"I'm awake, my lord. I see that ye slept as little as I did last night. I am still tired."

"Ye'll feel better after a hot meal, la.s.s," he said.

"We never ate the food the Greenwood staff packed for us."

"No matter," he said. "It's so cold it will keep until tomorrow."

The coach drew into the inn yard of the King's Head, and no sooner had it stopped than the innkeeper hurried out to open the door. "Welcome, m'lord, m'lady! We've kept yer rooms and a hot supper waiting!"

Conn sprang from the vehicle, and then turning he reached into the carriage and lifted Aidan down. Following the innkeeper inside they found they had been given two pleasant rooms, both with fireplaces, on the ground floor of the building. Mag and Cluny hurried in behind them, each anxious to help their master and mistress.

"Take the capes!" snapped Mag to Conn's man.

"And who are ye to be giving me orders, Mrs. Mag?"

"Capes is the man's job where there is a man for the job," she answered him. "Boots is a man's job too. 'Tis obvious ye don't know yer duties."

"Not know me duties?" Cluny was totally outraged. "I'll have ye know, Mrs. Mag, that I've served his lordship for these last six years, and never a complaint from him!"

"How could he complain? He obviously knows no more than ye do."

"Mag!" Aidan's voice was slightly reproving, and she even surprised herself for Mag had raised her, and she had never found it necessary to seriously scold her tiring woman. "I do not want ye and Cluny quarreling. As body servants to my husband and myself ye must set an example for the rest of the servants at Pearroc Royal. When we arrive home I will set ye each yer duties, but in the meantime ye must settle it between ye." Mag looked properly chastened, and she was suddenly aware that the child she had raised lovingly was now a woman. Aidan turned to Cluny. "There was no time for us to be introduced, Cluny, but judging from my husband's elegant clothing ye must take fine care of him. Will ye take our capes, please. They are heavy, and Mag so little that they will weigh her down."

Cluny shot Mag a look that plainly said, well at least yer lady has manners, and then bowing neatly he took first Aidan's cloak and then Conn's. "Thank ye, m'lady."

"Put out my night things, Mag, and then go have some dinner."

"Will ye be wanting a bath, m'lady?"

"Nay, not tonight."

Mag curtsied, and went to do her mistress' bidding while Cluny having hung the cloaks in the cabinet was also placing his master's things out for the night. Neither servant would leave until the other was ready, and when they had left both Conn and Aidan looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Do ye think they'll ever like each other?" Conn asked. "Yer Mag is a sc.r.a.ppy little terrier of a woman."

"I don't think yer Cluny is abou to be bullied by her. She's simply very protective of her duties and of me. She'll get used to ye both soon enough."

The innkeeper's wife hurried in with two maidservants to lay the table, and begin serving the supper. Upon the sideboard a row of covered dishes and platters were set, and all exuded fragrant odors to various degrees. There were two decanters of wine, and two frosty pitchers, one filled with nut-brown ale, and the other with cider.

"We will serve ourselves," Conn told the innkeeper's wife, and the goodwife beamed and nodded as she backed from the room.

"Ye've quite enchanted her," said Aidan. "She was quite speechless."

"A strange effect I seem to have on some women," he admitted. "Are ye hungry?"

"Aye! I'm always hungry, and Mag declares that I eat as much as a day laborer working in the fields which she tells me is not at all ladylike. I hope my appet.i.te will not shock ye. I never seem to grow heavier despite my great l.u.s.t for good food."

"I don't like a woman who picks at her plate," he said. "Eat hearty for Robin will not be joining us tonight," said Conn.

"Why not?"

"I believe he is making an attempt to be discreet. It is, after all, our wedding night."

"Yes," she said, and lifting the cover from one of the dishes exclaimed, "Quail! Oh, I do love quail!" and she helped herself to one of the small birds that had been roasted to a turn.

Conn smiled softly. She was nervous. "Serve me one of those quail, too, madame," he answered her.

Aidan heaped her husband's plate high with quail, and a thick slab of beef, a piece of rabbit pie, a spoonful of tiny white onions that had been braised in milk and b.u.t.ter and were topped with ground peppercorns, and a second spoonful of carrots. In a separate dish she served him a generous helping of mussels that had been steamed in white wine, and topped with a Dijon mustard sauce. "What will ye have to drink, my lord?"

"Ale."

She poured him a gobletful, and then setting his supper upon the table she offered him his napkin. Sitting opposite her he could see that her plate was as full as his, and neither of them spoke as they ate hungrily. She tore off a piece of bread from the round cottage loaf, and handed it to him, then took a piece herself and sopped up the juices on her plate with it. She drank white wine, perhaps a bit too much, he thought as she refilled her goblet a third time during their meal.

