Love of Lady Liana.

by Alvarez y Losada

  -- Creo that I will omit that. Truely it said a the Days that returned to their house by the nights?

  Liana smiled.

  -- Yes, that I did. Good night, Severn. Good night, Zared.

  It began to descend the stairs, and it stopped when it heard the voices of brothers both.

  -- That woman has anger -- she heard say a Zared.

  -- Or she is completely stupid -- Se­vern responded.

  Liana continued raising and one more hour late, in his dormitory, it was submerged in full a water wood bathtub it warms up perfumed, observing the movement of the flames on the logs.

  To its right the door was opened abruptly and with noise and Rogan it entered like a hurricane a calm day.

  -- Woman, you have arrived too much far -- rugió --. I did not authorize to you to dismiss my women.

  Liana returned the head to watch it: Rogan had puttings solely its ample white shirt, that hung until thighs, a wide leather belt around the waist and its panties. It had the sleeves coiled until the elbows and showed the muscular forearms and marked by scars.

  Liana felt that its front began a to transpirar. She continued shouting to him, but she did not know what her husband she was saying. It was put of foot in the bathtub, the body es­belto and signs, generous bust, the sonrosada and warm skin because of the hot water.

  -- Please, you want to approach one to me towel? -- pre­guntó with smooth voice in the silence that became then, then Rogan had stopped to speak.

  Rogan as soon as it could watch it, with the mouth opened. Although it had had many women, it never felt the pleasure of to watch, really to watch one, and now seemed to him that never it would see nothing so beautiful like that woman of son­rosada skin, with the cascade of blond hair that him they arrived almost at the knees.

  It thought: I will not allow him that it takes advantage of his body to induce to me to forget what did today. Their feet gave pa­so towards it and Rogan extended the hand to touch the curve of the feminine sine.

  Liana said that it did not have to lose head. Yes, de­seaba to this man, wished much it, but it wanted something more than few minutes of pleasing. It extended the hand and it untied the cords of shirt of Rogan to the height of the throat and caressed the skin to him with the yolks of the fingers.

  -- the water is still hot -- it said with serious voice --. Perhaps you allow me that it washes to you.

  A bath was one serious loss of time in opinion of Rogan, but the idea of being washed by a naked woman...

  In few seconds one undressed of his clothes and when he was standing, naked before her -- and all turgid he -- Rogan it tried to catch it. But Liana, laughing, avoided it.

  -- Your bath, gentleman -- it said, and Rogan it discovered that one was putting in the bathtub.

  The hot water smoothed its dirty skin and the grass that floated in the water smelled well; but the best thing of everything was woman, her wife, this beautiful one...

  -- Leah? -- I ask Rogan, watching it while she knelt down on the end of the bathtub, and its chests, with the pink and turgid nipples, grazed as soon as the edge of the bathtub.

  -- Liana -- she answered and she smiled to him.

  It began to wash it, rubbing to him arms, the chest, the back and the face with the enjabonadas hands. Recostó on the end of the bathtub and it closed the eyes.

  -- Liana -- it said in low voice. It seemed to him to remember impre­cisamente that that woman had made something disagreeable that same one day, but now could not imagine of what tra­taba. Was seen it so small and angelical, so pink and blan­ca, that it could not suppose that had done nothing that it deserved the dispproval of his husband.

  It raised the legs so that she lavar­las could, and later it obeyed it when it said to him that it was put of foot, and their small, lukewarm hands and enjabonadas, washed it between the legs. pleasure that felt by the tact of Liana was so overwhelming that it spilled his simiente on those pe­queñas hands. The eyes of Rogan were opened alarmed, and in order to hide to his shame he it applied an abrupt push to him on the shoulder that it almost sent it flying against the wall.

  -- you hurt to Me -- Liana exclaimed.

  Rogan had killed much people and never it felt the minimum repentance, but the exclamación of this girl certain cord pressed in him. It had not had the in­tención to hurt it, was only that felt like avergon­zado front to her. Consternado, warned of soon which it left the bathtub and one knelt down next to Liana.

