Notorious

by Virginia Henley

  A cheer broke out and reverberated about the Great Hall.

  Chapter 28

  “I shouldn’t…but I shall!”

  Using Brianna’s favorite phrase, Wolf picked up his bride, carried her from the hall and swept her up the stairs.

  “My bedchamber is to the right,” Brianna indicated.

  “Your mother had Rickard’s chamber prepared for us.”

  “Why?” she asked breathlessly.

  “Because your chamber is next to your parents’ and Rickard’s is to the left, at the far end.”

  “Ah, obviously they don’t want to be disturbed by our cries of passion,” Brianna teased.

  “I warrant it was in deference to your shyness.”

  “I am now a Mortimer, for God’s sake. Shyness is not in my vocabulary.”

  “You are incorrigible.”

  “And then some,” she said, using his favorite phrase.

  As he reached to open the door he saw that Shadow had been following them. “You can stay out here and guard us tonight.”

  “With all she ate at the wedding supper, she will be asleep long before we are.”

  Inside the chamber, scented candles had been lit and the bed made with fresh linen sheets. A handful of dried rosebuds had been scattered across the pillows. A jug of wine and two goblets sat on the desk, along with the letters Rickard had brought.

  Wolf sat Brianna down on the bed and knelt before her. He raised her foot, removed her slipper, and kissed her instep. Then he repeated the pretty gesture with her other foot.

  “You make me feel cherished.”

  “I vowed that I would. I’ve only just begun.”

  Brianna drew in a shuddering breath as his hands slid up her legs and caressed her bare thighs; then he pulled off her hose and garters. His fingers stroked her flesh. “Your skin is soft and smooth as silk.”

  “Thighs are wondrous things,” she whispered. “Yours have the power to drive me wild. Perhaps I should get a dragon tattoo.”

  “Over my dead body, English.”

  “Will you always hold your Welsh superiority over me?”

  “Among other things,” he promised.

  Brianna removed the gold chain from around her waist.

  Wolf took it and set it on the bedside table for safekeeping. “I wish I could give you jewels, sweetheart.”

  “Wishes can come true,” she assured him mischievously.

  “I have no doubt of it.” He slipped his arms behind her and unfastened the buttons at the back of her gown. “I am about to get one of my wishes.”

  “More than one, I warrant.”

  When Wolf removed her gown and her petticoat, his teasing stopped. “You are wondrous fair, my beauty.”

  Brianna reached out and threaded her fingers into his long, black locks and murmured, “Strip for me…It’s been so long.”

  Wolf complied immediately and watched her eyes darken with desire as he revealed the dragon. He flexed his thigh muscle and Brianna gasped with delight as it flicked its fiery tongue.

  Gently he pushed her back on the bed, and starting at her toes, began to worship her with his lips. When he got to her knees, he paused and looked at her. When he saw anticipation writ clearly on her face, he continued and trailed kisses up the insides of her thighs. Once more he paused and gazed into her eyes.

  “The emerald decorating your mons shamelessly taunted and tantalized me to madness tonight. Will you accept your just deserts?”

  “I shouldn’t…but I shall.”

  Brianna stared in rapt fascination as Wolf caressed her mons with his lips, then thrust his tongue into her sugared sheath. Never in a thousand years could she ever have imagined a man could make love this way, but the sensations he aroused were so unbelievably sensual that she arched her mons into his demanding mouth and writhed with uninhibited abandon.

  “Wolf!” she cried in disbelief as she dissolved in liquid tremors. “I thought I knew everything about making love.”

  He came up over her. “You’ve only just begun to learn.”

  She gazed up into his magnetic gray eyes. “Do you know everything?”

  “No, thank God. We’ll explore and learn together, sweetheart.”

  His fingers reached to untangle a rosebud caught in her hair, and then he changed his mind because it looked so pretty nestled in her curls. He spread her red-gold tresses across the pillow and gazed down at her. He watched the tips of her lush, upthrust breasts turn into tiny, hard jewels. To Wolf, Brianna was the most exquisite creature in the world and he exulted that she was his woman.

