Tallie's Knight Part 19

about your marital duties?"

With much blus.h.i.+ng and hesitation Tallie attempted to explain what her cousin had told her concerning her marital duties. "And I have tried to remain still and dignified, truly I have..." She hung her head.

"I.

am sorry I have found it so difficult, but the. the things you do to

me. well. "Wide amber eyes, awash with tears, met his in a quick,fugitive glance, and she dashed a small hand across her wet cheeks.Her nails were chewed to the quick. Magnus felt as if someone had reached into his chest and squeezed his heart until it hurt.

"Please, my lor--Magnus, let us try again. I promise I will behave

better this time. I have found that saying my multiplication tablescan be helpful..."Magnus could not believe his ears."Saying what is helpful?"She hung her head lower. Tawny locks tumbled around her face, hiding it from him and exposing her delicate, creamy nape. He longed to plant

a kiss on it, but was too distracted by her incredible words.

"You have been saying your multiplication tables while I make love to you?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"So that you will not be distracted by my lovemaking?"

A tiny sob came from beneath the mop of hair as she nodded.

"And you think that this will please me?"

She nodded again.

"Because my cousin told you I would have no respect for you if you

responded? And that you would shame your family and mine if you didanything other than lie as still as a corpse?""Yes," she snuffled.Magnus did not know whether to laugh or explode with rage. Rage won."b.i.t.c.h!" he swore violently.

Tallie flinched. Magnus saw it and swore again. "I didn't mean you, my dear." He reached out and laid his hand on her shoulder. He felt her tense, and his heart clenched in his chest again. So small and naive and vulnerable. and his--all his-despite his b.i.t.c.h of a cousin and her malicious attempt to ruin his marriage.

"Come here, sweetheart," he murmured."I'm not angry. Not with you.Come, there is no need to be upset anymore. " Gently he slid an arm around her resisting body and pulled her against his side. She still wouldn't look at him. He could feel repressed sobs convulsing through her.

"My cousin is a spiteful, malicious b.i.t.c.h," he said softly, 'and the advice she gave you was completely and utterly wrong. "

The sobs suddenly stopped on a long, shuddering gasp.

Magnus continued, stroking her soft, smooth skin as he spoke.

"She did it to cause trouble between us." He paused, and tightened his arm around her.

"But she hasn't succeeded, has she? Because I'm not angry with you; I'm angry with her."

Tallie let out a long, quavery sigh and at last he felt her relax against him. Something unwound inside Magnus.

"Come, Tallie, look at me," he murmured, putting a gentle finger under her chin. Slowly she looked up at him, her woebegone, tear-drowned face pale, her up tilted nose damp and rosy.

"You're not angry with me?" she whispered.

He shook his head.

"No. Are you angry with me?"

She stared at him, surprised, and suddenly tears began to well up in her eyes again.

"No, of course not," she muttered, and with a tiny choke of relief fell into his arms.

"I love you, Magnus," she wailed, and, completely overwrought, she burst into tears against his bare chest. Magnus gathered her close and held her tight, feeling as if the very foundations of his life had just been shattered.

/ love you, Magnus.

Her head was tucked into the curve between his shoulder and his throat and he could feel the warmth and dampness of her tears as she sobbed, clutching him as if she'd never let him go. His cheek rested against her hair and he closed his eyes and held her and wondered what had become of him. Never in his life had he felt like this--so attached, so linked, so committed to another soul--and with absolutely no idea of what to do about it.

He was all at sea in a storm, with no anchor and no rudder and no one and nothing to guide him. except his heart. a heart which, in all his twenty-nine years, had neither given nor received love. / love you, Magnus.

Oh, G.o.d. He groaned in despair and tightened his hold on her.

He did not know how much time pa.s.sed, but eventually she left his arms and went behind the screen to wash her face. He lay on the bed, listening to the sounds of splas.h.i.+ng water, imagining her movements.

He felt exhausted, and for one cowardly moment thought of sneaking off to his own chamber before she returned. That way he could take the night to decide how best to deal with the situation. He had just eased himself upright and was preparing to slip off the bed when she returned, clad in a fresh nightgown. The look of soft expectancy in her eyes sent his spirits plummeting. She climbed onto the high bed and settled herself beside him.

"So..." She blushed rosily, unable to meet his eyes.

"IfLaet.i.tia was wrong..." She ran her finger back and forth along the hem of the sheet.

