SirenSong (30 page)

With an intake of breath like a sob, she shook her head and
began to remove her clothing. All the while she felt William’s eyes on her and
she could hear his breathing, harsher and quicker than usual, broken once or
twice by a long, shaken sigh.

She ached with desire but felt it was wrong and she fought
herself, but William said, “Come here,” again a harsh command, and she came,
her eyes on her own bare feet until the edge of the bed appeared. A heartbeat
longer she hesitated, heard William’s breath drawn, and quickly lay down beside
him, knowing he had thrown back the light blanket. She thought he would seize
her immediately, as he had the last time they were in bed together, and she
closed her eyes, not to see the healing flesh torn open again with his violence.
However he only touched her arm, his fingers gentle, hesitant.

“Elizabeth?” The tone of command was gone, replaced by
uncertainty and anxiety. “Beloved? Are you not willing?”

A dark blush dyed her cheeks dusky rose. She opened her
eyes. “Not willing! I am much too willing. I should not let you. You will hurt
yourself. But I cannot help it. I want you!”

He laughed softly. “You are a most innocent elf, Elizabeth.
I will not hurt myself. I will lie still if it kills me. I assure you that I
will not unseat a stitch nor loosen a scab. Come, sit up, love, and bend over
me so that I may love you with my mouth.”

She still did not understand how he would manage, but she
could not bear to worry any longer. Eagerly she leaned over so that he could
kiss her throat and breasts.

She found that one arm was enough to support her. The other
stretched downward. William was whole below the waist and she knew she could
touch him there without hurting him. Her hand went down his thigh, slipped
between his legs investigating what, although long married, she had never
before been willing to touch.

His legs spread at her touch, and where her wrist lay across
his thigh, Elizabeth could feel the tension and faint trembling in it. She ran
her hand up, then down. It was immediately apparent that her curiosity was
having a violent effect on her lover. His lips and hands grew more urgent, and
he began to moan deep in his throat. William’s excitement fed Elizabeth’s so
that the pain caused by his too-hard sucking and biting turned to an exquisite
pleasure. Then he tore his mouth loose.

“Mount me,” he gasped. “I am your stallion. Mount me. Ride
me.”

Elizabeth’s eyes opened wide with surprise. How simple! What
a fool she was never to have thought of it. Hastily she came upright, straddled
him.

“Take—” he began, and choked on his eagerness.

But it was not necessary to give further instructions.
Elizabeth’s own need taught her. Heaven! She was, for the first time, mistress
of her own pleasure. Unfettered by her partner’s weight, she could twist, grind,
move fast or slow, apply pressure where she wanted it. Beneath her William
panted and groaned, but he lay still as he had promised, only running his hands
up and down her body, playing with her breasts and belly, fingering her navel
and buttocks.

The heaven Elizabeth had found was too deliriously exciting
to last. She fell forward, catching herself just before her full weight came
upon her lover, thrusting quicker, quicker. Her mouth opened, a shriek of
agonized joy rising in her throat, but William was ready. He pulled her head
down so that her cry was muffled into his mouth. Again! Again! Again! And then
she was still.

“Move,” William groaned. “For God’s sake, move or I must!”

His hands gripped her hips, lifted her a little. Elizabeth
drew a trembling breath, pulled away, thrust forward again when William’s hands
drew her down. She was dazed with reaction, almost unwilling, but in seconds
she understood the demand being made of her. There was no discomfort in
obeying. Opening her eyes, which had closed as her own orgasm came upon her,
she watched William’s response to her movement with interest and delight,
taking, at last, almost as much pleasure in his climax as she had had from her
own.

When his breath came evenly again, she eased herself off him
and lay by his side. He moved his arm to take her head upon his shoulder,
having forgotten for a moment his hurt, but winced and desisted. They lay
quietly, just touching, holding hands. There was no need for words. Contentment
enfolded them both. William slipped asleep, and Elizabeth’s mind wandered here
and there idly for quite some time until, while admiring William’s cleverness
in obtaining privacy for them, she remembered that the last thing he should
have done was send Alys and Raymond out together.

