Jesu, Andrew! You’re an earl. Richard has married you to an heiress who came with a title for her husband. Mybrother, the Earl of Stanton.” He laughed. “It falls easily from my tongue. Have you bedded her yet? Is she as—”
Andrew cut him off. “Until last night we were on the road from Middleham. And I did not wish to press the issue until the church had blessed the union.”
“So then tonight will be your wedding night,” Robert said.
“Adair is yet innocent. I will wait until you and Grandsire are gone, Rob,” Andrew told his brother.
“You must like the little wench,” Robert observed. “I have never known you to be so tender with a female’s feelings.”
“I have to live with her, Rob, and I should prefer a peaceful house. I have known enough war in my life,”Andrew said.
But to his surprise, that evening Adair excused herself from the high board after the meal, and murmured in his ear, “If I am asleep when you come up, waken me, my lord. We have a final duty to do for Stanton this day.”
Hiding his astonishment, he nodded. She wanted him in her bed tonight? Well, that boded well, didn’t it? He refrained from smiling at her. “You are sure?” he asked.
“My lord,” was all she said before turning to his grandsire. “Elsbeth herself has made up the most comfortable bed space in the hall next to a hearth for you, my lord. There will be a servant in attendance the night through should you need anything.” She curtsied to him. “I will bid you good night now.” Then, turning, Adair departed the hall.
Lord Lynbridge watched her go. “She may look like her mam, but she has her sire’s grit and backbone,” he noted. “Her mam was a gentle and obedient lass. Had she not been, John Radcliffe could have not easily sent his wife into King Edward’s bed. I can see, Andrew, that your wife is someone who understands the meaning of duty. I don’t expect she will be easy to live with, butshe’ll be a good wife to you, and a good mother to the children you breed upon her. Go to her now, grandson.
I am proud of you. Your service to the duke has paid you a handsome dividend.” He drained the last of the wine from his goblet and then banged the vessel on the oaken board, demanding more. “Your wife keeps a good table, and has a good cellar.” Then he sipped from a newly filled cup.
“You’ll be warmer by the fire, my lord,” Albert murmured in the old man’s ear, and before he might say yea or nay the chair was lifted up from its place and carried again to the great hearth with its blazing logs. Lord Lynbridge held his goblet tightly.
“Her servants are well trained,” Robert noted. “You have come into a well-ordered household, brother. Do you think Adair really is a virgin? Young FitzTudor seemed a determined sort.”
“He was no match for her,” Andrew said with a smile.
“She says she is untouched, and I must accept her word unless it is proven false. I will treat her like a virgin tonight, and if she is indeed one it will please me mightily. But if she is not then I must be concerned that she lied, and consider what else she has lied about.”
“I do not see Adair as devious,” Robert remarked.
“She is actually quite straightforward in her manner.
Have you cause for suspicion, brother?”
Andrew shook his head in the negative. “Nay.” He stood up. “Good night, Rob. I will see you on the morrow before you and Grandsire depart.” The earl strode from the hall and climbed the staircase up to the second floor of the house, where his bride would be awaiting him. When he reached the bedchamber door, however, he found Elsbeth waiting. “Is Adair ready to receive me?” he asked.
“When did you last bathe?” Elsbeth demanded of him.
“Bathe?” He looked surprised by her words. “Why?”
“My mistress has a delicate nose, my lord. She bathesregularly. She says you must be bathed before you enter her bed. The master’s chamber and the mistress’s chamber share a little room my lady’s mother had built. It is for bathing. Come along, and I will help you. You have no manservant of your own, but Albert will find a lad to suit you. Tonight, however, I will do what needs to be done,” Elsbeth said.
“I am capable of washing myself,” Andrew protested.
“My lady says I am to do it,” Elsbeth retorted in a tone that did not bode well, he thought, should he continue to argue with her. “Come along, my lord.”
She led him to the little room where the great oak tub was set up. Andrew was so fascinated by the accommodations that had been made to deliver the water that he did not notice at first that Elsbeth had begun to pull his clothes from his lean frame. He sat to allow her to yank his boots from his feet, blushing as she tched over their condition. “You’ll be needing new boots, my lord,” she said. “I’ll tell Albert, and we’ll get the cobbler to come and measure these big feet of yours.”
“How do you empty the tub?” he asked her as he climbed into it, gasping at the hot water. “Jesu, woman!
Would you scale the skin off of me?”
“There’s a plug of cork at the bottom, on the side of the tub,” Elsbeth said. “We have a small hose that fits into a stone drain by the window.” She climbed up the two steps next to the tub and, taking a small pitcher up, dumped its contents over his head. He sputtered with surprise, but Elsbeth paid him no mind. Scooping a handful of soft soap from a dish on the tub ledge, she began to wash his dark hair. Her fingers dug strongly into his scalp, and he yelped briefly as she scrubbed at his head. Another pitcher of water was poured over his hair, then another bout of suds, followed by more water, and Elsbeth began to pick through his hair. “No nits,”
she said, satisfied, and handed him a small rough cloth.
“You do the bits you should, and I’ll take care of the rest,” she told him with a grin.