  Brianna wound her arms about her husband’s neck and pulled him down to her. She trailed her lips along his jaw, then kissed his ear. “I love how you taste and how you smell,” she whispered.

  “And how is that?” he asked, bemused.

  “Like man, and wolf, and dragon!”

  “That’s a figment of your vivid imagination.”

  She arched her mons against his hard, erect cock. “I warrant that isn’t my imagination.”

  Wolf’s face became fierce and intense as he lowered his hips and with one hot, driving thrust, unleashed the wild desire that had been riding him since before dawn.

  Brianna closed sleekly around him and shivered each time his breath swept her neck. She wrapped her legs high about his back and took him all the way inside her, yielding to his dark male dominance with breathless cries of passion.

  He watched her face closely and when she peaked in climax he withdrew. Wolf would father no child until he could support it with Mortimer riches.

  Wolf spent on Brianna’s belly, gently wiped it with the linen sheet, and then he enfolded her in his arms and held her against his heart. They lay still, savoring the closeness and the intimacy of pledged lovers who had just mated. It was as if magic spiraled around them, weaving an invisible yet tangible cocoon that kept them private and separate from the entire world.

  After the quiet time, Wolf stirred and kissed her brow. Brianna stretched, enjoying the feeling of languor that seeped through her limbs. He rolled with her so that she was in the dominant position; then he opened his legs so that Brianna lay between them. “Are you comfortable, sweetheart?”

  She gave a heartfelt sigh. “I may never move again.”

  “When I was at Saint Albans, I had one of my visions.”

  Brianna gazed at him, enthralled. “Was it about the future?”

  “It was.” He brushed the red-gold tendrils back from her forehead. “I saw a fleet of a hundred ships make anchor off the Suffolk coast. My father, accompanied by Queen Isabelle, landed with an invasion force. England’s earls, barons, and bishops met them with open arms, and almost without bloodshed they forced King Edward to abdicate in favor of his son.”

  “You have true second sight. Your visions will come true!”

  “They always have,” he said quietly. “I witnessed the Coronation of Prince Edward. After the ceremony, Queen Isabelle restored everything that had been taken from Roger Mortimer, and young King Edward made him Justiciar of Wales for life.”

  “I warrant Teddy will make a great king in the Plantagenet tradition of his magnificent grandfather.”

  “In my vision, my father rewarded me with my uncle of Chirk’s vast estates. That is what prompted me to seek you out and ask you to marry me, sweetheart.”

  Brianna instantly scrambled away from him and knelt before him on the bed. She dug her fists into her hips, tossed back her disheveled hair, raised her chin, and challenged him like a ferocious wildcat. “You Welsh devil! Your towering pride would not allow you to marry me until you knew you would be a wealthy and important nobleman.”

  Wolf laughed at her. “You are angry because I will be able to provide for you on a grand scale! You are the most maddening and perverse female I have ever known.”

  She lunged at him and grabbed two fistfuls of his long hair. “Just how many have you known?”

  Wolf saw the teasing light in her eyes. “Let me see…counting
you…that would be…”

  “One!” she cried.

  “One,” he conceded and pulled her down beside him. “I have no idea when all this will happen, Brianna. It could be one year, or even two. Until then, you will have to keep me.”

  “I’ll keep you. I’ll keep you in a continuous state of arousal,” she promised wickedly.

  “Two can play that game,” he threatened, caressing her breasts.

  “Just one moment.” She struggled to sit up. “Why didn’t you tell me about your vision before you proposed?” She answered her own question. “You were testing me to see if I truly loved you!”

  He grinned. “A damn good thing you passed the test. Pour me some wine, English. This is thirsty work.”

  Brianna got up and poured them each a goblet of wine, and then she padded happily to the door and let Shadow into the chamber.

