“Then I will see her in bed.” The notion stirred him, but then this morning it wouldn’t take much to do so. He had spent most of the night restless and aroused.

He headed across the hall. The old servant scampered along and nipped in front of him. She blocked his way, glaring with indignation. He feinted to one side, and when she jumped to cut him off he slipped around her the other way. Laughing, he strode to the stairs. He took them two at a time, lighthearted and eager. The old woman hustled up behind him, alternately yelling warnings to the women above and threatening to report him to the archbishop.

He paused on the landing. Excited voices came from behind one door. He heard footsteps scurry toward him, and the unmistakable sound of a bar starting to slide. Half charmed and half annoyed, he firmly pushed the door open.

He expected a chorus of feminine shrieks to greet his abrupt intrusion. Instead the chamber instantly filled with silence. A servant stood near the door, wide-eyed at his boldness. Another glanced over from where she folded some garments near the hearth. Yet a third sat on the bed, her back to him, and this one did not even acknowledge his presence. Instead she tended her mistress, who indeed was abed, propped up on pillows and with a sheet tucked to her chin.

He saw long black tresses spreading out over pillow and linens, and glimpsed her lovely face, glowing pale in the shadows formed by the shuttered windows.

“My lady is ill,” the servant near him whispered anxiously.

“Not too ill to stroll almost naked in the garden last night.”

He walked over to the bed and filled his eyes with his future bride. The light was not much stronger here than it had been under the full moon, but it was less ethereal and diffuse, and it permitted more details to be clear. She appeared very young now, no more than a girl, and he regretted a bit how aggressive he had been.

He had frightened her. It was obvious from the way she refused to raise her gaze and in the way her hands clutched the bedclothes up to her neck. Her head was bowed submissively, as if she expected him to castigate her for permitting those kisses.

“You do not have to be afraid,” he said. “I am pleased and flattered, and do not question your virtue. I am glad that it will not just be duty that we share in our marriage bed.”

She raised her head. Large dark eyes took him in as if she had never seen him before.

He suddenly realized that she hadn’t.