Always by Lynsay Sands Read Free Book Online Page B

toward the bed, some of his embarrassment returning. “Get you ready. I shall have a word with your husband.” On that note, he pulled the door closed, leaving her alone.
    Â 
    Aric watched the king close the door on his daughter. He straightened his shoulders manfully and waited for the monarch’s attention to turn to him. He, Shambley, the bishop, the priest, the abbess, and all the nuns had stood silently listening as the king had made his apologies and threats. The man was definitely upset. Aric supposed it was hard for any father to accept the idea of his sweet and innocent young daughter being bedded, but this was the king’s idea, after all. Aric certainly didn’t appreciate the constant threat of being drawn and quartered being tossed at him repeatedly.
    Sighing inwardly, Aric had to wonder how he always managed to get himself into these things. Would he survive the wedding night, and if he did, just how long would it be before some inadvertent future misstep saw him drawn and quartered anyway? Just now Delia was looking like an extremely attractive alternative to this. Even with her thighs wrapped around old Glanville. He ought to save himself all the trouble and anxiety and commit suicide right now. Aric sighed. He wasn’t the suicidal sort.
    Several moments of silence passed before the king finally turned from the closed door to scowl at him. The expression on the man’s face hardly supported his earlier avowals of liking Aric and thinking him the best option to husband his daughter.
    â€œWell,” he said finally, some of his apparent dislike fading. He propped his hands on Aric’s shoulders and clasped him firmly. “Rosamunde is my greatest treasure.The fruit of my love. I entrust her to you. I trust you will treat her gently, and handle her with the utmost care.”
    â€œOf course, Your Majesty,” Aric murmured dutifully.
    Nodding, the king turned to Bishop Shrewsbury and held out one hand. The man immediately handed over two candles. Taking them, Henry lit them both off a torch in a holder fastened to the wall, then turned to Aric and held them up side by side. “Do you see the mark I made on both of them?”
    Aric nodded as he saw the notches made in the wax. Both were at the exact same spot, less than a thumb’s width down the candle.
    â€œWell, that is how long you have to get this done,” he announced. He handed over one of the candles.
    Aric’s hand closed automatically around the candle, but his eyes were wide with horror. He measured the notch again. It wasn’t much more than a quarter of an inch from the now-lit wick. By his guess that was—“Why, that’s not even ten minutes!”
    Henry nodded unhappily. “In truth, ’tis closer to five…. And the candle is lit and already burning your time away. You had best get to it.”
    Aric gaped at him in horror, already seeing his head on a pike. “But—”
    â€œDo not ‘but’ me, Burkhart. Had I more time, do you not think I would give it to you? She is my daughter, man. She deserves a feast with great revelry and celebration for her wedding. Mayhap someday we can give her that. But not today.” Turning, he handed the second candle back to Shrewsbury, then took Aric’s arm in one hand. He reached out with the other to push open the door to Rosamunde’s room. “Today we must do the best we can. And that means that you will be gentle, caring, and”—Henry pushed Aric, holding his candle, through the door—“quick. We shall be waiting out here.”
    The door slammed closed on the king’s last word, and Aric was distracted by the need to shelter the flame ofhis lit candle from the breeze that was created. Once the risk of its being blown out had passed, a rustling sound drew his gaze to the girl who now stood by the head of a small bed.
    His bride. She faced him, still in her white gown—not looking