Chapter 4: September 8, 1214

Elizabeth awoke still in Karl's arms, and feeling quite cramped. She moved away from him to stretch, and then remembered the previous morning. He was just waking when she took his hand to place it on her belly. Then she stretched and shook until she was rid of all the kinks from sleep.

"Thou art an adorable woman," he whispered. "Didst thou know that?"

Well, she was a woman whom he adored; she had begun to learn that, and be well pleased with it. "And thou art a handsome man."

"Hmpf! I was not speaking of thy comeliness, although thou art right comely. It was thy manner which I was calling adorable."

"Well, thou didst seem to enjoy my morning stretch yesterday."

"And so I did," he said, "and enjoyed this morning's as well. Dost thou desire another stretch?" She stretched, but it was all play-acting. "I even enjoyed that. But what I enjoyed most was that thou didst invite me to have that pleasure."

"But thinkest thou that I have a comely face?" Suddenly, this was important. Her mother and the priests could say all they wanted about the unimportance and fleetingness of mere fleshly beauty (although her mother took enough time at her own toilet); this man was important to her, and she wanted to be beautiful in his sight.

"Now thou art fishing for compliments. I do think that thy face is very pretty, although thou dost not need a husband to tell thee that; a glass would do. What I said was that thou wert comely, and I was not thinking of thy face particularly. At least thou wert comely in the firelight; let me check whether any changes have occurred."

The checking was quite thorough and included parts of her that he could hardly have been said to have seen, much less have considered comely. She warmed considerably, but finally was led to protest.

"My husband, that breast has been checked three times already."

"It has?" he responded. "We must find some way of marking the explored territory." He kissed her right breast then, while fondling the other. The pleasure from that sensation flowed through her and increased her daring.

She pulled his hand off her right breast and raised it to her mouth. She kissed each finger before saying: "Now my mouth has been explored and needs marking."

His laughter interfered with the kiss for a few moments, but then his tongue dueled with hers. He explored her mouth in earnest while his hand delved below. She was beginning to tense when he asked: "Canst thou remember how thou didst hold me last night?"

She could. After he had climbed between her legs and helped her spread them wider, she gripped him with the three fingers as she had gripped him before. He moved back and forth between her folds although she tried to direct him to the right spot. Finally correctly placed, he moved inward with one smooth motion. Driven against her hip, her hand was almost displaced. She tightened her grip. His organ, seemed to jump at the closer grasp.

"Oh love!" he said. Then he was moving in and out of her. The sensations, so different from what his hand had evoked from the entryway, had similar results nonetheless. Her hips began to move of their own accord. This interfered with his movements at first, but then she and Karl reached a mutual rhythm. He came down when she rose and withdrew when she fell. She could feel herself filled with each of her upstrokes. Delicious sensations flowed from that spot until her whole body was stiffening in expectation of something new.

As if his motions and the swelling under her fingers were not enough, he told her of his own pleasure. "Oh love," he said, "oh dearest." His speed increased until he could put only one syllable into each stroke. "Oh ... love ... Oh ... dar ... ling! ... Oh ... dear ... rest." She felt something unnameable slowly possessing her, and she was pressing towards it when he paused at his upstroke. Barely within her, he said: "Oh my darling, darling,..." then drove into her and rammed her hand against her hip. He was already pulsing within her fingers and within her secrecy when he groaned out " ... love!"

He pressed hard against her and loomed stiff above her for moments longer. She felt a throbbing within her fingers, then a pause, then one more throb. She felt her body retreating from whatever threshold it had reached. Then he softened slightly in her fingers just before he collapsed into a heap beside her and across her leg.

When the weight on her leg felt too great even in a feather bed, she dared to ask, "Couldst thou move thy leg?" He readjusted himself so that his legs were a little away from her and his chest pressed into her side. He breathed heavily beside her ear and hugged her with his arm.

The ebbing of all those new sensations had left her distinctly uncomfortable. Her lower lips were sensitive, if not quite sore; and the sensations of leaking fluid bothered her. Her bladder was also threatening to surrender control, which made the other leak that much more embarrassing. She pushed on his arm, to no immediate avail.

"Must thou?" he asked.