Finally she sat back, a satisfied look of contentment upon her face, and said, "I can eat no more!"

"There's a gooseberry tart on the sideboard," he said.

She looked regretful, but shook her head. "I couldn't. Not now. I am tired for I was up early this morning, and did not sleep a great deal last night. I want to go to bed now."

"Go, and prepare yerself then, madame," he said. "Let me help ye with yer gown." He turned her about, and undid her dress for her.

Aidan never even looked back at him. She walked to the bedchamber, and entering the room closed the door behind her. There was a key in the lock. She turned it softly. He was not coming into this room tonight. She had made that decision two nights ago when they had met formally for the first time. Her own mother had come from Ireland to wed and bed a stranger, but that had been different. Bevin had been raised to expect such a thing. She had not. She had always a.s.sumed that when the time came for her to marry she would know her betrothed husband.

Ye picked him, the small voice in her head said. Why did ye pick him if ye didn't want him? "I do want him!" she whispered, "but not until we know one another better. I will not be like all the other jades he has known."

Removing her gown she spread it carefully over a chair, adding her petticoats, chemise, and stockings to the pile. Mag had laid a white silk nightgown upon the bed, and Aidan slipped it over her head. It had a high neck with pink ribbons which she tied together, and full sleeves that were edged in lace. Methodically Aidan washed her face, and hands, and teeth in the basin of water that had been left to warm on the hearth. Then she brushed her hair, and finally putting on her little lawn nightcap, and tying their matching pink ribbons, she climbed into the comfortable bed opposite the fireplace. She was just dozing off when his voice called through the door, "Aidan, may I come in now?" She tensed, and debated whether or not to answer him. Finally she decided it was better to pretend she was asleep.

He knocked upon the door. "Aidan! Are ye all right? Answer me!" He sounded worried, and she felt guilty.

"I have retired, my lord," she said faintly.

"I, too, would like to retire, Aidan. Open this door!"

"Ye will sleep in the parlor, my lord."

"Will I?" His voice sounded faintly ominous.

"Ye cannot expect me to welcome a stranger into my bed, my lord. I am not some lightskirt like the women ye knew at court!"

"I am hardly a stranger, Aidan. I am yer husband."

"But I don't know ye!" she wailed, and then gave a little shriek as the door to the bedchamber was kicked open.

He stood silhouetted in the entry way for a moment, and he looked so big that she was suddenly frightened. "Madame! There will be no locked doors between us, ever! Do ye understand me?" He advanced into the room, and he seemed to increase in size as he neared the bed. "Do ye understand me?" he repeated.

"If ye come any nearer," she shot back at him, "I shall scream the inn down!" She clutched the bedclothes to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her knuckles white in the firelight that lit the room.

"And having screamed the inn down what will ye tell those who come, Aidan? What is there to be fearful of?"

Her oval face stared up defiantly at him. "I will scream," she reiterated her threat.

He sat down upon the edge of the bed, and she gasped, but he threatened menacingly, "If ye scream, I shall beat ye!" Startled, her lips clamped shut. "That is better," he said. "Now listen to me, Aidan, my wife, ye do not have to fear me this night, or any other night. I have already realized that yer far more innocent than most girls of sixteen, let alone twenty-three. I have never needed to resort to rape, and because yer legally mine has not changed my thoughts in that direction. I am going to get undressed, and I am getting into this bed, but there will be nothing between us, Aidan, until ye feel yer ready. Do ye understand me?"

She nodded, but then said, "Why must ye sleep in this bed?"

"Because there is no other, and it is d.a.m.nably cold. When we arrive at Pearroc Royal we may have separate bedchambers."

"There is only one master's chamber at Pearroc Royal. It is not the largest house in the world, my lord."

"Then we will continue with this arrangement, Aidan, but I will never force ye." He got up from the bed, and began to undress before the firelight.

She had never seen a man's body, and half-curious, half-fearful she spied on him through partly closed eyes. He was so big. Clothes frequently added to a man's girth, but in Conn's case it was not so. His long slender legs soared into tight b.u.t.tocks which flared into a slim waist and broadened into a wide back and shoulders. When he turned about to wash in the basin that Cluny had left him, Aidan squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She was not quite ready to know everything! She felt the bed sag with his weight, and immediately she tensed.

"Are ye asleep yet?" he asked in a gentle voice.

"N-nay."

"Come here to me then," he said softly, and drew her into the curve of his arm, her head upon his shoulder.

"There! Is that not cozy, Aidan.' Will ye give me a kiss good night?"

