He seemed to have no such inhibitions. He threw off his shirt, pulled down his underdrawers, and stood unselfconsciously before her. His body was slight but strong, and he seemed full of pent-up energy, like a young deer. She noticed for the first time that the hair at his groin was the colour of autumn leaves. His cock stood up eagerly. Desire overcame her shyness, and she pulled her dress quickly over her head.
He stared at her bare body, but she no longer felt embarrassed – his look inflamed her like an intimate caress. “You’re beautiful,” he said.
“So are you.”
They lay side by side on the straw-filled palliasse that was her bed. As they kissed and touched one another, she realized that today she was not going to be satisfied with the games they usually played. “I want to do it properly,” she said.
“You mean go the whole way?”
The thought of pregnancy surfaced in her mind, but she pushed it back down. She was too heated to think of consequences. “Yes,” she whispered.
“So do I.”
He lay on top of her. Half her life she had wondered what this moment would be like. She looked up at his face. It wore the concentrated expression that she loved so much, the look he had when he was working, his small hands shaping wood with tenderness and skill. His fingertips softly spread the petals of her sex. She was slippery and yearning for him.
He said: “Are you sure?”
Once again she suppressed the thought of pregnancy. “I’m sure.”
She felt a moment of fear when he entered her. She tightened involuntarily, and he hesitated, feeling her body resisting him. “It’s all right,” she said. “You can push harder. You won’t hurt me.” She was wrong about that, and there was a sudden sharp pain as he thrust. She could not help crying out.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“Just wait a minute,” she said.
They lay still. He kissed her eyelids and her forehead and the tip of her nose. She stroked his face and looked into his golden-brown eyes. Then the pain was gone and the desire came back, and she began to move, rejoicing in the feeling of having the man she loved deep inside her body for the first time. She thrilled to see the intensity of his pleasure. He stared at her, a faint smile on his lips, a deep hunger in his eyes, as they moved faster.
“I can’t stop,” he said breathlessly.
“Don’t stop, don’t stop.”
She watched him intently. In a few moments he was overwhelmed by pleasure, his eyes shut tight and his mouth open and his whole body as taut as a bowstring. She felt his spasms inside her, and the jet of his ejaculation, and she thought that nothing in life had prepared her for such happiness. A moment later she herself was convulsed with ecstasy. She had had this sensation before, but not so powerfully, and she closed her eyes and gave herself up to it, pulling his body hard against her own as she shook like a tree in the wind.
When it was over they lay still for a long while. He buried his face in her neck, and she felt his panting breath on her skin. She stroked his back. His skin was damp with perspiration. Gradually her heartbeat slowed, and a deep contentment stole over her like twilight on a summer evening.
“So,” she said after a while, “that’s what all the fuss is about.”
25
The day after Godwyn was confirmed as prior of Kingsbridge, Edmund Wooler came to Merthin’s parents’ house early in the morning.
Merthin tended to forget what an important personage Edmund was, for Edmund treated him as a member of the family; but Gerald and Maud acted as if receiving an unexpected royal visitation. They were embarrassed that Edmund should see how poor their house was. There was only one room. Merthin and his parents slept on straw mattresses on the floor. There was a fireplace and a table and a small yard at the back.
Fortunately, the family had been up since sunrise, and had washed and dressed and tidied the place. All the same, when Edmund came stomping into the house with his uneven gait, Merthin’s mother dusted a stool, patted her hair, closed the back door then opened it again, and put a log on the fire. His father bowed several times, put on a surcoat and offered Edmund a cup of ale.
“No, thank you, Sir Gerald,” said Edmund, no doubt knowing that the family had none to spare. “However, I’ll take a small bowl of your pottage, Lady Maud, if I may.” Every family kept a pot of oats on the fire to which they added bones, apple cores, pea pods and other scraps, to be slow-cooked for days. Flavoured with salt and herbs, the result was a soup that never tasted the same twice. It was the cheapest food.
Pleased, Maud ladled some pottage into a bowl and put it on the table with a spoon and a plate of bread.
Merthin was still feeling the euphoria of the previous afternoon. It was like being slightly drunk. He had gone to sleep thinking of Caris’s naked body and woken up smiling. But he was suddenly reminded of his confrontation with Elfric over Griselda. A false instinct told him that Edmund was going to scream “You defiled my daughter!” and hit him across the face with a length of timber.
It was only a momentary vision, and it vanished as Edmund sat at the table. He picked up the spoon but, before he began to eat, he said to Merthin: “Now that we’ve got a prior, I want to start work on the new bridge as soon as possible.”
“Good,” said Merthin.
Edmund swallowed a spoonful and smacked his lips. “This is the best pottage I’ve ever tasted, Lady Maud.” Merthin’s mother looked pleased.
Merthin was grateful to Edmund for being charming to his parents. They felt the humiliation of their reduced status, and it was balm to the wound to have the town’s alderman eating at their table and calling them Sir Gerald and Lady Maud.
Now his father said: “I almost didn’t marry her, Edmund – did you know that?”
Merthin was sure Edmund had heard the story before, but he replied: “Good lord, no – how did that happen?”
“I saw her in church on Easter Sunday, and fell in love with her instantly. There must have been a thousand people in Kingsbridge Cathedral, and she was the most beautiful woman there.”
“Now, Gerald, no need to exaggerate,” Maud said crisply.
“Then she disappeared into the crowd, and I couldn’t find her! I didn’t know her name. I asked people who was the pretty girl with the fair hair, and they said all the girls were pretty and fair.”
Maud said: “I hurried away after the service. We were staying at the Holly Bush inn, and my mother was unwell, so I went back to take care of her.”
Gerald said: “I looked all over town, but I couldn’t find her. After Easter, everyone went home. I was living in Shiring, and she in Casterham, though I didn’t know that. I thought I’d never see her again. I imagined she might have been an angel, come to earth to make sure everyone was attending the service.”
She said: “Gerald, please.”
“But my heart was lost. I took no interest in other women. I expected to spend my life longing for the Angel of Kingsbridge. This went on for two years. Then I saw her at a tournament in Winchester.”
She said: “This complete stranger came up to me and said: ‘It’s you I after all this time! You must marry me before you disappear again.’ I thought he was mad.”
“Amazing,” said Edmund.
Merthin thought Edmund’s goodwill had been stretched far enough. “Anyway,” he said, “I’ve drawn some designs on the tracing floor in the mason’s loft at the cathedral.”
Edmund nodded. “A stone bridge wide enough for two carts?”
“As you specified – and ramped at both ends. And I’ve found a way to reduce the price by about a third.”
“That’s astonishing! How?”
“I’ll show you, as soon as you’ve finished eating.”
Edmund spooned up the last of the pottage and stood. “I’m done. Let’s go.” He turned to Gerald and inclined his head in a slight bow. “Thank you for your hospitality.”