Medieval Ever After by Kathryn Le Veque, Keira Montclair, Emma Prince, Barbara Devlin Read Free Book Online Page A

strategically placed the length of her torso under each arm, and it took some time for her to lace them up properly. She’d never owned anything even remotely fancy and was having a difficult time navigating the strings. But once they were properly tied, it gave her a wonderful curvy appearance as the bodice emphasized her slender waist and full breasts. She had never worn anything like it.
    With that, she put on her worn hose and under garments, feeling better of body and spirit than she had in months. Taking the drying linen, which was now damp, she put the three-legged stool next to the hearth, sat down, and proceeded to dry her hair near the warmth of the dim fire. She was still sitting there a half hour later when there was a soft knock at the door.
    She stopped running her fingers through her hair to dry it. “Come in,” she called.
    The door opened and Stephen appeared. Joselyn did a double-take as he walked into the room and softly shut the door; in the light of day, he was far more handsome than she had remembered. She’d only seen the man in the dark or by weak firelight, never with the glory of the sun shining upon him. It made her heart pound strangely simply to look at him.
    Stephen, too, was swallowing his mild surprise; since meeting Joselyn last night, her beauty, for the most part, had been completely obscured by her worn clothes and dirty tartan. The darkness of the night had also done much to shroud her. But sitting before him, clean and shiny, dressed in the new surcoat and shift he had brought her, she literally took his breath away. He’d never seen anything so lovely.
    “Good morn to you, Lady Pembury,” he suddenly felt quite dirty and disheveled next to this glorious creature. “I hope you slept well.”
    She stood up, a petite little thing against his enormous height. “I did, thank you,” she nodded. A briefly awkward silence followed as they continued to appraise each other in the daylight. When the pause because excessive, she fingered the surcoat as if suddenly remembering it. “I assume you brought this for me?”
    He nodded, noting how the cut of the garment gave her a figure like no other woman he had ever laid eyes on. “I thought you could use something clean to wear,” he indicated the cranberry colored wool. “While checking the sentries just before dawn, I came across a merchant who was cleaning out his partially burned store. He had some women’s garments that he had brought over from Paris to sell, so I bought the whole lot of them. Most of them smell like smoke, so I turned them over to the serving women here at Berwick to wash. This was the only garment that didn’t seem to suffer any damage.”
    She stared at him. “You… you bought me more clothes?”
    He nodded, walking halfway around her to better inspect the surcoat and the way it draped over her luscious backside. “Aye,” he paused, gaining a good view of her rump. “I suspected you did not have much of a wardrobe given the fact that you were wearing peasant clothing and tartan. As my wife, I should like you to be well dressed.”
    Joselyn was stunned, unsure what to say to the man. He had gone well out of his way to bring her something fine and she was momentarily speechless. “Then…,” she started again. “Then I thank you for your generosity. I do not own anything fine or glorious. This is the first lovely garment I have ever had.”
    He moved back around to the front of her and faced her with his hands on his slender hips. “And it will certainly not be the last,” he replied decisively. “Your beauty already outshines every woman in England. Putting you in fine clothing and jewels is like adding stars to the moon and sky; it simply enhances what is already breathtaking.”
    By the time he was finished, she was blushing furiously. When their eyes met, she grinned modestly and lowered her gaze. He laughed softly.
    “You have never heard such things before, have you?” he asked.
    She shook her