Chapter Six #3
“Why aren’t you going to eat?” he asked her.
She didn’t look at him. “I am not hungry, my lord.”
He sighed, knowing she was still smarting from the licking he had given her earlier and knowing full well she was angry with him. To get angry with her would only inflame the situation, so he tried another approach.
“Please, Dustin,” he said softly. “Will you please come and eat with me?”
She looked at him, then. “I cannot sit down.”
He repressed the urge to grin. “That is your own fault. Mayhap if we bring a pillow for you to sit on?”
She shook her head. “I will not embarrass myself in such a fashion.”
He thought a moment. “Then I will eat up here with you.”
Before Dustin could protest, he was giving orders to two serving wenches and within minutes, the nooning meal was indeed brought up to her rooms and nicely displayed on her small cherrywood table. Christopher indicated a chair for her.
“My lady?” he said respectfully.
She eyed him a moment before setting down Caesar and moving for the chair. Yet she avoided the chair and reached down to her trencher, picking up a chunk of brown bread.
He watched her as she stood, eating. “Are you really that sore that you cannot sit and enjoy your meal?”
She glared at him. “Aye, I am. Your hand is big and you are strong and you hurt me.”
He sat down, busying himself with his food. “Had you not been so disobedient, I would not have had to teach you a lesson.”
“And what lesson is that? That you are stronger and bigger, and you can hurt me anytime you so choose?” she shot back.
He took a slow, deep breath and looked pointedly at her. “Nay, my lady. The lesson learned is that you will obey me at all times, and be respectful.”
She pouted angrily and turned away, chewing on her bread.
She didn’t know quite how to respond to him, because in faith, she knew she had pushed him over the edge and what he had done was quite within his legal right.
He could have done far worse. As it was, she only had a bruised bottom and nothing else.
Dustin was not daft, she knew that her mother had indeed let her have the run of the house the entire time her father was gone and she had gotten used to having her way in everything.
No one would dare respond to her temper.
But it was painfully evident that her new husband would not tolerate her willful nature or stubbornness.
She sighed, thinking how they had come to this point this day.
It had all started with Christopher slugging Jeffrey cock-eyed and she had gotten angry.
Then the whole situation had blown itself way out of proportion because he wouldn’t do what she wanted him to do, and that was tell her why he had struck Jeffrey.
She could not bend and twist this man the way she did everyone else and she was irked by it.
“Try the apples, they are delicious,” he remarked, his mouth full.
She kept her stiff back to him. “I do not want any, thank you.”
“So you intend to only eat bread and nothing else?” he asked. When she shrugged, he continued. “Dustin, you did not eat anything all day yesterday, and I know you did not break your fast this morning. You shall make yourself ill if you do not eat more than a simple piece of bread.”
She shrugged again and he put his spoon down, getting out of his chair. “Come on,” he grasped her shoulders and pushed her back to the table. “Eat something.”
“Nay,” she protested. “I…I can’t sit on that chair, it will pain me.”
He looked at her with annoyance, finally sitting heavily in his own chair and pulling his rigid wife onto his lap. She twisted and fussed, and tried to pull away from him.
“Cease,” he snapped softly, and she was instantly still, though she was glaring at him. “Now, my legs are a bit softer than the chair, so you may sit with me and eat your meal.” As she shook her head, he raised an impatient eyebrow. “I shall feed you if I have to.”
Her anger glazed with uncertainty, and she took the remaining piece of bread in her hand and shoved it into her mouth, still glaring at him as she chewed. He repressed a smile, reaching across the small table and pulling her trencher next to his.
“Try the apples, they are delicious.” He picked up his spoon and resumed eating.
It was certainly the strangest meal Dustin had ever eaten.
Torn between her anger for him and the comfort of his warmth and closeness, she somehow managed to eat everything in front of her.
Christopher was pleased she was complying, realizing toward the end of the meal that his left hand had never left her waist. He was also hopeful that her anger was spent, for he had no desire to butt heads with her the rest of the day.
He finished his meal, watching her as she finished hers. As she was finishing the apple cider left in her cup, his right hand fingered the skirt of the indigo-blue surcoat she wore.
“David brought your new dresses,” he said. “Why do you not wear one?”
