The Reckoning - 3 (57 page)

herself, shocked as much by the source as by the suggestion, for it came from the dignified, ever so proper Eleanora.
Seeing her discomfort, Blanche said swiftly, "No woman need worry about stirring male ardor on her wedding night. But I thank you, Eleanora, for the idea, and I daresay that so will Edmund! You cannot make me believe, though, that you, of all women, must strive to attract your husband's attention. After eleven children? My heavens, dearest, if he paid you any more attention, the two of you would never get out of bed!"
Eleanora was unfazed by her sister-in-law's teasing. She well knew how lucky was her lot when compared to that of most queens, for her husband not only found her desirable, he loved her. "I could not admit this to my confessor,"
she said serenely, "but I do not see why it is a sin to want to please the man you love. And it is eleven and a half. With a surcote so fully cut, I could be about to drop twins and no one could tell. But I am indeed with child again, due in early spring."
Eleanora's intimates knew that she was pregnant, but there'd been n° formal announcement as yet, and her news came as a surprise, therefore, to most of the women. There followed a flurry of congratulations, while Ellen calculated rapidly, realizing that if she conceived at °nce, she could give Llewelyn a son by summer's end, a thought that ^er nearly three years in limboseemed almost miraculous to her.
They were almost done now, performed the few remaining tasks ^th dispatch, tucking Ellen into bed, arranging her long tresses in

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tempting disarray upon the pillows, lighting a candle and placing it j_ one of the headboard niches, forBlanche explainedthere was something to be said for looking ere you leaped. They then poured Ellen some mead, one by one kissed her, and finally pulled the bed hangin&s together, enclosing her within a private cocoon of glazed Holland cloth Forgetting her resolve to forgo any more wine, Ellen sipped the mead, sought to banish her tension with deep breaths. If only she could close her eyes, then open them to find the bedding-down revelries were over, the men were gone, and she was alone in bed with Llewelyn, if only there would be no trouble. She'd heard too many tales of brawling and drunken rowdiness and crude practical jokes to be at ease, though. Guy had once told her of a particularly nasty wedding prank in which the bridegroom's drink had been heavily laced with a strong purgative, and there were always stories circulating, usually unverified, of sleeping draughts being given to unwary bridegrooms, of wedding guests bursting in upon couples who'd neglected to bolt the bedchamber door. And always there was the risk of violence, for wine could be the most cornbustible fuel of all.
She'd just put the mead cup down on the floor by the bed when the men entered, making so much racket that it seemed as if half of Worcester had invaded her bedchamber. There was only a faint break in the bed hangings, not wide enough for her to see more than a blurred motion, a flash of color. And it was difficult, she was discovering, to hear all that was being said, for they kept interrupting one another, the words wine-slurred, the voices not always easy to recognize.
It sounded as if they were drinking a toast to Llewelyn, and, she frowned, for if they'd brought wine in with them, it might be difficult to get them out;
for reasons she did not fully comprehend, men seemed to think it was very funny to prolong the bridegroom's suspense as long as possible. She'd always heard people jesting about being a fly upon the wall whenever some great drama had taken place; she felt like that now, an invisible spy in a foreign kingdom, one usually barred to women. Just within the first few moments, she learned some new slang terms for the male sexual organs, not as easily explainable as the more familiar cock, shaft, and lanceyard, stalk, baubles.
And what she'd always suspected was confirmed within those same few moments, that drinking did not make men more amusing, it only made them think it did.
The jokes were predictable and banal, most of them couched as helpful tips for the bridegroom. There was much talk about how bes to ride a skittish, unbroken filly: without spurs, bareback, and witha bridal bit. Ellen wished she'd recognized the author of that last pun, i° she thought "bridal bit" was a clever play upon words. But they w^6
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pot making it easy for eavesdroppers; sometimes it sounded as if they ^ere all talking at once.
"I want to say a few words, so cease your caterwauling!" She recognized that imperious voice at once, for it was Edward's. "I know the VVelsh are huntsmen, not farmers. But tonight I hope that the Prince of \Vales plants his seed in fertile soil!"
There was laughter, and then Alexander took his turn, saying that a maiden without a man was like a ship without a rudder. Ellen was amused by that, but not by what followed, for he'd opened the floodgates to a wave of nautical jokes about sailing into friendly ports and dropping anchor in deep waters and keeping hard on the helm. Ellen sighed, wondering what the reaction would be if she entered into the spirit of things and called out that their jests were very unseaworthy. Blessed Lady, were they going to be here all night?
Someone had started to sing a lewd ditty about a tavern wench named Delilah, but fortunately he was too well lubricated to remember the words. That reminded the others, though, of the minstrel's bawdier songs, and Llewelyn found himself fending off warnings about "broken blades" and offers to help if

