by Sarah Hegger
“I think you are wise to consider your people.” Crouched beside her, Ivy squeezed Alice’s shoulder. “It speaks well of your compassion. But I do agree with Beatrice.”
“Let us make it so my brother barely knows you when he returns.” With a smirk Beatrice rolled to her feet. “We shall knock him down a peg or two.”
“I do not think we will manage that.” No matter how lovely the fabric, she did not aim quite so high. Still, to have him look at her for the tiniest of moments…
“Why not?” Beatrice dipped into the chest and pulled forth a swathe of midnight-blue velvet. “He deserves it for disappearing like this with no word of what he is about. You need to curb him of that habit, Alice.”
Aye, but she would have to get him to speak with her first. William had kept his distance since he had harangued her in the hall. Her logic argued he was busy and working hard to prepare the village for the onset of winter. This morning they had woken to frozen ground covered in a light dusting of snow. Her heart doubted.
The velvet brushed soft and luxurious beneath her fingers.
“This will look perfect with your hair.” Ivy draped the fabric over her shoulder.
“See what it does for her complexion.” On a happy laugh, Beatrice turned her toward the looking metal.
Alice pulled a face at her reflection. She looked like a short, plain woman with a beautiful shawl.
“I think someone is having some difficulty.” Over her head, Beatrice winked at Ivy. “Perhaps we should help her and show her.”
“I think you could be right.” Ivy smiled, though her eyes bore sad shadows. “It needs to fit close to her body.”
On a nod, Beatrice spread the velvet taut over Alice’s breasts and hips. “We definitely need to show off these.”
Alice’s face burned as they discussed her. “I do not know how to make a dress.”
“What?” Both women gaped at her.
“Aye, you do.” Ivy adjusted the lay of the velvet at her waist. “I saw you at your embroidery in the hall.”
“I can embroider.” Yet another shortcoming to confess. “Sister had me help with the altar cloth, but Martha sewed all my other things.”
“That explains it.” Beatrice laid Alice’s braid against the velvet. “A sweet woman, but she should be kept away from a needle and thread. Just what did Sister teach you?”
“Um…I can pray. And deliver penance. Also supplicate myself for hours on end.”
Beatrice cupped her shoulders and stared at Alice’s reflection over her shoulder. “I am sure you can. We will make you a new bliaut together, and Ivy and I will show you.” She pulled a face. “Only be sure to listen closely to Ivy, because I am not that skilled.”
Ivy chuckled. “True enough. Now, what have we in that chest for a new chemise?”
* * * *
Alice had three bliauts to choose from. Three! The sapphire velvet, a yellow samite and a green silk. Also, Ivy and Beatrice had insisted on making her another four daytime bliauts, in wools so soft they felt near as wondrous as silk. It had taken them four days to create this bounty.
She also had a new chemise made of silk. Who had ever heard of such a thing? Sinfully soft, the silk caressed her skin, all over. A woman in silk could imagine all kinds of wicked games. A woman in silk could have more courage than a woman in coarse linen. Brave enough to win her husband back.
Beatrice said she had wiles. Alice peered at her reflection in the looking metal. The silk clung to the taut peak of her breasts and created interesting shadows at the apex of her thighs. Perhaps she did at that.
She went back to the bed and studied her choices. Definitely, the blue with its lustrous sheen that clung to her curves. Curves, her newest discovery. She had them, and she liked them.
Alice slipped the blue velvet on.
“Alice?” Ivy knocked at the door. “May I come in?”
“Aye.”
Ivy poked her head around the door. “Ah, I was hoping you would choose that one. Now turn about and I will do your laces.”
“Is it not too fine for a simple keep dinner?”
“Nay.” Ivy turned her about. “And William rode in a little earlier.”
“William?” Alice’s belly tightened. What would he think of her new dress? Would he even look at her or continue looking past her?
Ivy nodded and smiled her sadness-tinged smile. “There is no better time to show off your new finery.”
