Page 64 of An Earl for the Archeress

She looked around, certain that everyone could hear his whisper despite the din of feasting and the lute and harpist that were beginning to play. Soon, a bard began to regale the hall with a tale of a young king who dressed as a peasant to spy on a beauty, a crofter’s daughter who he later seduced and ultimately made his queen. The tale was fraught with both humor and love. Huntington’s men and women fell into rows of laughter, and it was then that Robert squeezed her hand.

She turned to look at him, the first she had done during the meal, and he let go of her hand, caressing her cheek. Lord, did he intend to seduce her? She began to blush at simply the idea. How did he do that? Make her limbs feel weak when she hadn’t exerted herself? But if he intended to seduce her, then why would he suggest rendezvousing in his solar and not his bedchamber? But maybe that was just it. His solar was more formal, and therefore others might speculate less.

She sighed. She was overthinking his request.

“Come.” He chuckled, as if he could see the thoughts flitting around her head.

While the hall sat with their attention diverted, Robert slipped Mariel away. Will watched them go and Mariel noted the slightest of nods exchanged between them, but could do no more than speculate at their meaning. However, Will was engaging with Charlotte and doing a fine job of keeping the woman distracted.

They said nothing as they moved through the corridor, climbing the stairs, causing the torchlight to waver as she swept by in her gown. At long last, they reached the carved doors of his solar. Robert opened them and ushered her in. Removing a torch from the wall, he went to the tapers upon the circular table and lit each one, then went to one of the hearths and put new kindling beneath the stack of logs laid out by the serving staff and lit it with the torch as well.

Upon returning the torch to its sconce in the corridor, he pushed the door shut, placed a bar across it to keep out anyone with enough audacity to enter the lord’s solar, and turned to look at her. He took her in, in her entirety, taking a moment to make the slow, burning perusal he hadn’t made in the hall below.

“You are stunning,” he finally said.

The cavernous ceiling, shadowed banners above them, and tall windows blackened by night made the room dark despite the few flames Robert had lit. He strode forward, his eyes flitting to her naked collarbone and her endowed bosom. She felt shy, knowing he watched the shadows dancing upon her skin. As he arrived in front of her, he reached to her face and cupped her cheek. Leaning down, he gave her a sweet but chaste kiss. His finger trailed down her cheek, then her jaw, then her neck, burning a path downward, downward, toward the soft rises of her breasts.

She couldn’t contain the exhale that escaped her throat. But just as she began to think his seduction had begun, he took a step back, then another, and turned away, walking to his sideboard, where a locked box polished to a shine sat.

“I said I had something for you. I couldn’t help but think that for a lady of breeding, you had quite the naked throat,” he said, his back turned, as he fished a key out of his codpiece.

Lord, but even from behind it appears as if he trifles with his cock.

He unlocked the box and lifted the lid, then shut it again, locked it again, and returned the key to the purse resting at the juncture of his thighs. Coming back to her, he held a velvet pouch. He opened the flap and pulled out a necklace made of golden links, containing a pendant of a rose quartz the color of her gown, inlaid in a gold disc.

“Will you accept this?” he asked.

Her mouth was agape, she realized, as she reached out to finger the precious jewelry. Promptly, she closed her mouth. A gift of jewels was not what she’d expected. “Wherever did you get such a treasure?” she asked.

“’Twas my mother’s.” He didn’t look at her as he spoke his next words, but allowed his finger to mingle with hers as they both examined the stone. “After she died, my father began collecting her riches to sell off or melt down for other items of importance. She had always loved this one. She had told me it was a family heirloom, though I never knew from whom it descended. So, before my father could get his hands on some of her more prized items, I stole them and hid them away in my belongings. I know he killed her. But I couldn’t bear to let him kill everything that she held to be beautiful, too.” Now his hazel eyes, warm from the firelight, shifted to hers. “I never had a plan for it except to always keep it…until I saw you tonight.”

He reached into his coat and pulled something out. Handing it to her, he left it in her open hand. Her pink ribbon, or at least what had once been a pink ribbon, unraveled into a wad.

“I searched the forest for you when you disappeared from my tourney. I never found you, but I did find this, by a stream, under a log. I recalled you wearing it…”

His voice trailed away. Her eyes widened, fixed on the ribbon. She picked it up from her palm and extended it wide.

“I don’t know why I kept it,” she whispered. “I searched for it after I left the tourney, but it must have fallen out of my packs whilst I was changing. I was saddened by the loss.”

“It’s a fine ribbon, Mari. Obviously it wasn’t cheap. Any woman might miss it.”

But she was shaking her head. And then it happened. There was no stopping it. She threw her head in her hands and cried. She worked so hard to never cry, but now, there was no holding back.

“What’s wrong, love?” Robert fretted, lifting her chin. “Look upon me, woman.” She began shaking her head, but he coaxed her up to him. “Your anguish ruins me. Tell me,” he urged.

“My faither gave it to me when I was young,” she whispered, swiping at her tears stubbornly. Still, he held her chin. “He always loathed me. But once, in a spirit of celebration, he gifted it to me. I let myself think for so long that he had done so because secretly he…he loved me.” Her last words were a whisper. “Every time he took out his wrath on me since, I tried to convince myself he did not mean it. He’d given me this,” she said, gesturing with the ribbon. “Loving faithers give their daughters adornments.”

She shook her head. “It took me years to finally realize it had been but a token to him and meant nothing, that he had been full of drink and had not even remembered it. I finally stopped believing in miracles, for I had hoped so badly that God would see fit to change his heart. I finally stopped forgiving him. When I discovered his plan to marry me off to a man just like him, I fled.”

Robert pulled her to him, enveloping her in his embrace. “You managed to survive. God, woman, don’t you see how strong you are? Trying to earn a smile from you has been the hardest work of my life,” he teased.

She looked up, laying her raw emotions bare.

“If I marry you, I give all of myself to you,” she said. “All that I am is yours. How can I trust you? God above, man, I want to trust you more than you think. I want to say ‘aye’ to your proposal. But I fear that if you do not really want marriage, you’ll resent me. I fear I’ve lost my heart, and I’m terrified of what you might do with it! I’m so afraid—”

His mouth crushed down upon hers and he squeezed her, the necklace still clenched in his fist. His kiss was demanding, urgent, full of intensity. When he pulled apart from her, he dropped down to one knee and took her hands.

“Let me do this for you, Mari. Let me protect you in the only way that I can. I know full well the decision I make and I’m choosing to do so.” He kissed the back of her hand and then looked to her eyes again. “Place your trust in me and I’ll never betray it. This I swear.”