His words filled her with almost as much pleasure as did his ardent body which now strove to again bring her perfect fulfillment. Instinct instructed her to wrap her legs about his trunk, and she gasped with surprised delight as she felt him drive deeper within her. She now knew to move with his rhythm, and was amazed at how well their bodies fit each other. She could feel the control that she was attempting to maintain beginning to slip and cried out softly to him.

"Ohh, Josselin, my husband, is it always so sweet?"

"Blessed Mother," he whispered back, "I hope so, enchantress!"

She was beginning to soar wildly again. The feeling was strangely reminiscent of the spiraling flight of the seabirds she remembered seeing on her short voyages; of gulls who, catching at a whorl in the current of the winds, followed it upward winding and whirling until the gyre ended to drive back down to the earth in one great swoop.

Again and again he drove himself within her and with each thrust of his loins she seemed to crave him more until she thought she should perish from the pure pleasure she was receiving. She wondered if he, too, was being pleasured. Then, just as the night before, without warning she plunged down into honeyed darkness, hearing as she slid away his triumphant cry of ecstasy, feeling the warmth of his seed as it once again flooded her womb.

When she once again found herself breathing in what seemed a normal manner, she discovered that she was cradling him within her arms, her hand gently stroking his head. "How can it be like this between us when we are little more than strangers?" she questioned him.

"Hardly strangers now, Mairin," he laughed weakly. He drew away from her so he might sit up and look upon her. His hand reached out to caress the curve of her jaw that led to her chin. "No, enchantress, not strangers. Perhaps we know little about each other in the formal sense, but our bodies have certainly become old friends in a very short time."

"Our souls too, I would venture to guess, my lord."

He nodded. "Yes, my lady wife, I believe it to be so."

"It is strange but I am happy," she told him. "In my whole life I can only remember being really unhappy once, but what I feel lying here with you is an entirely new emotion for me. I realize now that what I feel is true happiness. We are fortunate, my lord."

"Aye, Mairin, we are fortunate to have found each other in this topsyturvy world in which we live." He drew her into his arms so that her head rested against his chest.

Beneath her ear she could hear the strong, steady beat of his heart. Her nostrils were filled with his now familiar male scent. He did not smell as her father or Brand had smelled. It was different, yet comforting. It was early still. The pale gray morning light barely managing to creep through the narrow windows and illuminate the room. Other than the wind there was no sound to be heard, which indicated to Mairin that it was still snowing outside, and so she dozed within the circle of her husband's arms. She was at peace in Josselin's love.

He held her against him as if she were the most delicate and rare of creatures. He felt her body relax to slip into sleep, and his heart swelled with an emotion that he found he could not identify. This was his wife, and with her he would found a proper and respected family. His children would never suffer the sting of illegitimacy that had dogged him all of his life. That had caused his own mother to abandon him in favor of his father's legitimate son. No! His children would be legal, and they would be loved by both their parents. She stirred slightly in her sleep, and he wondered if his seed had already taken root within her lovely body, if perhaps already his son had been created, and was even now beginning to grow. Only time, of course, would give him the answer to that question. In the meantime he intended to use her often to insure their success in having children quickly.

He found himself drifting back to sleep without realizing it until he awoke once more to find her stretching herself beside him. She had thrown the fox coverlet off and was preparing to arise when suddenly he saw the brownish stains upon the insides of her thighs. Reaching out he touched them lightly, and their eyes met, the pa.s.sion flowing fiercely between them. Raising himself up he leaned forward, and placed several soft kisses upon the dried and bloodied smudges, and then looked up at her once again.

"Merci, enchantress," he said meaningfully, charmed by the delicate color that tinted her cheeks.

Pulling a chemise from her trunk, she drew it over her head, and hurried out into the solar where the servants had already started a fire. The big tub had been removed, but there was a basin of warm water waiting upon a brick shelf that had been built within the fireplace. Carefully she reached around the flames of the fire, and placed it upon the table. Wringing out the soft cloth floating in the basin, she sponged away the evidence of her lost innocence, and then returned to the bedchamber.

