Authors: Bertrice Small
“Dear heaven, what time did you leave this morning?” she exclaimed, for they had been at her door before sunrise. “At least there was a border moon to ride by, but it had to be cold and damp. How old is your grandsire?”
“Seventy-three years, he says,” Robert answered her.
“And we departed the court just after two of the morning.”
“Why was he so determined to come today?” Adair asked frankly.
“I believe he thought you would be back by now. He was distressed that Andrew would take your name and cast off ours,” was the candid reply.
“It is better I did,” the new earl said. “This way Grandsire can have no illusions that Radcliffe lands are Lynbridge lands. And you know that he has always coveted the grazing meadows belonging to Stanton. Now he must put those thoughts from his head.”
Adair arose from her own place. “I must go and tell Cook that our guests will be remaining until the morrow,” she said. Then she hurried off.
“She is lovely,” Robert Lynbridge remarked. “And strong-willed. Did you see how she stood up to Grandsire? And he was not in the least taken aback by her.”
“I have no idea what it is to be married, Rob,” Andrew said suddenly.
“No man does at first,” Robert replied with a grin,
“and even after several years have passed it is still confusing, little brother. Marriage is a game, but it is your wife who will make the rules for the game. Those rules will always be changing, but you will not necessarily be told of those changes, yet you will be expected to know all about them.” Robert Lynbridge chuckled. “Just remember that the house and the servants are hers. And the children when they come. The rest is yours to manage.”
“I expect that Adair will want the rest as well,” Andrew said. “She loves Stanton and is devoted to both the lands and the people.”
“Then share it with her until she is ready to let you have it,” Rob counseled wisely. “She will eventually.
Jesu, Andrew! You’re an earl. Richard has married you to an heiress who came with a title for her husband. My
brother, the Earl of Stanton.” He laughed. “It falls easily from my tongue. Have you bedded her yet? Is she as—”
Andrew cut him off. “Until last night we were on the road from Middleham. And I did not wish to press the issue until the church had blessed the union.”
“So then tonight will be your wedding night,” Robert said.
“Adair is yet innocent. I will wait until you and Grandsire are gone, Rob,” Andrew told his brother.
“You must like the little wench,” Robert observed. “I have never known you to be so tender with a female’s feelings.”
“I have to live with her, Rob, and I should prefer a peaceful house. I have known enough war in my life,”
Andrew said.
But to his surprise, that evening Adair excused herself from the high board after the meal, and murmured in his ear, “If I am asleep when you come up, waken me, my lord. We have a final duty to do for Stanton this day.”
Hiding his astonishment, he nodded. She wanted him in her bed tonight? Well, that boded well, didn’t it? He refrained from smiling at her. “You are sure?” he asked.
“My lord,” was all she said before turning to his grandsire. “Elsbeth herself has made up the most comfortable bed space in the hall next to a hearth for you, my lord. There will be a servant in attendance the night through should you need anything.” She curtsied to him. “I will bid you good night now.” Then, turning, Adair departed the hall.
Lord Lynbridge watched her go. “She may look like her mam, but she has her sire’s grit and backbone,” he noted. “Her mam was a gentle and obedient lass. Had she not been, John Radcliffe could have not easily sent his wife into King Edward’s bed. I can see, Andrew, that your wife is someone who understands the meaning of duty. I don’t expect she will be easy to live with, but
she’ll be a good wife to you, and a good mother to the children you breed upon her. Go to her now, grandson.
I am proud of you. Your service to the duke has paid you a handsome dividend.” He drained the last of the wine from his goblet and then banged the vessel on the oaken board, demanding more. “Your wife keeps a good table, and has a good cellar.” Then he sipped from a newly filled cup.
“You’ll be warmer by the fire, my lord,” Albert murmured in the old man’s ear, and before he might say yea or nay the chair was lifted up from its place and carried again to the great hearth with its blazing logs. Lord Lynbridge held his goblet tightly.
“Her servants are well trained,” Robert noted. “You have come into a well-ordered household, brother. Do you think Adair really is a virgin? Young FitzTudor seemed a determined sort.”
“He was no match for her,” Andrew said with a smile.