  -- Déjame to see -- it said and it inclined it towards it advanced. When gol­pear against stones of the wall, its skin was had irritated, but without opening itself.

  -- he is not nothing -- it said -- Your skin is too fragile, that is everything. -- the hand happened great, tajeada and encallecida on the small back and esbelta -- It is like the skin of the belly of potrillo new born.

  Liana watched it and almost it emitted a giggle, but contu­vo. However, it turned the body between the arms of Rogan and supported the head on the shoulder of its husband.

  -- pleased the bath, right? to You

  Rogan felt that the face was reddened to him because of the shame caused by the memory, and later, when watching it and seeing the wink of its eyes, included/understood that she was making fun of. It had seen his brothers to laugh with others mu­jeres, nevertheless it found very few things that they were comedians in the women. However, this woman obtained that he she felt otherwise.

  -- it pleased to much the bath to Me -- it heard that he said his own voice and he himself was astonished.

  Liana emitted a giggle against the shoulder of Rogan.

  -- It is possible to repeat the enjoyment? -- it asked astutamen­te --. Or it is your last enjoyment?

  During a little while Rogan it contemplated posibili­dad to punish it by its insolencia, but later slid the hand on the naked buttock of the young person.

  -- Creo that I can make an effort to me again.

  And then it did something that never tried before: it raised it in arms, it walked until the bed and there it deposited it sua­vemente.

  While it was standing before her and it contemplated, did not feel desires to throw itself on Liana, to penetrate it and des­pués to lie down to sleep, as it used to be the case. Perhaps it was the cause of its previous one "enjoyment", since it were saying, or perhaps she wished to touch it like her it had done; one lay down next to the young person, supported in an elbow, and extended another hand to feel the skin of the belly of its wife.

  Liana did not have idea that all this was new for Rogan, but thus it had imagined that it would be to lie down with a man. It explored its body with the hand, as if before never it had seen one woman. Liana closed the eyes mien­tras Rogan caressed the legs to him, it slid between his thighs and their fingers were closed on smooth roundness and sign and the yolks twisted the hair of pubis. The hand of Rogan raised by belly, the thumb crossed the flank of the navel, and, later slow, very but very slowly, ma­no ascended up to one of the sines. It locked up first, one and later the other and its thumb grazed as soon as the sensible, hard and small nipple.

  She was on the awares to watch it, saw dulzura in the eyes of Rogan, and suddenly included/understood why it had accepted to marry with him. It intuited that under its rudeza, the hard protective rind, a smoothness existed that he never had declared to anybody. A tremor it crossed the body of Liana, when it thought about the pain that this hom­bre had of to have experimented in the course of its life and that had turned it the being insensible cold and that ma­nifestaba to the world. But anyway, one was convinced that the Rogan that the world saw was not the true personali­dad of this man.

  The master, thought. The master with all my soul and all my being, and that God pardons to me, I am going to obtain that also it loves to me.

  Liana approached its hand the chin of Rogan and it caressed the beard swelling, that now was soft because of several days without to shave itself, because it seemed that he once made it single per week. It was said: I will obtain that you
need to me and I will obtain that you feel sufficiently surely, of way that I can see certain dulzura in your eyes, even when I am dressed.

  This thought induced it to smile and it approached cuer­po the one of Rogan. It tightened it with force and Liana could feel passion that dominated it while their hands caressed the back to him, its mouth it covered hers and it kissed it with ardor. The lips of Rogan descended by his neck and finalmen­te arrived at their chests. Liana bent backwards, and emi­tió a gritito of pleasing.

  Rogan tapeworm conscience of the reactions of Liana and thanks to the episode of the bathtub it could control his own necessity. The women who he had had had been virgin afraid or women very arranged and experimen­tadas and always wishing to please it. Of course, nin­guna it had proposed to him to bathe it and none had not left to paper and pens in his either room. Perhaps it was tried only about desire to pay a debt, but in everything case pleased it to feel that this woman shook under the anxious ma­nos of the man. The pleasure that it also felt pleased to Rogan.

