Jenna Jaxon - Time Enough to Love 03 Read Free Page B

Bordeaux, without really tasting either. The princess, her ladies-in-waiting, and their husbands sat in places of honor on the dais. The rest of the retinue lined the walls of the chamber. Alyse eyed the company and their positions and supposed she should be grateful to be included on the platform at all. Evidently, Joanna had not quite forgiven her and Thomas, despite their long confinement.
    She had been greatly dismayed to discover Lady Mary Longford to the right of the princess, in her accustomed place at table, while she had been sent down a place. Even worse, this particular placement resulted in Lady Mary’s husband sitting directly beside her. When she had discovered Geoffrey to be her dinner partner, it was all she could do not to bolt from the room.
    Now she sat, trying to converse with Thomas, who was more of a mind to lean around her to talk to Geoffrey. Thomas had been officially assigned to Geoffrey’s staff, and working closely together this past week, the men’s friendship had renewed itself. Another unforeseen trial. She had counted on their animosity to help keep them apart.
    She sighed and cut her eyes toward Geoffrey, starkly handsome in a tunic of dark blue. When he laughed at one of Thomas’s jests, a pang of longing shot through her like a bowman’s arrow to her heart. Alyse fought to tamp down these feelings; they could lead to nothing good.
    Thomas tapped her shoulder , and she jumped, roused from her reverie. “My lady, you have certainly wandered far afield in your thoughts tonight. I have been speaking to you for some minutes, and I swear you have scarce heard a word.” The reproach in his voice smote her. Come what may, she would not be discourteous to her husband.
    “I beg pardon, my lord. I was woolgathering , I fear.” She sent him a warm smile. “Pray, what would you tell me, my love?”
    “ I was remarking on the new musicians, just arrived at court, according to Geoffrey. They are about to begin the first set, and I asked for your hand in the dance.”
    Her spirits rebounded. “You know I will ever crave you as my partner. Especially as ’tis only lately you have seen fit to claim me in a dance,” she teased.
    He chuckled and shook his head. “Madam, I vow you will ever remind me that I danced with you but once ere our wedding night. Although,” his voice dropped to a husky whisper for her ears only, “I have claimed you often enough in a dance of a different sort.”
    Her face heated as a vision of their bodies tangling in their bed came vividly to mind. “Aye, my lord, you have partnered me well when no one else can see. I am also happy to partner you in a display all can witness.” She thrilled at the touch of his silken lips on her hand and sighed. Would that he were able to take her back to their apartment now, kiss every inch of her body, and make her forget her troubling thoughts.
    A glance at his face showed his warm brown eyes darkened with desire. He turned her hand over and pressed a passionate kiss to her palm. Her core throbbed , and she swallowed with difficulty. The man made pleasure a torture when they had no way to satisfy their hunger.
    With a regretful sigh, he rose. “You will have to make do with the attentions I can grant you before the court, my lady,” he murmured as the musicians began a sprightly rhythm. “For now, at least.” He pulled her to her feet and whisked her off to take their places for a rigorous estampie .
    The fast and complex dance did much to ease her anxiety, for it demanded her full attention. After many minutes of intricate figures, the dance ended with Alyse gasping for breath. Thomas guided her to the side, where they formed lines for a stately pavanne that allowed her to recover. He seemed unaffected by the strenuous exercise, the wretch. However, he did seem to be trying to make up for his previous lack of attention to her at court dances.
    The musicians changed to a ronde , and Alyse decided to devil her husband even