Josselin still lay within the bed, and he watched her curiously as she dressed. A fur-lined jupe went over her chemise to be followed by a linen skirt and a matching tunic of violet-blue, long sleeves widening from the elbow to the wrist, and which she belted with a belt of purple and gold metal disks. Lastly she pulled on a pair of soft shoes that b.u.t.toned up the front.

He watched in fascination as she brushed out her wonderful long hair with smooth, vigorous strokes, braiding it with violet-colored ribbons and looping it up so that the braids did not hang too long. Standing, she gave her skirt a little shake to remove the wrinkles and then looked over at him.

"You will be late for the Ma.s.s if you do not hurry, Josselin."

"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen," he said.

"Ah, my lord, do not harp upon such a thing. Beauty can be a pleasure for the recipient of such a gift, but more often it is a curse. If you love me then I would hope it would be for me, myself, and not for my beauty. If I lost that beauty then what would be left, and would you love me still?"

"Your beauty is but a part of you, my lady wife. There is far more to Mairin of Aelfleah than her extraordinary beauty. I hope to spend the rest of my life learning the many facets of the rare jewel that my lord William has entrusted to me."

"Blessed St. Cuthbert, my lord, how such flattery trips with honeyed ease from your tongue! You are, I think, a man to beware of, Josselin." She walked to the bed, and yanked the warm fox coverlet from him. "Arise, my lord! Would you set a bad example for the manor folk?" He grabbed for her to pull her back into their bed, but laughing, Mairin eluded him, turning as she fled through the door to thumb her nose at him.

She could hear his laughter as she hurried down the stairs into the hall where Eada was already waiting. The older woman turned to bid her daughter a good morning. As she did she peered closely at Mairin. Seeing nothing but happiness in the girl's eyes, she smiled with poorly disguised relief. Mairin's eyes twinkled as she hugged her mother.

"Are you all right, my child?" Eada would not be convinced by her daughter's radiant looks. She needed a verbal confirmation.

"I am fine, mother, and in answer to the question in your eyes, yes, I am at last a woman!"

"You told him, and he was gentle?"

Mairin nodded. "Yes" was easier than explaining that she had neglected to tell Josselin of her virginity until it was almost too late. "He is a good man, mother. You were right."

"Can you love him? I know it will never be as it was with Basil, Mairin, but I pray for your happiness."

"I loved Basil with a child's love, mother. I believe I can love Josselin, but it will be with a woman's love. With Basil I lived an unreal fairy tale in a golden and fabled city. I realize now that once the novelty of my beauty and innocence had worn off, Basil would have sought elsewhere for his amus.e.m.e.nts. I was a diversion to him. With Josselin I will forge a strong bond of love, and building upon that, mother, who knows what we may accomplish together. I know it would have never been that way with Basil."

Eada was more than satisfied with Mairin's answer. "Then," she said teasingly, "I may look forward to a peaceful old age."

"You will never be old, mother," said Josselin, coming into the hall, and hearing her. He went directly up to her, kissing her upon her cheek. "May I call you mother, my lady?"

Why was it she cried so easily these days? Eada wondered, feeling the tears sting her eyelids. "Yes, my son," she told him, "you may call me mother." She hugged him hard. "Now, my children, we will surely be late for the Ma.s.s," and she moved swiftly past the carved screen that divided the hall from the entry of the house where a servant was waiting with the outdoor cloaks.

"How handsome you look, my lord," Mairin complimented him.

"I would not disappoint the manor folk," he teased back, and she stuck out her tongue at him.

He was wearing blue chausses that she thought rather ill-fitting. They should have been better shaped to his legs, and she resolved then and there to go over his wardrobe, and make what he needed. His darker blue tunic which fell to just below his knee was embroidered on the neckline with silver threads, and had long wide sleeves. It was belted with a slightly wide girdle with embroidery that matched that at his neckline. As they would be going out, he wore boots that extended halfway up his leg to his knee.

As they put on their heavy fur-lined capes Dagda came in from the outside saying, "A wolf came down from the hills last night, my lord. Its tracks are everywhere about the house."

"It did not carry off any of the livestock, did it?" Josselin inquired.

"Nay. The animals were all safe within the barns because of the storm, but the beast must be hungry to have come so close to the manor."

