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She was being roasted alive Overwhelh to strip away several of the furs causing her discomfort By the time she&039;d removed all but one, she ide awake and not pleased at the waking She felt terrible Horrendous Her mouth was dry and filled with the most unpleasant taste Her whole body seerirunt and a movement drew her head sharply around

For amound of furs beside her; then Willa&039;s memory kicked in She was married now The ht had been her wedding night

Of course, the rest of the memories quickly followed Yesterday&039;s cere her above stairs to prepare for the bedding That here herthe herbs Eada had given her in the ale that had been set out She re the concoction She re that she&039;d taken too e of her husband leaning over her

Willa glanced down at herself sharply If Eada were right - and Willa had never known the wo - he&039;d planted twins in her belly last night Gri as she ran her hand over her stoood possibility Her sto She&039;d never heard that planting babies hurt the woood an explanation as any for her pain and discoetic Actually, considering the fact that she felt as though she&039;d been trarateful she&039;d overdosed herself with Eada&039;s potion If this was how she felt afterwards, she wasn&039;t all that eager to experience the act itself

Gri her best not to jostle her new husband Much to her relief, Hugh didn&039;t even stir at her slight an to tiptoe around the rooown she&039;d worn the day before The only nice gown she had She did coave her pause They were rolled up in a ball and lay in a corner of the room Eada had told her that there was blood the first time, that the blood would prove her innocence Now she stared at the wadded linens and thought with some horror that surely there had not been so much blood? But what other reason was there for her husband to have stripped the bed?

She turned away fros Thefor her wasn&039;t finished yet The gown she&039;d worn yesterday was the only fine garment she possessed, but Willa had other ones, less fine, that she&039;d brought with her She dragged one out, donned it, thentime since Willa had lived in a castle, not since she was a child But in herplace At least Clayan had been The silence thatthe shakiness of her legs and the cra in her stoaze slid around the great hall as she started down One glance was enough to explain the unnaturally quiet castle Most of the inhabitants were sprawled about the hall, snoring No doubt the celebration had gone on well into the early hours ofoff their drink She i the ale passion when they woke Their sore heads would

Willa was just stepping off the stairs when one of the figures at the table shifted and stood Willa smiled widely "Good ently as Willa embraced her, then studied her face "How do you feel?"

"Horrid," Willa adroan and the old wo Some dry bread and fresh air willservants to the kitchens

While the rest of the castle al spell, the kitchens showed soish Alsneta and several servants were stunored the fresh bread cooling on the table and sought out so it to Willa, sheto drink She rejoined Willa aof meade in hand, then herded her back out into the hall She led her along the table to a clear spot where the two of them could sit She then made Willa eat so her closely the whole while

Willa wasn&039;t hungry, but dutifully she ate and drank, knowing that Eada would not be satisfied until she did She was halfway through the siven her when the woain Willa watched her go, then glanced around Spying one of the castle dogs eyeing her hopefully, she broke off a good portion of the bread and held it out to hiulp down the bread, then glanced toward the kitchen and started to eat the last of her bread as Eada returned The old wo and back, but merely held out the small sack she carried

"What is this?" Willa asked curiously, accepting the sack

"For Wolfy and Fen They must have followed us to the castle yester ht &039;Twas aye Besides, the fresh air and ill do ye good"

Concern filled Willa&039;s eyes "I did not hear them"

"Nay Well, I&039;m not surprised Ye were otherwise occupied"

Willa blushed slightly at those words, took a sip of the o find theht had been spent fretting over his wife She had not slept well Even once she&039;d finished vo up the poison, she&039;d tossed and turned fitfully for hours It was only once her struggles had ceased that Hugh had allowed hiaze slid to the bright sunlight slipping around the covering in front of theBy his guess, he&039;d had only a couple of hours&039; sleep It hadn&039;t been nearly enough His chest felt as if a great coere sitting on it, his eyes were scratchy and his head was splitting

Ah, ht dryly At this rate, the old witch&039;s prediction that he would die ere the next full h the h quickly covered hishis wife Willa would be weak and in need of ht&039;s ordeal, he was sure

That thought lance toward her, but she was buried under a h sniffled and eased onto his side He winced at the pain shooting through his derriere, a reetting up and down last night to tend his wife had done his butt little good He was exhausted and suffering a head cold and a pain in the arse Aye, he was aaside the furs He had perhaps overdone it with the furs, but winter was cohts were cool Now he lifted skin after skin away in search of his wife, only to discover that she was gone

Hugh ignored his co him Willa had left the chath after the ordeal she&039;d been through He couldn&039;t believe she&039;d had the nerve after what she&039;d put hiore over the years A o to war and come back with innocent eyes, but dear God, he&039;d never seen the likes of last night Give hi, he reached for the clothes he&039;d worn the night before, started to lift them from where they lay on the linens, then re with Willa&039;s gown and the linens, were soiled

Tossing the soiled clothing aside, he gritted his teeth against the pain in his arse and stoh it until he cah donned the tunic as he walked to the door, then hopped fro the door open, he let it hit the ith a satisfying crash, then continued to the stairs and down to the great hall The crash of the bedchamber door had acted like a rooster&039;s crow to those loafing in the hall Most of them were awakened by it Others were startled awake by the activity of their co about by the tinored every last one of the, at the table He immediately started in her direction

"Where is she?" he asked without prea at her side

"She went for a walk"

"Alone?" There was no led in his voice

"She is safe enough," the hag assured him calmly "She&039;s safer with Wolfy and Fen than she is anywhere else in this world"

Hugh didn&039;t miss the rebuke in her words He&039;d allowed Willa to be poisoned She&039;d been put in his care and he&039;d failed her Cursing, he turned away, then paused and glanced back "Is she on foot or on that horse of hers?"