  “May I read my letter now?” she asked sweetly.

  “You knew you had a letter?”

  “Of course I knew. Both our letters are lying in plain sight on the desk, but since this is our wedding night, it was important that we put our own needs first.” She came back to the bed, handed Wolf the letter from his father, and then sat down cross-legged and tore open her letter from Queen Isabelle.

  Isabelle told her how happy she had been at her brother’s court in Paris. King Charles of France lived in opulent luxury. She told Brianna that her reunion with Roger had been more wonderful than she had ever dreamed. She said the only thing that spoiled her visit was Edward’s constant demands that she return home to him immediately.

  I tell him that I will never return until Hugh Despencer is banished, but that is just a stalling tactic. I know that my beloved Roger would kill me before he would allow me to return to Edward Plantagenet under any circumstances.

  I have been assured that my children are being well looked after in my absence. My heart aches for them, but I live for the day that I return to England and have them once again in my loving care. I beg you send me any news you have of them, Brianna.

  I have accepted an alliance with Hainault, and my son, Prince Edward, is quite taken with one of Sir John of Hainault’s lovely young daughters. Any reply to this letter must be sent to me in Hainault where I will be residing from now on.

  Brianna, I am most grateful for your friendship. Without it, I would never have escaped the prison I was in. Someday I shall repay you for your unwavering loyalty to me.

  Your friend,

  Isabelle

  Brianna handed her letter to Wolf so he could read it.

  Wolf was far more reluctant to let his wife read the letter from his father, but after a moment’s hesitation he handed it to her. She might as well learn firsthand of Roger Mortimer’s manipulative nature since he was now her father-in-law.

  King Charles has secretly agreed to fund my invasion vessels, provided my liaison with Isabelle does not embarrass him with the pope. We are moving to Hainault, where I have a secret pact with the count to make one of his daughters the future Queen of England, once Prince Edward takes his father’s crown.

  I have the young Earl of Kent in the palm of my hand and ask that you get his brother, the Earl of Norfolk, to fully commit to us. They are shrewd young devils who will give their loyalty where it will do them most good, and both hate and detest King Edward’s bum boy.

  I have recruited German mercenaries and promised to finance them with money from your mother’s French relatives, the Joinvilles. They may never see a penny of it, but the Germans are not to know that.

  You, Rickard, and Orleton have done a credible job recruiting the nobles we will need on our side when we land. The only unknown in this plan is Robert Bruce. He could be the fly in the ointment, if he takes the expedient action of invading at the same time we do.

  The letter was signed with only the initial M.

  Brianna could not help comparing the information in both letters. Where Isabelle was happy that Prince Edward found one of the daughters of the Count of Hainault appealing, Mortimer had already agreed to make a pawn of Isabelle’s son by marrying him to one of Hainault’s daughters and make her the Queen of England, in return for money and provisions for his invasion.

  “Roger Mortimer makes promises he may not be able to keep.”

  “To my father, the end justifies the means.”

  Brianna gave him back his letter. “It obviously takes someone this hardened and determined, and yes, devious, to invade a country, depose its king, and set up another in his stead.”

  “Unfortunately, it does.”

  She looked at him and smiled. Wolf was very like his father, with one glaring exception. Integrity! Brianna thanked God for it. She climbed back into bed beside her husband. “Your father expects you to get the Earl of Norfolk to eat out of your hand.”

  “I wonder what it will take to make the king’s half brother change his loyalties,” Wolf mused.

  “I believe I can help you. Thomas Brotherton took quite a fancy to me when we were at Windsor together. Norfolk sought me out for every dance,” she said coyly.

  He slanted a black brow. “It is too bad you won’t be traveling with me.”

  “What the devil do you mean?”

  “Our marriage is a secret. Your reputation would be blackened beyond redemption if we rode about in each other’s company and sheltered at the same lodging.”

  “Wolf Mortimer, you don’t honestly believe I am going to sit pining for you at Flamstead while you go off on your adventures?”

