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

time."
    "I will stay," she said. "Only hurry."
    He grinned and bowed to her, surely a mockery of all chivalry. "I will away and return as the hawk, so glad am I that you hunger for my return. Your desire for me grows upon the hour."
    "'Tis the padding I desire," she mumbled as he closed the door behind him. "Not you!"
    He stuck his golden head back in, grinning as was his way. "If you will allow me to instruct? 'Twill only serve you well to flatter me."
    "I have said I do not lie," she bit out.
    He laughed as he closed the door. "I know you do not lie, little wife, yet I am not blind. I see what you feel for me. Your eyes reveal what your lips will not."
    The door closed with a soft thud. If she were the type of maid to throw things, she might have thrown the stool against the hard surface of the door. It would have made a mighty sound. But she was not that sort of woman, though it appeared that he could drive her to it.
    Her eyes revealed what her lips did not?
    She should never have allowed him to light the fire; darkness served her better.

 
     
    Chapter 5

     
    Gautier was waiting for him in the long dark of the stair. He looked hard at the bloody garments in Hugh's hands.
    "What are you about?" Gautier said.
    "I am about the winning of a woman's heart," Hugh said. "She is in flux. There will be no bedding this night, nor for many nights."
    "You have a task before you, then, to keep the marriage from being annulled."
    "Aye, I do," Hugh said, passing him on the stair and going through the hall, heading for the kitchens outside the tower. He could only wish that Gautier would remain behind in the dark gloom of the smoky hall. Gautier chose to follow as far as the outer stair.
    "She will fight you, but softly. It is her way," Gautier said.
    "Aye, I know it," Hugh said to the night air. "She is a soft warrior, but still she fights."
    It was no condemnation, though he wondered if Gautier understood that as the older man returned inside without a word.
    "My lord?" Raymond, Hugh's squire, asked, coming to him from the stables. "May I attend you?"
    "Nay, I need no aid, not in this," Hugh said.
    "There is something amiss?" Raymond said.
    Hugh smiled. "Nay. Aye. All is amiss, and yet 'tis nothing calamitous. Elsbeth has her courses upon her. I can do naught tonight, nor for many nights. The timing is most ill, yet God will test a man. So I am tested most hard."
    Raymond chuckled and then swallowed the laughter building in his throat. He choked and then coughed, covering all. Covering nothing.
    "You laugh?" Hugh said. "You can find mirth in it? 'Tis not your wedding night."
    "Oh, my lord, it is hard duty to which you are called," Raymond said, laughing in spite of all his efforts.
    "Speak not to me of hard. I am hard enough, and there is no escape from it."
    "Yet how does Elsbeth fare in such a pass? Is she not as dismayed by this turning as you?"
    "Dismayed? She is giddy with triumph," Hugh said.
    "My lord?" Raymond said in sudden seriousness. "She will not seek an annulment. Not from you."
    Hugh ran a hand through his hair and looked up at the sky, swaddled in clouds. "I think it may be in her to do such a thing," he said slowly. "She is a maid unlike any other I have known."
    "My lord, 'tis not possible," Raymond said in suppressed outrage.
    Hugh grinned and punched Raymond softly on the arm. "All things are possible, Raymond. Especially with this woman, I think. She has a core of steel to her that is uncommon, and her outward manner is cold and hard as well. In between, she is soft and womanish, yet how much of her is so? How much of her is able to be turned by a pleasing phrase or a timely kiss? That is what I do not know." Hugh smiled suddenly and said, "Yet the battle of Elsbeth will be a rare thing. I find myself looking forward to the challenge of her."
    " 'Twill not be much of a challenge, not for you, my lord," Raymond said.
    "Your confidence inspires me, boy. Now I had best be about the business of Elsbeth."
    "How can I