"My lord?" Her voice was a thin, trembling whisper.
"Yes."
"Alas, do not be angry with me. Do with me as you will."
"I am not angry."
He did not sound angry, his soft voice carried no threat.
Leah spoke more surely, but still with caution. "You are my very good lord. You will be patient with me, I know." Emboldened further by his passive acceptance of that statement, Leah stroked her husband's arm gently and turned towards him. Cain did not want the response of fear. "Oh, do not turn away," she cried, and he realized that he had frightened her more and took her in his arms.
That was nice, very nice. He could not be angry and hold her so gently. After a little pause Leah sighed and pressed closer. "You are so warm and I so cold. My lord?"
"Yes."
"Were you angry at my boldness when I wrote to you?"
"No, I was well pleased." Cain swallowed. Holding her so close without going further was not easy, for her cool, pliant body awakened his passion. Leah moved her head on his shoulder and laughed softly. "What is it?" he asked.
"The hair on your chest is so harsh. It tickles my face with little pricks." Leah stroked his face. She would have begged him to kiss her, but his assurance that one type of boldness was not offensive to him gave her no guarantee that he would accept another type.
"Do not do that " Her hand stopped and Cain felt her body stiffen. "Nay, I did not mean to frighten you, but that makes me … Your hair is like fine silk. Last night I dreamt of it, like a web over my hands."
Leah's hand, still against his cheek, trembled a little and then turned his face more towards her. "My lord?"
"What now?"
"Is it evil in a woman to desire to kiss her husband?"
"What?"
Leah was silent. Doubtless her mother was correct and her husband would now think she was a woman without virtue. Cain felt suddenly frustrated. It was necessary, of course, for girls to be kept pure, but he was beginning to think that too much innocence could be a fault. Explanation of these matters was a work for other women, he thought, realizing with a shock that how it was for a woman was a mystery to him. Leah's hand dropped from his face.
"Leah, it is good, not evil, for a woman to love her husband."
"Yes, but—"
"What did your mother tell you of marriage?"
Cain did not realize how fortunate he was that Edwina, unlike most mothers who explained carefully and fully, had been unable to bring herself to discuss the sexual aspects of marriage with her daughter. Leah had thus been saved her mother's warped views on the subject and had imbibed only hints from the servant women and certain practical information from the evidence of her eyes in seeing the mating of the beasts in the castle and on the demesne lands.
"That I must obey my husband. That I must allow him to do whatever he would with me. Indeed, my lord, I did wrong to speak in that tone to you before. It is your right to handle me as you will. That I must not hang upon you. That—"
"Enough. She told you nothing of what—what I did?"
"Oh no."
"That is the way children are begotten."
"So much I knew. I ask again for your pardon."
"There is nothing to pardon. I was too rough with you." His voice faltered a little and his arms tightened around her.
"And now what must I do?" he asked softly. "Must I wait? I—it is hard for me."
She could escape the repetition of that experience. All she needed to do was lie a little. In the dim light of the night candle Leah saw the shine of the lashes over his beautiful eyes. What she had been about to say died in her throat.
"Be gentle with me," she whispered instead.
He had his will of her, and it was sweeter than honey because she was willing and then, when he drifted up out of that red well of pleasure, there was more sweetness yet, for Leah was stroking his hair and kissing his face.
"I am sorry,” he whispered. “I tried to be gentle, but I hurt you, I know."
He had hurt her, and not a little, but she cared nothing for that. She lifted his face and kissed his closed eyes and pressed him into her breast again to sleep. Leah had sipped the heady drink of deliberately giving the blinding pleasure of physical love to her husband; she could forgive him anything for the knowledge of that power.
Content with a contentment that comes only with relief from fear, Radnor thanked God for his manifold mercies and drifted from a heavenly languor into the depths of sleep.