She set the cup down, looking at his huge fingers grasp her dress. She could refuse, but she could not take another spanking this day.
“Very well,” she said quietly, hating herself for sounding so damn submissive. “Which one would you like to see?”
“You choose,” he replied.
She stood up, rubbing her bum as she moved over to the bundles piled next to her bed. The one on the top was the lavender. She picked it up and broke the strings that tied it.
Christopher rose, moving for the door. “I shall be downstairs,” he told her. “Come and show me when you have finished.”
“Aye, my lord,” she responded quietly.
He gave her blond head a second glance as he exited the room, wondering if she were going to do as he asked or if she would find some other way to disobey him.
*
Christopher was outside in the mid-afternoon, watching the de Velt twins’ swordplay in the small arena to the west of the fortress.
David, Edward and Leeton stood with him, all yelling encouragement or insults at the two burly men.
Several other officers and soldiers were also watching, including Jeffrey. David nudged his brother.
“Why did you let him stay?” he asked.
Christopher glanced at Jeffrey before returning his gaze to Max and Anthony. “We can use all of the knights available,” he replied. “I should like to see him fight the winner of this match.”
His brother did not truly answer his question, and David was more curious than ever. Interrogation of Jeffrey earlier had given him no clues, either.
“Chris, I thought you were intent on seeing this man leave,” he said again. “Why is he still here?”
“Do you want him gone?” Christopher asked.
“I care not,” David answered, watching Max land a particularly heavy blow on his brother. “But you do not like him; that is apparent. Especially in lieu of the blow you landed him this morning.”
Christopher sighed, clearing his throat. “I struck him because he touched my wife, and he knew it,” he replied. “And it is not a matter of whether or not I like the man, but I understand him better now. We had a most productive talk this morning, which is why I let him stay.”
David frowned wryly. “He didn’t touch your wife, he was merely helping her with her dress.”
Christopher’s head snapped to his brother. “No one touches Dustin but me,” he said sharply. “I will not have my wife being handled by my knights, for any reason.”
David cocked an eyebrow. “What about me? Would you have slugged me, too?”
“You are different, David.” Christopher turned away irritably.
“How so? I am your knight,” his brother persisted.
“But you are my brother, and her brother-in-law,” Christopher replied, as if David were daft. “ ’Tis different for you to touch her. Why are you arguing this point with me?”
“I am not,” David gave him a long look. “It’s just, well, for a man who did not want a wife, you are being damn protective of this woman whom you married.”
“What am I supposed to do, David?” Christopher replied, fully irritated now.
“I married her, and I am obligated to protect her. Would you have me ignore her, allow her to do anything she wants with anyone she pleases? Would you have me care so little for the de Lohr name that I would pretend my legal wife did not exist?”
“I am not questioning your honor, calm down.” David crossed his arms, watching Anthony trip over his own feet and nearly get clobbered by his brother. “It’s just that I am starting to see more to this relationship than you are admitting.”
Christopher looked at him with contempt. “You are mad, David, and I will hear no more. Lady Dustin is my wife, in name only. That’s it.”
David snorted a reply, causing his brother to grind his jaw.
They watched the de Velt twins wind down their match in silence and Christopher motioned to Jeffrey across the arena.
Without any words, Jeffrey knew what was expected of him and eagerly complied.
It had been a long time since he had tested his skills on knights as fine as these.
Christopher watched the massively wide man take on Max, noticing immediately that Jeffrey wasn’t particularly graceful, but he was as strong as an ox and any blow he landed to Max sent the man reeling.
He became engrossed in the fight, forgetting his irritation with his brother and studying the ex-captain’s skills.
It didn’t take long for him to discern that Jeffrey was very, very good.
He called a halt and the two men immediately stopped, facing him as he crossed over to them.
“Take a rest, Max,” he instructed his knight. “I will finish your bout.”
David tossed him his helmet and he latched it on, lowering the visor and drawing his sword from his scabbard. Jeffrey, seeing Christopher was moving into a defensive stance, immediately did the same.
“Let’s see how good you truly are,” Christopher said in a low voice.
Beneath his lowered faceplate, Jeffrey grinned. “A pleasure, my lord.”