That worry brought a flood of others, the most pressing
being what they were to do when Mauger returned. Nothing had really changed.
Elizabeth’s responsibility to her sons and to Hurley still lay upon her. She
lifted herself carefully away from William, got out of the bed, and began to
dress. Before she was finished, William reached out to where she had been
lying, muttered, and then opened his eyes.

“Come back,” he sighed.

Elizabeth shook her head. “Go back to sleep.”

The long lashes drooped, then lifted again. “I cannot bear
it,” he said.

“Do not be so silly.” Elizabeth forced herself to smile.
“Even a wedded wife would flee your bed at such a time. For shame! In the
middle of the forenoon, and you still abed with your hurts. Such wantonness!”

That made him smile too, but the trouble did not clear from
his eyes. “I have waited long enough,” he said, “more than half my life.”

“Let it be, William,” Elizabeth sighed.

“You mean I must go on waiting—forever? That when Mauger
returns we are to be no more to each other than we ever were?”

“What can I do?” she cried. “Must I brand myself publicly as
a—as an adulteress? Do you find that word prettier than whore?”

“Nonsense! There are reasons enough to annul a marriage if
we are all agreed. I have Richard’s ear, and through him the ear of Boniface,
the archbishop.”

“Mauger will never agree.”

“Why not?” William asked sharply. “Does he hold you so
dear?”

“He holds Hurley dear!”

“I have thought of an answer to that,” William said, lifting
himself on his elbow.

Automatically Elizabeth pushed the pillows so that he could
sit, but then she stepped back and folded her hands. “Be reasonable, William.
No woman is worth what Mauger will demand for spite. I cannot bear to think of
you struggling, as I have struggled, to pay debts that only grow larger and
larger with each year. Besides, even if he wished to agree, his pride would not
permit him to do it. Can you imagine what would be said if it became known that
his wife was now the wife of his neighbor?”

“I have thought of an answer to that also,” William
interrupted. “I have had much time to think these past days, and I have thought
of nothing else. Listen to me. I will not offer your husband money but an
equivalent estate, perhaps one that carries with it a minor title.” When he said
that, Elizabeth’s eyes brightened.

“A title? Oh, William, do you think it is possible to
arrange such a thing? To be called ‘Lord Mauger’ might release me, even if the
estate were not so rich as Hurley.” Then her enthusiasm dimmed. “But there
remains the problem of our marriage, if it were known I was your neighbor—”

“That problem would not arise if you and I did not live at
Marlowe.”

“Not live at Marlowe?” Tears came to Elizabeth’s eyes and
she knelt by the bed to kiss William’s hands. To be so precious that William
would give up Marlowe for her! “I cannot let you do it,” she sighed. “You would
come to hate me.”

He drew her up to sit beside him. “Not for that, surely, if
I never came to hate you over the years when I thought you had betrayed me,
like a siren you drew me to destruction with the song of your grace and your
beauty.”

Elizabeth laughed and kissed him. “William, William, my
beauty is in your eyes.”

He stared at her, almost as if he were trying to see if what
she said were true, but after a moment he smiled and shrugged. “In any case,
dear heart, it would not be forever. I have been gone for a few years at a time
before—”

“But Alys was here, and Sir Peter. William, what are you
thinking of? Alys must marry, and soon. You cannot expect her to wait—”

“I do not expect it. Did you not see the way she seized on
Raymond when I bid her go? I admit my attention was somewhat divided, but it
seemed to me—”

“You are willing for her to marry Raymond? But he has
nothing!”

William shrugged, winced, and uttered a soft oath at his
carelessness. As he grew better, he continually forgot his half-healed wounds
and hurt himself. “None of us will be rich,” he said. “Bix must go to Alys when
she marries anyway, but she and Raymond may remain here and manage both places.
And we are not so young, Elizabeth, that you are likely to give me a large
brood for which I will have to provide. As for me, Richard has been after me
for years to be marshal for him.”

“You will not get poor doing that!” Elizabeth exclaimed. She
was breathing quick with excitement. “It might work, William. Alys does love
Raymond, but will the king be willing to bestow a title on Mauger?”