  The lips of Rogan followed the same one way that his hands throughout the body of Liana, and thus it discovered that scent and the flavor of its skin was sweet and fresh, so dife­rente of which they exhalaban the servants of the Days, that sometimes hedían as much that it expelled them from bed. This mucha­cha smelled of smoke of firewood and grass.

  When its head rose a again the height of the lips of Liana, Rogan was surprised when perceiving how much it wished. The hands of her grasped their shoulders, and when it penetrated it, she it it looked for with an equal force and an energy those of him.

  ¡It had never spent as much time in bed with a woman! It was incredibly sensual, and in certain mo­mento it forced to put itself of backs and one lay down to him above and their hair surrounded a both like a smooth but solid jail.

  Rogan never before had considered the pleasure of the woman; but this one, with his moaned and complaints, their mo­vimientos first in a sense and later in another one, acen­tuó febrile its own one to please, until it thought that it could die. When finally it finished, it was a experience that it affected it, impressed it from the end of the toes to head.

  One collapsed on the girl and in place to separate it, since it used to do with the women who took to their bed, embraced it with force as if it was suffocating and she it was a floating log.

  Liana was curled up against its body. It seemed that it spilled itself on her as if there was, be the sauce that it upsets on a pudding. The young person never had felt so well in the course of its life.

  -- You are wonderful -- it murmured --. The best thing that it never happened to me. It knew that the marriage with you would be thus.

  Rogan gave off the arms that they maintained and one moved towards the remotest end of the bed, but Liana it accompanied, the head on the shoulder of Rogan, bra­zo on the chest, thigh crossing the legs of its companion. One felt happier than ever, more happy that him that it had believed possible.

  The eddy did not imagine that affected to Rogan. It wished to separate, and nevertheless it did not hit upon to move.

  -- How he was your William brother? It had ro­jos hair like you? -- Liana asked.

  -- I do not have red hair -- it said indignant Rogan.

  -- When it illuminates the sun, your head it seems a fire -- Liana talked back --. William was like you?

  -- Our father had the hair red, but I he­redé the black of my mother.

  -- Then, both had the hair red.

  -- I no... -- Rogan said, but it shut up and it almost smiled --. Of fire, eh?

  All the women whom it had known they said that it had black hair, without signs of the red one of his father. That was what it wished, and therefore was what they asegura­ban to him.

  -- and the other brothers? Also they were pelirrojos?

  It thought about its brothers deads now, and it remembered what young and strong was. ¡What good fought! It would never have thought that the day would arrive in which it would be the greater one of Peregrine and would assume responsibility of everything.

  -- Rowland, Basil and James had one brown mother, so that all had black hair.

  -- and what you say to me of Severn and Zared?

  -- the mother of Severn was blond like... -- It left incon­clusa the phrase and he continued laid down, watching its own de­dos and uniting them to those of Liana. It had to throw it of the bed and to sleep a little, in place to evoke with her do­lorosos memories. But to remember its brothers as if they were alive was not angustiante.

  -- As I -- Liana said, smiling --. And also she was the mother of Zared, that also has black hair?

  Liana did not see the smile of Rogan in penumbra.

  -- Yes, in effect. Zared is brown because her mother also was it. The one of Severn it died when giving it to light.

  -- Then, your father had four spouses and seven hi­jos?

  Rogan vacillated before responding.

  -- Yes -- it said.

  -- Surely he was pleasant to count on several her­manos. I often wished that my mother was teni­do another son. Often they played together or they put you to the care of other people?

  It felt that the body of Rogan it hardened and pre­guntó what error had committed.

  -- In our life there was no game and they either did not asig­naron us to other people. -- Now it was speaking with voice fry.-- Since we learned to walk trained pa­ra to us the war. Howard killed to William when it was eighteen years old, to James and Basil a the twenty and vein­tiuno, and completed to RowIand two years ago before it fulfilled the thirty. Now, I must protect to Severn and Zared.

  It took it by shoulders and it raised it little, to mi­rar it to the eyes.

  -- I killed James and to Basil and I did it by a woman and I prefer to die before that happens again. Apártate of me, and mantente thus.

