By Arrangement (38 page)

He knew his limits but she did not. As he neared them he reached down and slid his fingers along the cleft of her bottom.

She groaned and shifted and accepted his touch. He rearranged their bodies so that his mouth could reach her. Bracing himself for control, he let them share the ecstatic pleasure a while longer as he brought her as far as she had him, to the very edge. Finally it was too much for them both and she sensed it. She released him and turned toward him and as she did he lifted her body and brought her down straddling his hips.

For an instant she seemed surprised to find herself there. Then wordlessly, instinctively, she rose up and took him into herself.

His sigh met hers in the space between them. She closed her eyes at the sensation, then slowly rose and lowered again.

Passion veiled her eyes when she opened them. She moved again and sighed. “This is incredible, David.”

He reached up and caressed her breasts so she could see just how incredible it could be. He rubbed the taut nipples between his fingers. Her head fell back and she lolled sensually into a wonderful rhythm as she repeatedly drew him into her tight warmth and released him. Enhanced by abstinence and love, the pleasure moved him in ways he had never known.

He pulled her down toward him.

“Come up to me. Move forward a bit,” he instructed.

She slid up but halted. “I will lose—”

“You will not. Come up to me.”

She lowered and he eased her forward until he could take her breast in his mouth. She hovered above him breathlessly, her body barely still joined to his. He felt her grasping to absorb more of him, driving him mad with the mutual caress they created.

“David,” she gasped, her body shaking from the combination of tantalizing pleasures at her breast and between her legs. He stroked her back down to its lowest curve and continued to arouse her breasts. He felt the first deep tremor and knew what it meant even if she did not.

“David,” she cried again, frantically this time.

He released her and she slammed down on him with a needful cry. Burying her face in his chest, she moved hard again.

“Aye, it can happen thus, too,” he reassured her, and
he held her hips firmly and took over and helped her find that different, more elusive fulfillment.

He had never seen a woman reach such a violent and complete release. Wonder, desire, and love echoed through her cries. She kissed him ferociously and gazed into his eyes as her passion peaked and her open acceptance of the magic made the intimacy fuse their souls as it always had. Her whole being seemed to fold in on itself, taking his own essence to its burning center, before flying out in all directions. At the end she rose up in a magnificent display of sensual ecstasy as she cried her abandon. Their mutual fulfillment momentarily obliterated time and space and consciousness.

She collapsed on him and he floated with her in their unity. Her love awed him and filled him with its innocent peace and grace. The hungry and needful response of his own soul astonished him.

Her face lay buried near his neck.

“Do you think anyone heard us?”

“Us?”

She giggled and playfully swatted his chest. “All right.
Me
?”

He thought about the open window and the silent city night. The whole household and half of Caen had probably heard her. So much for pretending that they were not content together.

It would not matter now. If the Comte thought to use her in that way, he would have already come for them both.

“I am sure that no one heard, darling.”

She moved and settled down next to him. He had never known such peace and contentment, and he let himself savor it, knowing it would not last long and might never come again.

He probably should have told her everything.

Eventually he would have to. This love would not permit long deceptions, even for her sake.

“Have you ever been there?” she asked. “To Senlis?”

“Twice. The first time some years ago, and then again recently.”

“Did you go inside?”

“Aye. The Comte was not there, and I entered as a traveling merchant with luxuries to sell. No one will remember. The vanities absorbed the women, not me.”

“Do you want it? Senlis?”

“Who would not?”

She rose up and looked in his eyes. “
Yo u
might not.”

All the same, a choice awaited. “It is your fate that I decide as well as my own. I would know your will in this.”

“I would have you with me forever, alive and whole. That is all that really matters to me, but I know that you will not make your choice for your own safety, and I will not ask it of you. As to the rest, there is no clear right and wrong here, is there? Both hold some pain and betrayal. England and France both have a claim on you. Both men, Edward and Theobald, deserve your loyalty.” She paused, considering the dilemma. “I think that you should choose the life that you were born to live, whichever you think it was.”

To the heart of things. Life with her would be fascinating.

“And what about you, Christiana? What about the life that you were born to live?”

She smiled and rested her face against his chest. “I was born to marry a nobleman, David. And you have always been one of the noblest men I have ever known.”

CHAPTER 21

C
HRISTIANA AWOKE
TO an empty bed and the early morning light streaming in the chamber's window. The mellow memories of the night vanished at once. She rose and quickly dressed.

He was meeting with them now. It was being done. She could not pray for one outcome or another, even though she knew which she would prefer. He could give them the port, become the heir to Senlis, and live the life that few men had. Or he could refuse, be deprived of his old life but not given a new one, and maybe be killed. Not much of a choice to her mind, nor, she hoped, to his either. All the same, despite the status of Senlis and all that it entailed, she did not look forward with any enthusiasm to living in that strange place so far from home.

She paced the room but the confined space only increased her worry. She left the chamber and sought the stairs that led to the flat roof of this tall building with its many chambers for sleeping and storage.

Tubs of summer flowers and vines dotted the roof. As
she stepped out onto it she heard the sounds of activity floating up from the city below. The usual drone of commerce and movement had been replaced by a din of wagons and horses and men shouting orders.

David stood by the low wall surrounding the roof, looking down into the city streets to the west. Another man of middle years with a thick build and long brown hair watched beside him.

David turned and noticed her. He held out his hand.

“My lord, this is my wife, Christiana Fitzwaryn. This is the Constable d'Eu, darling.”

Christiana met the inspecting gaze of the chief military leader of France.

“I am Theobald's cousin, my lady, and so a kin of your husband's.” He glanced at David. “The daughter of Hugh Fitzwaryn, no less. You did well for Senlis. Theobald is pleased that your wife brings such blood to the family.”

