Free The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux Page A

released her and pushed her back to the ground. "Now get up and prepare yourself to become my wife."

    "I hate you," she said under her breath.
    "What does that matter to me? I bear you no love either."
    Their eyes locked—steel gray against gold. Neither moved until the women came to prepare Judith for her wedding night.

Chapter Six
    « ^ »
    A special room had been readied for the bride and groom. A large corner of the solar had been partitioned off around one of the fireplaces. An enormous bed had been set up in the room and sheets of the softest linen were spread across it. A coverlet of gray squirrel, lined with crimson silk fell across the sheets. Rose petals littered the bed.
    Judith's maids and several of the women guests helped undress the bride. When she was nude, they pulled the covers back, and Judith entered the bed. Her mind was not on what was taking place around her.
    She kept calling herself a fool. In just a few hours, she had forgotten seventeen years of what she had learned was true about men. For a few hours she had believed a man could be kind and good, capable even of love. But Gavin was the same—perhaps even worse than the others.
    The women laughed riotously at Judith's silence. But Helen knew there was more than just nervousness involved with her daughter's behavior.
    She whispered a silent prayer, asking God to help her daughter.
    "You are a fortunate woman," an older woman murmured in Judith's ear. "My first marriage found me wedded with a man five years older than my father. I wonder now that no one helped him perform his duties."
    Maud giggled, "Lord Gavin will need no help—I'll wager that."
    "Perhaps the Lady Judith will need help, and I would offer my… ah…
    services," laughed someone else.
    Judith barely heard them. All she remembered hearing was her husband pledging his love to another woman, the way he held Alice and kissed her. The women drew the sheet just over Judith's breasts. Someone combed her hair so that it cascaded softly over her bare shoulders to rest in thick auburn curls around her hips.

    Through the oak door the women heard the noise of the men arriving with Gavin carried aloft on their shoulders. He entered feet first, already half-undressed, the men yelling their offers of assistance, their wagers as to the competence of his performance of the task ahead. They were silent as they stood him on his feet and stared at the bride who waited in the bed. The sheet accented her creamy shoulders and the full swelling of her breasts. The candlelight deepened the shadow above the sheet. Her bare throat pulsed with life. Her face was set in a firm, serious expression that caused her eyes to darken, as if they smoked. Her lips were hard, as if carved of some warm vermilion marble.
    "Get it done with!" someone shouted. "Do you torture him or me?"
    The silence was broken. Gavin was quickly undressed and pushed to the bed. The men watched avidly as Maud drew the covers aside, giving them a glance of bare hips and thigh.
    "Now out!" a tall woman ordered. "Leave them be."
    Helen gave her daughter one last look, but Judith gazed down at her hands in her lap and saw no one.
    When the heavy door slammed shut, the room suddenly seemed unnaturally quiet and Judith was achingly aware of the man beside her.
    Gavin sat looking at her. The only light in the room was from the flames in the fireplace across from the foot of the bed. The light danced on her hair, played with the shadows of her delicate collarbones. At this moment, he remembered nothing of a quarrel. Nor had he any thoughts of love. He knew only that he was in bed with a desirable woman. He moved his hand to touch her shoulder to see if the skin was as smooth as it looked.
    Judith drew sharply away from him. "Don't touch me!" she said through clenched teeth.
    He looked at her in surprise. There was hatred in her golden eyes, her cheeks flushed red. If possible, her anger made her even more beautiful.
    Never had he felt such a