"Be certain that the manor folk know of the wolf," said Josselin. "Starving wolves have been known to attack small children and carry them off. We will go hunting when the storm is over."

Outside it was still snowing. They walked the short distance between the house and the manor church where Father Albert said the morning Ma.s.s. Inside the church it was cold, and the wind caused the tallow candles upon the carved wooden altar to smoke. The stone floor was icy and the bitterness spread through their clothing as they knelt to receive the host from Father Albert.

It snowed on and off for the next few days, and afterward there was a week of gloomy days when the skies threatened again to loose a torrent of snow.

When they could they rode about the manor visiting the cottages to ascertain the well-being of their people. Josselin believed, to Mairin's delighted relief, that unhappy peasants were poor workers. Like Aldwine Athelsbeorn, Josselin de Combourg sought to care for his people. The smiling faces as they left each cottage told Mairin that Aelfleah's people were well-pleased with their new lord.

Sometimes Egbert, the bailiff, rode with them. He pointed out to his lord the few repairs that needed to be made here and there. They inspected the granary to learn that there had been some small losses due to a larger-than-expected population of field mice. Weorth the miller rea.s.sured his lord and lady he had recently acquired a large young tomcat who had a vigorous capacity for both the female cats who lived in the mill-all of whom were now fat with expected kittens-and for the mice whose population had already been halved.

"May yer lordship be as successful with the lady Mairin so that we may have again at Aelfleah a large family of children," the miller said boldly.

"Be silent, Weorth!" ordered the bailiff, but both Mairin and Josselin laughed. The look that pa.s.sed between them told the miller and the bailiff that any lack of children at Aelfleah would not be for want of trying on the part of their lord and his lady.

On the days when the cold or the weather made it impossible to be out-of-doors, Josselin spent long hours in the hall going over the manor records while Mairin and her mother sat by the fire sewing new clothing for him. Most of his garments were worn, and the workmanship was not of the best quality, which was not surprising. Josselin had had no family to see to his clothing. When he had been a child page at the Norman court his mother had yearly sent two tunics, one for cold weather, the other for milder days, and a small a.s.sortment of shirts to be worn under his tunics, two pair of chausses, a pair of boots, and a cloak. As he had grown older, however, these small gifts had ceased coming. He was considered old enough to fend for himself by the time he was thirteen, and he had.

Young bachelors, however, had to depend upon strangers to sew for them when they could afford it, usually women servants anxious to earn an extra penny or two. It was also necessary that they purchase their own cloth, and their limited incomes naturally limited such purchases to the least costly fabrics. Eada and Mairin, both expert seamstresses, complained more than once as they viewed the sorry state of the wardrobe that Aelfleah's new lord possessed. Raiding the storage room of the manor house they brought forth linens that they themselves had woven, fine wools, and cottons, brocades and silks from Byzantium. They measured him carefully, making him stand for what seemed to Josselin hours. Then they cut and st.i.tched until suddenly the cloth began to a.s.sume shapes. He saw a fine new wardrobe appearing before his very eyes.

At first he was embarra.s.sed by this sudden largess, but Eada took him aside saying, "You are the lord of Aelfleah, Josselin. All that belongs to this manor belongs to you. Your old clothing was in such a bad state of disrepair that mending it was even beyond our skills as needlewomen. It is necessary to make you new clothing. We would have done the same for my husband and Brand. Who else should do these things for you?"

"I like him better without clothing," said Mairin saucily, and to her delight her husband blushed which made her laugh mischievously.

"Mother," he said to Eada, "your daughter does not render me proper respect."

"You should beat her then," replied Eada seriously, but her bright blue eyes were laughing.

"Do you really want to spank me, my lord?" demanded Mairin tantalizingly, sliding her arms about her husband's neck and looking up at him in a provocative manner. The tip of her tongue darted over her lips, moistening them.

He could feel the tightening in his loins as her teasing body and her suggestive words taunted him. "I think you need a good spanking to instill within you a proper reverence for my position as your lord and master," he growled back, "and I am of a mind to administer it now!"

"Then you will have to catch me, my lord!" she mocked, pushing him so hard that he fell back. She made her escape running across the hall and up the stairs, shrieking with pretended horror as he pursued her, roaring with equally feigned outrage.