"Truly," she said. He released her and she shuffled over towards the slop bucket. She found ewer, bowl, and towel; having washed a few critical areas, she came back to bed a little cleaner and much colder. Karl's arms were welcome then. Give her new husband his due; he shivered twice but made absolutely no complaint. Indeed, he hugged her close until she was warm.

Then it was his turn to make the trip. "I think," he said, "that the day may have begun despite the dark window." He opened the door. "Ah, Roger. Are my lady's servants here?"

"No, my lord," said Roger's voice.

"Guest robes again," Karl asked her.

"Yes," she answered. It was only appropriate.

"Fetch them and a fresh chemise."

"Boots, my lord? It rained in the night and threatens even now."

"Roger, thou wilt make a squire yet. Yes, boots and a cloak for each."

Even when they left the chapel after mass, the sky yielded only a grudging grayness, and the crash of thunder interrupted breakfast more than once. Having washed their breakfast bread down with a little beer, the company looked out at the drenching rain hitting the courtyard and sought reasons to stay in the great hall.

Sir Frederick had business with the Augustinian monk, but offered any entertainment that they wished. "I had planned some falconry after dinner," he said. "That is no longer possible."

"Would my lady enjoy a game of chess or one of backgammon?" Karl asked. Again she was taken by a sense of how great strangers they were. She played both passably; she had no idea of his strength in either. For that matter, one of the few things she knew about him was his family's aversion to dice; did his mention of backgammon mean that he did not share it? Either to beat her new husband before an audience or to be crushed by him would be an embarrassment. She opted for backgammon, as the dice could be blamed for any result.

The first game went to eight before Karl defeated her in the end. Only rolling a double saved her from being gammoned. Karl didn't touch the doubling cube in the next three games which went two-to-one in his favor. By their fifth game, only Roger was watching. When Sir Frederick summoned Karl to witness the contract he was negotiatiing, Karl asked Roger to sit in for him. Roger doubled at his first opportunity and won soon after.

"These dice seem to dislike me," she said.

"It is not the two cubes which betrayed my lady," said Roger. "It was the one." She looked at him quizzically. "Sir Karl says that there are two games inside the game of backgammon," he explained, "the game of two cubes and the game of one. He forbade me the doubling cube for my first year as his squire. I was supposed to learn the game of capture and territory first. Then he taught me to double, and accept doubles, and -- most important of all -- to reject doubles. My lady should have rejected my double."

"But then I would have lost." She paused for a second. "Well I did lose, but I still had a chance."

"But my lady had not one chance in four. Not one in six, if it comes to that. Sir Karl says that the simple case to consider is that of four games from the same position. If the weaker player would win one of those, then he would get two points to the stronger player's six. He says that it were equally worthwhile to yield all four games and lose but four points. Sir Karl says that any weaker position should refuse a double and any stronger one should accept it. Sir Karl tells me that I must learn more arithmetic before he tells me the refinements. Sir Karl thinks a baron should know arithmetic and requires me to study it." He set the men up again.

She rolled six to his five and immediately advanced one of her men from the one to the twelve. "Sir Karl tells me that that move is premature," Robin said; then he grinned. "But it is fun to use." The rest of the play came with a running commentary consisting almost entirely of quotations from Sir Karl.

She was first enlightened; this was a level of analysis that she had never seen applied to this simple game. Then she was amused. She was closer in age to Roger than to Karl, but Karl and she seemed near contemporaries, while Roger appeared so boyish.

Finally she felt overwhelmed. She respected her husband and was coming to love him. But how could mere love and respect impress a man who was anointed every day by the worship which gushed from Roger?

For all the lectures on strategy, however, the score flowed only slightly in Roger's favor. Having passed a ten-to-two lead to his squire, Karl accepted a 21-to-10 lead on his return. He seemed to play a very conservative game after that, seldom doubling. This was as much privacy as they could expect for a discussion, but she wished Roger were elsewhere. He was giving more attention to the board than the players were, however, occasionally writhing on his stool in his desire to play the pieces. He writhed in silence, though, his tongue having learned some discipline in Karl's presence.

She had an inspiration. "Roger," she requested, "couldst thou look out the windows and the doorway and see what the state of the courtyard appears to be from each?"