Christiana stepped to the wall beside David. In the streets beyond, she could see the feverish activities of an army preparing to move.

It was done, then. She glanced at David's impassive face.

“My lady, your husband will be staying here in Caen,” the constable said.

She looked from one man to the other. Something was wrong. She could feel it.

“Are you saying that I am still a prisoner?” she asked.

“You are free to go. I will arrange an escort to take you to Senlis.”

“Then my husband is now a prisoner?”

“A guest. Until the English land. He can join you then. He is not trained in warfare, and this battle is not his.”

“I would prefer to stay with my husband.”

The constable looked at David. David didn't react at all. The older man smiled. “As you wish,” he said, and he turned away and walked across the roof to the stairs.

She waited until he had gone.

“Why must you stay here, David?”

“He does not trust me. He fears that I have lied to them. But your choice to stay with me has reassured him a little.”

“But why keep you here if the army moves?”

“Theobald will take the army. He has already left the house. But the constable has decided to remain in Caen with a small force, to be available in case Edward comes a different way. The King's chamberlain is here, too. He agreed that this would be wise.”

“And your uncle agreed to this?”

“Even the Comte de Senlis does not stand against the constable and chamberlain of France. Theobald wanted me with him, so that I could see the glorious French victory that I have helped bring about. The constable insisted that I stay with him here, however, so that he would have me at his disposal if I betrayed them in some way. He thinks that I might steal away from the army during its march, or that, if it came to it, Theobald would not take vengeance on his heir.” He smiled. “The constable does not know his cousin very well.”

He embraced her and placed his cheek against her hair. He still looked down into the city. She felt conflicting emotions in him and wished that she could say something to comfort him. This decision had not been an easy one, no matter what prize it brought.

“Why doesn't the constable trust you? Surely the logic of your choice should be clear to him. It is the decision any man would have made, and there will even be English knights and lords who recognize the fairness of it.”

“He explained it to me just now. Almost apologized. It seems that if I were a knight, he would have no doubts about me. It is the fact that I am a merchant, and a London merchant at that, which gives him pause.”

“That is outrageous. Does he think merchants less honorable?”

“Undoubtedly, as all do. Still, in a way, he credits me with more rather than less honor. He told me that he knows burghers, and has met many from London. He knows that we owe our first loyalty to the city itself. He does not claim to understand men who give their fealty to a place rather than a man, but he knows it is so with us and he has seen its power. He could accept that I would betray Edward, or even the realm, but not London. And so, while he and the chamberlain agreed with Theobald that the army should move with speed, the constable will stay here to organize a defense if I lied to them.”

A steady stream of knights and mounted soldiers streamed across the gate bridge from the other side of the river. They moved through the city toward its southern edges. Foot soldiers, carts, and workers plodded with them. The streets looked like colorful, moving rivers.

David's gaze followed the lines. “I should have insisted that you go to Senlis, but I feared never getting you out later. Theobald can be ruthless when angered, I suspect. Still, it would have been safer for you. The constable assured your safety, but there are limits to his protection.”

“What are you saying, David? Do you think that Edward has indeed changed his plans and that the constable will blame you in some way?”

He pushed away from the wall and walked across to the southern view with his arm around her shoulders. In the distance, past the lower rooftops, they could see the field on which the army gathered. At the front, with gold
and blue banners, no more than dots to their eyes, sat three men on horseback.

“Theobald?” she asked.

He nodded. “There are five thousand here with him. Others will join the army as they pass south.”

“They go to Bordeaux, then?” she asked, even though the answer was obvious. She needed to hear it said, however, so that she could begin reconciling herself to the future he had chosen for them.

She wished that she felt some joy, but her stomach churned in an odd way. She thought about his question last night before they slept, and of her response.

He had misunderstood. She had sought to assure him that she loved him no matter what his degree, and had found him noble even before she learned about his father.

He has done this in large part for me
, she realized.
To give me back the life which this marriage took from me.

The Comte and Duke began to ride. The thick, undisciplined mass of the army oozed after them.

“Aye, they go to Bordeaux,” he confirmed.

He wore a peculiar expression on his face. His eyes narrowed on the disappearing blue banners. “Edward, however, does not.”

She gaped at him. His gaze never left the southern field.

“I went to Edward before Catherine did. I told him everything, and offered to finish the game as I had started it. I would give them one port, and our army would arrive at another one. I pressed for him to consider Normandy, since half the French army was already in the south and if I failed he would still only face an inferior host. His experience trying to sail to Bordeaux had already inclined him to change plans, and a Norman knight has been at court
these last months, also telling him about Normandy's unwalled towns and clear roads.”

She glanced in the direction of his gaze. She could still see reflections off the Comte's armor.

“Edward will debark in Normandy? Here on the northern coast?” Tremendous relief swept her, but with it came a sickening fear for David and what he now faced.

“Assuming that he doesn't get clever at the last moment, which is entirely possible. Or that he doesn't grow to doubt me. Catherine probably told lurid tales of my duplicity, but I am counting on Edward knowing what he has in her. Godefrey, the Norman knight, and I were able to give him three possible ports, small and out of the way. He will use the one which the winds favor.”

“Does the King know about Senlis and what you were offered? If he does, he may well doubt you. He will not understand your choice.”

“I told him everything. I could not be sure that Lady Catherine was involved in your disappearance, or that she planned to betray me, but I suspected it. I could not be sure that she remained ignorant of my relationship with the Comte. It was well that I spoke frankly with Edward. When I finally got a hold of Frans, I had my suspicions confirmed.”