Reckless (Age of Conquest #5) - Tamara Leigh Page 0,130

the same as you it would be done earlier.”

“Hence, my fear you will not touch me,” Nicola said on a gasp.

Vitalis replenished his breath, leaned in, and closed his mouth over hers. It was a kiss that would have gone much further were this another day, but he was in control—proving to his wife how much he desired her and assuring her that just as she could not long resist consummating their marriage, neither could he.

When he lifted his head, she smiled. “I think you love me, Husband.”

“I do, Wife.”

Another little gasp. “I knew it! Well, very much I hoped it. And I shall try to accept that though you may never love me as much as—”

He pressed his fingers to her lips. It was not that he was loath for her to speak Hawisa’s name. It was that he was too fatigued of mind and body to prove anything further this eve. “When we are far from here and I am clear of mind, we will decide how to proceed, Nicola. Now if you would aid in completing my ablutions so sooner I may be abed, I would be grateful.”

She kissed his fingers, stood, and stepped to the table that held basins of herbed water and washcloths. “I shall sleep in the chair and you on the bed.”

“Nay, you will share the bed with me, Wife.”

She looked around. “But—”

“We shall keep our backs to each other.”

She smiled. “I would like that. And I will try very hard not to turn as I am given to when restless, and certainly that I shall be this night being abed with you.”

And so she was. As sleep tugged at Vitalis, once more he felt her drop onto her back, but this time she rolled to her opposite side. Pressing her chest to his back, tucking her knees behind his, she slid a hand up his side, down his chest, and splayed it over a heart whose beat had doubled.

“Now I can sleep,” she whispered.

Surprisingly, so could he—and so deeply, it was as if he had hardly slept at all these four years.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Wulfen Castle

Wulfenshire, England

He is an armful!” Nicola exclaimed as she attempted to settle the babe comfortably against her chest, but he was weighty and restless compared to his sister whom she had passed back to Hawisa.

“Sit, Nicola.” The lady nodded at the padded bench beside her.

“Gladly!” Nicola lowered, shifted Abelard so his rear and legs were supported on her lap, then adjusted his cap which she had fashioned before his birth—larger than the one covering wee Wynflaed’s head.

Though the size of the Lady of Wulfen’s belly had led Nicola to believe she carried twins likely come from the D’Argent line, how she had known one would be a boy and one a girl…

It mattered not, though it was a wondrous thrill to have been right.

When the babe’s hand found his mouth, Nicola kissed his brow. “You and your sister bless us all, beloved nephew.” She smiled at their mother, then looked to their menfolk visible beyond the open door where they had withdrawn to the landing outside the hall after being welcomed to Wulfen. Those menfolk now included Vitalis, but no longer Maël.

Though he had received the king’s permission to aid his cousins in searching for Theriot in the North and departed Red Castle with them, near Peterborough he had detached from them to return to Abbot Turold the knights entrusted to Daryl as well as deliver a missive from William. The latter was another thing Nicola boldly requested of the king after he informed her Lady Ardith’s wardship would be passed to Aunt Chanson. Though also named a bride gift, the missive had been given to Vitalis after William passed his son into the keeping of Nicola’s husband.

Standing tall alongside his mount, belt once more hung with his own sword and dagger, Vitalis had frowned from the king to Nicola.

“That,” William had said, “directs the abbot to remove the head of Zedekiah from his gate, reunite it with his body, and bury him in holy ground.”

Vitalis’s cool, dry eyes had moistened, and Nicola had felt his love for her deepen, and his hatred of the king…

It had taken some moments, but he thanked and titled William, and when the king departed, Vitalis had drawn Nicola aside and fiercely kissed the one he named his wondrously reckless wife.

“I see promise in Prince Richard,” Hawisa returned her sister-in-law to the present.

“Much promise,” Nicola said and recalled another Norman of high nobility