When Kavan had examined her, however, he shook his head. "I can see the child’s head. If we move her now we’re likely to kill them both."
He leaned down and caught Alinor’s face, shaking her slightly. Alinor had been drifting on a haze, but the movement roused her. "You must push."
Alinor frowned at the stranger uncomprehendingly.
Catching her hand, he placed it on her belly. "When your belly grows tight again, suck in a deep breath and hold it while you push."
She tried, encouraged by his calm words and reassuring touch, certain that it meant her trial was almost over. After a while, however, she found it was harder and harder to focus on what he was saying and to do as he told her.
Kavan sat back, frowning. "She is too weak. She will never push the babe out at this rate." He thought about it for several moments and finally directed Wulfgar to sit behind her, holding her up. Taking Wulfgar’s cloak, he folded it and placed it beneath her. "This way the child’s weight should help. Place your hands on her belly and each time it hardens, push downward … not too hard. Just help her."
Within moments, Alinor felt her legs begin to shake from the effort. Each time she reached the point of giving up, however, the stranger would speak sharply, or encouragingly, to her, always distracting her from the urge to simply give up the effort and slip to the floor.
"Almost there. Just push a little more. Hold only a moment. Now. Push."
Abruptly, something heavy slipped away and the pain ceased as abruptly as if it had been sliced from her body. Alinor wilted weakly against Wulfgar’s chest, barely conscious.
A moment passed and then another. Alinor had just realized something was not right when she heard a choking noise followed by an angry wail. A sob of relief escaped her.
"He is alive?"
"Aye," Wulfgar murmured against her cheek. "He is."
Kavan frowned. "Hold her only a few more moments."
"Is something wrong?" Alinor asked fearfully.
Kavan glanced at her. "Nay. Small wonder this fellow gave you such a time. He’s a strapping lad. But first I must tie this off when the blood ceases to flow." He paused, tearing a strip from Alinor’s gown. "And see that the after birth has passed."
He nodded at Wulfgar finally and Wulfgar helped her to lay down beside the squalling infant. Tired as she was, Alinor gathered him close to her heart, laughing and crying at the same time. "He is so tiny!"
Kavan exchanged a look with Wulfgar. "You are not used to seeing infants. He is a good sized lad, I give you my word."
Alinor tugged the cloak back so that she could study the baby’s face and finally looked up at Wulfgar, smiling. "He is beautiful, is he not?"
Wulfgar looked down at the bloody, red faced, wrinkled thing she held in her arms. "Aye," he agreed weakly.
Chapter Nineteen
Alinor had just settled into her bath when a maid rushed into the room to tell her that Wulfgar had returned. A thrill of excitement went through her, but also exasperation and dread. She had not expected him quite so soon. She had spent the past hour preparing her bath, anxious to look her best for him when he returned since it would be the first time since his son’s birth that she would be able to receive him as a wife. After a moment, she sent the maids to tell him she would be down shortly and rushed the maids through washing her hair.
The door to their bed chamber burst open, slamming against the wall just as the maid was finished rinsing her hair. Startled, the maid squeaked in surprise, dropping the pitcher. Alinor’s head whipped toward the door.
Wulfgar stood in the doorway, his expression dark with anger. As his gaze settled upon her in the tub, however, a curious mixture of surprise and desire abruptly replaced the anger. He pointed at the maids. "Out!"
The maids looked at Alinor questioningly and she nodded. "Have someone bring up the food I asked to be prepared for my lord."
"Later," Wulfgar said shortly as the maids scurried from the room. Closing the door behind them, he strode across the room to the hearth, placing his back to it and staring down at her.
"You are cross," Alinor observed coolly.
Wulfgar stared at her a long moment and finally scrubbed his hand along his jaw and turned away. "I was … not pleased to be told upon my arrival that my wife was detained—when I have been gone for weeks."
Alinor studied his rigid back for several moments before it occurred to her that he had suspected she was ‘detained’ because she was entertaining. Anger washed through her, but after a moment it occurred to her that it was entirely her own fault that he had jumped to such a nasty conclusion. Her mother had told her she would live to regret having sown that seed of doubt, and indeed she did, for trust, she saw, would be slow in coming, particularly after the lie she had told to dissuade Jean-Pierre’s attentions.
She had been revolted at the very thought of accusing her own husband of bringing her a disease from a whore, though.
Unfortunately, that was the one part of the story she had fabricated that had mightily displeased Wulfgar. When coupled with her previous remark about her own needs, it had proven to be fodder for jealousy.
Sighing deeply, Alinor returned her attention to finishing her bath before the water grew cold. After a few moments, she realized that Wulfgar had turned to watch her. She pretended she had not noticed, but the desire in his eyes was a goad to tease him—in part because of his unpalatable suspicions, in part because it thrilled her to see the hunger in his gaze as he watched her. "Would you care to bathe while the water is still hot, my lord?"
Without a word, Wulfgar began shedding his garments, though his gaze never left her. When she rose and swiped the excess water from her body, he went perfectly still, his gaze locked upon her as she stepped from the tub and wrapped a length of linen around herself. The linen clung damply to her skin, nearly transparent. After a moment, Wulfgar seemed to shake his stupor. Tugging off his boots and breeches, he climbed into the tub, grabbed the sponge that she had been bathing with and began to scrub himself quickly. When he dropped the sponge and leaned forward to splash water over his face, Alinor knelt and took the sponge, then felt around in the tub for the soap he’d dropped. He sat back abruptly as her hand grazed his thigh, but Alinor pretended she hadn’t noticed, concentrating on rubbing the soap into the sponge. Setting the soap aside, she moved behind him and scrubbed his back, then lathered his hair before retrieving the pitcher to rinse the suds from his hair.
