chamber confirmed that for him. “Good,” he said. “Why don’t you let the others know we’re leaving, Maman? I’ll be with you as soon as I’ve had a private word with my bride.” He was both amused and annoyed by the reaction of Berengaria’s duennas, for they looked as horrified as if he’d just announced that he planned to drag the girl off to a bawdy house. But he left the matter in his mother’s capable hands, watching with a grin as she ushered the women out. Like so many clucking hens, he thought, and turned back to Berengaria as soon as the door closed behind them.
To his surprise, she looked as flustered as her duennas. So it was true that Spanish women were kept almost as sequestered as Saracen wives. Well, the lass would just have to adapt to Angevin ways, for Navarre was part of her past now. “You need to explain to your women, little dove, that I do not always have ravishment in mind when I seek some privacy with you.”
Berengaria blushed again, her lashes fluttering downward as she explained softly that she’d never been alone with a man before, for that would cause a great scandal. “Other than family, of course,” she added and then her breath quickened, for Richard had reached for the long, dangling ends of her silk belt and was playfully pulling her toward him.
“So . . .” he said, and there was a low, intimate tone to his voice now that she found both mesmerizing and disquieting. “Sancho’s little sister is all grown up. . . .” There was no longer space between them, and she could feel the heat of his hands through the thin wool of her gown as he slid them down to her waist. “I am going to take a wild guess and venture that you’ve never been kissed?”
“Not yet,” she whispered, shivering when his fingers moved caressingly along her throat. But she did not protest when he tilted her chin up and then brought his head down, his mouth covering hers. The kisses were gentle at first, awakening sensations that were unfamiliar but not unpleasant. When his arms tightened around her, she followed his lead, dimly aware that this was surely sinful but paying more heed to the messages her body was sending to her brain—that she liked what he was doing to her. When he at last ended the embrace, she felt lightheaded and out of breath, relieved that he meant to take it no further, and understanding for the first time why men and women put their immortal souls at risk for the carnal pleasures of the flesh.
“Well,” he said, “now you’ve been kissed, Berenguela. But I promised irlanda that we’d get to Bagnara by noon, and if we do not, she’ll put some vile Sicilian curses on my head.”
Berengaria did not find it as easy as Richard to return to the real world. She could still taste his mouth, feel his hands on her waist, and she had no idea who Irlanda was or where Bagnara was, either. But when he took her hand and propelled her toward the door, she followed obediently for several steps. Stopping abruptly then, she looked up at him in delighted surprise. “You called me Berenguela!”
“Why not? It is your name, after all.”
“Yes, but for the past five months, I’ve heard only Berengaria, the French version, for I was told it was more fitting for your queen. Berenguela is my real name, what I am called in Navarre. And you remembered!”
“I like the musical sound of it,” he said, reminding her that he was a poet, too. “I find it more pleasing to the ear than Berengaria. But it does make sense for you to have a French name when the majority of my subjects speak French. So we’ll compromise. You can be Berengaria at court, Berenguela in bed.”
Not waiting for her response, he opened the door and started swiftly down the stairs, towing Berengaria behind him. Feeling as if she had been caught up in a whirlwind, she let herself be swept along, for what else could she do?
JOANNA HAD MANAGED to lay out an impressive dinner, given that it was Lent and she’d had only one day’s notice. The priory guest hall was filled with linen-draped trestle tables for all the people accompanying Eleanor, Berengaria, and Richard. But she’d reserved the high table for her family, not willing to share her mother with any others, however