"If y-ye wish i-it, my lord." d.a.m.n! She felt like such a fool! He was being so reasonable, so thoughtful of her sensibilities. Was this the man whose reputation was that of a lecher, and a rake? Why was he being so kind?

Conn raised himself up on one elbow so he might look down upon her. "Tell me the truth, Aidan. Until Twelfth Night when I took my forfeit in our game of Blind Man's Bluff, had ye ever been kissed before? Ever played courting games that men and maids are apt to play?"

"Nay," she said softly.

"Ye've never been courted by any man?"

"Nay."

"Then ye must be courted, sweetheart, for I would not rob ye of that joy which every la.s.s must taste." He bent, and touched her lips with his own.

Aidan felt a thrill race through her as he touched her, and her mouth softened. She was beginning to understand why so many ladies succ.u.mbed to Conn. He was a very persuasive and romantic man.

"That's it, sweetheart," he murmured against her lips. "Let me love ye just a little. I'll not hurt ye."

His kisses trailed down her throat, and around to a spot beneath her ear that was incredibly sensitive. She actually quivered when his mouth buried itself there. "Ohhh!" She blushed at having revealed herself so, but it seemed to please him. His fingers slid into the tangle of her hair to cup her head, and he kissed her ear, murmuring soft sounds into it as he did so. She could feel her own senses reeling, and she thought, if I knew what he wanted to do I would let him. I want something, but I don't know what it is I want! Should a wife be so bold? Oh, G.o.d, I wish I knew! And yet I don't want him to believe he has made another easy conquest lest he be quickly bored with me as he has been bored with all the others.

She was sweet! Dear heaven, this delightfully innocent bride of his was so very sweet. It came to him as something of a shock to realize that Aidan was the one woman he had been seeking all his life! He did not understand how he knew this fact, but know it he did. At this very moment his desire to possess her was growing fast. He wanted to make love to this girl he had only met briefly but two days ago. He wanted to tear her prim little nightshift from her body, and bury himself in her softness. The warm sweet scent of her body, faintly perfumed with lavender, taunted him, but it was up to him as the more experienced of the two to treat her with courtesy and gentleness. Whatever transpired between them tonight would set the tone for their whole marriage. He regretted they were such strangers.

"Do ye like being kissed, sweetheart?" he said gently.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him, slightly bemused, and for the first time he was able to place their color. Her eyes were gray, a silvery gray with tiny flecks of gold in them that reminded him of bits of leaves in an October pond. Her gaze was shy, but unwavering. "Aye, my lord," she said in a low tone. "I like yer kisses, but then," and suddenly the eyes twinkled at him, "I have naught to compare them with so perhaps my judgment is not the very best."

Conn laughed softly although at the same time he was perhaps a trifle put out. She was certainly honest to a fault. "Since I don't intend to have ye making comparisons, sweetheart, I am glad that I please ye. Now go to sleep, Aidan, my wife. We must make an early start tomorrow for I do not like the looks of the weather at all, and we have many miles to travel. I suspect a winter storm is brewing, and I can only hope that we reach Pearroc Royal before it breaks."

Aidan smiled up at him, and then turning on her side tried to sleep. Turning against her Conn slipped an arm about her to draw her back against him in spoon fashion. Aidan's heart skipped a quick beat as he lightly kissed the sensitive back of her neck, but then he settled down, and was soon snoring lightly, his breath coming in little puffs against her nape, and tickling it lightly. Lying there in his embrace she found that she enjoyed this conjugal closeness. It pervaded her entire body like warm honey, relaxing her so that she sighed deeply, and when she did his embrace tightened slightly. With a small smile of happiness upon her lips, she at last fell asleep.

Chapter 4.

To her blushing surprise Aidan found herself awakened by a quick teasing kiss the following morning. Conn was up, and dressed, and it was yet dark outside. A fire already burnt in the room grate to Aidan's relief for despite the warmth from the fireplace the floors were icy cold.

"Good morrow, sweetheart! Ye look so pretty and peaceful sleeping there that I hated to wake ye, but 'tis past, four, and we must be on the road by five at the latest. There's a small breakfast laid in the parlor, nothing special, just a little oat stirabout, bread, honey, and wine, but 'twill serve, and the innkeeper's wife is packing up a large basket for the coach."

His efficiency amazed her. She hadn't thought about Conn as efficient, but then realized that her only knowledge of him stemmed from her brief contact with him, his nephew's admiring tales, and the royal court's gossip, which swirled mistily about her husband, the Handsomest Man at Court. Conn was the stuff of which admiring men and women made legends about, but very little of these stories revealed the whole man; a man she was only beginning to see. It was becoming very obvious to her that beneath the elegant, beautiful, and polished courtier there was an extremely capable man.