She was still trying to rinse the soap from his hair when Wulfgar twisted around abruptly, grasped her around the waist and dragged her across his lap. She gaped at him in surprise.
"Woman—‘tis a dangerous game you play."
Alinor dropped the pitcher to the floor and draped her arms around his neck. "Is it?"
His eyes narrowed.
Leaning toward him, Alinor grazed the line of his jaw with a nibbling kiss. "What will happen if I do?" she whispered in his ear before tracing the swirls of his ear with the tip of her tongue.
A shudder went through him. Gripping her tightly, he rose straight up from the tub, glanced speculatively toward the bed and finally stepped from the tub. Kneeling, he laid her upon the rug before the hearth, capturing her lips in a heated kiss as he followed her down, covering her body with his own.
Alinor found her hunger equaled his. Murmuring an approval into his mouth, she wound her arms tightly around his neck, entwining her legs with his. It was all the encouragement he needed. Leaning away, he dragged the wet linen from between them and tossed it away. Their wet bodies clung, slipped, drove them both over the edge as they rolled on the rug, seeking to position themselves.
Despite her readiness, a twinge of discomfort suffused her as he slipped his engorged flesh inside of her, driving deeply, but the discomfort passed quickly as he began to thrust, haphazardly at first, pausing and pulling away so that he could suckle her breasts, kiss her shoulder and neck, her lips. Finally, feeling the desperate need descend upon her, she locked her legs around h
is waist, arching to meet his thrusts, demanding a rhythm that would take her to culmination. He fell into a rhythm then that pleased them both, thrusting and retreating smoothly, deeply.
Within moments, Alinor reached her crisis, crying out in bliss as her body convulsed around his engorged flesh. The clenching of her body around his cock sent him over the edge, as well. They lay gasping and sated in the aftermath, still entwined, their bodies still joined.
After a moment, Wulfgar gathered her tightly in his arms and rolled to his back. Alinor lay limply atop him, her cheek pressed to his chest. A sense of peace settled over her. Turning her head slightly, she placed a light kiss in the center of his chest, above his pounding heart. "I desire no one save you, Wulfgar."
He stiffened, pushed her away so that he could look at her.
She smiled wryly. "I have an unruly tongue. Many times I have spoken without judicious thought and then found that what I have said did not come out just as I meant it to. I could not bear to think that you might do this with anyone else. I only meant to make you understand how it would make me feel if I found that you had—not to place doubt in your mind about me."
Wulfgar frowned thoughtfully, stroking her back, but he said nothing.
She reached up, placing her palm on his cheek so that he looked at her. "I love you, Wulfgar, with all my heart. I desire no other."
Wulfgar’s eyes lit, but after a moment he looked away, frowning. "A proper courtship would not have left us vulnerable to so many doubts," he said slowly. "I spoke thoughtlessly myself … many times."
Alinor chuckled, drawing his attention. "You will think me strange, but … I thought it thrilling that you stole me away."
Wulfgar’s lip quirked upward. Rolling onto his side, he faced her. "I terrified you."
Alinor bit her lip. "Mayhap a little—but I was far more terrified that you would decide to take me back … and disappointed that you seemed so disinterested in ravishing me."
Wulfgar chuckled, but sobered almost at once. "I was not disinterested. I could think of little else, but I could not bring myself to force you and watch the innocence in your eyes die."
"Oh." Alinor frowned and then blushed. "I thought … I thought it was because you … feared that you might come to care for me, at least a little."
"I am so easily read, then?"
Alinor shrugged. "Apparently not."
Wulfgar tucked his fingers beneath her chin. "I can not honestly say what I felt then … beyond confusion. All I do know is that from the moment you looked up at me and I saw fear, and innocence, and trust in your eyes I was torn between the desire to protect you and … the desire to have you. There is no doubt in my mind that I love you, Alinor--as I have never loved anyone else. Any doubts that remained in my own mind vanished when you were taken from me, and when I watched you struggling to bring our son into the world. All I could think of then was that there would be no life for me without you."
Alinor hugged him tightly, lifting her lips for a kiss to seal their vows. "I am so relieved little Wulfgar took no hurt from all of our adventuring," she said on a happy sigh when they parted at last.
"Aye," Wulfgar agreed.
"He is such a beautiful child! He looks just like his father."
Wulfgar looked torn between amusement and doubt. "Only a mother’s eyes would see beauty in such a creature."
Alinor struck him playfully, but laughed. "I knew you were horrified when you first saw him! And no consideration made for what the poor babe had endured finding his way into this world. You should see him now. He is beautiful."
Wulfgar forestalled her, however, when she would have rushed away. Standing, he scooped her into his arms and strode to the bed. "Later. Just now I am far more interested in showing you how much I adore you and allowing you to show me how much you adore me."
Alinor wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling. "I would love to adore you … all over your body."
Wulfgar gave her a heated gaze as he placed her atop the mattress and followed her down. "Me first," he growled huskily.
The End
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