Chapter Eleven #4
Diara did. She bolted up from the chair and let him take her from the dais and behind a screened area that the servants used. Once they were there, they were out of the field of vision of nearly everyone in the great hall, and Roi took her quickly to a small door that led outside.
It was misting outside, with the clouds hanging low, and they ran nearly the entire way across the bailey with Roi helping her hold up the hem of her skirt so it wouldn’t get muddy.
They made an odd pair, running through the muddy bailey, but moving quickly saved her dress from becoming too wet and too dirty.
In fact, the only things that were dirty on her person were her slippers, and that couldn’t be helped.
Once inside the keep, they quickly proceeded up the stairs to Roi’s chamber on the family level.
The chamber was dark except for a banked fire in the hearth, and Roi left Diara standing by the door as he went to stoke the fire for a little more light. When the blaze began to perk up, he took a small straw of kindling, lit it, and went over to a bank of candles against the wall.
One by one, he lit the fat, yellowed tapers, before moving to another bank of candles and doing the same thing.
Soon, the entire chamber was aglow, and Diara came away from the door, seeing that Roi’s bed looked like something rich and luxurious.
It was covered with silk drapes and silk pillows and a coverlet stuffed with feathers, and lying on the corner of it was a garment of some kind.
She held it up in the light.
“A robe,” she said, fingering the elaborately embroidered fabric. “This is beautiful. Is it yours?”
He chuckled. “Does that look like it would fit me?”
She held out the sleeves before shaking her head. “You might be able to get one arm into the main part of it,” she said. “But the sleeves would not fit you.”
“Nay, they would not.”
“Is it for me?”
Roi nodded faintly. “It is from my mother and father,” he said. “While I went to Cheltenham to retrieve you, she went to Hereford and had this made. It’s silk with rabbit lining.”
Diara laid it back on the bed. It was pink, that color she positively detested, with a white fur lining. Truthfully, it was exquisite. It would have been magnificent had she not hated pink so, but she turned to Roi with her eyes alight.
“It’s positively beautiful,” she said. “Your mother was so kind to give this to me.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
She nodded, her smile fading as she looked at him seriously.
“It’s strange, truly,” she said. “I have spent the vast majority of my life alone. I’ve never had many friends, as you know, and in my family, I am the only child.
In the past few days, I’ve come to know this massive family you have, and it has given me a sense of belonging I’ve never experienced before.
It’s a crowded sensation, but a lovely one. ”
He went to her, taking the robe from her. “I hope it will become something you are always comfortable with and grow to appreciate,” he said, holding up the robe. “Would you like to try this on?”
Still in her red silk dress, she put her arms through the sleeves, which were big and belled.
It was a delightful garment, and she turned to him with a grin, prompting him to wrap her up in his arms and hug her tightly.
Their first true embrace as man and wife.
It would have been an incredibly enticing moment except for one thing.
They began to hear singing.
Puzzled, they looked at one another to make sure they weren’t hearing things.
Clearly, Diara heard it, and so did Roi.
They weren’t hallucinating. Roi leaned toward the chamber door, but it didn’t seem to be coming from there.
Diara was already moving to the window, and he came up beside her in time to see several men gathered three stories below in the dark, misty bailey.
And they were singing.
There was a farmer and a whore,
A woman who demanded more!
Plow my field, she begged,
Plant your seed and do it again,
And the farmer used his plow on the sow!
They broke down into uproarious laughter at the lewd song, lifting their cups of wine to the married couple over their heads. As Roi waved his hands at them in an attempt to force them to stop, they launched into the second verse.
Aye, the farmer had a plow,
A plow that could topple a cow.
He used the whore, she cried for more,
But his wife came back from the store.
Now the farmer is nevermore, nevermore!
They were shouting more than singing by that point, howling at the bawdy song. Diara covered her mouth so they wouldn’t see her grin as Roi, biting off laughter, continued to wave his hands at the group.
“Get out of here, you fools,” he demanded. “Take your filthy plows elsewhere!”
