The Conqueror (Hot Knights) (29 page)

“’Twould be a shame to waste such lovely hot water.”

He nodded. “In truth, it would.” He began to remove his clothes. Edeva’s breathing quickened as he pulled off his tunic and exposed his broad, muscular chest and beautiful shoulders. Her mouth went dry as he lowered his chausses and revealed his engorged, ruddy shaft. The memory of the first time she saw him naked flooded her mind. Even then, she had desired this man, this proud, formidable warrior.

Jobert grinned at her, then leaned down to unlace his crossgarters so he could take off his hose. “Now you,” he said when he was fully unclothed.

Edeva gathered up her skirts and pulled the loose gown over her head. She’d worn nothing underneath.

“Blessed Jesu,” Jobert breathed. He approached her and reached out to caress her breasts. “I’d forgotten how exquisite you are.”

“More beautiful than the women in London?” she teased. “Fairer than the Norman ladies in Caen?”

His answer was a kiss, long and deep. Then he drew away, his eyes glowing like emeralds. “Get into the tub,” he rasped, “lest we waste the water.”

“You mean to bathe me?”

“Among other things.”

Edeva climbed into the tub, feeling the steaming water heat her already blazing skin. “’Tis almost too hot,” she murmured, “but it feels good.” Jobert leaned over her and began to rub soap on her neck, then her shoulders and arms. His strong, callused fingers felt wonderful against her sensitive flesh. Her nipples thrust out, throbbing, aching. She thought of them filled with milk, for his babe.

She had not told him yet. The few private moments between them since the wedding had been taken up with kisses and caresses. She meant to give him the news after their lovemaking, to tell him he was to be a father by the end of next summer.

His hands dipped lower, to lather her breasts. Edeva leaned back and breathed deeply, feeling the hard ache of desire fill her. She did not know how long she could wait. Already she was near mindless with arousal and she had not even touched him yet.

“Stand up.”

Her legs felt unsteady beneath her as she stood in the tub. He knelt on the drying cloths on the floor and began to soap her lower body. He lathered her abdomen, dipped his fingers near her crotch, but not quite touching, then moved his hand in smooth strokes down her buttocks and legs.

At last his provoking fingers traced the line of her inner thigh, up, up...

She parted her legs, helpless to deny the longing to have him explore the throbbing tender core of her. Lavishly, he soaped her maiden’s hair, yet he did not part the folds of her swollen womanhood and offer her the soothing release she longed for.

Her whole body was afire as he stood up beside her, his eyes raking her body. “I’ll rinse you now.”

She suppressed a groan.

The much cooler water from the rinsing buckets poured over her, easing the worst of her sexual tension. Edeva took a deep breath, reminding herself that she was the one who had suggested the hot bathwater not be wasted.

She stepped out of the tub and into the warm drying cloth Jobert held. He drew her close a moment and kissed her. Wet and hungry, their mouths mated. Tongues probing, licking, lips nibbling and melding.

He released her and took a deep breath. “Mayhaps I could wait to bathe.”

“Nay, nay, ’twould be a waste.” The urgency of her passion had slackened, and now she was determined he would suffer the torture he had inflicted on her. “Get in the tub,” she ordered, “ere the water cools too much.”

He did so, and Edeva began her own tantalizing ministrations.

Soaping those broad shoulders, deliciously hard and smooth beneath her fingers. The sleek planes of his chest, with the soap making whorls in the coarse, reddish hair, under his arms and down their long, battle-scarred length. Then, exploring his belly, tracing the arrow of hair to within inches of his rigid shaft, which thrust upward in the eddies of soapy water.

Then she abandoned that tantalizing endeavor and turned her attention to his broad back. Massaging, rubbing, oh, so slowly smoothing the soap over his warm, firm skin.

She heard him half-groan, then his hand came up and grabbed hers. “Have pity, Edeva.”

He stood and turned toward her. “Touch me,” he whispered. “You know where.”

He released her and she reached for another handful of soap from the wooden bowl. Kneeling, she started at his knees and moved upwards. She soaped the front of his long thighs, pretending to be intent on her business and ignoring his prodigious erection. Then she moved her fingers upward, gliding them to the back of his thighs and the lower curve of his buttocks. “Turn around,” she whispered, “I think I missed a spot on your back.”

“Cruel wench,” he murmured. “Cruel, cruel.”

