Free The Temptation (The Medieval Knights Series) by Claudia Dain

water. "Now I must away."
    "Nay, you must not."
    "You really have no idea what a woman's needs are at such a time, do you?" she said, pushed to the edge of her patience, of which she had a bounteous supply, easily a match to her famous serenity. A bottomless supply, until Hugh had stumbled into her life.
    "As much as any unmarried man," he said. "But I know what my needs are very well. I need only to have you with me this night. It is not so great a need to meet, is it, Elsbeth? It is a nigh great need in my heart. To have you lie with me, to touch your face, to watch you while you sleep and hold you in my arms, to talk with you as the owls scour the air on silent wings... all this is my need, and all you must do to satisfy it is to lie with me on this bed. Now."
    He was too swift in words. He scoured her heart with his words of longing and tenderness, leaving her blood-raw and aching for what would never be. For what she could not allow.
    "Let me tell you what I need, my lord. You are now a married man and you should know these things. I will not lie abed all night, with you or without you. I will be up again and yet again to change the padded sling I wear that catches my blood-fall."
    She hoped to shock him, or at least repulse him. He looked neither shocked nor repulsed.
    "Then I will stay and talk with you the night through. I will wipe the blood from you, cleansing you. I will hold back the dark fall of your hair so that it will not hinder you in your self-ministrations. I will not leave you, Elsbeth. Let us share this bloody night together. A man expects no less than blood on his wedding night."
    He was impossible. Worse, he had managed to embarrass her. He was beginning to remind her of her father.
    "The church has rules about such things," she said. "I am not clean at such a time."
    "Blood is blood, Elsbeth," he said. "No man wants to wash in it, though sometimes he must. I will not be defiled by sharing a bed with you," he said, stepping away from the door. "I will not touch you, if that is what you wish. I only will not leave you. That is my vow and my desire. What fault in that, little wife?"
    God had given her this miracle of blood, and Hugh soiled its beauty by his presence. Had not God intended for him to leave her to herself? It was her desire, and her desires were ever in line with God's own divine will. She truly would make a most perfect nun, if only her husband would open his eyes and see that truth for himself. They could have the marriage annulled in time for Prime. It was a prayer worth praying. Let him stay, then, and see what manner of holy woman he had bound himself to. This night of blood and prayer might serve her cause well.
    "Stay, then," she said, throwing her soiled garments in the corner.
    He smiled his pleasure and his victory; yea, she saw it for what it was, and then he said, "Now may we light the taper?"
    Oh, aye, he was the victor. None but the victorious would laugh so.
    "Aye, and the fire as well," she said. "I would not leave you in the dark, since you seem to fear it so."
    "Oh, wife," he said, laughing as he bent to the fire, fanning the chill embers. "You are a warrior at heart to strike so at a man you little know. I had not thought it of you—you who are given to much prayer and little speech. Or so it is said."
    "I had not thought you a man to listen to gossip. It is not the way of the righteous."
    "Say, then, that I have listened to the tales of you, Elsbeth, Prayer Warrior."
    "You have said it. Prayer Warrior. I seek no other life. I do no other battle."
    "Except with husbands," he said, straightening. He had kindled the fire, casting red and gold light throughout the small chamber.
    "I know nothing of husbands," she said, her back to the wall, her bloody garments at her feet.
    "Yet," he said, grinning. "But that will come, in time. You do know something, if the tales be true, of men and what they must risk in their quest for holiness."
    "You speak of Richard of Warefeld," she