The parlour was full of light and Anna felt her spirits lift. She realised the brightness was due to there being three windows in the room. She walked over to the largest and gazed through the glass and thought she caught a glimpse of the river in the distance. The other two windows were set in the side wall and were also glazed. She reckoned the glass was of the expensive Flemish kind, worthy of a rich merchant venturer’s home. There were shutters outside and she imagined them to be very necessary during the winter storms.
‘What do you think of this room?’ asked Jack.
She looked at him and saw the need for reassurance in his eyes. She remembered her house at Fenwick and thought how different it was from this one. Her gaze roamed the room. A fire burned on the hearth, giving out a goodly heat. She noted that the walls were limewashed and hung with several charts and sketches of seascapes. It was comfortably furnished with a settle and cushioned chairs, as well as a polished table and side cupboards with shelves above. On top of a seaman’s chest stood the model of a sailing ship that Philippe had mentioned. She went over and lightly touched a miniature sail.
‘You have skilful fingers, Jack,’ she said. ‘Which reminds me…’
‘Your lute?’ he said.
‘No!’ But she had spotted her broken lute on a window sill. She went over and picked it up, waking the sleeping cat curled up beside it. She placed the instrument on a different window sill. Her green-brown eyes met Jack’s steely-blue ones and she smiled. ‘I like this parlour, but now I need to see our bedchamber…and I need my saddlebags.’
‘Most likely they have already been taken up,’ said Jack, leading the way out and along the passage and upstairs. ‘You will probably wish to make changes, Anna. It is very much a man’s bedchamber.’
Anna smiled. ‘That will not come as a surprise to me, Jack. Be careful of your hands,’ she said, touching his arm lightly as he stopped in front of a door.
It was she who flung it open. The bedchamber was not as filled with light as the parlour, but that was because there was only one window and the room was naturally not as large. Even so, she liked what she saw. Despite what Jack had said, she could find few faults with its furnishings of light oak. As for the bed, she had never seen one so large. Of course, the room needed a few feminine touches, but they should not prove difficult to obtain.
To her relief, she saw that her order had been instantly obeyed for there, on a small table, were bowls, hot water and cloths. She noticed their saddlebags in a corner and went and opened one and removed from it a jar of salve. She ordered Jack to sit down on the bed.
He raised a dark eyebrow. ‘My clothes are filthy and so are yours.’
‘So they are,’ she said with a saucy smile. ‘Perhaps we should remove them.’
‘Anna!’
She blushed. ‘You deem me forward? A wanton?’ she asked anxiously.
He grinned. ‘No. It’s just that I might have difficulty taking mine off.’
‘Of course,’ she murmured.
Without more ado, she first removed her own boots and hose and then she proceeded to remove his. She pretended to be unaware of his arousal, but even so she could not resist trailing her fingers down the length of his naked thigh. She felt the long, strong muscles quiver and caught the sound of his indrawn breath. She guessed that if his hands had not been blistered and sore he would have pulled her on to his lap. Swiftly, she removed his doublet and then unfastened his shirt to fling them in a corner. He was still wearing a garment that covered his manhood and she told him to sit down on the bed again.
He did so, watching her intently with a faint smile on his face. She poured water into a bowl and dampened a cloth. As she cleansed his hands, not a word of complaint passed his lips. Yet it was obvious to her that he was in pain. That task done, she wasted no time in anointing the blisters with dollops of salve and then bandaging his hands. No sooner had she done so than he reached out and seized her skirt. He drew her back towards him and pulled her on to his knee.
‘Now you must behave sensibly, Jack,’ she teased.
His lips twitched at the corners. ‘I don’t see how I have any other choice.’
‘I suppose not.’
He tickled her bare foot with his big toe.
‘Jack, you’re distracting me.’
‘From what?’
‘I must find us some clean clothes.’
‘Later,’ he said. ‘Now remove the rest of your clothes.’
‘We must be sensible, Jack,’ she said with a sparkling glance.
The look in his eyes caused the breath to catch in her throat and she leaned forward and kissed him. He returned her kiss with such passion that it immediately set her whole body on fire. She had to force herself to bring the kiss to an end. ‘We must desist. Your hands…’
‘You started it, sweetheart.’
‘I know, but…’
He tickled the side of her face with his tongue. ‘Where there’s a will, Anna, there’s a way. I confess that from the moment you set foot on my ship, you undermined my resolution. You showed me there was still so much to enjoy in this world and you gave new meaning to my existence.’ He took her hand and raised it to his lips. ‘I was a fool not to realise how much you meant to me earlier than I did. I made a mess of asking you to marry me, because I didn’t want to accept that I could love you as much as I do. That you could love me.’
‘You don’t have to explain to me, Jack. I felt the same,’ she said earnestly.
‘I wanted you for so much more than as a mother for Philippe.’ His voice was raw with emotion.