“She says she is untouched, and I must accept her word unless it is proven false. I will treat her like a virgin tonight, and if she is indeed one it will please me mightily. But if she is not then I must be concerned that she lied, and consider what else she has lied about.”
“I do not see Adair as devious,” Robert remarked.
“She is actually quite straightforward in her manner.
Have you cause for suspicion, brother?”
Andrew shook his head in the negative. “Nay.” He stood up. “Good night, Rob. I will see you on the morrow before you and Grandsire depart.” The earl strode from the hall and climbed the staircase up to the second floor of the house, where his bride would be awaiting him. When he reached the bedchamber door, however, he found Elsbeth waiting. “Is Adair ready to receive me?” he asked.
“When did you last bathe?” Elsbeth demanded of him.
“Bathe?” He looked surprised by her words. “Why?”
“My mistress has a delicate nose, my lord. She bathes
regularly. She says you must be bathed before you enter her bed. The master’s chamber and the mistress’s chamber share a little room my lady’s mother had built. It is for bathing. Come along, and I will help you. You have no manservant of your own, but Albert will find a lad to suit you. Tonight, however, I will do what needs to be done,” Elsbeth said.
“I am capable of washing myself,” Andrew protested.
“My lady says I am to do it,” Elsbeth retorted in a tone that did not bode well, he thought, should he continue to argue with her. “Come along, my lord.”
She led him to the little room where the great oak tub was set up. Andrew was so fascinated by the accommodations that had been made to deliver the water that he did not notice at first that Elsbeth had begun to pull his clothes from his lean frame. He sat to allow her to yank his boots from his feet, blushing as she tched over their condition. “You’ll be needing new boots, my lord,” she said. “I’ll tell Albert, and we’ll get the cobbler to come and measure these big feet of yours.”
“How do you empty the tub?” he asked her as he climbed into it, gasping at the hot water. “Jesu, woman!
Would you scale the skin off of me?”
“There’s a plug of cork at the bottom, on the side of the tub,” Elsbeth said. “We have a small hose that fits into a stone drain by the window.” She climbed up the two steps next to the tub and, taking a small pitcher up, dumped its contents over his head. He sputtered with surprise, but Elsbeth paid him no mind. Scooping a handful of soft soap from a dish on the tub ledge, she began to wash his dark hair. Her fingers dug strongly into his scalp, and he yelped briefly as she scrubbed at his head. Another pitcher of water was poured over his hair, then another bout of suds, followed by more water, and Elsbeth began to pick through his hair. “No nits,”
she said, satisfied, and handed him a small rough cloth.
“You do the bits you should, and I’ll take care of the rest,” she told him with a grin.
“Did you bathe FitzTudor too?” he asked her.
“That bairn had his own man he brought with him from the south. I wanted naught to do with them. He was more perfumed than washed. They kept much to themselves once they saw the lay of the land,” Elsbeth said with a chuckle.
“And how did they determine the lay of the land?”
Andrew asked as she scrubbed his neck and shoulders.
“FitzTudor snuck up to her chamber one evening and tried to force himself upon her. She hit him over the head with an earthenware pitcher. He fell to the floor dazed, and then she called to Beiste, who dragged the boy from her chamber by his velvet-shod foot.” Elsbeth cackled as she remembered the incident. “After that he gave her a wide berth, he did. She’s a virgin, which is what you’ve been getting at with all your questions, my lord. You treat her gently.”
“Have you explained to her what is involved in a man and woman’s coupling?” he asked the older woman.
“Not my place, my lord,” Elsbeth said. “She has no mother, and so it is you as her husband who must guide her along love’s path. Have you done the bits I cannot mention? If you have then you’re done, my lord. I’ll leave you to dry yourself. That door”—she pointed to a small portal—“leads into my mistress’s bedchamber.”
She curtsied to him. “Good night, my lord.”
He remained in the tub, enjoying the heat from the water, until he realized it was beginning to cool. So young FitzTudor had attempted to have her and been soundly rebuffed. Well, he couldn’t blame the lad. Adair was a toothsome morsel. She said she was a virgin. Her servant said she was a virgin. He sighed.
A virgin.
