Page 24 of Lord Tristram's Love Match

“So,” he said artlessly, clearing his throat. “At last we meet, my lady.”

Judith said nothing, still staring at him with a deep blush in her cheeks. Tristram suppressed a heartfelt sigh of regret. He had behaved wretchedly. And in the next days he should strive to be courteous and mindful of his wife. He willed himself to temper his maddening arousal, reasoning it would be wrong to rush things. In a day or so, when Judith had taken the time to reacquaint herself with him, things were bound to take their due course. He well recalled that, whenever he’d touched her in those first days of the marriage, Judith had appeared shy, but she’d not appeared to fear his touch. In truth, on the stairs, it had seemed to him she was returning his kiss with abandon. But at this time his mind was so fevered with lust of her that he simply couldn’t tell if her acquiescence had been all a figment of his heated mind. So he reasoned it was best to temper his ardour. He was too famished for her touch. A famished man might end up ill-treating a woman who was unschooled in lovemaking.

He willed himself to disregard his lust, and, as he started to talk to his wife, telling her how his journey had been, and hearing her talk in that lovely voice of which he’d often dreamt, he soon began to feel more at ease. He’d missed Judith so! And he immersed himself into the sheer joy of being with her after such a long separation. They talked at length, and she told him of Redmore, and of the things she’d done in his absence. They talked at leisure until evening fell, and at last they descended to have supper. Tristram was yet to meet the lady Fenice, who had been unwell before, but who now sent word she felt up to meeting her new son-in-law.

Chapter 11

Present time, 1174

Tristram looked upon the lady Fenice, after he’d given her a bow. The lady did look pale and somewhat older than he recalled her. She was still an uncommonly beautiful woman, graceful and poised, who met him with a serene expression upon her countenance and a regal tilt of her head.

“My lord Tristram,” she said, in a sweet, mellow voice which sounded very much like Judith’s.

Tristram strived to look stern, because this woman, just like Judith, had stood against King Henry and he was bound to deliver news from his monarch. Yet Henry had decided to be gracious with most of those who’d stood against him. And Lady Fenice was ailing and her family was still a powerful one. Henry was well aware he needed to show himself magnanimous, since the whole Christendom’s eyes were still upon him after the killing of Thomas Becket.

“My lady,” Tristram said. “King Henry has decided to be gracious. You’re pardoned for rebelling against him. Henry means to be honourable to his vanquished foes.”

Lady Fenice nodded, and Tristram saw a look of sheer, warm gratitude in her blue eyes. He suddenly felt very guilty for his own part in this war. He’d been ordered to capture her castle. And he knew too well Judith’s mother had only been supporting Eleanor’s cause. Judith might have spurned and betrayed her husband. But Judith’s mother was not guilty of any wrong against him. She’d just taken an opposite side to his, and Tristram could not hold that against her.

“I thank you for being so gracious!” Lady Fenice said with tears glistening in her eyes. “And for allowing us to still reside here!”

“Things have been harsh on both sides in this war. Rest assured, I will never bring myself to chase you from your home as long as you wish to remain here. It would be most dishonourable of me,” Tristram spoke in a soothing voice, with an incline of his head.

He’d have abided by Lady Fenice’s decision and aided her to re-join her French home or allowed her to seek a convent, but it seemed that, like Judith, Lady Fenice wished to remain at Redmore. He bit his lip in anger when he thought upon Judith. Judith certainly still believed the worst of him, failing to see he had done what he’d done in order to protect her from a more dire fate. As always, she was blind to him and to his attempts to aid her. He supposed it was just as well. Since he’d chastised her in front of everyone, she had true cause to hate him. It was plain she couldn’t see he’d chastised her but mildly, though he had been required to deliver a harsh punishment upon her. And it was, for the time being, perchance best she thought herself wronged. As long as his cousin was here, it must look that Tristram was a harsh husband to her. Yet it didn’t help that Judith still appeared defiant rather than chastened.