Alice sucked in a breath as Ivy applied herself to the laces. For a tiny woman, she had remarkable strength. “Do you think he will like it?”
“Nay, nay, nay.” Beatrice sashayed into the chamber, looking regal in garnet-red. “That is not the question you should be asking.” She put her hands on her hips. “You should be asking how much he will like it.”
Ivy giggled. “Indeed! Will he lose the power of speech, or will he scoop you up and carry you away?”
“Argh!” Beatrice made a retching noise. “William is my brother, just…ergh!”
Alice fetched the gold and sapphire girdle and clasped it about Alice’s hips. Then she and Beatrice stood back and surveyed Alice with smug smiles.
“Perfect.” Beatrice clapped her hands. “I came here to stop you from slinking into the hall like a thief.” She rested her hand on Alice’s shoulder. “You have made your amends, Alice, done the best you could to fix what was broken. No more timid Alice waiting for approval. Aye?”
“Perhaps.” Beatrice frowned and Alice laughed. “Aye.”
“That is better.” Beatrice looped her hand through Alice’s arms. “Come along. Let us make our entrance.”
* * * *
Nothing. Alice jabbed her knife into a slice of meat. No reaction, not a flicker, not a wince, nothing. William had stridden into the hall, bowed to her, and taken his seat. Now he sat beside her guzzling wine and shoving meat in his face.
Not that William ever did anything so inelegant as guzzling or shoving, but he paid no attention to her.
Beatrice glared at the back of William’s head and jabbed her eating dagger into her meat.
“Did you have a successful trip?” Wherever he had disappeared to this time.
“In part.” William gave her a polite smile, which Alice wanted to slap off his face. His smile went past a person as if she did not exist. “I will speak to you about it. Later.”
“I paid a visit to the village today.”
“Indeed.”
“Aye. They are making good progress.”
“Good.”
There perished her final attempt at conversation. If he did not wish to speak with her, he could rot in his silence.
“I think I will retire.” Alice rose and William rose with her.
“I will see you there later.” He assisted her over the bench. “I will wash my travel dirt away first.”
“Shall I call for your bath?”
“Nay, I will use the bathing room in the barracks.”
In her chamber, Alice ripped the girdle from her hips. Only the knowledge of how hard Ivy and Beatrice had worked on her bliaut gentled her hand. For how long did William intend to punish her with his silence? She had tried to right her wrongs. Everything he asked of her she did. He did not care for her wimple—no more wimple. He wanted her to ride, and Alice rode. Had she not made every effort with Mathew and her fear? Aye, she had lived her life in a sort of half-sleep, but she tried to wake. She had even agreed to Sister returning to the convent.
The stupid laces proved hard to reach, no matter how far she bent her arms back.
Naive of her to think a pretty dress would soothe his ire. For one magical moment, she had thought he would see the dress for what it represented, an effort on her part to do better. Be a better chatelaine and wife. Every day she visited the village and made sure his instructions were carried out. In William’s absence, Gord had come to her with problems as they arose. Assisted by Beatrice’s experience, she had solved the
m, too. Not waited for William’s return.
She may as well have had Gord write him a list and set it before him.
The tight bliaut arms prevented her from raising her arms and attacking the laces from above, and she slumped onto the bed. She would have to wait here for someone to assist her. Or she could find Ivy and have a group grumble whilst she did.
As Alice reached the door, it opened.
His hair still wet from his bath, his chemise hung over his shoulder, William entered.
It was not fair that his naked chest should stop her in her tracks and render her speechless. His absence from their bed had nagged at her.
“Are you going somewhere?” Clearly, he had no trouble forming words.
“I was going to get Ivy’s assistance. To unlace me.”
“Here.” He spun her about. “I can unlace you.”
“Nay I—”
“Alice.” His deft finger got to work. “How much do you know of Sister Julianna’s life before she came here?”