Leah, awake in her pain, watched her husband's even breathing. She was not concerned with her physical discomfort because her shrewd mind and quick observation told her that it would grow less with time; after all, the hints of the maidservants and the jests of the other women at the wedding indicated that love was a thing of great pleasure. What caused her brow to wrinkle into a frown and kept her eyes wakefully staring at the bed curtains was the problem of whether her husband had given himself in the same way to the other women—to Lady Shrewsbury.
It was true that it was no business of hers what Cain had done before they were married, but how was she to keep him from going back to the old stewpots? If he did, and her mother said he would, how could she bear it? What could she do to win him back? Round and round went her mind spinning like a wheel around the central hub of fact that could make her life a heaven or a hell—her husband's affection. Radnor sighed and stirred and she clasped him closer. Somehow she would hold him, she thought, as her eyes closed. With meekness and willingness and obedience all things were possible.
Chapter 7
Morning brought the sound of the ladies and gentlemen coming to wake the bride and groom. The guests were still heavy-eyed from their carousal, but they had recovered their good spirits and they greeted the fact that Leah was still abed while her husband was up and dressed with shrieks of glee.
"That does it," Hereford exclaimed. "He never went to bed at all. The whole thing has been a great hoax. I think he cannot mate with a woman and has lied to us all these years about being a man."
"No, no," Philip of Gloucester replied in his breathless voice. "Pembroke, at least, would never perpetrate such an expensive joke. Lord Radnor is only showing us who will be master of his household." The words were obviously meant to be a joke, but there was an undernote of warning. "Look you, he is up first. Will he summon her maids? Bring her her washing water? Run her errands?"
Radnor turned, smiling, from the arrow slit out of which he had been watching the preparations for the tourney. "A good morning to you all. It was the rattle of arms that woke me. It looks a fair green field. I am almost sorry I will not be upon it."
Hereford came up and landed a blow with his fist in Radnor's mid-section that would have done credit to a horse. "For shame! What an admission! What sort of a man finds more attraction in the rattle of harness than in his bed on his wedding morning?"
Radnor grunted at the blow and laughed. "An old soldier is the answer to your riddle. More especially one who has been drawing his weapons to that sound day and night for almost all the years of your life—boy." His eyes, however, moved uneasily to the bed where the ladies were performing their part of the customary ceremony.
The covers had been drawn back so that Leah lay exposed on the bloody sheets. Radnor could feel the terrible sense of possession well up in him. Radnor could see the eyes of the other men on what he now considered peculiarly his own; it was intolerable. He knew he was going to make a fool of himself, but could do nothing to prevent it He flung himself across the room, jerked Leah out of bed, and draped his own gown around her. The women stared in surprise; the men doubled up with mirth, Hereford sinking to the floor where he remained laughing weakly.
"Our Radnor, our Radnor," he gasped when he was able to command his voice. "Do you think," he crowed, drawing himself upright by climbing up William of Gloucester who was laughing more quietly, "that he will veil her altogether, like a Saracen?"
Edwina, quickly gathering fresh garments for Leah
and handing them to her, was more surprised by her daughter's behavior than by her son-by-marriage's; she had seen Radnor's reaction to infringement of his property right in Leah before. Edwina would have expected that the girl would shrink away from a man who had used her so hardly, but except for one startled glance at Cain's sudden movement, Leah gave no sign of fear. Her body lay with the relaxation of perfect trust against his, and, although she dressed in trembling haste, it was plain that it was only to please him and escape the examining eyes of the other men.
The sound of the heralds’ trumpets calling the first warning of a summons to arms finally broke up the group. Hereford dashed for the field with a yelp of dismay, and even Leicester quickened his usually deliberate pace. As the other men moved towards the stairwell, however, the Earl of Chester touched Radnor and drew him back.
"Take my arm, Radnor. It is as good an excuse as any to walk slowly together. I hope you are fed full enough now to think a little on some other matters."