But he turned so she could do his backside. Edeva stood, and from behind him, brought her sudsy fingers around to enclose his shaft. She soaped him there with gentle, teasing strokes. He grew harder as she fondled him. When she cupped his testicles in her hand, he expelled a moan. “Rinse me, woman! I’ve had enough of your hellish torment!”

Giggling, Edeva drenched him with water from the buckets.

They stared at each other, water everywhere, beading on Jobert’s rosy skin and glinting in the firelight. The yearning inside Edeva swelled and deepened. Now they would be joined. His hard shaft filling her womanhood, soothing the ache and yet provoking her to even greater longing. Longing for that moment of completion when their bodies moved as one and they left the earthly realm for a more magical, splendid one.

“Lay on the bed,” he said.

The linen bedclothes felt cool and smooth against her damp skin. The sweet and wild scent of lavender and mint from the herbs she scattered among the covers rose to her nostrils. Jobert climbed on the bed and leaned over her. Edeva spread her thighs and smiled up at him.

“You think I will ease your misery?” he said. “Nay, I have other plans. A beautiful banquet you make, and I will feast.” His mouth came down on her trembling, still-damp skin as he kissed her neck and shoulders. Edeva arched her body, begging. Only slowly did he lick the swell of her breast and then bring his lips to suck one turgid nipple. She shuddered, helplessly caught in the net of sexual energy he wove around her. Her body writhed and she moaned and gasped.

He tasted the other aching point, drawing it into his mouth until she cried out.

“Your breasts seem fuller,” he said after a few moments of exquisite suckling. “Your nipples, a deeper pink.”

“’Tis you,” she whispered. “You have made me a shameless wanton and my body reveals my never-ending lust.”

“You are my wife now.” He fingered her breasts with a tender caress. “There is naught of shame in anything I do to you. And”—he smiled—”I can do anything I wish.”

“Ohhh,” she pleaded. “Please do it, do it now!”

“Patience, wench. We have all night.”

Edeva closed her eyes and clutched frantically at the bedclothes as his bedeviling mouth moved lower. She felt his hot breath on her belly, her woman’s mound. Flushed with embarrassment, she spread her thighs wider, beseeching him for mercy.

He blew on her, sending little curls of fire deep into her womb. Then his mouth descended.

She felt his hands kneading her bottom as his mouth urged her on. His tongue pacified the worst of her quivering need, and then his lips moved upward, exploring the kernel of exquisite pleasure hidden at the top of her cleft.

Mindless waves of sensation washed over her, punctuated by sparks of gleaming delight. The ripples went on and on, carrying her higher and higher...

She awoke from her dream of ecstasy to find her body heavy and sated, her thighs slick with the juices of her passion and Jobert smiling down at her.

“You are beautiful in your release,” he said. “And to think I could make you do that over and over...” He brought his hand to her still-throbbing womanhood. She shuddered, on the verge of beginning the wild journey yet again.

“What of you?” she said through dry lips. “How do you bear the waiting?”

“I am readying you for me. I am so big and hard now, I fear to tear you asunder if I do not ease my way.” He stroked her slippery folds. “Yea, now I think you can take me.”

“All of you,” she purred, “every beautiful inch.”

“Inch,” he said. “Such a delicious English word.”

He filled her deep. Stroking slowly, then with long, extravagant thrusts. Edeva found her peak... once... twice...

Then she let him turn her over and enter from behind, the pressure of him inside her so intense, she near fainted. But he played with her breasts and then her cleft as he pressed his shaft deep against her womb. Edeva’s body adjusted, the spirals of near unbearable pleasure spreading through her body and stretching her inner flesh to accommodate his hot length.

Rhythmically he moved, as they galloped madly to the stars.

“Satisfied?” Edeva asked as they lay side by side, savoring the musky afterglow of their love.

“For now.” He pushed a sweaty tendril of hair away from her face. “There are other things I would like to try.”

“Such as?” She raised herself to look at him, admiring his chiseled features and vivid, cat-like eyes, the long, beautiful length of his body.

“We’ve yet to taste the wine. I rather fancy trying it a new way.” He gazed pointedly at her body. “Licking it up instead of drinking it.”

A shudder of renewed heat shimmered down her body and her nipples grew hard. Would they ever get any sleep this night?

Jobert got up slowly and stretched. Edeva watched him go to the chests in the corner of the room, wondering what he was about.

He returned after a moment with a piece of cloth in his hand. Pausing by the bed, he unfolded the cloth. “I have a present for you. I bought it in Gloucester. You have so many jewels already. I was at a loss as what to give you. But the gold in this piece reminded me of the wonderful embroidery you fashion.” He held out a filigree brooch set with pearls, the delicate lines of it like the lacy petals of a flower.

