He held out his hand to her and she placed hers there. As he guided her out of her former chamber she walked at his side knowing there must be much, much more that he was not going to say about his friend.
‘What makes you think it is with little arguing? Mayhap I have saved your tender sensibilities from having to listen to it?’
They reached the main floor and the object of their discussions stood waiting for them. They shared a glance between them and when he glared at both of them, they laughed. Brice joined them at table as they made plans for the rest of the day, as well as the three more that Lord Giles would be away.
It was during that meal that Fayth discovered another of her husband’s secrets—one he and Brice shared and both tried to hide. So obvious to her now, she wondered how she had missed it before. And wondered whether or not to reveal her knowledge of it to him.
Neither her husband nor his friend could read.
Though not a terrible lack, for many noble Saxons could not read or write, to them it was surely another mark of their illegitimacy and another quality found lacking.
Fayth stored away that bit of knowledge, not certain where or when it would be of the most use to her.
Chapter Twelve
The door opened quietly as it always did when her husband tried to enter their chambers softly. Fayth sat in the tall chair, with only a few candles lit, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, offering up her nightly prayers and waiting for him. Giles nodded as she untangled the string of prayer beads from her hands and put them in the sack on the table.
‘When do you leave, my lord?’
‘At first light.’ He faced her and placed his hands on his hips, with a stern expression in his eyes. ‘While we are in our chambers, could you use my given name?’
She thought she might have screamed it out when he’d pleasured her and her face grew hot as she remembered.
‘My lordsare for others, lady,’ he said. ‘In return, I shall remember to call you Fayth.’
‘Are you not yet accustomed to your rank and its privileges?’ she asked. ‘Or do you think of someone else when you hear it?’
‘Very astute, lady.’ He nodded. ‘I am not accustomed and I do think of someone else when I hear it. My father’s father was called Giles, so I expect to see him enter whenever I hear “Lord Giles” said.’ He grew solemn then. ‘And since he did not wish to lay eyes on me, it was never a good thing when he did.’
He began undressing and she tried not to watch, but after she had seen him work in the yard in only his breeches and after she had felt him against her last night, his body did interest her. Even knowing it was unseemly for a well-born lady to be curious about such things, she could not stop watching him now.
Giles paused in undressing, mostly because the sound of his wife’s shallow breathing as she watched him was arousing him. If truth be told, everything she did or said aroused him. His plan of exhausting himself before climbing into bed with her had not worked, so he thought he would try coming to bed awake enough to control his wayward desire. As he noticed her eyes staring at his cock as it extended itself and hardened in his breeches he knew that would not work either.
Thinking of other things, or attempting to, he realised that he had not had a woman since before leaving Normandy. That was most definitely part of the problem, for when he spoke of the heat of battle, he meant it. The rage and excitement of facing one’s foes and fighting for your life, or theirs, created a powerful rush of blood and made most men hard. And that led to the rape and pillaging by those men who could not be controlled.
The biggest part of his problem, though, was the woman who continued to gaze at his manhood and who would share the bed with him that night.
‘Mayhap you should get into bed now, lady?’
‘Your pardon, my…’ She paused as he narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head. ‘Giles,’ she whispered instead. ‘I was distracted.’
She said it with no attempt to be humorous, for he suspected she was as innocent of the events between men and women as she seemed to be, and yet she kept looking at him and not moving from the chair.
He walked past her and nearly tore the coverings from the bed in his attempts to lift them and hasten her entrance into it. Finally, she dropped the blanket from her shoulders and, lifting her shift, climbed up on the bed and over to the far side. He decided to be blunt with her, or the night would be a long, sleepless one for him.
‘Are you reticent about what happens between us because I am not of your rank?’ He could not say the word to her; it carried such shame for him. She turned on her side and watched as he put out the candles and approached the bed.
‘Not of my rank?’ she asked and he could see the hint of a smile on her lips. ‘Truly, I think the problem lies not with the status of your birth but with the place of it and how you came to be here.’ She brushed her hair over her shoulder with her hand and watched him closely. ‘Even our King Harold had two wives at the same time and children by both. They cannot all be legitimate, can they?’
Stunned by her admission and her logic, he laughed. ‘One would think not.’
He untied his breeches and tugged them down, over his erect manhood. He tossed them on the chair and then went through his routine of placing his sword and dagger within an arm’s length. Giles turned and put out the last candle in full view of her before following her under the coverings. This time, for the first time, he left no layers between them.
Giles settled beside her and pondered his next move. Still of a mind to ease her into lovemaking by introducing her a step at a time, so that she was ready once he had his answer, he thought to use her curiosity. First, though, he must make certain of one thing.
‘I would pleasure you, lady, but fear it causing you distress.’ She gasped then. Mayhap a bit too blunt? ‘I thought you enjoyed it last night, but then your tears confused me and I would not touch you if it pains you.’
‘I hesitate to speak on such things, but my father always said I spoke too much like a man, my lord. He said it was ever my failing.’ She let out a loud sigh and then he felt her turn towards him in the bed. ‘I liked what happened between us, but I feel as though I am being faithless to my family and my people if I seek your touch.’