“Probably yes. And just now, when all is sweetness and light
between Richard and his brother, Henry will enjoy doing any favor asked of
him.”

“William, where is Earl Richard?”

“There is the one rub, my love. He is in Scotland, and I
cannot ask him to come home just to do this for me.”

His expression was perfectly serious, and Elizabeth burst
out laughing. “Oh, William, how silly you are. How can you say such a thing in
all seriousness, as if our little problem was of such import that the Earl of
Cornwall must abandon negotiations that concern the whole realm to attend to
us?”

William grinned at her. “It is ridiculous,” he admitted,
“but it
is
important to me and do not think Richard will be indifferent.
He has used every device short of an absolute command which he knows I would
have to obey to induce me into his service. Nonetheless, I will say nothing to
him when I write. We will have to wait until he returns, but it cannot be very
long, beloved. A few weeks or a month.”

“No…only…William, you must say nothing to Mauger until
everything else is settled. Every minute he has to think will raise his price.”

“But that would mean—”

“I will have to go back to him until everything is
ready—yes. Oh William, do not look like that! You know there is nothing between
us nor has been for fourteen years. Besides, Emma is there. Who could want me
when Emma was available?”

“I!” William replied dryly.

“Well, you are a little mad.” She leaned forward and kissed
him long and tenderly. “I-I must ask you to say nothing about Alys and Raymond
either. I know you do not believe Mauger was involved in the attempts on you,
but—”

“I do not like to deceive him further, Elizabeth. And
perhaps if he knows the estates can never be joined, he will be better content
to take another.”

“Then add that to the whole,” Elizabeth paused and looked
down at her hands, then raised her eyes. “It is for my own sake that I ask
this, William. Mauger is not cruel to me usually, but he will kill me for
coming here and leaving Alys free to fall in love with Raymond. It does not
matter what you will say to him, that is how he will think of it. And I cannot
claim I could not know it would happen because he warned me of it that time he
brought me over in June.”

“If he lays a hand on you, I will kill him,” William said
softly. “If he ever in the past—”

“No! William! Do not throw away our chance for happiness. I
assure you Mauger does not mistreat me and never has. It is only that this
thing is so important to him. That is why I cannot help feeling he had
something to do with your troubles in Wales. The joining of Ilmer, Hurley,
Marlowe, and Bix has become an obsession with him.”

That was possible. William frowned as he thought about it.
It was possible, but he wanted to believe it enough to make him suspect his own
judgment. “Very well. I will say nothing, but that means I must also say
nothing to Raymond or Alys. That makes it harder. It is cruel to leave them in
doubt. And what am I to do if Raymond makes a formal proposal to me? He is a
most honorable young man. If he suspects Alys favors him, he will either ask
for her hand or ask leave to go away, and I cannot spare him, not for a few
weeks until I am sufficiently healed to bear arms.”

“I can manage that for you,” Elizabeth said, and began to
explain how Alys had confessed her love and she had not had strength enough to
deny her. William listened, but his mind was not completely on what she was
saying. He pulled her toward him and kissed her lingeringly. Martin, who had
come to bring his master a meal, stopped dead in the doorway and then backed
silently out of sight. He had not been particularly quiet in entering, but
William and Elizabeth were too wrapped up in each other to hear.

“My love, my love,” William murmured. “Did you think I would
count the cost if Alys’s heart was set?”

“No, but… Oh William, we are not being very wise. Alys is
so
beautiful. Are we letting her waste herself? Are we being selfish?”

“I tell you Raymond is a fine man, loyal and honorable and
not one to put his pleasure above his duty. He will be a good husband. If
Mauger had been as rich as Richard, Elizabeth, would you have been happier with
him?”

“No!”

“Do you think Alys of a flighty, changeable nature?”

“No—no, she is not. You are right, I suppose. It is better
to be poor and happy. Well, then, what I will do is tell her I have hinted the
matter to you and that you did not fly into a rage or forbid it out of hand.
That will give her a good hope that you will agree. I will also tell her not to
speak of it to you and to forbid Raymond to speak of it until you are able to
bear arms.”