Lord Liar Part 39

But suddenly she looked distressed.

"But I have nothing to give you!"

she wailed.

"I had no money. How..."

Standing by her side of the bed, he kissed her forehead. "Shh. You have given me yourself, my dearest love. What greater gift can there be to a man from a maiden?" But she was not ready to give up so easily.

"I see that I could give you that gift again," she murmured, reaching a hand out daringly and stroking his staff, which had stubbornly refused to relax.

Now, at her touch, it sprang fully to life.

He groaned as he felt her touch.

"Cease that, you shameless wench!

You need to rest now. We dare not make love again so soon, with you so recently a virgin. " She ignored him grinning as that one part of him, at least, did not try to deny its delight in her attentions. He was rapidly losing his struggle to do what he knew he should.

"I would make up for lost time," she purred, all woman now.

He gave himlf up to the inevitable. Lowering his long frame onto the bed, he lay down on his back, grinning up at her as she leaned over him on her extended arms. "Very well, Aldyth, I will surrender to your insatiable demands. But I know a way we may make love that will k- low you to take only as much of me as you are able."

"I want all of you," she told him frankly, her eyes glowing.

"Now, show me, my loving lord, this wondrous way...."

He pulled her over him, reveling in the sight of her luscious b.r.e.a.s.t.s so near to his mouth. Her eyes closed in bliss as she positioned herself above him and guided him inside her.

"Now ride me, sweetheart .... " "Oh, Ranulf," she breathed as he reached up to cup one of the rosy-tipped globes. She moved forward tentatively, taking him deeper still, and he thought he would die of the pleasure.

Never had any woman-- "My lord, when you didn't come back down I got worried, and I thought I had better bring up the poultice" -- began a voice, and then a woman's shriek shattered their paradise.

Desiderata stood just inside the door, eyes bulging at the scene before her.

Aldyth looked up and caught sight of the intruder, then gave a m.u.f.fled shriek of her own as she rolled off Ranulf and grabbed for the rumpled bed linens to cover herself. So shocked that her mouth gaped open like a carp, the Norman courtesan dropped the jar she carrkxl--right on her foot, an accident that only served to accelerate her fury.

"So this is why you won't even look at me, you cleceiving co chon

Desiderata cried, clutching at her foot.

"Your little page was a girl all along! How you must all have been laughing at me--Henry, too! How pathetic I must have looked, throwing myself at you, when you already had a peasant wench to serve you in bed as well as at table.

Liar!

Scoundrel! " she shrilled, stooping to pick up the jar containing the poultice, which she then hurled at the pair on the bed. Aldyth ducked against Ranulf's shoulder, coveting her head.

Desiderata's aim was abysmal, causing the jar to shatter on the corner of the bedside table, which in turn caused the fat candle atop it to fall on its side, dangerously near the bed curtain.

Heedless of his nudity, Ranulf reached out and righted the candle before it could do any harm. Then, trying to smother the rage he felt at this untimely breach of a very private moment, he said,

"Stop screeching like a fishwife, Desiderata. This is none of your concern.

Go away." Beside him, Aldyth raised herself up on one elbow, still clutching the linen around her chest.

"My lady, please. No one was laughing at you, on my honor. Prince Henry didn't know, either, I swear it. There were reasons I needed to travel in disguise" -- "On your honor! You swear! Don't you dare condo- scend to me, you draggle-tail s.l.u.t with your serf boy's hair!

I'll claw your eyes out, you trollop! "

"That's enough!" Ranuff roared, leaping from the bed to intercept the wild-eyed woman who was advancing, fingers curled into claws, toward Aldyth's side of the bed. The sight of a very powerfully built, naked man standing between her and her goal was apparently enough to halt Desiderata's incipient charge. She backed up, but then she caught sight of the golden necklace gleaming around her rival's neck, its jade pendant nestled in the shadowy cleft between Aldyth's b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Her eyes narrowed to slits and she hissed,

"So that's who you bought it for, even as you lied to my lord about a sweetheart in England. So Henry doesn't know the truth, either. I wonder what he'll say, my fine Lord Ranulf, when he learns that you've deceived him?

If you lied about that, he'll wonder what else you might have lied about, hein?"

She stormed out the door, slamming it behind her. Ranulf turned back to Aldyth, only to find her gazing sorrowfully at him, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears.

"I should have stayed in England, as you wanted, Ranulf," she said with a heavy sigh.

"Now I've ruined things for you, haven't I? Now the prince will distrust you and" -- "Hush right there," he told her gently.

"We both made love, did we not? While 'tis not as I'd have willed it, I'd already begun to think we'd have to tell Henry, for I was d.a.m.ned if I was going to go back to this d.a.m.nable masquerade again, at least not here. And no, I doubt very much my liege lord will suddenly decide I'm unworthy of his trust because of anything an angry harlot says."

"But, Ranulf" -- "Hush, I said.

"Tis I who should apologize for forgetting to lock the door so that Desiderata could intrude on us so easily, love, and then vent her spleen on you like that." He held her close, kiss' rag the top of her head.

"You don't think Henry will be angry?" she asked, her green eyes searching his face for any hesitation.

"I'd stake my life on it," he promised her.

"But I do think the sooner we go and face him, the better. There's no telling what that b.i.t.c.h may have accused either of us of doing. Did you by any chance happen to bring any women's clothes with you?"

Chapter Nineteen

Henry looked up from the scroll of vellum he'd been about to read when Ranulf, carrying Aldyth, knocked at the open door.

"Come in, come in, my lord. You're too late, however. Desiderata's already been here and tattled into my interested ear."

Ranulf set Aldyth down and knelt, lowering his head. By his side Aldyth did the same, feeling very much like a mouse whose tail was caught by the paw of a very large, hungry cat. The silence stretched on interminably, and she could feel the prince studying each of them in turn.

At last Ranulf got to his feet and a.s.sisted Aldyth to do likewise, though she was sure she looked the clumsy feel struggling up on one foot, with Ranulf helping to pull her. When he encouraged her to lean against him, though, she felt strength and rea.s.surance flowing through him to her. All is not lost, his touch told her. We shall get through this. Then he just stood there, neither rigidly at attention nor relaxed. She darted a glance at his face and saw that he was looking the inscrutable prince straight in the eye.

Suddenly Henry gave a hoot of laughter.

"You were ever a proud c.o.c.kerel and fearless as a lion."

"My liege?"

"Stop standing there like I'm going to order you to be flayed alive and give the wench a chair. It should be obvious, you black-a-vised knave, that she cannot keep standing on one foot like a heron."