  It threw it on the mattress of pens, it descended from the bed and it began to put the clothes.

  -- Rogan, I did not have the intention of... -- he began to say Liana, but he already had left --. Damn he is, damn be... -- it was lamented, unloading the fist on the pillow, lay down on back and nailed the glance in the pin­tado ceiling of target. Why it had said that he had killed his brothers? And by a woman? -- What woman? -- it asked aloud --. Me I will eat it to the breakfast.

  The idea comforted and the thought to it of which there would be also other nights it calmed it. But mainly it thought about moment for gaining the bet. If the farmers entrega­ban to him to the thieves, Rogan would be its slave a whole day. What would do with him? To force it to do love all the day? Perhaps to have it a complete day with her would be bastan­te, or that it had to accompany it and to answer his pregun­tas. A began to become sleepy itself.

  To the morning following Liana one rose early, with the intention to look for its husband, but what saw in the plant low it induced it to forget Rogan provisionally. In the great hall it did not have nobody, so that des­cendió, went to the patio and began to raise the stairs that lle­vaba to the room of the men. It did not have before been in that sector and not it it surprised that he was as dirty as before was the rest of the castle. In enormous hall, of double ex­tensión that the main one, were about two hundred men seated on dirty banks, in front of tables grasientas, co­miendo bread impregnated of sand and drinking bitter wine. Nobody paid attention to him when she it entered and all continued rascando themselves, shouting, swallowing and eructando and pedorreando.

  The good disposition of Liana and triumph feeling disappeared. It left the hall in silence and happened to patio, to the light of the sun.

  Severn was standing near the wall meridional, caressing the chest of a great hawk.

  -- Where he is my husband? -- it asked she.

  -- This morning started off in the direction of Bevan -- Severn answered, without watching it.

  -- Bevan? Where your family was surrounded?

  It directed fast a cautious one to him and it gave back the bird to the hanger.

  -- That same one.


  -- When it will return?

  His brother-in-law shrank of shoulders and he moved away. Liana followed it, raising the skirts to be able to cami­nar quickly.

  -- That was everything? One left? Without saying a word to anybody? And it did not explain when seted out to return? Quie­ro that authorize the men to drain the pit.

  Severn stopped, it became and it watched it.

  -- Vaciar the pit? Woman, you are crazy? The Howard could...

  -- To cross it being walked, according to is now -- Liana said, watching with hostility to Severn --. When will return my husband?

  The severe expression disappeared of face of Severn and its eyes began to blink.

  -- My brother left before the dawn and he limited to say that one went to the castle of Bevan. If you requested to him that she orde­nase to drain the pit, I imagine that that had certain relation with its game.

  Liana did not say a word.

  -- Temes to order it you yourself, eh? -- it said Severn, and co­menzó to smile.

  Liana could not prevent sonrojo of his face, because it had guessed which was the situation.

  -- I will not authorize that and that later return Rogan and you see the empty pit -- it added Severn and one became again.

  Liana remained of foot watching it while ale­jaba. It did not please to him that Rogan had moved away, but believed that perhaps it could more easily improve the things in the castle and the village while it was not. Severn was a soft man much more who Rogan, that was evident pa­ra she and seemed to him that perhaps there was a way of persuadir­lo, same method that she used to convince her father that she did everything what to Liana one felt like to him: the food.

  Liana sent to Joice with the order of which it brought his precious prescription book to him, straightened his hairdo and it raised the es­calera in the direction of the kitchen.

  It was late at night when Liana went a to lie down, single. It was exhausted but also happy, because now it had obtained the permission necessary to dig a ditch that allowed to drain hediondo pit.

  It needed the whole day, but it obtained to clean po­co the kitchens and the hall the men, and served Severn and horsemen Peregrinate, a worthy banquet of a king. Meat had presented/displayed them roasted, sonrosada and substantial, capon with sauce of oranges, rabbit cooked with onions and raisins, cakes of spinach and cheese, mustard sauce eggs, pe­ras condimentadas, pies and mousse of apple.