he discovered a treasure chest that could not be opened. His blade, he assured them, was in perfect working order, right easy to sheathe, and he had no need for locksmiths, already having the key. He sounded good-natured, but impatient, too, like a man who'd been talked into something against his better judgment and was trying to be a good sport about it, at least for a while.
Ellen had raised up at sound of his voice, now sank back against the pillows.
Did any bride and groom truly enjoy being in the center ring of this circus?
For a young girl like Caitlin or a woman about to share a bed with a man not of her choosing, it could be a very unpleasant experience. She did not think she was unduly modest, but she would have much preferred a quiet seduction for two. And she suspected that most bridegrooms did not really find it much fun, either. In some ways it was more trying for them, she decided, for male humor, as any woman with five brothers well knew, could be raw. God help the poor groom who could not flaunt an erection as he was being put to bed with his bride.
No, Llewelyn was right, there was something to be said for an elopement. Or a clandestine wedding. Her parents had been wiser than she knew, a secret ceremony with only the King as witnessmuch more Pleasurable. And safer, for certes. She tried to imagine her fiery-tempered kther submitting to gibes about his manhood and lewd jests about his "ride, could not even begin to envision such a scene without it ending
111 bloodshed. For that was the real danger of these bedding-down reve|ries, that a man was expected to smile whilst drunken strangers dis-

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ery," he pointed out reasonably, and then laughed, for she'd fUm herself into his arms, so exuberantly that he came close to tumbling ft the edge of the bed, dragging them both down into the floor rushes
"I truly could not help myself, Llewelyn. He looked so silly, y^ there on the floor with his mouth open, like a poor fish that did n t understand how it had gotten hooked!"
"Little wonder he looked dazed, for none of it was his doing. It Was "^ one of the other men who jostled Gloucester, dousing him with wine But when
Gloucester shoved him, he fell against your poor fish, who went shooting into the bed like a salmon looking to spawn!"
That set Ellen off again. When she finally got her breath back, she confided, "I could feel the laughter about to spill out, and I knew if I gave them any encouragement, we'd not get rid of them till dawn! So it seemed as good a time as any to develop some maidenly modesty, and you, my darling, were so quick to seize the moment!"
"Let's just say I had a powerful inducement." They were entangled together in the bed covers, and as they sat up, she lost even more of the sheet. But when she started to tuck it back around her, he caught the corner, pulled it down about her waist, and then took her in his arms, wanting to feel her breasts against his chest as he kissed her. Almost at once, though, he ended the embrace. "Jesu, the door!"
Once the bolt had been safely shot into place, he came swiftly back to the bed. To his delight, she sat as he'd left her, having made no attempt to draw the sheet up again. He was clad only in chausses and braies, the rest of his clothes scattered about the chamber. Ellen watched with flattering interest as he tugged at the cords binding hose to braies, jerking impatiently when they did not at once come loose. "You seem like a man in a tearing hurry," she teased, and he grinned.
"Yes and no." Stripping off the braies, he quickly joined her in bed. "I am eager, I'll admit, to begin this quest of ours, but I do not want to find the
Grail too soon, not until we've searched high and low, long and hard. There are many sorts of pleasures in this world, cariad, but tonight the only pleasure I'm seeking is prolonged."
She laughed, and when he reached for her, she rolled over into his arms.
Almost at once, she discovered that their time together at the Tower and
Rhuddlan Castle had not prepared her for the intensity of what she was experiencing now, in the intimate embraces of their marriage bed. As he began a leisurely exploration of her body, it seemed to her as if a fire was being kindled, slowly and deliberately, but hotter than she could ever have imagined. She soon found even the light weigh' of the sheet was stifling, and each time he claimed her mouth with his/ she could not help thinking that this must be what Scriptures meant by cloven tongues of fire. Only when he parted her thighs was she hesitant'

