She wasn’t a weak woman, and she’d prove it to him. “I’d like to meet your family today.”
“You will meet them erelong.”
“And Christina. I want to make sure she’s all right.”
“She fares well and has already been in this morn to sit by your side.”
Marian was running out of excuses. She didn’t relish the idea of going back outside the gates of Chesterfield Park. But she had no choice. She had to communicate with Harrison. Today. Perhaps she could leave him a clue that she was looking for a new hiding spot.
Yes, she could locate a place here in Chesterfield Park, a nook or cranny somewhere within this original structure that had remained from 1381 until the present.
But where? She’d have to probe the room and see if she could locate a loose floorboard, area in the wall, something. Then she’d need to find a way to let Harrison know she’d changed the spot. Was there an item from the house, a small heirloom she could place in the crypt, signaling Harrison to search his home?
Whatever the case, she couldn’t rest in bed all day.
As though sensing her growing determination, Will’s jaw flexed. Something in the steely lines of his face told her he was accustomed to giving commands and having them followed without question.
But he’d quickly learn she wasn’t like most people he ordered around. Even if she was currently in the Middle Ages where women had fewer rights, she wasn’t about to stand back and let Will or any other man rule her life.
“I really must get up.” She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and let the covers fall away altogether. A moment of dizziness assaulted her, but she caught herself.
As she began to stand unsteadily to her feet, Will grasped her and brought her easily down onto his lap. She wriggled and tried to stand back to her feet, but Will’s arms slipped around her waist, drawing her further into his embrace.
Suddenly, she was conscious of their nearness, of the fact that her shift was tangled around her legs, exposing her knees and lower thigh, that its scooped neckline hung low, giving Will a slight view of her cleavage. It was less than her swimsuit would have revealed, but at Will’s quick intake of breath, she guessed she was showing more than men during the past were accustomed to seeing.
He spread his fingers flat over her stomach. Through the thin linen, his touch scorched her. His other hand drifted into the unbound hair that hung down her back. His fingers wound into the thickness until lost there.
Every breath he took was louder than the last and echoed in her ear, pumping into her blood, sending heat to the tips of her toes and fingers. When he pressed his face into her hair and breathed in a deep gulp of air, her arms went around him as if they had a life and will of their own. She shifted her head and brushed her cheek against his, finding pleasure in the scrape of his unshaven scruff with her skin.
His jaw rippled against her, and he tilted his head enough that his lips found the pulse in her neck beneath her ear. As his kiss landed there, she couldn’t hold back a gasp. Or another, as his mouth slid lower to her collarbone.
How could this man do this to her? Make her forget about everything but him? Because she couldn’t remember what had been so important to make her climb out of bed.
A startled gasp resounded from the doorway. “Oh my.”
Marian jumped and would have broken away from Will in mortification, except he didn’t release her. Instead, his hand against her stomach pressed tighter, holding her in place. At the same time he brushed a thick wave of her hair off her shoulder, exposing more of her collarbone where her nightgown had slipped down. His lips caressed the spot, before he spoke in a growl. “Be gone, Christina. Can you not see we are occupied?”
“Christina?” Marian sat forward and glimpsed Christina cloaked from head to toe in her usual apparel. The young nun had cast her eyes down, but her face was the flaming red of autumn leaves, especially in contrast to the tight-fitting white wimple that outlined her face.
As Marian pushed against Will’s chest to free herself from his seductive embrace, a low protest rumbled in his chest. His eyes were glassy with unsated desire and his expression taut. Yet, he released her, albeit reluctantly.
She scooted from his lap and stood—or at least tried to. Her legs were too weak to support her weight. As she faltered, Will lifted her and laid her back into the bed. As he flipped the coverlet over her, his attention shifted to her lips. Her stomach barely had time to clench with anticipation before he captured her mouth.
His kiss was hard and swift and shot through her like a gun blast.
He broke the kiss abruptly, this time before she was sated. “Stay in bed, wife.” He spoke in a low tone that told her he would accept nothing less than complete obedience. Then he strode out of the chamber, passing Christina without a word.
The moment he was out of the room, Marian expelled a breath—half from desire and half from frustration. Why, oh why, had she allowed herself to kiss him again? On the other hand, what harm could come from a few stolen kisses?
A warning inside told her to be careful. Will wasn’t the kind of man she could kiss and then abandon. He felt things deeply and personally. His worry at her bedside this morning was proof of that. When it was time for her to go, she’d hurt him—perhaps badly.
All the more reason to get out of bed and search for holy water.
Christina tiptoed across the rushes, her face still flaming. Marian could only imagine what the young nun thought of her. She probably considered her a hussy, making out with her brother after knowing him only a day.
“I’m sorry,” Marian started. “I didn’t mean to—well, you know . . .”
Christina didn’t respond except to dip her head lower.
“You probably think the worst of me.”
“Oh no, lady.” She glanced up then, shaking her head. “I could never think that. I admit I was surprised to hear about your hasty marriage the past eve. But I rejoice to see William happy again.”
What had she done to make Will happy? As far as she could tell, she’d only made his life more complicated. “Wasn’t he happy with his first wife?”
“He was content enough. And he would have laid down his life for Alice.”
Alice. Marian rolled the name around silently. Had she been pretty? Rich? Funny? What had Will loved about her?
“But Will and Alice were young when they met, and he was gone for such long periods of time.” Christina sat down in the chair Will had vacated. “I fear they never had the chance to see if love could bloom.”
Marian had the sudden unpleasant vision of Will in this bedchamber with another woman. He’d likely lain in this very bed with his wife.
“Now that my brother is older and more mature, he knows his mind well. He realized you are the woman he needs, and he wasted no time in claiming you.”
“I’m the woman he needs? How so?”
Christina smiled and looked up from her clasped hands. “You are strong-willed and determined and unconstrained. You will be good for him.”
“I see.” Marian didn’t have the heart to tell Christina that she wasn’t good for Will. In fact, she’d only cause him grief.
Sarah entered the room carrying a tray. Christina rose to help Marian sit up in the lumpy, uneven bed, and then Sarah placed on her lap the tray containing a bowl of steaming porridge, bacon slabs, dark bread, and watery ale.