Page 54 of Exile's Return
A chuckle rumbled in his chest. ‘Neither am I, but I’ve never tumbled a girl who wasn’t willing. Agnes…?’
All she had to do was say “no” and he would let her go. She would go back to her own bed and life, such as it was, would go on as it had before. But what sort of life did she have? Did either of them have?
They were both waiting for something to happen. Perhaps this would be part of it?
Chapter 23
Daniel woke with a start from a nightmare in which he stood in a crowd watching as his brother was led to the gallows. He tried to call out but his words were lost in the noise of the crowd. At the last minute Kit turned and looked out over the baying mass, which grew silent as Kit raised a finger and pointed directly at Daniel.
He sat up, the sweat on his naked chest and forehead turning clammy in the cold pre-dawn. Beside him, someone stirred and a small hand came up to rest on his arm.
‘Daniel?’
He looked down at the woman beside him, seeing only her shadow in the dark.
Agnes.
A wave of remorse flooded him as he remembered how she had given herself to him completely and apparently unconditionally. He had used her to assuage his misery and his guilt with little thought or consideration for this woman.
He lay down on his side, propping himself on one elbow as he ran a finger down the line of her jaw, imagining her small earnest face with its smattering of freckles, aware that her gaze was fixed on his face.
‘Agnes, I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘For what?’
For taking you, for using you, for giving you nothing in return when you have given me so much.
‘I should never…’ he began, but she laid a finger on his lips.
‘Hush, it was my choice.’
He gripped her hand, holding the fingers against his lips, kissing each tip before releasing her and trailing his fingers along the line of her jaw and the hollow of her throat. She had a woman’s body, curved, soft and warm to the touch.
He stilled. ‘Agnes…’ He struggled to find the words. ‘Have you ever taken pleasure from laying with a man?’
‘I’ve only lain with one man. My mother and sister told me it was a woman’s lot to bring comfort to a man, not to expect anything in return. I never asked or expected it to be different.’
‘Did James love you?’ he asked.
She didn’t answer at first. Her chest rose and fell in a silent sigh. ‘Love was not a consideration. James was kind to me, that was all I asked.’
‘He wouldn’t marry you?’
She gave a huff of laughter. ‘Marry me? He couldn’t. The Church forbids marriage between a man and his wife’s sister, and James would never have gone against the teachings of the Church.’
Even when that woman was the mother of his son?
The reason for the Great Secret suddenly became so much clearer. With the taint of illegitimacy, Henry could never inherit his father’s estate, but if no one knew or suspected that the child’s mother was not the Earl’s wife…?
He wondered about the circumstances that surrounded Henry’s birth and why Agnes had willingly borne the child. Maybe she would confide in him but not now…not here.
He turned the question. ‘Did you love James?’
This time she answered without hesitation. ‘Yes.’
God rot James Ashby, Daniel thought. Had James realised what a treasure he had in this woman, or had she just been a convenience to be used like any one of his possessions?
But Ashby was dead and he, Daniel Lovell, who should have been dead, was alive and Agnes lay in his arms as if she had always belonged there.
