“Do not be silly, woman.”
The grin he gave her was all the prod her temper needed. “Aye, I must be to worry over a lackwitted lout with no more sense than to ride into a place suspected of treachery with so few men at his back!”
“Eric’s men had joined up with me ere we got there.” He was still grinning.
“Oh,” Reina said, but was not completely satisfied. “Still, you should have waited.”
“For what purpose? I was there and had ample men to go up against a mere handful. And as for Lionel, he might be a man of considerable size, but look at me, Reina, and tell me which of us you would place your wager on.”
She gave him a sour look for that piece of conceited logic. “It takes only one man with one arrow to fell a giant, Ranulf. You are not invincible.”
“Mayhap not,” he agreed. “But I am not an idiot either. I have been taking keeps and defeating armies for other men these past seven years. Think you I will be careless now that I fight for myself?”
“I suppose not,” she grudgingly conceded.
“Then what were you worried about?”
“A woman does not need a reason to worry,” she retorted irritably. “I felt like worrying, so I did.”
“Lady, before you go much further and make even less sense to me, I have to tell you I am not much longer on my feet. You should be offering me a bath, a meal, and a bed, instead of railing at me for a good day’s work. Do you know how long it has been since I last slept?”
Hot color flooded her cheeks. “SweetJesú, why did you let me go on like that? Come inside, my lord, and you will have what you desire.”
He stared at her hips swaying as she preceded him up the stairs and shook his head. He wished she had not used those particular words. For once he was too tired to take advantage of them.
Reina was not sure what had awakened her, but she was immediately aware that the bed was empty beside her, even before she turned to see that it actually was. She felt a moment’s qualm, followed by a start when she saw that Ranulf was still there in the room. But where he was, leaning against the post at the foot of the bed, the bed curtains pushed out of his way for an unobstructed view of her, brought back her disquiet. So, too, did his nakedness, bathed bronze in the light of the night candle. If he had noticed his new bedrobe draped over his clothes chest, he had ignored it.
“Is something wrong, my lord?”
“Nay.”
“Then what are you doing just standing there?”
“Watching you sleep,” he said simply, adding just as simply, “You snore, you know.”
Her mouth dropped open, but she was quick to snap it shut. “I do not!”
“Aye, you do. Not loudly, but ’twas snoring just the same.”
What a terrible thing to tell a woman, and rot him, she could not even say the same about him. “Thank you. I would have been aggrieved had I gone on much longer without learning that.”
He chuckled. “Do not be wroth with me, little general. I am still wallowing in the glow of your earlier concern. No one has ever taken such tender care of me as you did.”
How could she be wroth with him after hearing that? “I did no more than bathe and feed you.”
“And warmed my wine and my sheets, and covered the windows to darken the room, and chased all your ladies below so no noise would disturb me at that early hour. Lady, you even tucked me in ere you tiptoed from the room.”
Was he teasing her or thanking her? Reina blushed all the same. She thought he had been asleep by then, he had been so tired. And she was so relieved that he had come home without even a scratch that it had been a pleasure to make him comfortable. But had he really never been tucked into bed before? That urge to put her arms around him and just hold him was back again, but he was no child to comfort, and she was being silly even wanting to.
“I thought surely you would sleep through to the morn, my lord. Did something disturb you?”
Aye, you did, he thought to himself,snuggling up close to my body. But he had already made her blush once, so he would not say so.
“Nay, a few hours was enough to restore me. I am not yet adjusted to the luxury of having a normal night’s sleep. Yet I was so tired, I did not ask of Walter. How does he fare?”
“He awoke and started complaining, as I predicted he would.” At least this time she spoke true. “Will you tell me now what happened at Keigh Manor?”
“You mean you did not pester my men for that information once I was abed?”
