“Here!” Gavin said as he snatched the parchment from the boy. “Now go and don’t bother me anymore.”
He threw the paper on the ground before turning once again to his wife’s lips.
But Judith was now very aware of their public place. “Gavin,” she said sternly, struggling to get off his lap. “You must read it.”
He looked up at her as she stood over him, his breath coming hard and fast. “You read it,” he said as he grabbed the mug of liquid Judith had brought. Maybe it would cool his hot blood.
Judith unrolled the paper with a worried frown, her face draining of color as she read.
Instantly Gavin was concerned. “Is it bad news?” When she looked up, his breath stopped, for there again he saw the coldness in her eyes. Her beautiful, warm, passionate eyes flashed daggers of hate at him.
“I am three times a fool!” she said through clenched teeth as she threw the parchment in his face. She turned on her heel and stalked toward the manor house.
Gavin took the parchment from his lap.
My dearest, I send this in private so I may tell you of my love freely. Tomorrow I wed Edmund Chatworth. Pray for me, think of me, as I will think of you. Remember always that my life is yours. Without your love I am nothing. I count the moments until I am yours again.
All my love,
Alice
“Trouble, my lord?” John Bassett asked.
Gavin put the missive down. “More than I have ever known. Tell me, John, you are an older man. Perhaps you know something about women.”
John chuckled. “No man does, my lord.”
“Is it possible to give your love to one woman, yet desire another until you are nearly mad?”
John shook his head as he watched his master staring after his wife’s retreating form. “Does this man also desire the woman he loves?”
“Surely!” Gavin answered. “But perhaps not…not in the same manner.”
“Ah, I see. A holy love, as for the Virgin. I am a simple man. If it were me, I’d take the earthly one. I think love would come if the woman were a joy in bed.”
Gavin propped his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. “Women were created to tempt men. They are the devil’s own.”
John smiled. “I think that if I were to meet old Scratch, I might thank him for that bit of evil work.”
For Gavin, the next three days were hell. Judith would neither look at him nor speak to him. If at all possible, she would not be anywhere near him. And the more haughtily she treated him the more furious he became.
“Stay!” he ordered her on one night as she started to leave the room when he entered.
“Of course, my lord,” she said as she curtsied. Judith kept her head bowed, her eyes never meeting his.
Once Gavin thought her eyes were red, as if she’d been crying. But that was nonsense, of course. What reason did she have to cry? He was the one being punished, not her. He’d shown he wanted to be kind, yet she chose to despise him. Well, she’d gotten over it once, and she would get over it again. Yet the days passed, and still Judith was cold to him. He heard her laughter, but when he appeared, the smile died on her face. He felt he should slap her, force her to respond to him; even anger was better than the way she looked through him. But Gavin couldn’t hurt her. He wanted to hold her and even apologize. For what? He spent his days riding hard, training hard, yet at night he didn’t sleep. He found himself making excuses to be near her, just to see if he could touch her.
Judith had cried until she was nearly ill. How could she have forgotten so soon that he was such a vile man? Yet for all the anguish the letter caused, she had to steel herself from running to his arms. Judith hated Gavin yet her body burned for him every moment of every hour of every day.
“My lady,” Joan said quietly. Many of the servants had learned to tiptoe about their master and mistress lately. “Lord Gavin asks you to come to him in the great hall.”
“I will not!” Judith replied without hesitation.
“He said it was urgent, to do with your parents.”
“My mother?” she asked, immediately concerned.
“I don’t know. He said only that he must speak with you at once.”