"Thank ye, my lord. How thoughtful of ye to think of a hot breakfast. I am ravenous!" She slid from the bed, wincing at the cold floor.

They departed the inn shortly before five o'clock of the morning. It was almost two hours before sunrise, but the waning moon slipping in and out of the lowering clouds offered them occasional light along the road. The weather threatened for the next few days, but it wasn't until the chimneys of Pearroc Royal came into view that the snow finally began to fall.

Conn was enchanted by his first view of Pearroc Royal. It was a very old gray stone house caught in the tender embrace of dark green ivy that climbed up its four walls. Constructed in the year I460 by a n.o.bleman who, seeking to gain favor with his king, had raised upon his own lands a small hunting lodge, simple in its design. It was not particularly large, having never been meant to contain more than a few men out for sport. Whether or not its patron had received any largesse from the monarch he gifted was not known by the St. Michaels, but the records showed that royalty had only visited Pearroc Royal twice.

The first Lord Bliss had found that although the house was basically sound, it needed a good deal of work to make it habitable for a family. He had rebuilt Pearroc Royal, adding great windows and several brick chimneys that soared above the peaked and snow-clad roofs of Cotswold slates. He had left the main floor of the house practically as he found it, but on the upper floor he had done much construction according to Aidan. She told her husband that where there had once been only a Great Chamber, there were now several bedchambers off a central hallway.

The original grant had also included a two hundred acre deer park from which the estate had taken its name, Pearroc Royal being the old English for Park Royal. Deer, however, brought in no revenues with which to fatten the parsimonious king's purse, and so it had been relatively easy for Henry VII to give away the small estate to Aidan's great-grandfather in exchange for his generosity to Prince Arthur.

The coach rumbled up the driveway, and came to a stop before the front entry. At once the arched oaken door swung open, and several servants hurried out to aid the vehicle's occupants. The door to the carriage was opened, its steps pulled down, and a hand was thrust in to help Aidan descend.

"Welcome home, Mistress Aidan!" said the white-haired butler.

"Thank ye, Beal, but 'tis Lady Bliss now, and this gentleman is the new Lord Bliss." She waved her hand at Conn who had descended the coach behind her. "Let us go inside. Are all the servants a.s.sembled? I shall explain everything." They hurried into the building entering through a covered porch that opened into a long hallway. Aidan led the way into the Great Hall which was on the left, and separated from the corridor by t wo beautifully carved screens that sat on either side of the entry to the Great Hall.

In the Great Hall there were over twenty people milling about, but at their first sight of Aidan all chatter ceased, and their faces were, to a man, wreathed in smiles. "Welcome home, Mistress Aidan," they chorused.

Aidan smiled happily back at the household staff. "Thank ye," she said. "I have missed ye all, but I have come home because I have a happy surprise for ye. When my father gave my custody to her majesty he requested two things of our queen. That she find me a good husband, and that he take our family name so that there would he another generation of Si. Michaels. This gentleman is my husband, Conn St. Michael, Lord Bliss. He is yer new master, and I hope ye will all serve him as loyally as ye have ] served my beloved father, and as ye have served me."

Beal, who was the butler and head of the staff, stepped forward. He was an older man, of average height, but with a stately bearing that was increased by his snow-white hair. "Welcome home, my lord," he said. "If ye will allow I will present the staff."

Conn nodded.

"Mistress Beal, my spouse, is the housekeeper," he began, and then went on to introduce Erwina the cook, Leoma the laundress, Rankin the gardener, Haig the head groom, Martin the coachman, and Tom his a.s.sistant. Then came the four footmen, the four housemaids, the two j kitchen maids, the potboy, the knife sharpener, the two a.s.sistant laundresses, the four men who helped in the garden, and two of the four stablemen, the other two currently stabling the young Earl of Lynmouth's coach and horses.

To each servant Conn nodded his acknowledgment, smiling winningly at all the ladies who were immediately enchanted by him. "I thank ye for yer kind welcome," he said. "I hope ye will welcome as kindly my personal servant, Cluny, to yer midst."

"We traveled from Greenwich," said Aidan, "in the Earl of Lynmouth's coach. His lordship left us at Worcester to travel by horseback on to his mother's estate at Queen's Malvern, but with the storm his coach and coachman will remain until after the storm. Please see that he is made comfortable."

"Of course, m'lady," said Beal, and then he dismissed the staff.

"If there is nothing else, m'lady," said the butler, and with a nod Aidan dismissed him.

"This is a fine hall," said Conn looking about curiously now that the servants had gone, and they were alone.