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“You wish me to leave my home?”
Tristram understood he may have erred in telling her of this so soon.
“Not now. Think upon it. I cannot stay forever at Redmore,” he told her.
“You’ve been here for but two weeks,” Judith countered, and for the first time since he’d known her, that sweet voice of hers sounded sharp.
He sighed.
“Aye, and I shall stay longer, yet we need to speak of this. Devensey is my true home.”
“And Redmore is mine,” she countered in the same sharp voice as before.
“You are my wife now. And…” he said in a placating voice.
Judith cut him off. “I expect the next thing you’ll say is that I am bound to obey you in every way and follow you wherever you go,” she flung at him and her voice sounded even sharper.
Tristram suddenly felt at the end of his tether. And he didn’t fail to recall the cold way she’d behaved towards him and how she’d rebuffed his attempts to mend things.
“You are indeed my wife now,” he said in a voice which must have sounded high and angry. “And, aye, as my wife it is your duty to be by my side!”
“What of yours?” Judith countered.
He frowned at her, not understanding what she meant. Certainly, he had his own duties towards her just as she had hers towards him. Why was she bringing this up now as if he’d done a grievous thing? He had already begged her forgiveness for how he’d behaved, and it now seemed to him she was making far too much of his mistake. They were married after all. And he had not pressed her to share his bed, although, he knew only too well, most men of his acquaintance would not have cared to behave as courteously as he had.
He sighed, because, in truth, those men he thought about were the very same men, who, as boys, had called his friend Bertran a bastard and Tristram himself a weakling. And he should never strive to compare himself to them.
“What is it that you wish from me?” he asked his wife in plain weariness. “I do not understand you. I do not know what you expect me to say or do. We’re married now. You seemed to like being by my side before. And now you shun me. We have a life ahead to share. It seems to me we should be able to speak plainly.”
Judith looked at him and opened her mouth to speak, yet she then shook her head. Soon a look of longing and regret appeared upon her face. She sighed with a rueful smile and touched his shoulder gently.
“Forgive me. I-it’s silly. We’ve been so long apart. I thought… Oh, never mind what I thought! I suppose I was afraid you’d downright forgotten me. While I-I thought only of you!”
Her voice was just as sweet as he recalled it, and his heart thumped fiercely in his chest. He kissed her tenderly, mindful of not being as ardent as he’d been with her before, but soon coming to understand Judith was not averse to being touched more ardently. She pressed herself against him in undisguised passion, and Tristram came to understand she had not deceived him and that it hadn’t been his eager caresses which had made her upset.
“I also thought of you!” he told her, loath to break the kiss. “We’re in agreement then. So why was it we argued?”
Judith heaved a deep sigh, pressing herself even more tightly against him, and causing Tristram to hardly wait for the time to seek their bedchamber.
“I wasn’t behaving like a good wife should. You’re right. I should join you at Devensey. But Tristram, my mother may not ever be able to leave Redmore! Besides, it’s always been my home. That was why I spoke to you so sharply. It’s hard for me to envisage myself in another home. Yet you are right. We’re married now, and my place is by your side.”
“Rest assured, I shall never ask you to part from your mother!” Tristram hurried to say. “As for Redmore…”
He held Judith tight against him, recalling all the stories she’d told him of her home in the first days of their marriage. Beautiful stories, which had seemed like fairy tales to him. The way Judith had always spoken of Redmore, it seemed she loved it deeply, perchance even more deeply than he loved Devensey.
“Perhaps,” he said, now fully brightening, “we might also find ourselves in agreement upon this. You needn’t leave your beloved home for all times. What if we both spent every other year at Redmore and every other year at Devensey? Both are fine demesnes, and perchance things would be better because we’d get to properly oversee both homes in turn.”
Judith beamed at him, and she suddenly looked so relieved that he felt the need to caution her, “Have a care though. While I am needed at Court or on the battlefield, it will come only upon you to bear the burden of both our homes. Still, I hope in time things would be less tempestuous at Henry’s court. I am weary of it and do not seek vain glory on the battlefield.”
“Henry’s still feuding against his queen and sons?” Judith asked with a sudden frown.
“Or better say, Queen Eleanor and her sons are still feuding against Henry,” Tristram countered with a frown of his own, because he’d always been loyal to Henry.
“Yet Eleanor is a far greater ruler than her husband!” Judith said quite pointedly.
He stared at her, stunned.
“You truly believe so? With a king like Henry?”
