Part 22 (1/2)
”I'm glad.” Sitting up, he took the rag away from her and flung it away. ”I want to keep protecting you from whatever makes you bring up your fist when you think you're alone.” She folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them. ”Don't you want to tell me about it yet?” he coaxed.
She shook her head.
Disappointment made his voice sharp. ”Isn't it my duty to see that you are safe at all times? I think that a walk such as you've just taken could scarcely be considered prudent.”
”Even foolish.” She glanced around the open meadow. ”Still, he hides himself. I almost wish he would return so we could end this.”
Her intensity surprised David. He'd chided her, true, but he'd almost forgotten why he beat his body into submission day after day. The reward he received every night pushed danger far from his thoughts. Now he, too, glanced around the meadow. They sat in the open, exposed to any predator's gaze, and a frisson of warning went up his spine. ”Mayhap we should sit in the shade of a tree.”
”Mayhap we should go back.”
They should, of course, but he wanted to talk to her, and when they returned to the castle she'd be inundated with duties and he'd need to go make his peace with Sir Walter. ”A few more minutes alone,” he begged. ”I have a question to ask you.”
Warily, she agreed. He helped her up and then put his arm around her waist. He liked the easy intimacy of that, the knowledge that he could have her out here and she would yield. It had been a significant victory for him that one morning on the table, and he'd often wondered why his burst of fury and impatience had worked when all his careful preparation the previous night had failed. He'd been too angry and disappointed to think about it at first, and that night he'd shouldered his way into her bedroom and let his emotions drive them. Later, he'd experimented, trying to see what evoked her pa.s.sion, and he'd discovered she sought, recognized, and responded only to genuine ardor.
If he tried to seduce her, she resisted him with all her fiber. She sought his genuine affection, and she was an expert at detecting the sincerity of others' feelings. What excited her most were the times he concentrated on the two of them to the exclusion of all else. Luckily for him, that proved easy, for when he allowed desire to sweep through him, her response rewarded him beyond his wildest dreams. She acted like a woman in love, and he liked her that way.
Choosing a place in the shade where she could rest her back against a tree, he swept her a bow and said, ”Sit here.”
Solemnly, she obeyed him, arranging her skirts carefully and tucking her feet beneath her. She sat with her spine straight and her face composed. Without a word spoken, he understood. She was the lady; he was the mercenary. She would speak to him, but she took care that he saw no glimpse of skin or any part which might excite him, for today she wanted to forget their intimacies of the night before.
Too bad he couldn't allow her such privacy.
”Why did you run away back there?”
She hesitated, and he could see her wanting to pretend she didn't remember how abruptly she had left. But unlike most people he'd ever met, she faced trouble when it came.
”Everything we've done previously, we've done in the privacy of our chambers, and although everyone knew what was occurring, they hadn't actually seen.”
”Except for the sheet,” he reminded her.
”Aye. Except for that.” Her nostrils flared with disapproval, just as they always did when he reminded her of the sheet. ”But when I wished to do something as simple as tending your hurt, my people watched as if it were an event, an indication of...something.”
”Like affection?”
He'd struck a nerve somehow, for she sat up on her heels and her hands twisted in her lap. ”I have affection for you! I couldn't have let you come to my bed if I did not. Just because I don't show every pa.s.sing emotion, it doesn't mean I'm cold or unfeeling. It simply means I've learned that women are better obeyed when they restrain their emotions.”
Startled by her vehemence, he agreed.
She went on. ”From the moment of my birth, my parents explained to me the difficulties I would face as an heiress with no close male kin. My G.o.dparents helped me realize my position and how others would try to take advantage of it. All of them trained me in appropriate behavior, and tempered me by maintaining a proper distance. Just because I keep to myself, it does not mean I have no feelings.”
”I know that.” He kept his voice low, half-afraid she would flee again when she realized what she'd revealed. ”I've always known there's more to you than meets the eye.”
She collapsed back onto the ground. ”Aye. Like wealth.”
Her cold suggestion left him shocked and indignant until he remembered why he'd courted her in the first place. He did want her money, her land, her influence. He needed it, all of it, but that wasn't the only reason he courted her now, and he wanted to tell her in the eloquent language of the troubadours. Instead he gulped and said, ”There's more than that.”
”More. Aye, more. More time, mostly.”
”Time?”
”Time between my birth and now. I'm old.”
He laughed. He shouldn't have, but compared to him, she was a child, an innocent babe inexperienced with anguish or struggle.
Then he glanced at her and saw the way her lips tightened and the glare she bent on him. Hastily, he said, ”I beg your pardon, my lady. Your experience in diplomacy and management is far beyond the reach of mine, yet your beauty has never been touched by frost.” His flattery failed to mollify her, and he sighed. ”My lady-Alisoun-have you thought that lately, in the last fortnight, you have occasionally lost your serenity on more than one occasion?”
Incredulous, she said, ”That's your fault! You'll take nothing less than my complete partic.i.p.ation.”
”Aye, in bed.” He took her hand and petted it. ”Have I told you how happy you make me in bed?”
She stiffened yet further. ”You've mentioned it, although I scarcely believe we should have such a discussion outside in the sunlight.”
Leaning forward, he whispered, ”Do I make you happy in bed?” She glanced around as if expecting the stern monitors of her behavior to materialize and chide her, and he raised his voice to recapture her attention. ”Do I make you happy in-”
”Aye.” She clamped her teeth together hard, as if that one-word admission pained her.
He kissed her hand, then put it back in her lap. His hands lingered, rubbing her thighs through the material of her skirt. The friction warmed her even as she batted ineffectually at him, and she relaxed a little. He said, ”I've observed that you occasionally laugh out loud.”
”Not frequently.”
”Not frequently,” he agreed. ”But it's startling. Pleasant, but startling.”
”I won't do it anymore.”
”Don't stop. It's made everyone quite cheerful. Haven't you noticed?”
”Maybe.” She begrudged him even so small an acknowledgment.
”I've seen you blinking tears from your eyes, too.”
She pushed back so quickly her head hit the tree trunk, but she didn't seem to notice the pain. He heard panic when she demanded, ”When?”
”The musicians made you cry last night with their ballad about the brothers who were rival pirates and sank each other's s.h.i.+ps.”
”I have no sympathy for pirates.”
”That's why it surprised me when you wept.”
Tears filled her eyes now-not that she would admit it-and he ached for her. She was experiencing a full range of emotions for the first time, and she was as susceptible to the pangs as any adolescent. But he couldn't coddle her. Not now. It was far too late for that. She had to face this sensibly, like the lady Alisoun, and slowly she would grow into this other, newer role. ”I've also noted that you observe Hazel when she's close to you.”
”Hazel?”
”The baby. Hazel. You offer to hold her, too.” She didn't say anything, and he probed. ”Is there any reason why she interests you now?”
”Babies are just interesting.”
”Aye, I always thought so.” Since the first time he'd held his daughter in his arms. ”Your emotions are easily touched, babies fascinate you...Do you have something you want to tell me?”
”Why?” She was beginning to sound defensive.