Chapter 5: September 9, 1214

"My lord!" called Roger. "The stars could be seen from midnight on." Astrology reports at this hour?

Karl covered her ear before bellowing, "Yes Roger. Guest robes this morning and dressing after breakfast. Summon my lady's servants." He clasped her tight and kissed her hair before releasing her. "I love thee, but we must rise." She was willing enough to rise. They both were up and washed before Roger returned with the maids. The Augustinian said mass that morning, and left after breakfast. For his sustenance, the breakfast included meat pies as well as the usual bread and beer.

She and Karl dressed separately for their traveling, and did not meet again until time for dinner. She spent her time sewing and saying goodbye to Maria. The babe was adorable until she tried to see if there was any sustenance under Elizabeth's bliaut. Her nurse took her away crying.

Despite the breakfast, dinner was early and abundant. Extra tables were put up in back so that their servants could eat at the first seating. Even Roger sat (with the boys, to his embarrassment but their great satisfaction). They rose from table well before ten and were on their way not too long after that hour. She rode George for the first lap; the gentles all had second mounts. The east was gray, and they all had mantles tied behind their saddles. After their hosts helped them mount, Frederick and another knight escorted them for a mile.

"Remarkable friendly to the Danclavens, considering what he got from us," Karl commented as their escort trotted back.

"Now husband!" she said. She felt comfortable enough with him now to scold him on this. "Thy lady sister is a fine woman. She seems an excellent chatelaine, mother, and wife."

"Hmpf! Well, she may be better in the role of wife than of sister. She was born to be a mother, that is for certain." She still could not quite tell his jests from his serious speech. The tone of the two was much alike.

Then he began one of the songs they had both seemed to know. Her tune could match his. They found several songs on which their duets, if still ragged, were melodious. He turned his attention to the lands through which they were passing. He recited, for her benefit and for Roger's, the history of every manor and the present occupants of that manor. Now part of County Descries, this land had once been under the Counts Du Montagne. Some of the vassals had been transferred, others had been replaced. Hardly a family lacked some ancient reason for gratitude or grudge against the Viscounts Danclaven. Many had both motives.

When they came to a clear stream, a little more than midway through their journey, all relieved their thirst, both people and horses. Roger filled a horn and proffered it to Karl, who passed it on to her. She expected to share it with him, but he drank from his hands.

They paused for a third of an hour for the horses to graze. For a while longer, the company continued on foot leading their horses. Only four sergeants were mounted. Karl led Partizan, normally Roger's task, so that Roger could accompany them on the lute for another duet. The destrier, burdened with only a shield on one side and a helmet and lance on the other, was clearly more in the mood for a canter than for this slow pace. Sooner than she would have wished, Karl summoned Belle from the train. He lifted her onto the saddle. Then Karl mounted his other palfrey, Roger resumed Partizan's reins, and they proceeded at a faster pace.

She and Karl ran through the series of duets once again before Karl took up the tales of the neighboring fiefs and their relationships: geographic, agricultural, feudal, familial, and historical. Well before Karl stopped speaking, she had stopped listening. A cycle of song among the squires and knights of the company revived her interest, especially as she was called on to judge.

When Karl renewed his discussion of politics, however, she forced her attention on it. He centered on the castle which they would be visiting. By the time they rode into sight of it and Karl assumed his shield -- for identification, rather than combat, purposes -- she knew the history of the place, of her host's family, and of her hostess's family. The baron had been at the wedding, but she could not distinguish him from Karl's description. So many had been there, and her thoughts had been concentrated elsewhere.

She knew that it was a second marriage for the Baron, who had a nine-year-old son from the first. She knew that the Baron's family had originally held a small barony (but held it from the Duke) inside the Danclaven area and exchanged it for holding Beregemont as a subinfeudation from the Danclavens who held it from the Descries (because the Danclavens had captured it from a family who held it from the Du Montagnes). She knew that the baroness was third daughter to a poor offshoot of the Descries.

