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Judith shook her head, attempting to tell her mother she didn’t know Tristram as Judith herself now did, but Lady Fenice didn’t let her speak.
“Perchance I’m wrong. Yet have a care. It seems to me he likes to play games, that one. He’ll toy with you because this is how men of his sort are. And I do not want to see your heart broken and trampled upon.”
“But you are wrong. This is not Tristram!” Judith countered impassionedly.
Chapter 16
No matter how hard she tried to push them away, her mother’s words of warning still seemed to ring in Judith’s head even after she left the solar. When she reached the door of her bedchamber, she found that two serving women had just gone out of it, and they were both blushing and giggling. Judith entered the bedchamber with a puzzled look upon her face, only to find Tristram having a bath. She understood this might be the reason why the two serving women were behaving so, and a deep searing feeling of anger suddenly stirred within her.
She stared at Tristram, trying to hide her displeasure. He’d done nothing unseemly though. Both noble and serving women were required to attend to lords when they bathed, assisting them with soap and towels. So neither Tristram nor the serving women had done anything untoward. Or had they? Judith recalled the pretty blush in one of the serving women’s cheeks. The serving woman was indeed the most fetching woman in the castle, and most men here stared longingly after her.
At present, Tristram lay in his tub with his eyes closed and a look of contentment upon his face. Yet he soon opened his eyes, and smiled upon Judith.
“You’re here, I see. Perchance you care to join me in the tub, my lady? The water’s still warm.”
Judith had already noticed her husband was not shy at all about his nakedness, so she strived not to make much of it. She’d seen that Tristram was well used to bathing in front of the people who busied themselves about the chamber, not caring if they were male or female. However, by the way the serving women had acted, it seemedtheyhad most certainly cared to see their handsome lord naked.
“Oh¸ I see Ann’s fetched fresh towels and soap for you,” Judith now said, striving to make her voice light and speaking the name of the pretty serving wench.
“Is that her name?” Tristram said, and his voice sounded idle and unconcerned, but he was staring at her with dark eyes which were liquid and warm. “But won’t you join me, wife?” he added, letting his eyes unashamedly roam over Judith’s body.
“Ann, aye. Isn’t she pretty?” Judith found herself muttering, before she could bite back the words.
“Pretty? Aye, I guess,” Tristram said and his voice sounded just as idle and unconcerned as before.
He stared at Judith with ardent eyes, and heaved a sigh when Judith did not heed his invitation.
“Shy of me still, I see. You were not quite as shy earlier though,” he said softly, and Judith plainly recalled the heated kisses they’d shared in the hallway and the way she’d wantonly moaned when Tristram had unashamedly caressed her breasts with his practiced hands.
“Oh, never mind¸” Tristram said with a smile. “There’s plenty of time for you to let go of all your shyness. And many other things I can teach.”
His grin was rather wicked when he glanced at her, yet, before, when he’d been caressing her shamelessly, Judith had liked this wickedness, and he seemed to have already perceived it. It was plain he now wanted to lie with her, and it was what Judith also wanted. Yet at this time she felt her shyness fully return. It was clear he was skilled in bestowing caresses upon women. And she found herself simply wondering how many women he’d had. Beautiful women – just as her serving woman Ann was.
“Shall I fetch a fresh undertunic for you from your chest?” Judith asked, not knowing what to do with herself and seeing that Tristram had already stepped out of the bathtub and had begun drying himself with a linen towel.
“Aye, if you please,” Tristram called to her as he began attending to his damp hair.
Judith strode to the other end of the chamber, then opened Tristram’s chest of garments. She meant to look for a clean shirt he could wear to sleep in, because it was early spring and the chamber was quite chilly. Redmore was made mostly of stone and not of timber.
When she opened her husband’s garment chest, Judith’s eyes were drawn by a kerchief which lay on top of his clothes. It was very pretty, with the letter B embroidered upon it with a flourish. On it lay a dainty rosary and the pressed white flower of a briar rose. Judith couldn’t help but stare, because it was a lady’s rosary and because the flower looked very much like the love tokens knights at Court kept from their ladies. And the kerchief also looked very much like the tokens lovers exchanged at times.
She lingered for a while, not knowing what to make of what she was seeing, and she was roused only by Tristram’s voice at last asking her if she’d been able to find the thing she’d been searching for. Hastily, Judith fetched a clean undertunic from the chest, closing its lid with a thump. She soon went to Tristram and handed it to him, attempting to stare away from his beautiful nakedness. Tristram cast her a searching look, and slipped the long tunic on with a small sigh.
“There. Better?” he asked, now cupping her cheek.
Judith nodded mutely. She couldn’t tell him it was not because she was shy that she so often averted her eyes from his nakedness. It was not shyness, but deep, scorching lust that prompted her to look away from him more often than not.
Tristram’s long, elegant fingers were now tracing the curve of her cheek.
“We’ll go slow. And gently… Aye?” he said softly, and soon bent to capture her lips in a tender, lingering kiss.
Before, on the stairs and in the hallway, he’d been kissing her ardently and boldly, but now he made his kiss teasing and practiced. And, unwittingly, Judith found herself wondering again how many women he’d kissed this way. Tristram must have sensed she was not responding to his kiss, because he soon broke it. He took her hand in his and led her gently to the bed, making her sit on it.
“What is it?” he asked in a warm voice, seating himself by her side and looking at her with searching eyes.
“Nothing,” Judith lied hastily, knowing her cheeks were quite flushed.
“Nay,” Tristram countered in a knowing voice. “Something, for certain. I wonder how I can make it better. Perchance you wish to play a game?”