Behind them Eada, and Dagda who had also been seated by the fire honing knife blades, smiled at one another, their silent thoughts quite in accord with each other.

Mairin fled down the hallway to their bedchamber, but before she might bar the door behind her he was in the room.

"You're a poor tactician, wife. Not being swift enough to outrun me, you should have given yourself at least one other route of escape." His green-gold eyes glittered wickedly as he stalked her into a corner. Reaching out he easily captured her, drawing her from her useless sanctuary.

"You're not really going to spank me?" she said.

"Oh, but I am," he replied, backing over to the bed where, as he sat down, he pulled her into his lap and over his knees.

Mairin was unbelieving. Then she felt him yank her skirts up to bare her bottom. She cried out in a shocked tone, "Josselin!" as she felt a hard arm clamp across her back to prevent her struggles.

For a moment he viewed with satisfaction the tight little hillocks of her pure smooth flesh. Then his hand descended with a satisfying smack which left the clear pink imprint of his hand upon her heretofore unblemished skin. Mairin shrieked more with surprise than any hurt for the blow had been only noisy, and not severe. "I will have your respect, woman," he said, his voice a parody of an outraged and offended husband. Then he laid two more spanks upon her squirming bottom, and turning her over demanded, "Are you chastened now, lady?"

"Oh, oh!" she cried, squeezing out two false tears from beneath tightly closed eyes. "Thou art a brute, my lord, to abuse me so!"

"What now? You would criticize your lord's behavior? I think I must chastise you further, lady." He stood, lifting her up into his arms as he did, and dumped her unceremoniously upon their bed. Then before she might escape him he flung himself upon her, pushing her long skirts before him, and burying his dark blond head between her thighs. That he immediately found the mark was instantly evident.

"Ohhhhh!" she squealed. "Ohhhhh, Josselin! Oh, how you punish me!"

His skilled tongue moved over her quivering pink flesh with unerring accuracy, and though he held her down tightly, his hands clasping her hips, she squirmed most deliciously beneath his marauding tongue. "Sweet," he murmured against her body. "You are so sweet, my enchantress!"

"Ahhhhh, Josselin, my lord," she whispered breathily, "I am well punished by you this day, but you will have to continue to discipline me in future quite regularly lest I forget my place again."

"Shall I correct your wayward behavior like this?" he asked her, worrying the bud of her womanhood with a flickering tongue.

"Ahhhhh, 'tis cruel torture, my lord," she cried, "but do not stop I beg of you for I would be all that you want me to be! Ahhhhh! Ohhhhh! Ohh!" And suddenly fulfilled, Mairin's body relaxed as a wave of warm, honeyed pleasure swept over her.

With a growl of l.u.s.t that came from deep within his throat, Josselin pulled himself up, and mounting her, plunged his aching manhood into her welcoming pa.s.sage. Like one possessed, he drove himself into her over and over again . . . withdrawing and thrusting . . . withdrawing and thrusting until she raked his back b.l.o.o.d.y with her nails and they bruised each other's mouths with hungry kisses. At last when neither of them could any longer sustain the pleasure, their juices poured forth and mingled wildly, leaving them weak with the force of their pa.s.sion.

And after a long while it was Mairin who, recovering her senses, said in a shocked tone, "It is not two hours past the noon hour yet!"

Josselin laughed weakly. "Lady," he said, "what has the hour to do with it?"

"Should we be making love now? In the daytime? It seems somehow indecent."

"I know of no rule of either G.o.d or man that forbids a husband and wife from enjoying each other whenever it suits them." He rolled off her, but quickly took her hand in his, and kissing it, held it.

"Do you remember your parents making love in the daytime?" she asked him.

"Before they were married, aye, but once they had wed, she became very proper. Not so proper that she didn't have another baby. It seems so strange. My sister, Linette, is legitimate, and I am not. I hardly know her, for mother was not anxious that her precious daughter be exposed to her b.a.s.t.a.r.d." There was a hint of bitterness in his voice.

Mairin squeezed his hand. "We will love all our children, Josselin. I never knew my half-sister, but Brand was all the world to me. I loved him dearly. I would have our children love each other too in that way."