The only two details which Karl had not supplied became apparent when their hostess waddled out to greet them. Lady Alice was close to Elizabeth's age, and she was very pregnant. Karl dismounted before she could offer any help. "My lady," he said, "I bring thee a direct order from thy liege lord, the Viscount Danclaven." That bought her up short. "Thou art forbidden to exert thyself, kneel, or bend in offering hospitality until a week after thy babe is born. Thy husband and baron" (for she was technically subject to the lord of the land as much as any villein) "seconds that command."

That was far more power than the lord-vassal relationship bestowed, but was too kindly meant for her husband to take amiss. With his consent, she had no grounds for protest. "My lord," she argued, "I am really able..."

"My lady, I was commissioned to deliver the message, not discuss it."

"Yes, my lord. Dost thou bring me news of thine own life?"

A knight had helped Elizabeth down, and she approached the pair. "My lady," he began, "may I present Elizabeth of Danclaven, Baroness of Festmauer and Chatelaine of Clavius." Put like that, Elizabeth sounded much more impressive than she felt. "My lady wife, this is Alice of Habichtbrach, Baroness Beregemont." They embraced rather clumsily. The babe seemed destined to outweigh the mother at birth.

With clean feet and dressed in guest robes, the company came together when the horn blew for supper. There, Elizabeth shared cup and ewer with a vassal knight who was also visiting. Once the meal was over, Lady Alice wanted to hear all the details of the wedding. She asked Elizabeth to share her bed, while Karl was put in a room by himself. This was too great an honor to refuse, but it seemed to her that the offer was a bit unimaginative towards a couple wed less than a week.

Not from Lady Alice's perspective, however. "My dear," she said, "I was in thy position a year ago last May. I know how importunate newly-married men can be. Takest what respite thou canst. I expect my husband back in another day or two. Anyway, thou hast not told me who was at thy wedding. Was it the Count of Descries himself? He came to mine."

"So he did to mine, with his wife, two of his sons, and an unmarried daughter. And the Count of Gitneau, with his son and his son's wife. The Duke's son was there as well. The Duke sent congratulations but was detained with business regarding raising the last ransoms."

"Importunate" was not a word that she would apply to Karl, but she decided not to say so. Indeed, she could not imagine him begging. She could imagine him forcing her, regarding his requests to her the way he regarded hers to Roger, commands sheathed in politeness. She knew that physical resistance to the man who lifted her effortlessly would be useless. She could imagine him accepting a denial from her; he had, after all, treated her with remarkable gentleness since the first time. Taking her refusal or taking her refused body were both consistent with the Karl whom she was beginning to know; begging was not.

But, even if she could have sorted those complex thoughts into simple words, she was not prepared to share them with Lady Alice. Partly it was a sense of her own privacy. Partly it was consideration for her bedmate.

This woman, she had already learned, was two months younger than herself; her servants barely regarded her; her stepson almost ignored her; the child she carried would not be the heir. Telling her that some men loved their wives, and praised them, and led them to heights of pleasure, would only cast further shadows on her own situation.

Lady Alice, aside from not providing the special solace to which Karl had begun to habituate her, was a restless bed companion. The morning brought Elizabeth two compensations, however. She could feel especially virtuous at mass after the discomfort she had experienced providing her hostess with needed distraction. And Karl looked distinctly unhappy. She put on her most blithe expression to greet him as they went in to breakfast, where again they sat apart.

"I missed thee last night," he said when they could speak in relative privacy; only Roger could overhear.

"And I missed thee, as well," she said, as if it had been no great matter. She went to help their hostess who was trying to supervise women at four looms. Elizabeth chose out the least respectful one. She rested her hand on the woman's neck and said, "I believe that thy mistress told thee to batten the woof firmly." At the last word, she pinched the earlobe until her fingernail almost drew blood. That weaver's quality improved greatly while she stood there. It was too late for pinches, though. Her mother, assuming her mother ever let things get this far, would have dismissed the worst and had two others lashed.

The Baron arrived before suppertime. Once she saw him, she vaguely remembered his face from the wedding. Karl and she shared the same bed that night. "So thou didst miss me last night," he said.

"Oh yes," she said in her sprightliest voice, "but our hostess offered me a great honor. And we had a conversation to continue."

