She did as he requested, but that did not stop her from feeling the hardness of the muscles in his arms and chest or from gazing at his tumescence as he began to undress her. Finally, when they were both naked and lay facing each other on the bed, he began the claiming.
He had spoken the truth to her. The blood lust roared within him and all his body wanted to do was thrust into hers. He knew she would moan and make those wondrous noises in her throat as he took her, and he ached for them. But he was not out of control and knew he must take care of her this first time together. With the uncertainty of her past experiences looming between them, Geoff knew that the way he loved her now would determine many things about their life ahead. And so he reined in his lust and put her pleasure before his own.
He knelt beside her and skimmed her body with his hands, barely touching some places and rubbing others more vigorously to find out what pleasured her the most. Knowing that her large, rosy-pink nipples, the underside of her breasts and the delicate skin on the inside of her thighs were highly sensitive, he used his mouth and tongue there, to bring her near to her peak. And when her body tightened and arched and she moved restlessly beneath his touch, he stopped and soothed her with deep kisses, wanting to draw out and prolong the taking.
Geoff knew he could not withhold his desire much longer and so he knelt between her thighs and pulled her toward him until her hips rested on his legs. In this position, her own legs fell open and he could see the moistened folds there. Using his fingers, he spread the flesh apart and found the hidden bud that would give her the most intense pleasure. Geoff dipped inside her, using the wetness there to make the path of his fingers slippery. First, back and forth, then in widening and narrowing circles, he touched and rubbed and teased and pleasured her aroused flesh until he could feel the spasms begin within her core.
She arched off the bed as passion filled her, keening with pleasure as her body found its release under his hands. He pressed his thumb on the bud, slid several fingers inside her womanly passage and let her come against them. When he felt the contractions lessening, he knew it was time. Moving from where he knelt, he lifted her hips and placed himself there. Leaning forward, he covered her with his body and waited for her passion-filled gaze to focus on him.
“Now,” he whispered to her. “Now, the rest of it.” Never breaking from her gaze, he thrust inside of her, filling her and stretching her until they were together like a hand in a fitted glove. He pushed his hardness in until he pressed against her womb. She accommodated him perfectly.
Catherine ran her hands over his shoulders and back and urged him deeper. Her legs encircled his hips, holding him there. He moved within her, pressing deeply, then easing back, again and again. The tension grew as their breathing became labored and heat poured off them from their exertions. The muscles deep inside her tightened around his shaft and he felt himself thicken and harden more, as his own completion neared.
She threw her head back as her body clenched beneath him, and he knew her scream would begin even as the urge to yell out his satisfaction seized him. Geoff covered her mouth and drank in the noises of her passion even as he thrust for the final time. Holding her close, he emptied his seed into her as he brought her to the peak of her own pleasure.
Relaxing on her and then rolling slowly onto his side so that his weight did not crush her, Geoff waited for the ability to speak and breathe to return. Several quiet minutes passed and finally she opened her eyes to look into his.
“Are you well? Did I hurt you? How do you feel?” The questions tumbled from him, and although she was not a virgin, he worried that in his lust he may have been too rough for her.
“I feel…” she began, and then she arched against him, stretching like a cat in the sun. “I feel claimed.”
He smiled, for her words and movements told him of her satisfaction. “Glad I am to know that I was successful in my efforts.”
She moved against him once more and, unbelievably, his body reacted. “Will you claim me again, my lord?”
“Every night of our lives together, until we are too old and feeble to move our bodies this way.” She laughed at his words. “And in the bright light of day as well,” he promised.
“During the day? This is possible?”
His betrothed was an innocent in the ways of the flesh, no matter what had happened to her before they met.
“When we return to Greystone, I will show you. The stables there are empty during the day, and I will take you to the loft and lay you on the soft hay and have my way with you even as the sun shines in through the slats of the roof.” He kissed her and then teased her with one more thing. “We could even mate there as the stallions do with the mares. It can be a pleasurable way of claiming.”
“Must we try it in the stables? Would a bed not work?” Her uninhibited reaction pleased him and promised that they would have no difficulties in the marital duties of their relationship.
“A bed will work for most things, Cate.”
In the next several hours, he demonstrated to her how many ways of loving could be accomplished on a comfortable bed.
Christian had followed Geoff to the room where his brother had led Catherine. He stood in the hall, knowing that if his brother claimed her in that room this night, there would be no turning back for them. Consummated, the betrothal became a marriage. For even though the church now insisted on adding its own blessing, it was not required that anything more than consent and consummation occur.
Twice he had stopped dogging their path, but he had followed them to this chamber, to this place and time of decision. And twice more, on hearing sounds within, he found his hand on the door, ready to intervene, but both times he came back to his senses in time.
Part of him admired Geoffrey for claiming the woman he loved in spite of the opposition Christian had him shown. Part of him was jealous of his younger brother’s decision to marry for love and not for the usual reasons between noble families. Only the extraordinary arrangements between the Dumonts and the king and Geoffrey’s own courage had allowed him and Catherine to get this far.