He wanted to speak of Sister, now? They had no end of other topics to choose from. First off, the screaming pit of silence between them. “Not much. She never spoke of it.”
“Did she ever mention a child?”
“Child?” Alice turned and stared at him.
He spun her about again. “I am not done unlacing. Aye, a child.”
“Nay.”
“And there was never a child with you and Sister Julianna at Yarborough?”
“What are you asking?”
“Done.” William slid the bliaut from her shoulders. The warm caress of his calloused palms on her shoulders sent shivers snaking through Alice. Just one innocent touch from William and her knees turned to pudding.
He stilled. Then, his fingers slid over the neck opening of her chemise. “Alice?”
“Aye.” The deep, throaty throb of his voice brought her skin to prickling life.
“Did I tell you what a pretty dress this is?”
“Nay, you did not.”
He pressed closer to her back, heat coming off him and wrapping about her. “You looked lovely in it, but I am afraid I am going to have to remove it from you now.”
“I did not think you had noticed.” A mortifying note of peevishness entered her voice.
“I noticed.” William stroked the line of her shoulders and slid his fingers into the hair at her nape. “The moment I walked into the hall. How boorish of me not to have said something sooner.”
“I thought as much.”
He chuckled, a low sound vibrating from his chest through her back. “I also noticed the silk sleeves of your chemise beneath. I spent a long time wondering how it would look without the bliaut.”
“You might have said something.”
“You are wroth with me.” He kissed the sensitive spot beneath her ear.
“Nay.” William insisted that in this chamber they should have truth between them. And so she would give him truth. “Aye, I am wroth. I have tried to do as you asked since you came to Tarnwych. Tried to be the sort of wife you desired.”
He nibbled at her ear. “Aye, you have. And I thank you for it.”
Well, that was better. “Did you really like my dress?”
“Very much.” He eased the bliaut down and pushed it from her hips. “I liked it very much.”
Velvet sighed to the floor, and Alice leant back the tiniest bit closer to the furnace of William.
He gripped her hips. “I am a terrible husband, am I not?”
“Maybe not terrible.” Silk slid beneath his hands as he stroked it over her hips. “Just inattentive. And you have been so angry with me.”
“Strangely, I seem to have forgotten why I was wroth.” Wicked hands eased up her belly, on a slow trail toward her breasts. Silk caressed her jutting nipples, hardening them further.
“You were wroth because I…”
He cupped her breasts, the silk no barrier for the heat of his hands. “I do not want to talk about that now, Alice.” He thumbed her aching nipples and she arched into his hands. It seemed far too many days since he had placed his hands on her. “There will be plenty of time for talk. After.”
“William.” She had something she needed to say, something she had thought much on, if he would stop caressing her she could order her thoughts. “I know you do not wish to talk, but I do.”
“Later.”
“Nay. Now.”
He kissed down her neck to her shoulder.
Her thoughts grew muddled and she forced them into order. “You cannot correct me like a child in the hall and then expect a woman in your bedchamber.”
He tensed, and his hands dropped from her breasts. “Are you telling me nay?”
“I am saying I need to be your wife throughout the keep. Speak to me, William, tell me when something angers you or you feel I have been remiss in my duties. I may have led a strange life, but I am not short on understanding.”
He laughed softly. “I did insist on you speaking your mind.”
“Aye, you did.”
“In this, you are right. I was angry about the villagers, and I took that out on you. For this, and for the other times I have treated you without respect, I beg your pardon.”
“I accept your apology.” She didn’t mean for him to stop the kissing altogether, and she tugged his head closer. “May I now say that your mouth would be better employed elsewhere, my lord?”
“Here.” He chuckled, and nipped her shoulder.
“Aye.” His mouth had magical properties, the way it seared her skin and made her ache for him.
“And here.” His hands returned to her breasts “How about here?”
“Aye.” Alice turned in arms, every inch of her strung tighter than a bow.