How in hell did one approach a virgin? And especially one as matter-of-fact as his new wife. He had not expected to bed her for at least several days, during which he had planned to woo her with kisses and caresses that would grow bolder with time until she was curious enough, and ready enough, to be breached. But when she had left the
hall after whispering to him they had a duty to perform, he had been astonished. Aye, making a new heir for Stanton was important, but he wanted a bed partner who would enjoy being with him.
Andrew suddenly realized he was growing cold, and so he arose and stepped from the tub. Reaching out, he drew the drying cloth from its rack and toweled his body and hair free of water. He looked about and could see no garment to wear. Shaking his head, he reached for the door handle and opened the door into his wife’s bedchamber. He stepped into the room, pulling the door shut behind him. There was a fire in the hearth, and draperies drawn over the windows. He drew the curtains back that enclosed the large oaken bedstead and saw her sitting straight up, pillows behind her, awaiting him. Her eyes widened at the sight of his naked body, but she said nothing. He could see she was without clothing as well, for her shoulders and arms were bare as she clutched the coverlet against her breasts.
“We don’t have to do this tonight,” he said quietly.
She was afraid. He could see it in her dark violet eyes.
He did not want her afraid.
“Aye, we do,” she whispered. “Your grandsire will demand to see the bloody sheet on the morrow. If we do not have one to display he will assume I was not a virgin. And if you tell him you did not breach me, he will call you coward before everyone in the hall. I will not let him shame us before our Stanton folk, Andrew. It would erode our authority. Get into bed, my lord, before you catch the ague.” She threw back the coverlet.
He climbed in next to her, drawing the coverlet back over them. “Give me your hand,” he said to her, and she slipped a hand into his. “I am sorry to say you are correct, Adair. There is a bit of the bully in my grandsire.
Your strength tonight won his grudging respect. And your understanding of our situation is well thought out.
If my grandsire had not come this day we might have had the time we needed to really become acquainted.
But we do not. However, let me suggest something to you. Let us cuddle together until you feel brave enough for us to couple. We have until the dawn to do what must be done. We need not do it immediately, Adair.”
He slid down beneath the coverlet, drawing her with him. His strong arms wrapped about her. “There. Isn’t that better, wife?” His lips brushed her forehead, and the scent of gillyflowers arose from her dark hair. “I never expected to wed,” he told her. “I had nothing to offer a wife.” The feel of her young, supple body against his was intoxicating. Andrew struggled to maintain a semblance of self-control. He could not allow his lustful body to overcome his common sense. This girl was the wife to whom he would be married for all his days.
“From what I have just now observed, my lord, you have more than enough to offer a wife,” Adair said with a naughty giggle. She had looked well at him as he had come to her bed. He was the first naked adult man she had ever seen. She did not need a great deal of experience to know he was well made, and he was.
Andrew chuckled. “I couldn’t tell how hard you were looking in the dim light.”
“The light was bright enough for me to observe your attributes, my lord,” she told him. “I have naught to compare them with, but I suspect they are considered more than satisfactory by the ladies you have honored.
I believe I am safe in saying that I am the only virgin in this bed tonight.” Her cheeks felt hot with her bold words.
“Aye, you are the only virgin here,” he agreed. “I lost my virginity when I was fourteen, and I have since known several women. But I am not careless with my affections. Are you always so candid in your speech, Adair? I have never known a woman to be so open with her thoughts.”
“Lady Margaret always advised me to be more careful in my discourse. She said those who did not know me might think me bold—or worse, wanton. But I have al
ways said what I am thinking. I was never any good at the games they play at court,” Adair noted. “I am too honest, I suppose.” His body was firm, and there was a comfort being enclosed in his arms. She felt safe for the first time since she had been a child. And his skin was smooth and smelled good. She wondered what Elsbeth had put in his bathwater. She would have to remember to ask her.
“Why did you stay so long then at court?” he asked her, unthinking.
“My lord, I was only six when Lancastrians slaughtered my family. I had no one else to go to but the king. My sire has great charm, as you must surely have heard. Most who enter into his presence are enchanted by him. His manners are flawless, and his memory for faces and names is incredible. He can make strangers feel welcome and mere acquaintances as if they are close friends. And he comprehends his duty as king of this realm.