But what worried Christian was the part deep inside that knew something bad, something very bad, was about to happen. He did not consider himself one who worried or was vexed by the future. Indeed, his concerns were drawn from the past, a past that came back to threaten the Dumonts again and again. Unfortunately, the threat was Catherine’s brother.
Unfortunately, he was dead.
However, the specter of this dead brother still haunted everyone who’d known him while he was in league with the prince. And the prince was still very much alive and very able to continue to wreak havoc where and on whom he chose to. In claiming Catherine, Geoffrey held fast to the past, one he knew little about, one they could only imagine and dread. All Christian could do was be at his brother’s side when the true battle came. And God help them all.
He heard the steps in the corridor outside their chamber now, and did not even bother to feign sleep when Geoffrey pushed open the door to enter. Christian did not doubt that Luc was awake as well, and able to hear anything spoken.
Geoff pulled off his tunic, hose and boots and lay down on the pallet he claimed. The room settled back to darkness, but the quiet did not bely the fact that no one would sleep until they knew.
“Catherine?” Christian asked.
“She is back in her chambers.”
“And?” He needed to know the status of things in order to be ready.
“She is mine.”
Geoff’s simple words of possession told him everything he must know. His brother would never disavow or repudiate Catherine. No matter the reason or the risk to himself, they were joined now.
Christian tried to ignore the gnawing worry in his gut that plagued him through the night. But Luc’s words to him on entering the Exchequer’s Hall the next morn chilled his blood and foretold of anguish and suffering.
“The last of the eaglets has returned to the nest.”
> John Lackland, the last of the Plantagenet princes, was there at Caen Castle.
Chapter Twenty
Geoff had met Prince John before, but only a very few times and not in meetings with any substance. John kept to England much as Richard stayed abroad, and so the opportunity for them to have dealings with each other was limited. But Geoff did recognize him. So he waited and he watched as prince greeted king.
“Do nothing that will bring attention to yourself, Geoff,” Christian urged under his breath. “There is mayhem afoot and this is the beginning of it now.”
In silence, he watched the warm, albeit completely false exchange of affection as John congratulated Richard on his recent victories and the reclaiming of the Vexin. Luc positioned himself closer to Christian and Aymer as the conversation continued.
The prince then announced that he was off to see their mother, and Richard directed him to the donjon to find her holding her own court there. As John passed their group, he and Christian exchanged glances, and the prince looked wonderfully pleased as he walked by.
Geoff turned to follow him, but Christian stopped him, grabbing his wrist before he could move. “Stay here.” At his brother’s nod, Luc trailed the entourage as it made its way to the old keep and the queen. When the king had gone off on his own business and most everyone had left, Geoffrey turned to his brother.
“He saw you?”
“Aye. And he is planning something that will help no one and harm many. ’Tis his way.”
“I should go to Catherine. She will be frightened by his appearance here.”
“No, Geoff. He is hunting right now, not even certain if she truly lives and if she is here. He is hoping that we’ll make the move to reveal her whereabouts.”
“She is there with the queen,” he argued. “She should not be alone when he discovers her.”
“Eleanor will not let harm come to her. Geoff, you must do nothing right now. If he does not see what he wants, he will lose interest.”
“Your words say that, but I can tell by the look you wear that you believe it not. Come. I will be by her side if the prince is a danger to her.”
He left the Exchequer’s Hall and strode to the donjon. Going to the second story, he found his way to Eleanor’s presence chamber and entered. Glancing around the room, he did not see Catherine or Constance among the women attending the queen. Luc met him and explained.
“The queen has given Catherine leave this morn, since she said she did not sleep well,” he said, with a hint of sarcasm, knowing fully why she might be tired today. “The lady remains in her chamber with Constance as her companion.”
So that the prince did not see them gathering, Christian led them outside into the back courtyard. Geoff was anxious to guarantee Catherine’s safety.
“I want to take her away from here now. Before John learns of her presence,” Geoff stated.
“If he is here, he is following her trail, my lord,” Luc explained. “The prince wastes neither his time nor his efforts on something that will not return his investment plus more. I would suggest—” he looked to Christian and then back to Geoff “—that we discover what the lady may know about his reasons. With that knowledge we may better prepare our strategy.”
Geoffrey agreed that they needed to speak with Catherine. Mayhap she could remember some detail, even a small and seemingly inconsequential one, that might help them understand the prince’s intentions.
“We should gather before the noon meal and talk,” he stated. “I could have Aymer escort her and Lady Constance to the chapel.”
“Christian, ’tis time for him to hear the whole of it from you,” Luc declared. “He has faced death with you. Surely he can face the truths you must tell him.”
Geoff whirled at this unexpected exchange between his brother and his man. He did not remember Luc ever being so intense. Even in the thick of battle, he retained a certain irreverent attitude. But this tone revealed a matter of importance that could not be joked about. And what did Luc and Christian know that had not been shared with him?