  “You’ll be safer here.”

  “I don’t want to be safe. Oh, I know! I’ll disguise myself.”

  “As what?”

  “As a boy!”

  “How will you disguise these?” He cupped her breasts and kissed her, which effectively put an end to any looming conflict for the rest of the night.

  At dawn, Wolf arose and let Shadow out for her morning hunt; then he returned to the warm bed.

  When Brianna awoke, she opened her eyes to find her new husband propping his head on his hand, gazing at her.

  “This is the way I want to awaken every morning for the rest of my life.” Wolf caressed her cheek.

  “Then it’s settled. When you go to see Norfolk, I’m coming.”

  “Dressed as a boy, I suppose. If you think that won’t raise eyebrows, you are mistaken, my beauty.”

  “I don’t give a fiddler’s fart for raised eyebrows!”

  “Charming language for an innocent bride.”

  “Perfectly acceptable for the bride of a notorious Mortimer.”

  “Will you never let me have the last word, English?”

  “Perhaps, occasionally.”

  “Then it’s a good thing actions speak louder than words.” He took possession of her mouth, effectively limiting her utterances to breathless whispers.

  “I love you, Wolf.”

  When the newlyweds arrived downstairs, Jory greeted them affectionately. “I would have brought up your breakfast, but I didn’t want to disturb you.”

  “We appreciate your thoughtfulness, my lady,” Wolf declared.

  “Oh, please, none of this my lady business. You must call me Jory, as Rickard does. Brianna, your father and I have discussed it and we think we should return to Warwick and let you two have your privacy.”

  “Please don’t change your plans on our account. I’m sure Brianna enjoys being with her family.”

  “Perhaps, but not at the expense of her privacy with her new husband. We usually spend Christmas at Warwick Castle with our people, and though Guy Thomas is perfectly capable of looking after things in his father’s absence, I’m sure he would appreciate it if we returned to Warwick for the Yule.”

  Brianna’s eyes sparkled as she smiled at her mother. “Thank you. I will love playing chatelaine at Flamstead.”

  Rickard, accompanied by his father, came into the hall and joined the newlyweds for a second breakfast. “What news from Roger?”

  “Both my father and the queen are no
w in Hainault. He has secret alliances with King Charles of France and the Count of Hainault for his invasion. He also has money to hire German mercenaries.”

  “He certainly hasn’t allowed the moss to gather beneath his feet,” Warwick observed with approval.

  “When Roger organizes a military campaign, he does a thorough job, as I learned when we fought in Ireland,” Rickard declared.

  Brianna smiled at her brother. “Thank you for bringing Isabelle’s letter. I shall answer her today. Will you take the letter for me, Rickard?”

  “All the way to Hainault, if you wish it,” he offered.

  “Did Isabelle sound happy in her letter?” Jory asked Brianna.

  “Immensely happy. I’ll let you read it for yourself.”

  “Before I came to Flamstead, I spoke with your brother, Lynx de Warenne,” Wolf told Jory. “He warned me that Robert Bruce might take advantage of an invasion by invading England himself. Though there is a signed truce between England and Scotland, the Bruce has broken it before.”

  “You can always count on Robert Bruce to do the expedient thing,” Rickard declared cynically.

  Jory and Brianna exchanged a quick glance. “Darling, why don’t I come up and read your letter now? Perhaps I will write to Isabelle and send it with your reply.”

  Upstairs, in the privacy of the bedchamber, Brianna handed her mother Isabelle’s letter.

  “I’ve never asked you, but were you and Isabelle instrumental in Roger Mortimer’s escape from the Tower?”

  “Yes, we both wanted him free, especially after Mortimer of Chirk died. The intrigue and the risk were immensely exciting. Roger seduced Isabelle…They are lovers. At first I was shocked, but she fell head over arse in love for the first time in her life and the virile Mortimer was exactly what she needed.”