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And now, as the wedding attendants had blissfully left, she was alone with Tristram, and they were both naked. She blushed fiercely, knowing full well he was utterly beautiful and she was only plain, and he must have certainly already perceived that. Frantically, she searched for the shift her attendants had removed during the bedding ceremony. She spotted it at last. It had been discarded on the floor, and now it lay at Tristram’s feet. And Tristram simply bent to pick it up and handed it wordlessly to her. Judith hastily slipped into it, knowing he needn’t have her fully naked in order to do the deed he had to do tonight. And perhaps Tristram didn’t care to see her naked. He’d been, she was certain, already used to bedding women who must have been far more comely than she was.
Tristram picked up his own discarded fur-lined robe and put it on, which caused her to suppress a sigh of sheer regret.
“Some wine, my lady?” he asked courteously, going to fetch the pitcher and goblets the wedding attendants had brought for them.
Judith nodded in some relief. She didn’t know what to do with herself, so drinking wine would keep her busy for a while.
“Perchance our wedding was too sudden,” Tristram said abruptly as he took a sip from his own goblet of wine. “I wished for a long betrothal, but your father prevailed upon me for an early wedding, telling me you were not adverse to it.”
Judith widened her eyes. She’d had a chance to glance upon Tristram in the two weeks which had led to the wedding. But during those occasions she’d had the opportunity to be with him, she’d been hardly able to open her mouth, because his presence nearly always reduced her to a loss of words. Judith was shy, but she’d never been this tongue-tied. Whenever Tristram had spoken to her, she’d nodded eagerly to whatever he’d been saying, unable to refrain from staring at him with wide eyes and a tremulous smile, which must have made her look like a lovesick simpleton. Was it love, this childish fancy she felt whenever she glanced upon Tristram de Brunne? Was it plain, sinful lust? Both at the same time?
Tristram sighed.
“It all has been too hasty, hasn’t it? You see, I…”
He paused, as if at a loss for words, which was strange, because she’d never known Tristram de Brunne to lack for words. He was the best-spoken lord she’d ever met, and one of those men who never talked down to women. She’d been aware of that as soon as she’d met him. Unlike her father or other lords and knights of her acquaintance, it seemed he had the patience to listen closely whenever women spoke. It was a rare virtue for a man to have.
Tristram suddenly smiled.
“Yet you so eagerly saidayewhen I asked you plainly if you would have me!”
Judith frowned, striving to recall him ever having asked the question, and simply failing. It must have been that first day when he’d come to call upon her after her father had told her of his plans. She’d been in such turmoil that she’d been able to focus just on the music of his voice as he’d spoken, eagerly agreeing from time to time to whatever he had to say. She had been loath to betray she was unable to even make sense of what he’d been saying. He’d tried to coax her to talk to him, but all she’d managed had been acquiescent responses to all his attempts to engage her in conversation.
Tristram must have noted the dismay in her eyes, because he hurried to say, “Nevertheless, things have been far too hasty. And you need more time to get accustomed to me. Rest assured, my lady, I will not press upon you to surrender your maidenhead tonight. We’ll take things slowly. There’s time enough to learn each other’s ways and bodies.”
Judith felt deep relief mixed with strange disappointment. Yet it was best this way. Her new lord had given her a reprieve, and that was certainly gracious of him.
“Aye, husband,” she muttered dumbly, as always not knowing what to say in his presence.
“I like the way the wordhusbandsounds upon your lips,” he told her, and his warm smile reached his sinfully dark eyes, as he gently took her hand in his.
Judith’s heart started thumping wildly. Why was it that it was to this very man, the only one who made her heart race like mad, that she’d gotten married? He unsettled her far too much.
“And will you now call me by my name?” Tristram asked in that voice of his which had sweet music in it.
“What? Tristram?” she whispered.
“Mm,” he acquiesced, as his hand slowly began to caress her palm and fingers.
Judith had never known that such a simple, seemingly innocent caress could feel so hot, and she bit her lip in sheer surprise. And Tristram mistook her surprise for shock, because he swiftly withdrew his hand.
“Let us just talk tonight,” he said with a soothing smile. “I like to hear your voice.”
As always, Judith had agreed to what he said, and they had started talking. He’d asked her more of her home and had told her of his in exchange, and Judith had gradually begun to feel less tongue-tied in his presence. And she’d told him of Redmore, and of how much she cared for her home and for her people and for the hills and moorland she loved to roam, coming to understand Tristram was indeed one of those rare men who knew how to listen, not only how to talk.
Chapter 6
Present time, 1174
In her bedchamber, Judith stirred from her memories at the sound of Tristram’s voice. Tristram’s voice, which had always been gentle and soft in her memories, was now simply hard and flinty. A beautiful voice still, even in its flintiness.
“Come here, wife,” Tristram said patting his lap, and there was no doubt in Judith’s mind concerning what he meant to do.
She heaved a heartfelt sigh, but obeyed his command, because it was true she now lived on his sufferance.
He hoisted her skirts to look upon her and Judith blushed scarlet as he did so. She knew her bottom was still striped with pink, but as evening had neared, it had begun to smart less fiercely than it had this morning after his ministrations. She sighed again, fully knowing that this blissful state wouldn’t last long because her now stern husband meant to chastise her, just as he’d promised.
“Still sore, wife?” he asked in a soft voice, as he was sliding his calloused palm over the skin of her bare bottom and thighs.