“Speak to your daughter for me,” he found himself telling Lady Fenice. “Make her see that as long as my cousin is here, she must strive to look repentant for the way she behaved. I vowed for all the court to hear that I would chastise my wife for what she did if I decided not to cast her away, and I am not a man who’s ever broken a vow. So chastise her I must! Until the Church and the King are satisfied I have her contrition and obedience. It’s best she soon show contrition! So that my cousin would send word of it and we can all be free of his watchful eyes.”

He already knew Lady Fenice was an astute woman. And, unlike Judith, Lady Fenice was a woman who saw reason. He hoped this time Judith’s mother would make her daughter see reason. As for speaking to Judith himself – he no longer felt his wife deserved this courtesy from him after the wretched way she’d behaved. She’d broken her vow to him and had unjustly spurned him years ago when he’d strived to earn her love. He had no words to share with Judith. Not any longer.

“I will, though I fear very much Judith won’t heed me. She is her father’s daughter and quite wilful, you see,” Lady Fenice said with a chagrined expression on her face.

Tristram nodded with a grim expression of his own.

“It would be for her own good to let go of her wilfulness. Make her see there is no other way! Better thatIchastise her. And once my cousin sees she is repentant, there’ll be no need for more chastisements. I am not vengeful. I’m only doing what needs to be done for us all to have our peace.”

Yet as he spoke the words, he went in his head over the chastisements he’d delivered in the bedchamber, and his blood heated just at the thought of them. To him, they had become love play and not punishment, a dangerous game he found sinfully wicked and pleasurable. And he was well aware that, unlike the belting he’d delivered for all to see, the pain he’d bestowed upon his lady in the privacy of their bedchamber had been always mingled with pleasure.

He stifled a sigh, resolving not to think too much upon the punishments. They were punishments, nevertheless. And Judith would do well to submit to them and appear to have learnt her lesson in obedience. It was for her own good to do so.

Lady Fenice seemed to easily understand he was playing his own part in this dire state of things, striving to spare Judith from true pain and humiliation. It would be dishonourable of him not to attempt to shield his wife from harm, although she didn’t deserve his aid. Tristram found he could never behave otherwise.

“I shall tell my daughter it’s best she submit to you, as a good wife should,” Lady Fenice said in her melodious voice.

Tristram let out a rueful laugh. The Judith he’d first known had looked sweet and shy and ready to do his bidding, but during his marriage he’d learnt Judith wasn’t all sweetness. Perhaps the sweetness had been entirely feigned, just like her shyness.

He raked a weary hand through his hair.

“You and I both know she won’t truly submit. She is most wilful. Yet tell her to use the guile she most certainly has. As long as it looks to the others I have schooled her to obedience, we shall all weather this!”

Chapter 12

Two years ago, 1172

Judith felt elated that Tristram had finally arrived today after such a long separation. Casting a furtive glance in her husband’s direction, she tried to still her thumping heart. She recalled the taste of his ardent kiss on her lips and the way his hard body had been pressed against hers on the stairs. It had been bliss to have him so close and to be kissed by him, and because of his touch, her quim had felt wet and ready. She had eagerly waited for him to claim her once they’d reached their bedchamber, and had been disappointed he hadn’t done so. Hadn’t he been able to see she was very eager for his caresses? Or was it that he was weary after his journey? Judith decided not to make much of this, because talking to Tristram and being with him was sheer bliss anyway. Yet she thought of the heat between them. Perchance Tristram had retreated because he hadn’t been able to fully perceive how famished she was for his touch. He had always been courteous and considerate of her. So Judith started to think of the best way to show him she could hardly wait for him to bed her.

However, when she visited her mother in her chambers to tell her good night, Lady Fenice must have well seen Judith’s head was on things other than their talk.

“It’s plain to me you are mightily joyful your husband has finally decided to pay a visit upon you,” Lady Fenice spoke.

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