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t first. As she shuddered suddenly, biting back a cry, he gently brushed . er hair away from her face.
"Do you want me to stop?" he asked, and as her arms tightened around his neck, he barely heard the whispered "eventually" she breathed into his ear. "Ah, love," he laughed, "that is a very old joke, orobably going back to Adam and
Eve," and as her lashes swept upward, he found himself looking into eyes wide and wondering and suddenly hurt.
"Not to me," she protested. "This is all new to me, this is ... Do you not see, Llewelyn? I am Eve, at least for tonight."
"You're right, love," he conceded. "I might as well confess that I have not bedded that many virgins, for with one long-ago exception, I never fully understood why men put so much importance upon being firstuntil now."
"Would you be jealous, then, of me?" she asked hopefully, and as he assured her with a grin that if another man touched her, he'd merely kill him, he realized in surprise that he might well mean it.
"I want you to be jealous," she confided. "I am, for certes. Were you jealous of her, too? You know which 'her,' that long-ago exception of yours. Surely you've not forgotten her name?"
"Do you really want to talk about her now?" he laughed, but when she persisted, he admitted that he did remember, that her name was Melangell.
He'd begun to kiss her throat again, and she gave a soft sigh, putting him in mind of a cat's purring. "I love it when you do that," she murmured. "But I
suppose your Melangell did, too. Your first time together, was it all you'd hoped it would be? Did Llewelyn, you are laughing at me!"
"Of course I am! Cariad, would you have me believe you're truly jealous of a woman I bedded ere you were even born?" He laughed again, at the sheer, sweet absurdity of that, and then said, "But to satisfy your unseemly curiosity, our first time was not all it ought to have been, at least not for her, as I was a green lad of seventeen, more keen on my own pleasures than hers."
"That is a fine recommendation, indeed! Why did you not tell me 'his sooner?"
she chided, breathing again into his ear, nipping unexpectedly. "I see I ought to have examined your credentials much more thoroughly, my lord husband" She gave a sudden squeal then, for e d rolled over on top of her, pinning her easily under the weight of his body.
"You can examine my credentials anytime you like," he offered gravely, "and as often as you like. My love, you're flying much higher an I first thought. Just how much wine did you have tonight?"

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She smiled up at him. "Oh, a lot! But it was not the wine. It is the mead that has suddenly gone to my head. I ought to have taken more care, but I did not yet know that things Welsh are so potent."
"Jesu," he said, very softly, "when I think of the three years that English whoreson kept us apart. . ."Kissing her before she could reply regretting the words as soon as they were uttered, for there was no room for three in a bed, and he'd not let Edward poison their pleasure again, not tonight. "I must be squashing you as flat as a water reed." Rolling over, he drew her down on top of him, marveling how soft her skin was. "You need not worry, cariad, for I'll do better by you than I did by little Melangell. There are some distinct advantages, you see, in wedding a man past his youth. A seasoned archer knows an arrow must be well aimed, slow and steady, taking his time, whilst a raw lad is so eager to shoot the arrow that he oft-times misfires, thinking speed is all that counts, when accuracy and endurance matter even more."
She didn't laugh, though. Reaching out, she caressed his face with her fingers. "Do not," she pleaded, "do not talk of all the time we've lost, for we can never get it back, never ..."
After that, it was quiet for a time, and as he stoked the fire higher between them, he realized that their pleasures were not going to be as prolonged as he'd hoped, for he was finding her to be too apt a pupil, eager to learn, able to excite him by her very innocence, her utter trust. "It is going to have to be soon, my love. I want you too much to hold back ..."
"Llewelyn . . ." As he raised his head from her breasts, she ensnared him with a long strand of her hair, trailing it across his chest and twining it about his throat. He thought it looked as if they were bound by a rope of flame, for wherever the candle's light touched her hair, it gleamed like gold, dark and lustrous. "Did you love her? Melangell?" she asked, very low, and he nodded.
"Yes," he said, "I did."
"Do you think you could love me?"
Her face was very still; she seemed utterly intent upon his answer. He gave the only one possible. "Yes," he said, "oh, yes," and she slid her arms up his back, keeping her eyes upon his face.
"Love me, then," she whispered. "Love me now."
LLEWELYN awoke sometime before dawn. The hearth fire still smoldered and a few candles still flickered, and through a crack in one of the shutters, he could see no trace yet of light. It took him several moments before he could slide out of bed, for they'd fallen asleep in each other s arms, and it was not easy to disengage himself, to avoid tugging up°n