Ruby - Book 1 (Daughters of the Dagger Series) (10 page)

“Now stand up and let’s remove those
undergarments as your husband will be here at any moment,” ordered
Ascilia.

“Nay,” she said, clutching her hand to her
shift as the handmaid reached forward. “I don’t think I want to bed
him. I’m afraid. Does it hurt?”

“Worse than you’ll ever know,” said the
woman. “Especially if you think tangled hair hurts. I thought I
heard he chose you because you were strong and could take care of
yourself.”

“Who told you that?”

“I heard it from the chambermaid who heard
it from the steward who heard it from Lord Sheffield’s squire
himself.”

“Oh. Word travels fast, I see. And aye, I
can take care of myself.”

“You don’t act like it. Now let’s see what
you have to offer him on his wedding night, and I can only hope you
won’t disappoint him.”

“Disappoint him?” Ruby hadn’t even
considered that Nyle might be disappointed. She didn’t like to
think that she would not please him between the sheets. This only
made her anxiety even worse.

Before Ruby could stop her, the woman had
pulled off her shift and she stood there in only her braies and
hose.

“Not as large as Lady Jocelyn’s breasts,”
she said, reaching out and weighing Ruby’s breasts in her hands as
if she were doing naught but checking the firmness of a melon at
the market. “Lord Nyle likes his women with a much bigger buxom,
this will never do.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, looking down
at her breasts, never having considered herself small, though she
knew her sister Sapphire was much more endowed than she. “I can’t
help how I look,” she said in her own defense.

Ruby used her arms to cover her breasts
before the woman touched her again. Oralie had never done anything
like this to her before. But then again, Ruby had never been in the
position of being prepared for a wedding bed, so she knew not if
this was truly the process.

“Let’s see what lies below the waist.” She
pulled down Ruby’s braies so fast that it almost knocked her over.
She untied the hose that were secured to it and pulled them from
her legs as well.

“Hmm. Lord Sheffield likes his women tight,”
she told her. Before Ruby knew what was happening, the woman
reached out for her womanhood, her finger reaching forward.

Stop it!” Ruby had had enough, and no longer
cared if this was custom or not, she didn’t like it. She pushed the
woman backward, causing her to stumble and land against the bed.
Her long sleeves rode up a little and she noticed a strawberry
birthmark on the inside of her right arm. She also noticed that
while the woman talked in a crackly voice and had ebony hair that
was greying as well as strange wrinkles on her burn-scarred face,
her arms looked strong and firm and her hands had no wrinkles that
she could see.

“How did you get those burn marks on your
face?” she asked suspiciously. “And why are you not with this Lady
Jocelyn, wherever she may be?”

The woman looked at her curiously, then
pushed herself up from the bed and wandered over to the night table
that held her dagger. She spoke to Ruby without turning around.

“Lady Jocelyn dismissed me the night I fell
into the fire having fallen asleep at the hearth. No one wants a
woman who is disfigured by burn and scars. Please don’t dismiss me,
Lady Ruby, as I feel as if I am not wanted anywhere.”

Ruby’s heart went out to the woman and
though she really didn’t like the way she’d been treated by her,
she didn’t want to turn her away in her time of need. She couldn’t
even imagine how it felt to be disfigured, and decided the reason
her face had wrinkles and not her arms was because of the awful
burns.

“Of course not,” she told Ascilia from
across the room. “I wouldn’t think of dismissing you, so wipe the
thought from your mind.”

“Thank you so much, my lady,” she said
lowering her head as if mayhap she were crying. Her back was still
toward Ruby. “I only mean to help you.”

“Of course you do,” she answered.

“And that is why I must tell you that you
shouldn’t couple with Lord Sheffield.”

“Why not?” Ruby asked curiously wondering
what the woman knew about the man she’d just married.

Ascilia turned her head slightly and spoke
in a soft voice over her shoulder. “He doesn’t love you.”

“I know he doesn’t love me, nor do I love
him. It doesn’t matter. Love has naught to do with a marriage.”

“He only wants you for one reason.”