"On foot But she&039;s been gone a while Mayhap an hour," Eada told hih strode out of the castle Willa had a head start and he had to find her quickly Someone had tried to kill his wife before they had even consue Uncle Richard&039;s worries and fears were already coh didn&039;t have any idea why

Hiswith displeasure, he headed for the stables He would quickly hunt her down and bring her back to the castle She obviously wasn&039;t safe And Hugh could hardly believe that the witch had let her wander off on her oolves or no wolves

"My lord!"

Hugh slowed his step and glanced around at that call Spotting Father Brennan rushing toward him, he stopped and tried not to appear as impatient as he felt at this delay "Good morn, father"

Father Brennan was a little out of breath as he reached Hugh, but he was bealad to have co I fear yesterday was all so rushed, I did not fulfill h asked politely, but his gaze andering toward the stables He wished his squire was about so that he could send him ahead to ready his horse Where was his squire anyway? He&039;d released the lad fro he wished to be alone with his bride He scowled as the ue him Gad! Had ever a man been so beset bybride

"Nay First you were off guarding Lady Willa Then when the two of you arrived here, everything was so chaotic that I never ed the ti"

"The bedding?" Those words caught Hugh&039;s attention and drew his wandering thoughts and gaze back to the priest&039;s now slightly flushed face "There was no bedding My bride was poisoned"

"Aye Lord Wynekyn informed me of the situation and I must say I see it as soh scowled down at him "I did not mean fortunate, I meant well, under the circuh interrupted, no longer bothering to hide his ione off on her own and Iher back She - "

"She is returned, h started to turn away He spun back at once

"She is?"

"Aye So you see, I brought this treatise" He held out a rolled up and beribboned scroll When Hugh merely stared at it blankly, the priest undid the scroll and began to unroll it " &039;Tis De secretis h interrupted again This tione, replaced by ood intentions, but a priest was the last person whose advice he needed on bedding his bride Not wishing to eed a solemn expression and patted his shoulder "I am not an innocent, father I have been omen before There is no need for counsel"

"Oh, certainly, certainly" The priest nodded his head, then shook it "But Lady Willa is not so, innocent bride The consummation of your new relationship has been sanctified by the church Your ive her a tumble like soh paused, uncertainty creeping into his ht, he&039;d considered it, but mostly fro how she would greet his arrival in their chahts had been rather full of the idea of finally sliding into her moist warmth He hadn&039;t considered the act froinal point of view Willa would not be a laughing tavern roin to let hi She would be

This new line of thought was giving hi patiently for an answer What had the question been? Oh yes! "Nay Of course not I have never taken a woman&039;s innocence"

"Just so Which is why you are in need of counsel" He finished unrolling the scroll andthe parchment so that they could both read it "De secretisinstruction for marital er relations" A sudden squeak in his voice drew Hugh&039;s glance from the scroll to the priest&039;s now flushed face The a both the h echoed curiously He didn&039;t think he would have trouble with preparing his mind His mind seemed more than ready However, if there were special instructions on preparing the body, he would be interested in reading them A bath perhaps that they could share He had a brief picture of running a damp bit of linen over Willa&039;s sweet breasts, her nipples co hiested, for instance"

Hugh&039;s erotic irimace of distaste That would be the church&039;s idea of preparing

"It also gives other detailed instructions," Father Brennan saidattention The bit about e the bowels had rather lost him, but his interest perked up a bit now

"What sort of detailed instructions?" he asked, looking over the Latin script When the holy lance to find the priest cherry red and looking mortified

"Well, they - " he squeaked, then cleared his throat and evaded Hugh&039;s gaze as he tried again "They suggest &039;tis necessary to er fondle the wife&039;s &039;lower parts&039; to er raise her body to the proper er heat - "

"Heat?" Hugh interrupted with surprise

"Aye You see woh asked with surprise He had never noted women to be especially cold Neither in behavior, nor to the touch

"Aye, they are," Father Brennan assured him "Men, by contrast, are hot"

"Really?" he asked with interest, recalling now a time or then he&039;d been startled awake by a cold foot seeking his for warmth under the furs

"Oh, aye!" Father Brennan exclaimed "Heat is the male&039;s essential quality It the man&039;s heat creates the exciteains that vital heat she is lacking"

"She does, does she?"

"Aye So you see, the wife is thereby strengthened by the joining"

"Hrunted, but his attention was on the treatise the priest still held open for hi that there et the wo , he asked, "How do you knohen she has reached the correct temperature?"

"Er I believe it states" the priest ran his finger over the words, then nodded, his face flushing again "Aye Here &039;tis She will begin to &039;speak as if she were babbling&039; That is when you shall know to couely - "coh nodded as he read the section theto