“Who are your grandparents?” Navarre asked.
“The Comte and Comtesse de Cher whose chateau,Archambault, is but four miles from here.”
“Am I to assume that your husband has not known all these weeks where you are,chèrie?”
“How could he?” said Velvet. “I have not dared to communicate either with him or any member of my family, for fear that James Stewart would find me and use me in his war with Francis.”
“Does Alex Gordon know he is to be a father?”
“Oh, yes!” said Velvet. “It is our first child, and I had only just told him before we were separated.”
“Mon Dieu!”said Henri of Navarre. “This is an incredible tangle! I shall find out for you if your king still seeks you, for if I were your husband, my adorable Velvet, I should be distraught beyond all not to know where my wife was, especially in your state.”
“You will not betray me?” Her voice trembled.
“I have given you my word,chèrie.I will not betray you, but you cannot hide forever. Tomorrow, when I return toChenonceaux, I shall make discreet inquiries about the difficulties between your king and our mutual friend, François. If you are sought by the Scots crown,chèrie, I shall learn of it, and then together we shall solve the problem, I promise you.”
“You will really help me?”
Henri smiled to himself in the dark. She was absolutely charming. “Yes,” he said, “I will help you,chèrie.How could I not?” Then, leaning over, he tipped her face to his and kissed her.
Velvet pulled away, suddenly very, very aware that the king’s aid had its price. “You gave me your word,” she said softly.
“I gave you my word not to force you,chèrie, and I will not. But if I offer you something that you very much want, is it not only fair that you offer me something that I very much want in return? Making love does not always have to involve the emotions. It is a delightful sport in which two compatible people may give each other pleasure.”
“Your mind is much too sophisticated for me, monseigneur. I am a simple woman who finds it hard to visualize lovemaking outside of the bonds of matrimony.”
“You have been most properly brought up, and I applaud your parents who have raised you to be a good Catholic noblewoman; nevertheless, there are times when even the most virtuous of women face serious decisions of this nature. You wish my help, and I wish to make love to you. The choice rests with you,chèrie.The ambassador from your country to mine can tell me what I wish to know. If James Stewart still seeks you, then I shall arrange to bring your husband to you secretly. You can live your life quite happily here in France until you are safe. When is your child due?”
“Early spring,” said Velvet. “April, I would say.”
“I can arrange that your husband be with you then. You would like that, wouldn’t you? If James has already forgotten you, then you can contact your husband and he can join you here immediately. Is that not worth one brief encounter to you?”
Velvet bit her lip. She knew the story of her friend Cat Leslie and of how James Stewart had forced her to his bed. Would it be the same with Henri of Navarre? Somehow she did not think so, for the French king was a man who openly enjoyed women, and always had at least one acknowledged mistress. Being in the early months of her pregnancy, she could not become enceinte by him, and if Alex never knew of the incident … She could no longer bear this separation from him! She loved her husband, and she needed him!
“Promise me that my husband will never know of this shameful episode,” she said.
“Madame, I am not a man to kiss and tell,” he said, his tone offended.
“But you have not returned toChenonceauxtonight, and surely the gentlemen with you will assume you have been in my bed.”
“They would have assumed it even if I had not been,chèrie, and I would certainly not gainsay them their lecherous meanderings of the mind. Do not fear, my lovely Velvet, my gentlemen have no idea who you are, or even the name of this delightful little chateau. Even if you came to my court with your husband, there is not one amongst them who would betray your honor, for by doing so they would betray their own, and they are a proud bunch of milords.”
“Then if I am to have your help, monseigneur, I have no other choice than to yield to you,” Velvet said softly.
“Ah,chèrie,”he said, the delight in his voice hard to conceal, “you have made me the happiest of men!”
He might be happy, she thought, but she certainly was not. Having committed herself to this course, one thought bothered her. She had never slept with a man with whom she was not in love. Would Henri of Navarre think her a good lover, or would he feel cheated and, considering her a bad bargain, not feel obliged to help her? “Monseigneur,” she began, “I have virtually no experience in love other than with my husband.” There was no need to explain Akbar. It would be too confusing.
“But I,chèrie, have great experience. You will learn at the hands of a master, and, to begin with, I should like you to disrobe for me.” He himself arose from the bed and, going to the fireplace, built up the fire so that the room was bathed in a rosy glow. Then taking a taper, he relit the candelabrum on either side of the bed. “Love,” he said, “should not be hidden away in the dark as if it were something to be ashamed of,chèrie.A woman’s body is possibly the most beautiful of God’s creations, and I am a connoisseur of beauty. I have always enjoyed watching the faces of the women I make love to. It is a weakness with me.”
Velvet, too, had arisen slowly from the bed. She had been wearing a simple night rail of white silk with long, full sleeves that was decorated with pink ribbons at the wrists and high neckline. She suddenly felt very, very shy. Both Alex and Akbar had seen her naked, but this man was a virtual stranger, unknown to her except by reputation until a few hours ago. She began to tremble, and the king, who had already shed his nightshirt, saw it.
Coming up behind her, he slipped his long arms about her waist and bent his head to kiss her neck with delicate, feathery movements. “Don’t be afraid of me,chèrie.I shall not hurt you or the child, and I promise to make you very happy even though your adorable, strict sense of morality will not let you believe such a thing is possible right now.” Gently his slender fingers undid the ribbons at her neckline as he opened her night rail to the waist. Drawing the gown off her shoulders, he watched as it slipped down over her hips and past her shapely calves to puddle about her ankles.
Automatically Velvet stepped from the tangle of silk, and her heart began to beat faster at the king’s sharp intake of breath.
“Ahhhh,chèrie,”he breathed reverently, “you are beautiful beyond compare, beyond my wildest expectations! You should be sculpted in marble, but I do not believe that there is an artist living or dead who could do you justice! Come!” Catching her hand in his, he quickly drew her over to the pier glass. “Look at yourself,chèrie!Are you not magnificent? Look at us together! We are superb! I am a tall man, and it is not often that I have a tall woman.Mon Dieu!I must worship at your shrine, my exquisite goddess!” So saying, the king knelt and began to kiss Velvet from her feet upward, holding her firmly about the hips. She quivered beneath his touch.