“I know. For me to bear him children. Just
like any man.”

“Nay. To take care of the child he already
has.”

“I know not of what you speak. He has
mentioned no such child, nor have I yet to see one.” She wanted to
find out more from this mysterious woman, but just then the latch
on the door moved and she knew someone was about to enter. “It’s
him!” Ruby dove to the bed and slipped under the covers quickly to
hide her nudity. Ascilia just stood with her back toward her, still
facing the bedside table.

As the door opened, the sound of raucous
laughter was heard and to Ruby’s horror, Nyle walked into the room
followed by several of his knights as well as the chaplain.

“My lord!” she called out. “Do not let those
men into our wedding chamber.”

“’Tis custom, my dear,” said Ascilia,
straightening her gown and fussing with her sleeves as she turned
around. “It is customary for the wedding penetration to be
witnessed by many, in order to prove you are a virgin.”

“I am a virgin!” she cried out. “Lord Nyle,
please. There is no need for anyone to watch. Please remove the men
from the chamber at once.”

Nyle stopped in the doorway across the room,
a tankard of ale in his hand as he spoke. “Are you telling me that
you no longer want to do this the proper way?” he asked. “After
all, I know how upset you were when I didn’t post the wedding bans
as was proper.”

“I don’t care about being proper. I will not
couple with you with others watching.”

“Go on, men,” he said shoving the tankard of
ale into one of his knight’s hands, then turning and closing the
door. There were many groans and protests from behind it.

“I will stay and witness the penetration,”
offered Ascilia, her head down, the wimple covering her face as she
spoke.

Ruby’s body stiffened beneath the covers.
She was sure if Ascilia was allowed to stay she would probably be
reaching between them and joining in on the coupling. She was only
too relieved to hear Lord Nyle’s answer.

“Nay, you will leave as well. This is our
wedding night and I don’t want anyone else present, so go.”

“Of course, my lord,” she said and hurried
out the door.

Once she’d gone, Nyle walked slowly toward
the bed. Ruby felt her heart beating wildly and she couldn’t stop
thinking about everything the handmaiden had told her.

He reached down to his belt and undid it
slowly, all the while his eyes being fastened to her. Next he
slipped it from his waist and reached over to place it as well as
his sword on the chair next to the bed.

“So, are you ready to consummate our
marriage my little spitfire?” His hooded eyes held lust, she was
sure of it. And she was sitting naked with only a thin coverlet
between them.

“Is that what you said to all your wives
before you bedded each of them? After all, you seem to make this a
habit by taking a new wife to your bed every few days.” She knew
she shouldn’t be baiting him at a time like this and when she was
so vulnerable, but yet it bothered her at how many women this man
had had, and she felt like naught more than just another notch on
his sword.

“’Tis not every few days,” he said, pulling
his tunic over his head. He threw it atop her things on the bedside
table. Her eyes scanned his strong chest and muscled arms and she
licked her dry lips wondering how he would feel beneath her
fingers. “And for your information, I’ve been married thrice before
this in a matter of months but each of my wives died before I had
the chance to ever consummate the marriage.”

“Seriously?” she asked in disbelief. “So you
mean to say – you were married, but not really married since you
never bedded a one of them?”

“I guess you could say that.” He reached
down and removed his shoes and hose as he spoke. “They were each
murdered before we could couple. Actually, I was rather surprised
to see you still alive when I entered the room. I purposely came
quickly before you had a chance to die.”

“Well, wasn’t that nice of you,” she said,
hearing her own sarcasm dripping from her lips. “After all, I
wouldn’t want to disappoint you by ending up –” She stopped her
words in midsentence as she watched him pull off his braies and
stand before her straight as an arrow. She’d seen animals in her
father’s courtyard mating, but never had she seen a fully aroused
man. ’Twas truly an amazing site.

“Can’t take your eyes off me, can you, my
little gem?”

“I . . . I . . .” She didn’t know how to
answer.