"Ah yes," he said. "We have to consider the honor she showed." He kissed her deeply then, and seemed to abandon the subject. His kisses strayed from her mouth to her ear and her neck. As she writhed under these attentions, he teased and tweaked her nipples until both stood at attention. Then his mouth swooped from her collarbone to her right breast and sucked much of it inside. Her legs were well-parted to support her wiggling frame, and nothing impeded his hand from clasping all of her loins. She collapsed and brought her legs together.

"Why is it," she asked, "that I must seek after thy mouth in the dark with mine, when thy hand can find any part of me like a hawk stooping on a hare?" She blushed then in the dark. The answer, she could see after blurting out the question, was that he was a practiced lover. He had kissed many other mouths and grasped many other loins.

"Like the hawk," he answered, "my hand is concentrating on its goal. It worries not concerning what honor it has been offered." His mouth covered hers immediately after that response. Having no opportunity to give a reply, she decided that she need not consider one. Instead, she concentrated on the kiss. Soon after his tongue had passed between one set of lips, however, his finger passed between another. She could not resist writhing for long; and she needed her heels wide apart to support that. She was gasping into his mouth and beginning to stiffen when he abandoned her mouth to kiss everywhere on her right breast but its peak. His fingers slowed their strokes within her lower lips and concentrated on the lips themselves rather than the sensitive spot between them.

She felt herself pause when she was on the brink of spiraling upwards. She desired that pleasure; she needed that relief. At first she tried to move his mouth where she wanted its touch; his only response was to tense his muscles. She should have learned by now that this man couldn't be pushed. Her body tensed as well, but to no avail. Her muscles began to ache, but still he held her a little bit on this side of the point of release.

If he couldn't be moved, she would move herself. She pressed herself toward the stroking finger, to move the sensitive spot under that friction. He easily evaded her. Then he did lick her nipple once. She gasped, but he moved away too quickly. "Oh please!" she said. He gave her another brief lick.

"Please what?" he asked. "Didst thou miss..." the tiniest of sucks on her achingly-hard nipple, " ... this when thou didst sleep out of thy proper place?" Something was amiss in his description of accepting the bed that their hostess had offered. However, she was in no condition for conducting a debate with anyone, much less one with this supple mind.

Besides, winning a debate was the least of her desires just now. She needed him. "Yes. I missed that. Please!" She felt what a crossbow must when it has been wound up and then laid aside.

He licked her nipple once more before sucking it into his mouth. Those sensations satisfied one need while intensifying another. She grasped his wrist in both her hands, but she knew that pitting her strength against his was no solution. "Please!" She said again. "I need..." she had no words for what she needed.

He relented, however. His hand pressed her mound hard enough to flatten her to the bed. His fingers fluttered over her most sensitive point rapidly but gently. His lips and tongue inflamed her nipple.

She was that crossbow wound tighter and tighter. Then it was released and she thrust upward against all his strength and weight. She shuddered and shattered under his hand. Then she was the bolt that the crossbow released, flung through space in an arc. And it was glory at the top of the arc. Then it was a long, almost frightening, fall. Then she was safe in his arms.

"Didst thou truly miss me?" he asked. She nodded her head and tried to speak.

"Truly!" she finally gasped.

"Minx. Teasing is like dice; thou shouldst not engage to play until thou knowest the forfeit." He kissed her mouth lightly and briefly, then her forehead and hair. Well, the forfeit had been agonizing enough while it was happening, but she had quite recovered now except for her breath. She felt delightful, actually. "Art thou recovered?" he asked.

"Nearly, my lord husband. I beg thee for another minute to breathe." He relaxed beside her while she took deep breaths until she felt giddy. Then she rolled over towards him.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Not yet," she said, and began to kiss his shoulder and torso.

"Hmpf!" But he lay still until she reached his nipple. This she sucked hard. He gasped and rolled her over onto her back. Most of the blankets went with her. He lifted and spread her knees with no resistance from her. He climbed between them while she groped for him. It wasn't until he was actually in her entranceway that he paused long enough for her to reach him.