Wolf Bride Read Free Page B

expect me to cheat on my husband?’ she asked, feeling sick.
    ‘Why not?’ Simon patted the bulge in his crotch with every indication of pride. ‘I am an excellent lover, or so I have been told. I will give you no reason to complain.’
    ‘Simon, please tell me you are jesting,’ she demanded, and promptly hated herself for clinging to the fast-fading hope that he loved her. ‘We could run away together, and marry under assumed names.’
    ‘What, and risk the king’s displeasure? I think not. And how would we live, my sweet, when I have no hope of income? You must know that being a younger son, I cannot marry you, however much I love you. I can only marry a woman with a large fortune, or else look forward to a life of chastity and cold knees in the church.’ Simon winked. ‘And we both know that would not suit me. Besides, if I get you with child as a married woman, who is to say it is not your husband’s?’
    Anger boiled inside her at this insult. ‘What?’
    ‘Oh, these arrangements are quite common at court. They say the king fathered many of the young pages you see about the palace these days, some with the husband’s eager consent.’
    He smiled down into her face, oblivious to her growing fury, no doubt thinking her merely nervous at the idea of surrendering her maidenhead. ‘My dearest Eloise, do not be afraid to raise your skirts to me. There will be pain, a little at first, but you will enjoy it after that, trust me. And when you are Lady Wolf, we need not be apart when you are at court, but can love with even greater freedom than now, for a wife is watched less carefully than a maid.’
    The sound of footsteps in the cloisters saved her from slapping his face in rage, which she had been about to do. Eloise pulled hurriedly away from him, and even Simon had the grace to look embarrassed as a group of young girls passed through the cloister, accompanied by their governess, a stern-faced woman who eyed them both with disapproval.
    ‘That was close!’ he exclaimed once they were alone again, and made as though to pull her back into his arms.
    ‘No, leave me alone, Simon,’ she told him fiercely. ‘I think you had better go, for I see now how mistaken I was to . . . to trust you.’
    He hesitated, then shrugged, seeing the contempt on her face. His hands dropped and he took a step backwards. She was relieved that he did not appear interested in pressing his suit.
    ‘Very well, if you must go to your marriage bed a foolish and inexperienced virgin, that is your own affair. By all accounts, Lord Wolf is as hard a man as he is a soldier. He has an ugly limp, you know, and rough soldierly manners.’ Simon looked pointedly at her. ‘He will not take you gently, maiden or not. You may regret submitting to him unspoiled.’
    ‘Go!’ she insisted, a sudden heat flaring in her cheeks at this description of her wedding night.
    Simon bowed reluctantly, and turned on his heel, but could not resist saying over his shoulder, ‘If you change your mind, Eloise, send me a note. And don’t forget my offer. When you come to court as Lady Wolf, I will not refuse you if you are looking for a lover behind your husband’s back.’
    Eloise stood in angry silence when he had gone, cursing her own blind folly. How could she have been so deceived in Simon? She had thought he loved her, but in truth he had only ever loved himself and thought to enjoy her body without commitment. And to think she had almost permitted him to take her virginity.
    ‘What a touching scene,’ a voice drawled behind her, and a man ducked his head under one of the archways, stepping out from the shadowy cloisters into the garden.
    She spun, cold with dread that anyone might have witnessed the intimacies that had passed between her and Simon.
    The man walked with a pronounced limp, though his body looked fit and strong enough despite it. He was not fashionably dressed like most of the other courtiers; his clothes seemed to be designed more