"Yes, but speak low. In truth, I would be easier if we were without the walls. Here there are ears, many and long, and equally long tongues, I fear. But if the matter needs haste, you had better tell me now. We are so well entertained that there is little chance that we may be private unless we can lose ourselves at the hunt tomorrow."
"Well, the matter is important, but the hunt … You know, Radnor, I am inordinately fond of hunting."
Radnor set his teeth to bite back an acid retort. His marriage was not important enough to delay discussion, but a hunt was. It was also more important than state affairs, it seemed. Chester had continued speaking, however, and Radnor wrenched his attention away from his own thoughts to attend to him.
"My boy, I know your opinion on these matters, but I have more experience of statecraft than you do and I think that you must consider seriously a new method of going about things. Stephen of Blois is not an old man and is in good health. It may be many years before he dies, and if we are to wait so long for a better man to come to the throne—and the true line at that—the entire country may well be in ruins." Chester held up his hand to stop Cain from interjecting a remark. "I know, I know, you have given your oath and you will not break it. But how would it be if Stephen were to renounce the throne in favor of Henry?"
"Chester, we are talking treason. You know how unlikely such a thing is. Why should Stephen renounce the throne? Many men stand by him still. He has hopes even that he can force his son upon us. He would be mad to commit such an act and, since we are talking treason anyway, I may as well speak my mind, though he is stupid as a pigeon, he is not that mad."
"But if he were in such a position that it would be his life or the renunciation?"
"In God's name, Chester, hold your tongue! Forgive me, that is no way for me to speak to you, but I have your interest at heart when I say this. To threaten the life of the king is not only treason but a black sin."
"No, no. There need be no direct threat, but if he were in such a position that he must understand—"
"Chester, Stephen is a brave man. He has no fear for his life, and well you know it. You must remember how he carried himself when the Earl of Gloucester had him in close prison. He feared nothing, and then Eustace was but a child. Now Eustace is nearly a man. Do you think that he and Maud will sit idly by and let this happen? Queen Maud is worth ten of her husband and her son together. She saved him from death or permanent confinement once and may do so again or, if she cannot do that, she may well set Eustace on the throne. Where would be your profit then?"
"I have thought of that already. Eustace alone we may discount. Pembroke says—"
"Pembroke! You have not broached this matter to him, have you? You know he will run post-haste to the king with the tale. I will not hear a word more."
"Now, Radnor, I thought you would be less set against Pembroke now that you are his son-by-marriage. He is weak, but I believe he will be firm in this. He suggested that Shrewsbury's wife—"
"Joan!" Lord Radnor interrupted almost shouting with exasperation. "She is worse even than her husband who is a slimy toad,"
"Radnor, be quiet. If you interrupt me every moment I can tell you nothing. Do you think I am a child not to know that these men are not to be trusted? Both will do anything for the sake of their purses, however, and there is great profit to be had out of this, either from Queen Maud or from the establishment of a young boy as king. Moreover," Chester said with a sly smile, "there can be no profit in Pembroke's running to the king. All he could get out of that would be the reversion of my nephew Fitz Richard's lands. And you will not let him keep those. He knows it."
"I will let him keep them sooner than be dragged into any plot against the king," Radnor snarled.
"You are in a rage, but I know you. Besides, your part in it will be very simple. We have had what passes for peace on the Marches for several years. Pembroke has planted a few seeds here and there on Fitz Richard's land to grow into a small flower of rebellion."
Radnor turned pale. "You could not be so mad! Godfather, you could not!"
"Why not? You will hasten to the borders to keep them quiet. I will raise an army to aid my godson and tell Stephen that if he comes with me to quell the Welsh, the Marcher lords will grow to love him better than they do now. Look you, Cain, you have nothing to do but hold your tongue and do your duty in keeping the peace in Wales as you have ever done. Once I have Stephen in Wales, who knows what may happen? It might not be necessary to hold him treasonably. A Welsh arrow … a dark night …"
Cain faced Chester, taking his wrists. "Godfather, you must not do this. You do not know the Welsh as I do. A small flower of rebellion does not remain small among them. Oh God, I looked for a month or two of peace with my wife. Now I must fly to fight in Wales."