She was magnificent, this beautiful girl he had married! He had never known such kindness of heart in any woman, and he marveled at her sweetness. What had he done to merit such good fortune? he wondered. He wanted to shout aloud with his joy.

"I must write to my father," he said, "and tell him of our marriage. It is past time I did so, but I have not a fine hand. Can Father Albert do it for me?"

"I will do it for you," she answered him, standing up and smoothing her skirts down demurely. "If, my lord, you can compose yourself, and come back to the hall with me."

"Very well, lady, I will come with you, but from now on I shall keep a strict accounting of your behavior, and each night we will settle matters between us."

"And your behavior, my lord?" she asked, her mouth curving into a mischievous smile. "Shall I also keep a strict accounting?"

He nodded. "I am a fair man. You will have your chance to plead your case." He stood up, and settled his own clothing so that it had a semblance of neatness. Then reaching out he swiftly swept her into his arms. "You're a saucy wench, Mairin, my wife."

"A saucy wench for a bold knave, my lord," she answered him pertly, and pulling his head down kissed him hard.

"Not so quickly," he laughed as she moved to pull away from him. Then he kissed her slowly, and sweetly, his mouth moving sensuously on hers, his tongue running softly along her lips.

Why, she thought, why is it that when he kisses me I feel as if my veins are filled with honeyed wine? She managed to pull her head away from him. "Don't," she begged weakly.

"Why not?" he demanded. "I like kissing you."

"I like it too," she admitted, "but it makes me want you very much."

He chuckled. "I find that extremely acceptable behavior in my wife." He held her tightly against him, his hands rubbing up and down her back in a suggestive manner.

"We shall never get anything else done if all we do is . . . is . . ."

"f.u.c.k," he supplied cheerfully, and then he laughed. "The word may be Anglo-Saxon, Mairin, but I know it. It means to plant, and that is just what I want to do with you. Plant my seed in you deep and sure, and see you ripen with child." The hooded eyes blazed down at her with pa.s.sionate intensity. "I don't think I shall ever get enough of you, enchantress mine."

"Nor I of you, my lord!" she whispered. "Do you know how very much I crave you? I wonder if I should not be ashamed of such a fierce desire." Reaching up she touched his cheek softly, and Josselin shuddered with his feelings.

Then he loosed her, and shaking himself said, "You are right, Mairin. We shall never get anything done if we do not leave this room." Without another word he took her by the hand and they descended back down into the hall where Eada sat still placidly sewing, and Dagda yet honed on several knife blades.

Mairin picked up the tunic she had been working on, and began once again to add embroidery to the neckline. Josselin returned to the high board where he studied the manor books. Every once in a while, however, their eyes would meet, for neither could help but look at the other. Their ardor excited and thrilled them and they felt they could not get enough of one another.

When the evening meal was served, they ate automatically, tasting little, anxious for the time when they might once more leave the hall and escape to the private world of their bedchamber. The letter to Raoul de Rohan was momentarily forgotten. Eada and Dagda cast amused looks at each other. Finally when Mairin and Josselin, with much yawning and complaint of fatigue, had left the hall, Eada said, "I think, Dagda, that we may look for an heir to Aelfleah by Michaelmas. I confess that I long to hold my grandchild in my arms!"

The Irishman rumbled with humor, but there was a touch of nostalgia in his voice. "She is like Maire Tir Connell if she but knew it. My princess was as hungry with her pa.s.sion for Ciaran St. Ronan as Mairin is for her husband."

"Pray that that pa.s.sion does not result in the same end," fretted Eada.

"No," said Dagda. "My princess was always delicate in her health. Mairin has always been strong, and she is broader across her hips than the princess was. Mairin has her natural mother's face, my lady Eada, but she is more like her father in build. There's a look to her. She was meant to breed up babies, and she wants to have them. My princess was joyful to be bearing Baron St. Ronan's child, but she was also secretly fearful. Such fears can take a toll on a woman. Mairin is not that way. Maire Tir Connell was a fairychild, delicate and elusive. Her daughter is made of sterner stuff. Have no fears for her safety, my lady Eada. She will not only survive whatever life offers her, she will thrive."