“’Tis beautiful,” Edeva breathed, taking it in her hand. “I will cherish it forever.”

“A poor piece compared to the treasure store your father left you, but this is yours alone.”

She raised her gaze shyly to his. “I have not had time to purchase or sew anything special for you. But I do have a gift. I carry it close to my heart, where it will be safe.” She placed her hand on her stomach.

“Yea, your body is the most splendid gift any man could receive.”

She shook her head. “Not my body, but the precious thing it carries.”

He gazed at her, puzzled, then his eyes widened. “Do you mean... ?”

She nodded, beaming at him. “You noted that my form was changed. ’Tis your babe that changed it. Fortunately for you, you missed the mornings when I was crouched over the chamber pot, cursing you and your lust for doing this to me. Now, you have only to endure my body growing huge and ungainly.”

He leaned over and took her face in his hands. “You will always be beautiful to me, my sweet, my beloved Edeva.”

“T
hey’re here,” Payne shouted down from the gatetower. “The king’s banner has been sighted at the other end of the valley.”

Edeva drew a deep breath and then started toward the manor house. A dozen worries beset her. Would there be enough food for everyone? Would there be room for the royal assemblage to sleep comfortably? Enough fodder for their horses?

Jobert came up beside her, dressed in the green tunic she had made for him the previous winter. The front of it was embroidered with his new device—a golden lion
couchant
. She thought the graceful yet powerful image suited him perfectly.

“Jesu, did William have to pick the hottest day of summer?” he complained. “I am near roasting.”

“I keep thinking we have forgotten something.”

“All will be well.” He leaned down to kiss her. “You’ve been worrying over the details for a fortnight. Run and change now. I’m go out to greet the royal party. I don’t wish to return and find my wife in her work kirtle.”

Edeva nodded and continued toward the manor house. It had been rebuilt in stone the previous summer and now housed two upper chambers above the main hall. The finest one had been readied for the king. Edeva headed for the other one and stripped off her soiled gown. She put on a clean shift and over it, a deep blue kirtle embroidered with silver.

She wrapped her braids with blue ribbons to match her gown, then placed a thin blue veil over her hair and fastened it with a gold and pearl circlet. She started out the door, and then remembered her shoes. She quickly replaced her plain tan footwear with slippers of butter-colored leather. She feared they would get muddy when she went down to the grassy area near the river where the trestle tables had been set up, but she did not want to spoil the elegance of the rest of her attire. ’Twas not everyday the King of England came to visit!

The hall seemed oddly empty as she hurried through. Most of the servants would be in the kitchen shed putting the finishing touches on the feast to come. Two whole steers had been roasted in a firepit by the river. The rest of the meal—trout and eels boiled in butter, baskets of fresh bread, custards and cheeses made from the fresh milk of summer, the last of the fall’s apples baked with honey and cinnamon—would be prepared at the manor and carried down to the eating area.

As Edeva left the hall, Wulfget came rushing up. “I’m sorry, my lady. I turned my back only for a moment and he got into the tarts.”

Edeva stared with dismay at the fair-haired toddler Wulfget held. His chubby face and hands were smeared with crimson whortleberry juice. “Oh, William, what am I going to do with you?”

“Mama,” the child said and reached out for her, smiling broadly.

“Give him to me,” Eadelm offered. “I’ve not yet changed my clothes. I’ll get him washed up in time to meet his namesake.”

Wulfget handed the boy to the other woman, who carried the squirming toddler off to the cisterns.

Edeva felt a piercing tenderness as William waved merrily over Eadelm’s shoulder. Hard to imagine that he would be two years in another month. She’d almost stopped nursing him, what with the bounty of cow’s milk available in the summer, and she had hopes she would be expecting again soon. Mayhaps a girl this time.

“How are you feeling?” she asked Wulfget as the young woman pressed a hand to her lower back.

“Tired, as always, and hot. But Eadelm promises the babe has dropped and will come soon.”

Both of them looked at Wulfget’s rounded belly. “Are you afraid?” Edeva asked, remembering her own anxiety as her time neared.

“Nay, but Alan is terrified.” Wulfget laughed. “He is so serious, worrying over everything.”

“He dotes on you. I’m so pleased the two of you finally wed.”

Wulfget rolled her eyes. “I thought the fool would never ask.”