"The more fool you if you do it too soon. I tell you, Radnor, that even if you put down the rebellion it will not stop my plan. Pembroke, Shrewsbury, Hereford, and I will all swear that the tribes are still restless, which will doubtless be true even if you have beaten them into submission, and Stephen will merely think you do not want him to come to Wales and be more eager for it if you gainsay us."
"At least do not drag Hereford into this," Radnor cried in an anguished voice. "He is so fine and young. He does not understand. Oh, God, they are coming to see what has become of us. I must speak further with you, but not here or now. Tomorrow—"
"Tomorrow I hunt," Chester replied with sudden coldness, and his face set with a weak man's stubbornness. "If you cannot see how good a chance this is, there is no sense talking longer."
"What black looks, Lord Radnor. I hope my daughter did nothing to displease you." Pembroke's eyes were hard and speculative as they slid from one face to another. Beside him Shrewsbury snickered.
Whatever Chester did, Radnor would make no admission that he knew anything about the plot being hatched. Clear of it himself, he might still be able to save the others from their own folly. "I hear from my lord Chester that he is much slighted and mistrusted. The peace between him and the king was of my father's making. I would not have urged my godfather to such an act if I had not thought it for the best for him as well as for others. Now I hear that he is ill-treated. Why should I not look black?"
"Come," Pembroke said, "this is no day for such matters. The food for breaking our fast is set out. But if we do not make haste, the call to arms will come and we will have no time to eat before the opening jousts."
They moved down into the hall, Radnor stopping just beyond the doorway to wash his face and hands in a basin held by a servant. He started to walk to the long tables where white bread, wine, and early fruit were laid out for a morning repast when he was hailed by Leah's excited voice from a window embrasure.
"My lord, oh, my lord, come and look."
"Coming." Cain took a cup of wine and a large piece of bread and went to her, his eyes abstracted with worry.
"Look at the pennons! Look how the armor shines. Oh look, Cain, look at the men with trumpets at the ends o
f the field. What are they doing? Look. Tell me!" Leah tugged at Cain's sleeve in her excitement and the wine slopped over his hand.
"Be careful, you little goose," he snapped, and Leah recoiled, the animation dying out of her face.
Cain was instantly contrite. It was not the poor child's fault that he was harassed by irresponsible men who further complicated an already bitter political situation. It was a shame to spoil her pleasure.
"Nay, I did not mean that,” he said, smiling slightly. “I am troubled by matters of state, Leah. What is it that you wish to know?"
"Indeed, my lord, I will not trouble you with my questions. You have greater affairs to attend to."
"Not today, Leah. I have attended enough to things which only sour my stomach and anger me. Today is yours."
As he said the words, however, he knew he would have to find time for some serious planning with Philip. A painful contraction in the region of his heart gave him warning of what that visit would cost him, and he pulled his mind back to the far pleasanter task of contemplating his wife.
Leah had turned back to the window. Her spirits were dampened and she was silent while her husband began to eat. He was looking over her head now, stirred in spite of himself by the martial proceedings. It was a thin field, mostly made up of younger men, knights errant and squires, for the great magnates were saving themselves for Stephen's great tourney later that month. It was just as well that, as bridegroom, he was excluded from fighting; it would have been like stealing from a child to take the prize from those boys, and Radnor had no need of tourney prizes either to add to his wealth or to prove his valor. Nonetheless, the feel of the twelve-foot lance in hand—well, there was the king's tourney to look forward to. Radnor laughed silently at himself as he realized that part, at least, of his desire to get on to the field was an urge to show off his fighting form to the girl beside him. It was really very amusing because the feeling persisted even though he knew perfectly well that she would comprehend no more about what he was doing than a pet dog.
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