Page 87
She wrapped her arms around him, or tried to at least, as the final pulses of pleasure ebbed away.
“I never want to move,” she said.
In response, he did move, just slightly. Idalia sighed.
“More than pleasant?” He lifted his head.
“Much more.”
She looked into his eyes then, knowing there was still much that troubled him. But at this moment, her blacksmith was content.
“I love you,” she said, aware she’d not said the words aloud before.
She was about to say more when an insistent knock on the door startled them both.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Lance said, pulling away, “before I die.”
Idalia wanted to reassure him otherwise, but as she scrambled to dress, she feared his assessment might be quite accurate.
Chapter 29
He’d had a good life. Finding Idalia, falling in love . . . it was more than he’d ever hoped for. As he reached for the iron handle of Lord Stanton’s solar, a fine piece of craftsmanship, Lance resigned himself to the fact that this may very well be it for him.
Not that he blamed the earl.
If he had a daughter and a man who was not her husband snuck into her bedchamber and took her virginity, he’d likely kill the fool too.
The poor maid. Leana had been mortified to fetch him in Idalia’s bedchamber, knowing where he would be found.
The earl had bade her fetch him, saying he wished to speak to him immediately.
“Good eve, my lord,” he said, admiring how well lit the chamber was compared to the dark corridors. There were at least ten wall torches bracketed around the ceiling of the circular room.
“I am in here often,” he said by way of explanation for the lighting. He gestured for Lance to take a seat. “Even at night.”
“You wished to see me?”
He didn’t look like a man who was about to end his life, but Lance knew better than to trust appearances.
“I apologize for the hour. But we have much to discuss.”
“Indeed.”
So he had not brought him here to kill him? Or to toss him in Stanton’s dungeons?
Perhaps he didn’t know after all.
“You will be wed to my daughter, then?”
They’d not actually discussed the wedding, but after this night, it was a certain outcome.
“Aye, my lord.”
“There is the matter of her dowry.”
“I do not expect her to have one, my lord. I bring little enough to this union, as you are aware.”
Stanton sat back in his chair, pointing to the pitcher in front of him.