His mouth tormented her, wet and warm through the chemise. The fabric clung to her where he sucked. He raised his head. “As pretty as it looks, it will also have to go.”
Grabbing fistfuls of her chemise, he pulled it over her head. “Alice.” His blue gaze devoured her. “There is no bliaut lovely enough to rival this.”
Alice stood still for his study. His hot gaze made her feel alive. Impatiently she loosened the chord and his braies slid to the floor. His rod stood proud and full for her.
“Did you miss me, Alice?” He slid his hand between her legs. His fingers parted her wet folds and penetrated her where she ached the worst. “I see that you did.”
“Aye.” She opened her thighs, needing what he offered and more.
“I missed you, too.” He thumbed the spot that made her moan and grab for his shoulders. “Let me show you how much.”
“Please.” Alice moved with the rhythm of his hand. So close, completion hovered near her and drove her hips forward. He worked his hand across her woman’s flesh, skilled and deadly. He stroked her higher and higher, attuned to the motions she made.
“And that was before you wore a beautiful dress, and your hair unbound.”
She had trouble concentrating on his words. “You do not like the dress.”
“I like the dress fine.” He clasped her nape and dragged her mouth to his. “But I like you better. You have no need to dress up for me, Alice. You enter a room and make me hard with wanting you.”
His words drove her over the edge, and she shattered on a loud cry.
He swallowed her sounds in a kiss. Devastating and hungry, it swept through her. In his kiss lay the truth of his wanting, and Alice melted into it.
“Let me love you, Alice.”
“Aye.” Love me, William. Love me with all that you are.
Chapter 24
“I guess the dress appealed to William.” Ivy chortled and gave Alice a nudge.
Good Lord, could the entire keep see how long and hard she and William had loved last night?
“If her glowing cheeks did not tell the story, the noise that kept me up certainly did.” Beatrice shuddered and dug her spoon into her pottage. “I
am fond of you, Alice, and I love my brother, but I think it is time for us all to go home.” She added more honey to her bowl. “Or for you and William to keep your voices down.”
Ivy bumped Beatrice’s shoulder. “You are merely out of sorts because you miss that handsome husband of yours.”
“True enough.” Beatrice sighed as she stirred. “How much longer do you think it will be before we can go home?”
Ivy’s face grew shadowed. “I am not sure.”
“My lady.” Seamus beckoned her from the doorway to the bailey. “Lady Alice, might I have a quick word?”
Alice rose and followed the boy out the hall, keenly aware of Beatrice and Ivy watching her. “What is it, Seamus?”
Seamus examined the passage before he slid further into the shadows and motioned her to follow. “She said I must only speak to you, my lady. To be sure you were alone.”
“She?”
He ducked his head. “I would not have done it, except she said she would call down God’s vengeance on my head.”
A nasty feeling wriggled through Alice.
“And she is a Holy Sister, my lady. I reckon if anyone can call God down on you, she can.”
Gripping Seamus by the arm, Alice forced his frightened babble to a halt. “Slow down, Seamus, and tell me from the beginning.”
Seamus took a deep breath. “I was on the moor, my lady, checking the snares for rabbits. I always do that because my brothers say I am not old enough to go on the hunt.”
“And then what happened?”
“Well, you know where the trees grow a little thicker, by the tarn?” Seamus wiped his palms on his tunic.
“Aye?”
“It is the best place for snares, because the rabbits think they are safe from foxes in the thicket.”
“Aye, Seamus.” She needed patience. Screaming at Seamus to get on with it would only frighten him more. Her mind whirled. As much as she knew to her core that it was Sister Julianna, her brain tried to reason the dread away. Sister bided safe with the nuns at St. Stephen’s.
He leant closer to her. “She came upon me so sudden, I did not see her at first.”
“Who came upon you?”
“Sister Julianna, Lady Alice. And at first I thought it could not be her, that she was some sort of haunt, because I saw her leave that day with the others.”