Edeva nodded, feeling a surge of satisfaction. Jobert had given Alan a small property farther down the river, and he and Wulfget lived in the manor house there, coming to Oxbury only for occasional visits. Although she and Alan still sometimes clashed, Edeva liked the stubborn knight and was pleased he had found happiness with gentle Wulfget.

There was the sound of horse hooves thundering across the new wooden bridge over the ditch. Edeva started toward the gate. She decided not to run, but to wait to greet them like a dignified chatelaine.

The royal party entered and Edeva saw Jobert riding beside the king. The two men dismounted and strode toward her. Edeva sank into a deep curtsy.

The king came and raised her. His face was coated with dust and he looked older and wearier than she remembered. “Lady Edeva, you are as beautiful as ever,” he said. “I see that you still find time to do embroidery.” He gestured to the elaborate design on her gown. “My Matilda still covets your skill. But we will speak of that later.”

With that enigmatic remark, the king turned away and began to converse with Jobert about the improvements made at Oxbury. Not only had the hall been rebuilt in stone, but the wooden palisade was replaced with a stone curtain wall and the ditch around it deepened. The bridge across it could be raised in case of attack.

“The defenses look excellent,” William was saying. “I wish I had more castles like this one and strong lords like you protecting my interests in other parts of the country. The southeast has been troublesome for two years now, and recently I’ve heard word of rebellion in Northumbria. What’s your secret, Brevrienne? The Saxons here appear to have accepted you as their overlord. How did you subdue them so effectively?”

Jobert grinned, looking at Edeva. “I did not subdue them, they subdued me.” His glanced back at the king. “In truth, I tried to convince them that they had more to gain from cooperating with me than fighting me. I am proud to say I have in my
mensie
a half-dozen Saxon warriors who have sworn to me and now defend Oxbury in my name. Edeva’s youngest brother is one of them. A likely youth. I think he will win his spurs someday and swear fealty to you, sire.”

Jobert caught Edeva’s eye. They had recently discussed the idea of having the king knight Alnoth. They had both agreed it was too soon, but that when the time came in the future, Jobert would take Alnoth to William and ask him to bestow the honor.

“This is all very well done, Brevrienne,” the king said. “But at this moment, it is your wife’s services I require. I would like to change from my traveling clothes ere we eat.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” Edeva said. “Let me escort you to the guest chamber. I have had water heated if you would like to bathe.”

“That sounds excellent,” the king said. “I would dearly like to wash off some of the good English soil covering me.”

As they passed through the hall, Edeva motioned to the stable boys tending the fire that they should carry the kettles of hot water up the stairs for the king’s bath. “I would be happy to bathe you, sire,” she told the king as they climbed the narrow stairs.

“Nay, that will not be necessary,” William said over his shoulder. “I will have my squire tend me. Although I know it is the custom for the lady of the household to fulfill the duty, I would not arouse my lady wife’s jealousy by risking that she might someday learn I had been alone with a woman as beauteous as you.”

William turned and winked at her, and Edeva suppressed a giggle. She had not expected the king to be so teasingly familiar. Pious and loyal to his marriage vows he might be, but the king was still a man!

* * *

Edeva sat in her place beside Jobert at the head table set up under the beech trees and reflected that the weather had favored them. The sun shone brilliantly in a cloudless blue sky. The knights, freemen and their women sitting at the tables out in the open would not get rained on. Nor would the villagers seated on the ground have to run to get their livestock in before a storm struck.

Everyone living in Oxbury and the surrounding hamlets had come for the feast, from the newest babies, cuddled at their mother’s breasts and passed around to be admired, to elders who could no longer walk and who had to be transported there in wheelbarrows or carts. Even old Helwenna had come. She sat propped against an old oak tree, complaining to everyone who would listen. Occasionally, Golde would go to tend the old woman, leaving behind her own one-year-old son, sitting on his proud papa’s lap.

Not long after Edeva had ordered Golde to go live with Helwenna, Hamo had come to Jobert and asked to wed the serving woman. He vowed that he could control Golde, and that once she was his wife, she would not pursue other men nor plot mischief. His authoritative attitude appeared to be exactly what Golde needed, for she had become a quiet, almost demure matron.

Or, it could be that a few weeks with Helwenna had taught Golde to appreciate her relatively comfortable existence as a respected knight’s wife. At any rate, Hamo and Golde seemed happy together, and they both delighted in “little Hamo.”

