Why?”
His finger moved over her lips, still swollen from his kisses. Though it seemed impossible, his desire for this beguiling, bewitching creature was beginning to build once again.
”They are afraid to give themselves completely to another.”
”What is it they fear?”
”Losing control, I suppose. Or perhaps it is the fear of letting another witness their needs, their weaknesses.”
”Have you any weaknesses, my lord?” she asked with a smile.