Devil's Consort. Anne O'Brien

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СКАЧАТЬ water and proceeded to sprinkle us and the bed with a symbol of God’s presence. With a brisk nod in Louis’s direction, he looked as if he might be prepared to stay to see the deed done. We were not an ordinary couple, to order their lives to their own wishes: our marriage must be consummated before the law.

      Such a necessity proved not to be to my husband’s taste. Louis scowled.

      ‘We’ll do well enough without your presence, sir.’

      ‘It is a matter of witnesses, my lord …’

      ‘God will be witness to what passes between myself and my wife.’

      ‘His Majesty, your father, will—’

      ‘His Majesty is not here to express his desires. It is my wish that you leave us.’

      Well! Louis’s decisiveness impressed me. Abbot Suger bowed himself from the room, leaving us sitting naked, side by side. The room was still, the only sound the soft hush as ash fell from the logs in the fireplace. I sat unmoving. My husband would take the initiative, would he not?

      Louis slid from the bed.

      ‘Where are you going?’ I demanded when I found my scattered wits.

      Without replying, shrugging into his robe again, Louis crossed the room and knelt at my prie-dieu, clasped his hands and bent his fair head in prayer, murmuring the familiar words with increasing fervour so that they filled the room.

      Ave Marie. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

      Blessed art thou among women

      And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

      Holy Mary, Mother of Grace, pray for us now

      And in the hour of our death. Amen.

      Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

      Blessed art thou.

      On and on it went. Should I join him on my knees, to pray with him? But he had not invited me, neither did I think it appropriate when this occasion demanded a physical rather than spiritual response. I clawed my fingers into the linen. I’d wager Dangerosa and my grandfather did not begin their reprehensible relationship on their knees before a crucifix.

      ‘Hail Mary.’

      ‘Louis!’ I said, cautiously. Should I disturb him in his prayers?

      ‘Blessed art thou among women …’

      ‘Louis!’ I raised my voice to an unmaidenly pitch.

      Unhurriedly, Louis completed the Ave, rose, genuflected, and returned to the bed, where he once more removed his robe and slid between the sheets, but bringing with him my little Book of Hours that he proceeded to open, turning the pages slowly from one illuminated text to the next.

      ‘This is a very beautiful book,’ he observed.

      I was tempted to snatch it from him and hurl it across the room.

      Instead, I said, ‘Louis—did you not wish to marry me?’

      ‘Of course. My father wished it. It is an important marriage to make our alliance between France and Aquitaine. The Scriptures say it is better for a man to marry than to burn.’

      I did not think, on evidence, that Louis burned.

      ‘But do you not want me?’

      ‘You are beautiful.’

      So was my Book of Hours! ‘Then tell me, Louis.’ Perhaps he was simply shy. Was that it? A boy brought up by monks might be reserved and indecisive in the company of a woman who was naked and expecting some degree of intimacy. I would encourage him. ‘Tell me why you think I am beautiful. A woman always likes to know.’

      ‘If you wish.’ He did not close the book, keeping one finger in the page, but now he looked at me. ‘Your hair is … the russet of a dog fox. Look how it curls around my fingers.’ He touched my hair. ‘And your eyes …’ he peered into them ‘ … green.’ Lord, Louis was no poet. My troubadours would mock his lack of skill. ‘Your skin … pale and smooth. Your hands so elegant and soft but so capable—you controlled your horse as well as any man. Your shoulders …’ His fingers skimmed them thoughtfully, until he snatched them away as if they were scorched.

      ‘Look,’ he said suddenly, urgently. ‘Here.’ He lifted the Book of Hours so that I might see and thumbed through the pages until he came to the illustration he sought, the coloured inks vibrant. ‘Here’s an angel with your exact colouring. Is that not beautiful?’

      ‘Well, yes …’ It was beautiful, but unreal, with its painted features and heavy with gold leaf. Did he see me as a gilded icon? I was a woman of flesh and blood.

      ‘What about my lips?’ I asked. Daring, certainly forward, but why not? Once my troubadour Bernart had compared them to an opening rose, pink and perfectly petalled.

      ‘Sweet …’

      I despaired. ‘You could kiss them.’

      ‘I would like to.’ Louis leaned forward and placed his lips softly on mine. Fleetingly.

      ‘Did you like that?’ I asked as he drew away.

      His smile was totally disarming. ‘Yes.’

      I placed my hand on his chest—his heart beat slow and steady—and leaned to kiss him of my own volition. Louis allowed it but did not respond. He was still smiling at the end. As a child might smile when given a piece of sugared marchpane.

      ‘I enjoyed it too,’ I said, desperation keen. Did he not know what to do? Surely someone would have seen to his education. He might not have been raised to know the coarse jokes and explicit reminiscences that to my experience men indulged in but surely …

      ‘I think we shall be happy together,’ he murmured.

      ‘Would you like to hold me in your arms?’

      ‘Very much. Shall we sleep now? It’s late and you must be weary.’

      ‘I thought that …’ What to say? Louis’s eyes were wide and charmingly friendly. ‘Will the Abbot not wish for proof of our union—the sheets …?’ I wouldn’t mince words. ‘The linen should be stained to prove my virginity and your ability to claim it.’

      And saw the return of the initial stubbornness as his brows flattened into a line. His reply had a gentle dignity. A complete assurance. ‘The Abbot will get his proof. When I wish it.’

      ‘But, Louis … My women—they will mock.’

      ‘I care not. Neither should you. It is not their concern.’

      ‘They will say you have found me wanting. Or—’ even worse ‘—that I was no virgin.’

      ‘Then they will be wrong. I have never met a woman who has touched my heart as you have. And I know you are innocent. There now, don’t be upset. СКАЧАТЬ