They roared with laughter. Roi could see that the group was comprised of Douglas and Westley, Gallus, Tiberius, Maximus, and Andrew. There were also several de Lohr soldiers trailing after them from the great hall, who were now shouting up at the window.
“Take her by the hair and tie her to the bed, m’lord!” someone cried. “Women like it when you tie them up!”
Roi smirked, shaking his head at the group, turning to Diara and mouthing, Nay, they do not. She burst out laughing as Roi shouted down to the group again.
“If I have to leave this chamber to come down there to disperse the group, you will not be pleased,” he warned. “It would be safer if you simply go back into the hall and stay there.”
“Give her the flesh sword, Roi!”
That one came from Westley, who was quite drunk. But the entire group took up cries of “sheathe the flesh sword, sheathe the flesh sword!” and Roi slapped a hand over his face in disbelief while Diara giggled uncontrollably. At that point, Roi had had enough, and he shook a fist at the group below.
“Go away,” he said. “That is not a request!”
As he reached for Diara to pull her inside, the group shouted up one last batch of encouragement.
“Demand the prick, Lady de Lohr!”
“Poke her, Roi!”
“Bury the matrimonial sword!”
That brought laughter from both Roi and Diara as he pulled his new wife into the chamber and dropped the oil cloth over the window opening.
Diara was laughing so hard that she was wiping tears from her eyes, but just as she was calming down, she looked at Roi and started laughing all over again because he was smirking.
He was terribly embarrassed. He opened his mouth to say something, but a faint shout caught his attention.
“Roi!” It was Douglas. “Shall I come up and give you some instructions? Shall I show you how it is done, brother?”
They could hear the laughter outside, and Roi rolled his eyes. “God’s Bones,” he muttered. “That group is enough to drive any man insane with rage. I am sorry, angel. They mean well.”
Diara was still smiling. “They do it because they love you,” she said. “I’ve seen enough mean-spirited men to know that they were not being malicious. They are simply happy.”
Roi shrugged. “I suppose,” he said, moving to the bed and sitting heavily. He puffed out his cheeks. “I did not realize how exhausted I was until this moment. It has been an eventful day.”
She stood about a foot away, smiling at him. “Too exhausted?” she said. “Then mayhap you should go to sleep and we will continue this in the morning.”
He looked at her for a moment before whipping out an arm and pulling her against him. “There is not a chance that will happen,” he muttered, his face in her neck. “You and I have business to attend to.”
Diara was quickly succumbing to his heated breath on her skin, his powerful body wrapping itself around her. “Business, is it?” she asked breathlessly. “What business could we possibly have?”
His lips were on her shoulder, but he couldn’t help from smiling. “You are about to find out.”
It didn’t matter that Diara had never really been in an intimate position like this.
It didn’t matter that she’d never gone beyond the kiss she and Roi had shared in the solar.
Her mind might be na?ve, but her body wasn’t.
It was responding, innately, to what it had been born and bred to do—respond to a man’s touch.
Everything about her was on fire as Roi kissed her, and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears.
“Show me,” she whispered.
Roi didn’t need any further prompting. Her request had him on fire, and he cupped her face in his two enormous hands, bringing her mouth to his.
When his lips claimed hers, it was hungrily, as if he had never kissed a woman before until this moment.
He’d been married before. He’d had women before.
But not like this—never like this. It was as if Diara was the only one.
As his tongue began to lick her, begging for welcome into her warm, delicious mouth, his hands moved from her face and went to work on her clothing.
The red dress came off, seemingly dissolving in his hands, and he had no idea why. He didn’t think he’d pulled that hard on it, but he evidently didn’t know his own strength. The entire thing began to fall away, and it took him a moment to realize that it was because Diara was helping him.
Inch by inch, the dress slid off her body and onto the floor.
Beneath that, she wore a shift, which came off as well, and in the dim light of a dozen glowing tapers, Roi found himself gazing at his wife’s perfect, nude body.
He couldn’t remember ever seeing anything so completely arousing, but as he moved to pull her against him, he realized he was still wearing his clothing, and, almost frantically, it began to come off.