Page 50 of Love, Remember Me

She realized that she could not fight him, that she wanted his passion every bit as much as he wanted to give it to her. Passion, it seemed, was as addictive as sugarplums. She felt her body thrusting back at him, seeking the wonderful pleasure he had earlier given her. When it came, she wept in his arms, shattered by the tremendous lust that had overwhelmed them both, yet contented by the final outcome. She had never realized that married people made love so often and in such a variety of places.

He tipped her face up to him and kissed her mouth softly. "I adore you, Nyssa," he told her quietly. "You are magnificent."

She blushed. "I cannot help myself," she told him. "When you make love to me, I truly enjoy it. I do not want you to stop, I fear."

"We have gotten water upon the floor," he said, his face not quite as repentant as it should have been. "Shall I call someone to clean it up, or would you rather we dried ourselves off and found our bed, sweeting? A bit of wine to restore us, a little rest, and perhaps we may again this evening find paradise."

"The water will evaporate, and tomorrow Tillie can remove the stains it leaves," Nyssa said in practical tones. "God's bones, I am hungry again! Does lovemaking always make one hungry, Varian?"

Together they stepped from the tub and dried each other off. Then Nyssa cut several slices of bread, lavishly buttered a piece for herself, and placed a slab of rare beef upon it. Biting into it, she smacked her lips appreciatively, and then held it out to him.

"Would you like a bite, my lord? It is delicious."

"I shall make my own," he told her, "and afterward, I'll have a sweet. Pear tartlet."

"I had another treat in mind," she told him mischievously.

"Madame, I must have time to restore my vigor," he told her again.

"Can you not . . . well, is it not possible . . . ?" she attempted.

"Not at will since I was seventeen," he said with a laugh. "You will not be neglected, Nyssa, for I find you arouse me more than any woman I have ever known, but I am shortly to celebrate my thirtieth birthday, sweeting, and need a bit more time than when I was seventeen to regain my stamina. You are young, and I would have you well-satisfied lest you seek another lover and break my heart."

"Ohhh, I should never seek a lover!" Nyssa declared. "I am your wife, my lord. It would not be honorable to betray you."

Wonderingly he shook his head. "What loyalty do you have to me, Nyssa? A day ago my family entrapped you into marriage with me, and destroyed your reputation with the king. Surely such behavior is not deserving of loyalty. In time, I hope, you will come to fully love and trust me, but for now I should not blame you if you hated me."

She sat cross-legged upon their bed, munching on her bread and meat, but she answered him honestly. "Varian, did you not tell me yourself that when you refused to take part in your grandfather's scheme, he threatened to put me in another's bed, so you agreed to help him after all because secretly you loved me? Certainly such action on your part is deserving of my loyalty. You saved me from the Blessed Mother only knows what horrendous fate."

"But you do not love me," he answered her.

"Nay, I do not," she replied frankly, "but perhaps in time I shall. I cannot promise you that I will, but though we have been wed less than a full day, I find that I do like you. You are kind, and you have humor. I need to know you better, Varian."

"Then you are not angry with me?" he said.

"Nay, not at you, but at your grandfather. I regret the way in which we were forced to wed. I regret that the king should think badly of either of us, even though we may not be important to him. I value the king's friendship. I am saddened that he should believe that I betrayed that friendship by wanton behavior. We cannot tell him the truth, however." She sighed, then continued, "My mother did not know my father, Edmund Wyndham, when she married him. She had had but a single glimpse of him once from behind a hedge when he came to seek Grandfather's permission to marry one of his daughters. He did not even know how many daughters my grandfather had, or how old they were. It was most outrageous of him."

"And how was your mother chosen?" Varian de Winter asked her. He was fascinated by this tale of his unknown mother-in-law.

"She was the eldest," Nyssa answered him. "She was not quite sixteen. My grandfather's flocks had twice been wiped out by disease. He was left virtually penniless with a fine estate, but no gold to dower any of his eight daughters. When the Earl of Langford appeared, and wanted one of his daughters to wife, Grandfather at first was suspicious, but he had never heard any ill spoken of Edmund Wyndham. My father told him that he was newly widowed and that he had no children. My grandmother's fecundity was well-known in our region. My father reasoned that if my grandmother could bear healthy, living children, then certainly her daughters could as well. That is why he sought out the Morgans of Ashby.

"Still my grandfather demurred, but then Edmund Wyndham made him so handsome an offer he could not refuse him. My father agreed to take Mama without any dowry at all. Indeed he agreed to supply her with everything she needed. He would also dower Mama's sisters and help my grandfather to restore his estates. Grandfather, of course, consented. He could do nothing else and be considered a reasonable man. Mama was furious. She believed that she had been bartered into marriage. My aunts, however, were simply delighted by their good fortune.

"My father's nephew, Anthony Wyndham, came to marry Mama as proxy for his uncle, and to escort Mama toRiversEdge. She was furious, and says she detested Tony on sight, but I don't believe it. She was prepared to hate my father too, but his charm, she says, won her over immediately upon her arrival atRiversEdge. She fell deeply in love with him. When he was killed in an accident, she blamed Tony. I was not even two, and Mama was with child again. She lost the baby, a son, and she hated Tony even more.

"My aunt Bliss brought her to court, and that is when the king saw her and fell in love with her. Tony had been in love with Mama since the first moment he had seen her, and now he followed her to court, and was devastated to learn of her favor with the king."

"Like I love you," Varian pointed out to Nyssa.

A sudden comprehension dawned in her eyes. "Aye," she said slowly. "I suppose it is the same, but with Mama there was my father first. Tony would never have spoken up while my father lived. He nursed his passion in solitude, and no one was ever aware of it."

"What happened when my cousin Mistress Anne Boleyn came?" Varian de Winter asked his wife. "How did your mother come to marry Anthony Wyndham?"

"Tony was my father's heir, as there was no living son. When he finally came up to court, it was with a mad plan. He intended to tell the king that my father had asked him on his deathbed to marry Mama and protect us. It was a ridiculous scheme, Mama says, for my father was killed instantly when his horse threw him; but Tony decided the king would not know that. The king, of course, was delighted to have an honorable means of ridding himself of Mama, since he was so fascinated by your cousin Anne. They were married in the king's own chapel, as you and I were, and departed court immediately. Mama was outraged."

"To be supplanted by my cousin?" Varian wondered aloud.

"Nay," Nyssa told him. "She had never wanted to be the king's mistress in the first place, but how was she to refuse Henry Tudor? She realized that she would be but a diversion to him until another diversion came along. She is genuinely fond of his grace even to this day, however, and he of her.

---