Without waiting for an answer, Luc left them, and Geoff faced his brother, looking for an explanation.
“Come, hear the whole sordid story and mayhap we can find a way out of this predicament together.” They walked away from the men training in the courtyards and climbed one of the towers to the ramparts. When they found an area far enough away from the guards for privacy, Christian began.
“When Richard offered his bargain that would save our lives, he did not trust the Dumonts not to betray him again. Part of the agreement—which I signed without reading, due to our desperate situation—was to split the lands that I gained from marriage to Emalie from the lands that I was to inherit from Father.” Christian smiled grimly at him. “Richard wanted us beholden to him for everything we had.
“None of that mattered so long as I kept us alive and so long as Dumont lands and the Langier title remained with one of us. I went to England at Eleanor’s call and married Emalie a day later.”
“She is not such a difficult price to pay, is she?” Geoff asked in jest, but his brother’s expression darkened.
“John had run rampant over the English kingdom while Richard was imprisoned, and was trying to tighten his grasp on the choicest of lands and heiresses before Richard could notice. Emalie was one of those heiresses whose fiefs were targeted by John. Since he could not grab them outright, he pressured one of his cronies, his champion actually, to take possession of Emalie and the Harbridge title and Montgomerie lands.”
“William de Severin.” Catherine’s brother.
“But Emalie’s plea to her godmother brought the help she needed, and Eleanor decided that I would be the one to foil their plans. The prince was not happy about his mother’s interference and pushed de Severin into claiming a prior betrothal by Emalie’s father before his death.”
“That was the cause of the court hearings with the bishop in Lincoln. Why did you never tell me this?”
Christian faced him. “You were young and still on the mend from our prison ordeal. You idolized her from the beginning and I could not spoil that for you.”
“How could he claim anything? She carried your child….” His words drifted off as the truth struck him. ’Twas not Christian’s child.
His brother nodded, acknowledging without words that Geoffrey finally understood.
“I never knew.” He thought on his brother’s treatment of their first child and could not remember anything that hinted that she was not his. From her birth and even through the birth of his son, Christian had done nothing to give away the true parentage. “She carried de Severin’s bastard.”
“Not bastard by their proof, for John produced the betrothal agreement and even Gaspar Montgomerie’s will. William had, as John explained, anticipated their wedding and consummated their betrothal. As an honorable man, William desired to claim his betrothed wife and child, as was his right. And with the control John had over the bishop and other clerics in Lincoln, a decision in his favor was inevitable.”
“Until you challenged him to trial by combat? You took a risk fighting one of the best in the realm.”
“The field of battle was the one place where I was even with him and where the prince could not interfere. At least those were my thoughts.” Chris turned and leaned against the stone wall. Pushing his hair back from his face, he rubbed his hands over his eyes. “But John had a weapon that Luc was finally able to discover.”
At the bleak look he received, Geoff found his own stomach churning.
“Catherine,” he said, already knowing the answer.
“William was not as enthusiastic a follower as he had been, so John took his sister as surety for his behavior. So long as William continued at his master’s beck and call, John promised her safety.”
“He lied.” After last night, he knew there was no question that John had not kept her safe.
“As he does best. However, one of John’s gifts is that he always wraps his
lies around enough of the truth that even reasonable people cannot discern them easily. So, you confirm that she was not a virgin when she came to you last evening?”
“Is it an issue?” ’Twas personal and he did not want Catherine embarrassed by too many knowing her condition.
“I assure you that if John finds her and wants her for whatever his perverted reasons are, he will make it an issue.”
Geoff still hesitated in naming her dishonor. She would carry the stigma despite his belief that she’d done nothing to deserve the name that would be attached to her if this became known.
“The reverend mother suspected that she had been violated, as I told you, but there was no way to prove it. Catherine was like a wild animal when my men took her, and they had to knock her unconscious to get her out of Evesham’s vassal’s keep. For days, she screamed on and on about blood, but there was no mark on her. We did not know if she had been injured or if she had witnessed something so horrible that her mind fled. She collapsed and then, upon awakening, had no memory of those days.”
Geoff felt sick, the bile rolling in his gut until it forced its way up. Bending over, he vomited on the ground. That something so vile had touched her and caused her such illness was more than he could take. Wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his tunic, he looked at his brother.
“Why did you not tell me this before?” he asked with some bitterness. If he had known, he could have…he would have… He did not know what he might have done differently, but he should have been told.
“Until last month, I was sure that there was nothing between you but an inappropriate friendship of sorts that would end when you married another. I ignored Emalie’s warnings that there was more, and did not believe you would defy me by pursuing her. Why ruin her repute to you? Why tell you when it would have no bearing on anything?”
“That was sound then, but what about when I came to you and told you of my feelings?”
“Again, Geoff, after a day, you agreed to a betrothal to another woman and seemed to finally accept my counsel on the matter of a wife. Catherine assured me of her desire to enter the convent. There was no reason to besmirch her in your eyes.”
The Countess Bride Page 17