"There is no need, my lady. I have been here in rainstorms before. The water will be rushing out through the gateway now, but the mud will be deep if the rain continues until Nones."

"In that case," Karl said, "the horses should be exercised now. Walkest each around the courtyard so they do not stiffen from their exercise yesterday. Twice around should do for the palfreys, but five times for Partizan. An eye at the care that Belle is receiving could not hurt either. After each horse is walked, dryest it off before taking out the next. And, speaking of drying off, bringest a complete, dry, set of thy clothes back to this hall when thou art finished with the horses. Everything, skin to cloak. Bringest thy lute as well. Now beginest."

"Yes, my lord."

"I really didn't need all that much time," she said.

"Someday he will be a baron, and a queen might ask him a favor. One cannot apply a switch to a baron's rump, although I have met a fair number whom it would improve. He is too old; his only discipline is war." He rolled and moved, but retained the dice. He rolled again, looked at her for a moment, and then rolled again.

She couldn't understand what he was doing. "I believe it is my move," she said.

"Why so it is. What is it that requires the absence of the squire who is privy to all my secrets?" He rolled again.

"Thou didst tell me that I should mention any problem."

"And so I did."

There was no gate into this subject, she would have to breach a wall. "My lord husband, what crime would I commit that the punishment was that I had to ask permission whenever I wished to leave a room?"

"I cannot imagine such. Is it not early in our marriage to plan a crime against me?"

"Is it not early in our marriage for me to be subject to that punishment?"

"Thou art not!" The words echoed. He lowered his voice. "Our door is not locked. We are guests here, but every door is open to thee which is open to me, save that the sentries might not prevent me leaving the castle itself. But that is a matter of thy protection; men are permitted foolhardiness."

"That is true all day. But at night I am locked in thine arms and must ask permission to move."

He suddenly rolled the dice again. Anybody looking at them would see them still engaged in the game. "Is being in my arms so onerous? I was merely expressing my love for thee."

"Indeed being in thine arms is a comfort ... Especially when I am chill." He smiled at that, and rolled yet again. "It is the need for permission which makes me feel restricted."

"So I may embrace thee so long as I let thee go. Truly, I meant it as an expression of love."

"And I took it as such, and as cherishing, and as shelter. But I am gentleborn, and thy wife. How canst thou trust me to run thy household if I have to consult thee on the question of whether my bladder is full. Truly I did not think that thou were expressing distrust. I only felt that thou shouldst know what I felt."

"And the speaker said one thing and the hearer heard another," he said abstractedly. "I shall try to remember."

"That is all I ask of thee, my lord. Truly, I am sure that I have much to learn. And not only about backgammon."

"Filling thine ears, was he? Now we are truly speaking of one who has much to learn. More than thee, certainly; perhaps as much as I."

"I doubt that he has more to learn than I. He has been thy squire for well more than a year now, and I thy wife for three days."

"A good man trained me for knighthood, but no one trained me to be a husband. Well, the rest of the world seems to learn. I will remember thy words. Hmmm ... Thou didst well in bringing the question to me.

"There is more to discuss," he continued, "but we can have real play for this subject." He surrendered the dice to her and she rolled.

After her move, he began to explain the situation at Castle Clavius. His family pattern was for the viscount to rule in Castle Dan while the heir was his castelan for Castle Clavius. The heir needed no estate, since he had present power and future estate.

So Robert his eldest brother had ruled Castle Clavius for nearly seven years. He had married the widow of a vassal of his father's a few years before. While the marriage was a great step up for Ingrid, the widow, his death had left her worse off than her first widowhood had left her.

Godfrey was the present heir to the Danclaven estate. Although only a year older than Karl, he had been knighted several years earlier. His father had settled a significant fief in the center of the County of Gitneau on him, and he had received a neighboring manor as dowry. Godfrey was too entangled in local obligations far to the north of the Spait to move to Castle Clavius. So Karl had become the castelan without in any way becoming the heir.

"Ingrid has remained as chatelaine of Clavius. Now, as there is only one sun and only one moon in the sky, there is only one lord and only one chatelaine of a manor. Thou wilt be the chatelaine, but any gentleness thou canst apply to her will be appreciated. The poor woman has lost two husbands and four children, and she has just passed thirty."