He pulled back the corner of the coverlet
with one hand and kneeled one leg on the bed. He leaned forward,
his long hair unbound and hanging around him tickling her skin as
he positioned himself above her and touched her cheek gently with
his hand, lowering his mouth to hers in an unbridled kiss. She felt
a shiver of delight wrack her body as his satiny lips released hers
and his mouth pulled at her bottom lip in the process. It was an
erotic move and she liked it, though she never thought she
would.

He seemed to free inside her a bursting of
emotions from just one kiss. Then he let his mouth skim down her
neck, kissing a trail to the hollow of her collarbone as he came
very near to her hidden breasts.

“I don’t love you,” she blurted out, trying
to stall for time as she didn’t know what to do and was afraid she
might displease him. “And I know you don’t love me.”

“And is there a problem with that?” His
fingers gently pulled her tight fist apart and she released the
coverlet she was clutching to her chest. Then he rubbed his hands
over her shoulders and slowly trailed the tips of his fingers down
her chest, cupping her breasts in the process.

Her breathing deepened and her chest rose.
His hands were strong, yet gentle and he sent a shiver through her
as he grazed his thumbs past her nipples causing her body to go
taut in his hands. He lowered his mouth to one nipple, sucking
gently and nipping playfully as it turned into a rigid peak. She
involuntarily arched her back, gripping at his long hair, pushing
herself further into his mouth. She didn’t know what was happening
to her. She felt warmth between her thighs and a wetness there as
well. Her body was responding to his touch and she never in her
wildest dreams thought the act of coupling would make her feel this
way.

“So are my breasts too small for your
liking?” She had to know, after what the handmaid told her.

“Nay, they are perfect,” he replied. Slowly,
his hands slipped downward past her waist, his fingers caressing
the outside of her thighs. Then one hand settled atop her
womanhood, causing her to squirm beneath him. She gasped when she
felt him fondle her there, and when his finger slipped gently
inside she found herself parting her legs further for him, liking
the way it felt to have him inside her body. She became alive under
his touch and found herself accepting his advances toward her as
she responded to the seduction of his passion.

“So am I tight enough for you?” she asked,
thinking of what Ascilia had said once again.

“Very much so,” he said with a slight
chuckle, placing his leg over her, settling himself atop. She felt
his hardened form stretching against her body. Then he tested her
readiness first with his hand and then rubbed his manhood against
her. He was satin over steel and excitement coursed through her as
she could think of naught else but coupling with this handsome and
very experienced man.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered
into her ear, his tongue flicking out playfully, causing a
delicious shiver of anticipation to overtake her. He knew how to
excite her in ways that she’d never imagined. She found herself
liking her new husband in bed more than she thought she ever
would.

“You won’t hurt me,” she said. “As I feel my
body calling for you and a burning desire between my thighs that is
causing me to go mad. I have never known this feeling before.”

“Never?” he asked, with a raised brow.

She smiled, as he was wise to the ways of a
young woman who had to please herself if she didn’t have a man.
“Never with any man, and to this extreme,” she said, finding
herself lifting her legs around his waist, urging him to enter.

“I know we are married, Ruby, but I also
know how much you despise me. If you don’t want me to continue, I
will stop right now.”

“But then our marriage won’t be
consummated,” she told him.

“Nay. But I rushed you into marriage and I
won’t rush you again into coupling if you don’t want to do it.”

“Now’s a fine time to tell me,” she said
with a smile. “I don’t think you’d be able to pull away if I said
to stop.”

The muscles in his arms stiffened and turned
rock hard. She knew she was teasing him, but still she wanted to
know how he would answer.

“Is that really what you want?” he asked,
all the while in position to couple. All he had to do was thrust
forward and the marriage would be consummated.

“Perhaps,” she said playfully and watched a
cloud of disappointment cover his face. She heard him let out a
deep sigh, and he rolled off of her to the side.

“What are you doing?” she cried out, not
thinking he would really pull away right now.

“I told you, Ruby, I want you to agree to
this coupling or I will not do it. You are my wife now and though I
have every right to claim you, I cannot bring myself to do it if
you don’t agree. Not after what I put you through lately by taking
you from your home against your will and denying you a proper
marriage or to have your family present.”