The Wild Hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick Read Free Book Online Page B

lord?'
    Guyon wiped his streaming eyes, speechless between laughter and coughing. 'God's eyes!' he croaked at last. 'When I said that this marriage would kill me, I never thought that you would be the hazard!'
    'My lord?'
    He waved her away as she leaned towards him, her face full of concern. 'Do you number riding among your many talents too?' he asked after a moment, when he had contained his mirth.
    Judith shook her head regretfully. 'Mama prefers to travel by litter and my father said it was a waste of time for a girl to master a saddle when she should be at her distaff. I know a little, but not enough to venture out on more than the most docile rouncy - but I am willing to learn.'
    'Good. There are several estates in my honours that are not negotiable by litter.'
    'You intend taking me, my lord?'
    He lay full length on the bed, plumping up the bolster and pillows to support his back. Judith moved away, but with more wariness than fear.
    'My parents always went together and the people have become used to the arrangement. Besides,'
    he added with a smile, 'there is nothing like the imminent visit of a chatelaine to set a manor humming with industry.'
    Judith stirred uneasily. 'My lord, I fear I will not be equal to the burden you lay on me.'
    'If you can sharpen a sword and dagger-fight your way out of a corner, you are wholly capable of handling anything else I ask of you!'
    She looked doubtful. True, she could manage Ravenstow efficiently. It had been drilled into her without surcease ever since she could remember, but to venture further, tackle people and situations she did not know, that was daunting. It was easy for him to speak. He was a marcher lord with access to the royal ear, his experience far beyond hers.
    'Trust me,' he said and kissed her cheek lightly as he might have done to a child. The gesture magically bolstered her flagging resolve and she sat up straight.
    Her chemise gaped open at the neck affording Guyon a glimpse of her breasts, scarcely raised from her narrow ribcage. Judith saw the direction of his gaze, and hastily fastened the ties, colour scorching her face.
    There was an uncomfortable silence. Guyon bit his tongue to avoid being unkind. He would need to be desperate to take advantage, and he was far from that. Tonight was probably the least amorous he had ever felt when alone with an available young woman.
    'Do you have a mistress, my lord?'
    'What!' Once more he found himself utterly thrown off balance. 'What kind of question is that!'
    'Do not be angry with me, my lord!' She held out a supplicating hand. The fingers were long and elegant and not at all the hands of a child. 'It is only that I do not want to make mistakes. Mama once threw out one of my father's women for insolence and my father beat both of them when he found out.'
    Guyon looted disgusted. 'Your father was a fool and a tyrant. I am surprised that with all your knowledge of simples, one of you did not seek to spice his food with monkshood.'
    'And have Uncle Robert assure our welfare?
    How long do you think we would live?'
    He grimaced and finished the wine. 'No, C athfach , since you ask, I do not have a mistress. I did have but we parted last month. The borders are no longer safe for her to travel in her father's wool train and, being Welsh, she would not be constrained within one of my keeps.' He shrugged and looked down at his hands, remembering them lost in the black waterfall of Rhosyn's hair. 'A marcher lord and a girl from the Welsh hill s. Such matches are fleeting at the most.'
    Judith swallowed, wishing that she had not asked the question.
    'Even if Rhosyn had agreed to live a Norman life, there are still such things as courtesy and discretion,' he said after a moment. 'It is neither considerate nor far-sighted to have a mistress and a wife beneath the same roof. Grief is bound to come of it.'
    Judith nodded sensibly. It never occurred to her that Guyon would be faithful. Her father had been lecherous and