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"Above stairs?" she asked with surprise "But &039;tis early yet, my lord husband I am not the least tired"

"Aye Well, ould not wish you tired on this night"

"Why? I will not sleep if I aht," he said patiently, giving her a ful look For a moment he feared she&039;d been left coe bed; then her expression suddenly cleared

"Oh! You wish to - " She cut herself off, blushing Standing, she turned to Lord Wynekyn Hugh distinctly heard her say, "I apologize, my lord I must to bed now"

"So early?" Lord Wynekyn exclai bride said, "Aye, I fear aze shot to Hugh The oldcolor suffuse his face, Hugh stood irasped Willa&039;s arht Hugh&039;s arh Allow her to prepare in privacy"

Hugh opened his mouth to protest, then spotted the hope on her face His shoulders slu oaf around her He had no intention of continuing on that way

"Very well," he agreed unhappily "Go prepare"

Willa flashed a grateful slanced around for Eada But the woman was nowhere to be seen Confusion filled her briefly, then she recalled that someone had approached the older wo if she would assist the village midwife in a difficult birth It see and Willa found herself having to fight the urge to flee as she made her way toward the stairs

This fear was a bit startling Willa had never expected to feel such trepidation After all, Eada had explained everything She knehat to expect There was no need for this cowardice What was about to come did not sound very pleasant Actually it sounded rather aard, ungainly and unpleasant Still, it must surely be more fun than it sounded, else people would not do it often, she assured herself She started up the stairs, trying for a sedate pace

She wasn&039;t convinced

Unfortunately, Eada had taken pains to stress that the first tiht be unpleasant She&039;d claimed there would be blood and pain the first time and that both proved the bride&039;s innocence Fortunately, the old woman also had taken some steps to help Willa with that unpleasantness She&039;d prepared a decoction of herbs for her The mixture was to help soothe Willa, to make the first time a more relaxed venture and perhaps ease so large in Willa&039;sthat the herbs were the first thing she attended to on arriving in the room she and her husband were to share Eada had pressed the se earlier and Willa had hooked the laces of the pouch to her girdle so as not to forget it at the table She unhooked the pouch now as her gaze settled with sos set on a chest by the fire It seee That was one bother out of the way

Willa hurried to the chest, chose one of the oodly quantity of the mixture in She then added so at it as she did It smelled like meade, but with an unexpected nutty scent She watched the herbs whirl around in her cup and wondered if she&039;d added enough

Eada had told her to be sparing with the as in a pinch? Or sparing as in noto be one first night for her She would never need the herbs again

Aye, Willa decided The full pouch should do it She tipped the pouch into the rier afterward Oh, this was going to be awful The concoction orse than vile And she had to drink all of it? Perhaps suffering the bedding without it would be less painful, she thought, then nearly ju When they continued on past the door, she relaxed with a sigh Alright, she was obviously terribly tense, which Eada had said would only ht be for the best, after all

Picking up the potion, she hesitated, then held her nose, tipped her head back and poured it straight down her throat Oh! &039;Twas truly vile Disgusting! Ugh Setting the an to drink straight fro at the fruity liquid in an effort to wash the taste and bits of herb fro to wash the vile potion away The draught did e to remove most of the taste from her mouth, but not all She&039;d just decided she would have to put up with it when the bedcha the empty pitcher back on the chest, she whirled toward the door Surprised relief covered her face as she saas entering "Eada! You are back!"

"Aye" The woman closed the door and bustled into the room "And not a moment too soon, I see Ye haven&039;t even started to prepare"

"I just got up here," Willa explained

"Oh Well, let&039;s get ye ready then Where are the herbs I gave ye?"

"I already took theaze turned sharp "Were you sparing as I instructed?"

"Oh aye," Willa said, then to distract the old wo Eada had attended

Hugh thought himself a most patient man He&039;d watched his wife leave the table, then started to count to one hundred He had decided that once he reached one hundred, he would be free to follow her That seemed perfectly reasonable to hi to remove and a bed to crawl into Surely, that could not takeenough for his bride to prepare herself

He&039;d started out counting at a nice slow ed hih several dozen nuain Then Lucan had addressed a question to hih had lost count as he paused to answer

Irritated at hi count, he&039;d arbitrarily picked ninety as the place to begin counting again Hugh hastily counted off the last ten nurabbed his ar above stairs already, are you?"

"Do you not think she will be ready?" Hugh asked uncertainly

"Good Lord, nay!" Wynekyn pulled him back to sit on the bench "She will barely have reached the roolanced toward the stairs He supposed thatup the stairs while he had been rather rushing the count to a hundred She probably had just reached the rooine what she would be doing right now Would she insist on a bath ere getting into bed? Nay, he decided, she had bathed before dressing for the wedding So, at this ht helped to shake soht thatthe laces of her beautiful blue gown She would let it slip off her shoulders and drop to the floor in a soft swish She would step delicately out of the pool of cloth and move to the bowl of water in just her chemise Her thin white cheht, her legs would be visible through the cloth as she scooped water into her cupped hands and raised it to splash over her face That water would drip down to da to her soft rounded breasts so that her hardening nipples -

"Do you not think so, Hugh?"

"Huh?" He blinked as the vision he&039;d been enjoying disappeared, then turned with some confusion to Wynekyn "Do I not think what?"

"That the cook outdid herself? &039;Tis so Richard always de Luvena to follow in her footsteps - when the child wasn&039;t off playing with Willa"

"Hreement, then asked fretfully, "Do you not think she is ready by now?"

"Nay!" Wynekyn snapped, then gestured beyond hi up to assist her No doubt she will corunted at that It was his considered opinion that Eada would only slow the process It seemed to him that by this time Willa had probably finished with her ablutions and whatever else it o She had no doubt already removed her thin chemise and slid naked beneath the linens

He licked his lips at that thought, knowing that soon - inher sylphlike body into his arainst the hair of his chest His hands would slide down over her smooth back to cup the round cheeks of her bottos apart with one knee, and ease his way inside her, planting his seed deep in her woht away and she would present hiined a se was quickly replaced by hiold by the firelight, her shi around the two of the her in place as he drove hih!"

Wynekyn turned froh with surprise, startled by his outburst "What is enough,that he&039;d spoken the word aloud, Hugh reached for his oodly quantity of ale He had not h Rising, he nodded deterive Wynekyn the chance to protest again, or to suggest they follow any h was da to allow hi more like a man headed for battle than to bed, he strode to the stairs and jogged quickly up them His expression dared anyone to interfere He was ready for the bedding part of thisto put him off Hell, he&039;d been ready since the other day in the stable when the only thing that had stopped him was his inability to res so bloody impossible for a man to remove alone, anyway? What about situations when there was no squire around to aid in the undressing?

He gri he&039;d done after Wynekyn had taken Willa above stairs was to send for his squire and a bath

What a relief it had been to finally get out of that ar stuck in it for three days and two nights straight had er to shed it Once the chain mail was off, he&039;d sent his squire away and had seen to the rest of his disrobing and the bath hiet a look at whatever was causing him so much pain in the saddle Unfortunately, its location had made that impossible He still wasn&039;t sure what the problem was, but the hot bath had seemed to ease the pain somewhat That wasn&039;t to say that he&039;d been co celebration, but at least he&039;din pain