“Perhaps I can tell it to you,” the man offered, his gaze on my bosom.
I turned to my side and found Mischa gone. I looked over my shoulder and found her saucily looking up at her betrothed, who glared down at her but had one of his hands on her waist. I still did not see Alric amongst their grouping.
“Do you look for someone?” the man asked.
I turned back to him. “I do. I thank you for the ale, sir, but—”
“If it is your man, he is unwise to leave you alone in a brewery full of men.”
I drew my brows together, sipping again at my ale, unsure of what to do. “Unwise?”
“It is reckless to leave a woman such as you in a place such as this.”
I felt as if the drink and the lightleaf were taking effect all at once. The delightful lightness that descended on me, making my time with friends relaxed and helped me sleep, now made me long for Alric. I did not want to stand here speaking to this man, however handsome. I was not used to such advances anymore. In my Eccleston days, I had been approached and sometimes, it was welcome and sometimes not. But in the nearly nine moons since our abduction, I had been marked as the captain’s wife. No knowing man would dare. But my tattoo was covered by my dress, except for my ranunculus on my left hand, which the man either did not know signified who I was or had not seen. I did not know what to say, so I said, “You have a silver tongue, sir.”
“I wish that lovely mouth would say my name. Shall I tell it to you?”
A hand came around my waist, pulling me back into a lean, hard body that I now knew well, the palm spread across my belly.
“Thank you for keeping my wife company,” came Alric’s voice, flattened with irritation.
I prayed he was not upset with me.
“No disrespect meant,” my flatterer said, his body now straightening. “A happy Turn of Trees to you, lady.” He nodded to me and left.
I turned, my body still caged by my husband’s right arm. I looked at his face, no discernible expression on it and I found myself wishing for the smallest portion of jealousy from him. I feared his irritation was more for me drinking with a stranger and not behaving in a wifely manner than actual possession. And how I wanted to be possessed.
My wish was rewarded.
Pulling his mouth to one side, my husband said, “It would seem you need a wedding ring. Is plain silver acceptable?”
The lightleaf was now running rampant through my body. It was in my toes, making them feel exceptionally cosy in my boots. It nipped at my nerves in the most pleasurable way. My fingers were tingling around my tin cup, my breasts ached and my mouth felt aflame. I gave a breathy exhale that could have been a laugh. “You are like a snarling wolf guarding a kill you have yet to bite.”
His right hand had remained when I turned, now resting on my back and his left had been fisted on the counter but he now held it over the lower half of his face.
I hoped he was disguising a smile.
“You are a bard, madam,” he said, pulling his hand away, but there was a softness in his lips.
We stared at each other for a moment.
And then he said, “Are you asking for a kiss, wife?”
All of my blood was in my ears, pulsing, pounding. It felt like we were the only two people in the room, in the city, in the known world. We were the only two people to have ever lived. “Do you want to kiss me, husband?”
That breathtaking face, in all its harsh lines, grew serious. A hint of pain was in his eyes. His brows drew inward and he gave a sigh before he spoke. “If thought and deed were the same, then I have kissed you already, Edith. Countless kisses.”
There was hunger in his gaze. There was hope.
I could not breathe. I could not think. By some miracle, I said, “So what is one more?”
Part V. Entwined
77. Undone
My careful, measured husband took one staggered breath, removed the cup from my grasp using his left hand and pulled me to him with his planted right, his head bent, his forehead meeting mine. My arms were trapped against him, my hands over his heart. His left arm joined the right in encircling me, the hand exploring my spine upward until it stilled between my shoulder blades. His nose rested alongside my own. His mouth was so close to mine.
Our breath mingled and it felt like an eternity, like he was yet unsure of my invitation. I had a fleeting thought that this was some kind of a blissful hell, the one thing I wanted so near, just grazing me and I still did not have it.