‘I didn’t marry you because I wanted another son. I wanted to be so much more to you. That evening in Raoul’s garden was a revelation to me. I never thought I could experience such delight.’
He grimaced and gazed at his bandaged hands. ‘I suppose you consider yourself safe from my attentions with my hands bound.’
‘Safe?’ she murmured. ‘I always feel safe when I am with you, Jack.’
She could not have made him feel better about himself. ‘Take your clothes off, Anna, and remove my last garment. I’m going to place myself in your hands.’
She instantly undressed and stood unashamedly naked before him. She could tell from his eyes that the sight of her pleased him. But she was willing to comply with his wishes further, so she removed the last of his nether garments.
After the manner in which they had spent the last twenty-four hours, she expected neither of them to be filled with vigour. She found delight in exploring his body with slow sensitive fingers, kissing his scars and caressing that most manly part of him.
‘You are an exceptional man,’ she breathed softly.
‘And you, a most excellent wife.’ He stilled her hand by pressing one of his bandaged ones over it. ‘Now perhaps I can prove to you just how exceptional I am,’ he said with a chuckle.
He proceeded to do so in ways that revealed to her that he did not need the use of his hand to bring her to a pitch of pleasure that had her crying out for more. More was exactly what he gave her before joining with her and carrying them both to the realms of such exquisite delight that even when they lay in each other’s arms afterwards, their bodies still glowed with the remembrance of it.
‘I deem I’m going to be happy here,’ said Anna.
Jack said anxiously, ‘You don’t want to go and live elsewhere while the men finish the extension? There’ll be noise and dust and inconvenience.’
‘No,’ said Anna, smiling. ‘I have you and Philippe and a home. What more could I want?’
Jack knew what he wanted for her. He could never replace the son she had lost, but they could have a child of their own. A brother or sister for Philippe. He looked forward to that day.
Epilogue
August, 1476
Jack popped his head through the bedchamber doorway. ‘Are you ready, Anna?’
She had her back to him and raised an arm, fluttering her fingers at him. ‘I won’t be long.’
&n
bsp; He came further into the room and closed the door behind him. He moved into a position where he could see his wife placing their daughter in her cradle. ‘I wonder why we never thought of having a daughter,’ he mused, perching on the bed.
Anna smiled at him. ‘I suppose we had it fixed in our heads that she was going to be a boy.’
‘You weren’t disappointed, were you?’ he asked hesitantly.
‘Were you?’
He shook his dark head and, leaning forward, planted a kiss on his wife’s mouth and then on Tabitha’s reddish-brown hair. ‘She reminds me of her mother.’
Anna laughed. ‘How can you possibly say that? I doubt if I was ever as pretty as she is. Besides, she has your eyes.’ She rubbed her cheek against her daughter’s rose-petal soft skin. ‘I’m glad Philippe approves of her.’
‘He adores her. A sister is special. He’s already boasting about her to the Mackillin boys,’ said Jack. ‘I’m glad they were able to come.’
‘And the rest of the family. It’s a pity Raoul can’t be here,’ she said.
‘We did see him in London in the spring.’
That was true. They had also visited the ap Rowans and her man-of-business in Chester and made the decision to sell Fenwick Manor. She had decided to sever all ties with that place and its sad and frightening memories. Part of the money had been used to help towards the cost of building a larger ship and the rest was in trust to provide Tabitha with a dowry when the time came. Most important of all was that they were secure in each other’s love.
‘You look bewitching,’ said Jack.
Anna smiled. ‘You like my gown for the blessing ceremony?’
‘Indeed, I do.’ He took her hand and twirled her round.
The material was expensive cotton imported from the East to Italy and specially woven in Lombardy before being dyed a deep blue. The actual design was Anna’s own. A couple of seamstresses in the town had done the bulk of the sewing, but she, herself, had embroidered the flowers and leaves that decorated the scooped neckline and the cuffs of the sleeves.
‘But I love the woman inside it even more.’ He kissed her and, releasing her, went over to the door.
‘I almost forgot, I have another present for you.’
Her eyes widened. ‘What sort of present? You’ve already been more than generous to me.’
‘This kind of present,’ he said, going outside and returning with a brand new lute.
She clapped her hands and gave a cry of delight. ‘But you fixed my old one.’
‘But it’s never sounded the same. I thought you deserved a new one.’
She took it from him and plucked the strings, remembering the day when he had come to Rowan and handed her first lute to her. She had admired him then and did so even more now she knew him so much better.
She smiled into his eyes. This last year had been the happiest of her life. ‘I love you, Jack. And that isn’t only because there are a lot of advantages to being married to a merchant venturer,’ she teased.
He took the lute from her and placed it on the chest and brought her close to him. ‘And I love you. And, though not a witch, you have the power to enslave me in such a way that I never want to break the bonds that tie me to you.’ And, bringing down his dark head he kissed her.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-2792-1
REBEL LADY, CONVENIENT WIFE
Copyright © 2008 by June Francis
First North American Publication 2009
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