Edeva stifled a yawn. Birds twittered in the trees and bees hummed as they collected nectar from the buttercups, daisies and pink campion carpeting the ground around the banquet area. The lazy mood and fine red wine from Paris were making her sleepy. She barely followed Jobert’s conversation with the king until the name Valois came up.

“This time Robert was too reckless,” the king was saying. “When he dared to take advantage of my absence in Normandy to seize one of his neighbor’s castles, I had to punish him. I stripped him of Valachele and Mordeaux. He complained bitterly, of course, but I will not tolerate defiance of my orders.”

“What of his property in England?” Jobert asked.

“I have allowed him to keep the two minor fiefs in Hertfordshire, but I doubt he will ever see them. He has little use for England. I expect he maintains the property only for the sake of his grandson.”

“His grandson?” Jobert exclaimed. “I thought Damaris was in a convent!”

The king grew grim. “It seems she was with child when she entered St. Mary’s Priory. The boy was born soon after.” William frowned. “I thought you knew. I thought that was the reason Valois tried to kill you, because he blamed you for his daughter’s disgrace.”

“Upon my word, sire, I am not the father! Damaris and I shared no more than a kiss, and that years ago!”

“So you have said, and I always believed you. But some man sired a child off of her.”

Jobert looked at Edeva, and she read the confusion in his face. Was it possible that his sweet Damaris was not so innocent after all?

“But enough of this,” the king said, changing the subject. “I have a bargain to make you, or rather, to make with your wife.”

Edeva and Jobert both regarded the king warily.

“I have had my ministers review the lands seized from Saxon eorles who supported Harold,” the king said. “They came upon the name of Leowine as a property owner in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire as well as Wiltshire. I thought those other lands were forfeit because he fought me at Hastings. I have since discovered Leowine died at Stambridge. Under those circumstances, I can afford to be lenient. I intend to allow those properties to remain under the control of Leowine’s descendants.”

Edeva felt her flesh tingle. The king was offering her back her inheritance. But she knew him well enough to guess he did not do things out of simple benevolence. What did he want?

“Of course,” William added as he took another leisurely swallow of wine, “I would expect certain services to be rendered to me in return.”

The unease built inside Edeva as the king’s eyes focused on the embroidery edging the sleeve of Jobert’s tunic. “Your needlework is extraordinary, Lady Edeva. I have remarked on it several times, and I know my queen would think the same.” He raised his gaze to hers. “I would very much like you to join Matilda in Rouen and teach her ladies a little of your skill.”

“Rouen?” Edeva’s voice came out in a cracked whisper.

“’Tis not so far away as all that. And I would not expect you to be separated from your family. Jobert could come with you, and the child as well.”

“For how long?” Jobert asked. From his impassive expression, Edeva could read nothing.

“A few months. Mayhaps if you liked it, you could return again another time.”

Edeva slowly expelled the breath she had been holding. In exchange for a few months in Rouen, she would become one of the few Saxon landowners left in England, and likely the only female one. ’Twas a bargain indeed.

Jobert’s broad smile showed his own relief. He raised his goblet. “A toast, Your Highness, to the fair Edeva and her nimble fingers.”

The king smiled and raised his cup to clink with Jobert’s.

* * *

“Mayhaps I should not ask you to do things like this for me now that you have found such favor with the king,” Jobert teased as Edeva knelt to unfasten his crossgarters as they prepared for bed. “Surely your hands are too valuable to risk on such humble tasks.”

“You speak nonsense, milord. The most important duty of a Norman wife is to please her husband.”

“And you do please me. More than I can ever tell you.” He drew her up for a kiss and they lingered long, sampling the sweetness of their growing passion.

Jobert slipped his hands under her arms and began to undo her laces. “Mayhap we can conceive another child ere we leave for Rouen.”

“Mmmm. We can try, milord,” Edeva answered. “We can try very hard.”

The End

Dear Reader
,

The writer of tales set in Norman-Saxon times is fortunate to have a remarkable research tool at hand. It is the Domesday Book, a census of the property and people in England ordered by King William in the year 1086. The survey was accomplished twenty years after the Battle of Hastings and the original conquest of England. Detailing as it does not only how things were in 1086, but what is remembered of circumstances prior to the conquest, it reveals the full extent of Norman dominance over those decades.

There are few Saxon property owners listed, and most of those had ties to the Norman hierarchy prior to the conquest. Female names are also seldom encountered, although women property owners were once common. It appears English women lost significant power and status with the coming of the Normans.