"How...? I mean, what should I...? How do you wish me to behave when we... you know?"

Magnus felt his throat tighten. He felt trapped, panic- stricken. What the devil should he say? Visions of the various women he had known flitted through his mind. Courtesans, sophisticated married women, widows--with painted faces, vulgar minds and quick, clever fingers.

World-weary women, skilled in pleasing a man, who could calculate a man's needs and desires as quickly and efficiently as they calculated his income.

He did not want to teach his wife the tricks of their trade. He could not bear to imagine his innocent little Tallie earnestly and diligently learning how best to please him in bed as those women had.

But he had to say something, offer her some guidance to replace Laet.i.tia's poisonous advice. Only what? How? His mind was a complete blank.

"Magnus?" she prompted.

"Just..." He wiped a hand over his suddenly damp brow. Lord, who'd have thought marriage would be such a quag mire? It had seemed so simple and straightforward just a few weeks ago.

"Just be yourself," he heard himself saying.

"But..."

"All I want from you are your honest reactions."

She looked back at him, clear-eyed and doubtful, waiting for him to

explain further.

"Don't hide anything," he said, feeling suddenly as though he had stepped onto even more dangerous ground. "Do and say exactly what you wish to. Honesty. That's all I require."

"Honesty?" she said hesitantly.

"That's all you want from me?"

He nodded.

She beamed at him, and it was like the sun breaking through the morning

mist.

"Then that will be easy."

He stared back at her, uneasy at her apparent confidence. If she could

be honest with him, then she would do more than any other woman in his

life had done, his mother included.

"Easy?" He raised his eyebrows in doubt.

"Very easy," she said, smiling radiantly and wriggling her fingers into his warm grip.

"A great deal easier than the multiplication tables, I can tell you. I

am always making mistakes--especially with the eights."

Magnus blinked for a moment, then from somewhere deep inside him he felt laughter begin to well up.

"The eights?" he gasped, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her

down to the bed with him. His laughter echoed around the room and she rolled with him, clutching him and laughing with him. After a few minutes the deep chuckles slowed.

He lifted his head and looked at her again, shaking his head.

"The eights?" he repeated.

"Utterly impossible," she giggled.

His eyes darkened and became intent.

"Then from now on," he said in a deep, slow voice, "I suggest you concentrate on nothing but addition, starting from one plus one." And he lowered his mouth to hers.

Tallie awoke very late next morning. Sunlight streamed through the open curtains and lay in slabs of gold across the floor of her chamber. She stretched and watched the dancing dust motes, feeling dreamy, pleasantly lazy and filled with contentment. She was alone in bed, but she did not feel lonely. Her husband had woken her at dawn and made love to her again. And then he'd kissed her and told her to go back to sleep and he'd gone out.

She had learnt many more things about the marriage act that night. The most important by far was that once she stopped fighting her own reactions it was utterly, thrillingly, splendid. She knew now why the vicar had said marriage was a holy estate, for there had been times, when her husband was making love to her, Tallie had known there could be no more wonderful feeling in heaven or on earth. And afterwards, when she I had lain silently in her husband's warm strong arms, his hand caressing her hair while she listened to the beat of his heart slowly returning to normal, it had felt as if she was floating on a cloud, like the angels did.

She had been a little frightened at first about the extremity of her reactions, but Magnus had rea.s.sured her and encouraged her and continued that marvelous caressing and stroking. And then he had become rather extreme himself, she reflected, smiling a secret feminine smile. It was very exciting to think that a magnificent being like Magnus could be brought to such a state by ordinary little Tallie Robinson, she thought, snuggling into the pillows. She could still smell his scent on them, and if she shut her eyes she could imagine he was still here in bed with her.

"Milady?"

Tallie opened her eyes. Her new maid, Monique, stood there.

"Milady, your breakfast awaits you." Monique indicated a tray containing Tallie's favourite French breakfast--sweet, flaky pastries and a large pot of hot milky chocolate. Reluctantly she sat up, then, blus.h.i.+ng, clutched the sheet to her, recalling her nakedness. Monique showed no surprise, but came forward with a wrapper.

"Votre peignoir. Milady."

Tallie supposed that a dresser was used to seeing people without a st.i.tch of clothing; it was she who had to get used to being seen. She was a long way now from Miss Fisher's establishment, where pupils had dressed and undressed beneath their voluminous nightgowns behind curtained screens. Married women had no privacy at all.