The Knight's Vow
Page 24
Her head jerked up and she glared at him, her voice sharp. ‘Is that the only way you can deal with anything, by force of arms! Mayhap it is you that has caused me offence. Will you flog yourself?’
‘If that is your wish.’
‘Don’t be foolish!’
He sighed then. ‘Tell me what is troubling you. You gave me comfort and encouragement earlier, will you not allow me to do the same for you?’
She bit her lip, and her tongue. She would not let him see her weakness!
At her stubborn silence he said firmly, ‘I will not grovel to you, Beatrice. There is not one man in this keep who does not trust me. Why should my wife be any different?’
‘Is that all you want from me, Remy?’ she asked in a small, smothered voice, ‘My trust?’
As her shoulders shuddered with a fresh bout of weeping, Remy surveyed the smooth curve of her gleaming white back and the gentle slope of her half-submerged legs. Suddenly all became clear to him. And he smiled.
‘No, Beatrice—’ his voice was very soft ‘—that is not all I want from you.’
He reached out then and slid his arms around her, lifting her out of the water, ignoring her small cry of surprise and protest, ignoring the water that splashed all about and dampened his tunic. He carried her to the bed and laid her down, and himself beside her. He wrapped her in a coverlet and dried her hair and her face and Beatrice stared up at him with huge, tear-streaked eyes. He kissed the tip of her nose.
‘I want all of you. Without your smile, and your laugh, and your gentle spirit, my life would be cold, dark winter all the year round. You are my spring, and my summer, my light and my warmth. Without you I am only half a man, and with you I am everything a man must be.’
‘Remy.’ Her arms struggled out of the coverlet and her hands slid to his powerful shoulders and around his neck.
‘I am not one for clever speeches but even I can offer three of the sweetest words God ever made. I love you.’
At that she began to cry again, and then to laugh as he nuzzled her neck with tender lips, the rough stubble of his jaw scraping her skin and sending shivers all over her. His hands roamed over her slim back, holding her gently, then one large palm travelled over her shoulder and slid to cup her jaw, and he whispered, his eyes gleaming with bright desire, ‘If it is only possession of your body that you say me nay, then I will wait. Whenever you want, how long you want, for whatever reason, but…’ his voice lowered to a husky whisper ‘…if it is your love that you deny me then I will do what I have never done for anyone in my lifetime. I will beg. I will beseech and plead for your love, if that is your wish.’
‘Never,’ she answered, ‘you have no need to.’ She wriggled closer to him and reached up to touch his face with her fingers, her lips kissing the corner of his mouth. ‘It is the same for me too. Since the day you so roughly pulled me off my horse and carried me across a muddy yard. Since the first moment our lips touched in a forbidden kiss.’ Her fingers slid to the nape of his neck, the new growth of blond hair short and prickly to her skin, and she urged his head down to her. Their lips were only a breath away when she whispered, ‘I love you, Remy St Leger, and I am yours always.’ Here she shuddered, and hid her face against his neck. ‘I love you so much, Remy, that it frightens me. If I were to lose you in battle, as I did before with my betrothed, I think the pain of it would kill me. I could not bear it. That is why I am so afraid to love again.’
‘Oh, Beatrice, my Beatrice.’ He wrapped his thick arms around her slender body and held her tightly to him, understanding her pain and her fear and yet wondering what he could do to vanquish them. Then he told her, ‘Is it not better to love and be loved, and bear the burden of loss if it comes, than to spend the whole of your life alone and lonely?’
She sniffed and gulped, raising her face to his, nodding slowly. ‘You are right, my love. Of course you are right, it is just so very hard to do.’
‘You have a very deep scar, Beatrice, and you have not allowed it to heal properly. Let me love you, and heal that scar. And if I should die in battle, I know that you will always hold me in your heart. More than that no human being can ask for.’
‘And,’ she spoke slowly, ‘will you hold me in your heart, Remy?’
‘Always, and forever.’ He bent his head, and kissed her with such deep passion that she knew she would never be alone again.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1533-1
THE KNIGHT’S VOW
Copyright © 2004 by Catherine March
First North American Publication 2008
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