The Blacksmith's Wife by Elisabeth Hobbes Page B

step closer to him and Hal looked up once more. She wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her chemise. ‘I have made my vows to you and I will be a true and faithful wife.’
    She reached for Hal’s hands. Her fingers were cold and he squeezed them instinctively to warm them. Joanna’s eyelids flickered. She chewed her lip then slipped her hands free and stepped so close to Hal that he could feel her full breasts pushing up against his chest through the thin chemise and his shirt. Hal pictured himself kissing them, teasing her nipples between his lips until Joanna cried out in pleasure. Excitement surged inside him.
    He put his hands around Joanna’s back. She slipped hers rigidly around his neck and raised her face, once more parting her lips in the manner she had in the churchyard. Her eyes were blank and the sight of them quashed all Hal’s desire. Her arms shook and Hal’s blood chilled in his veins.
    A true and faithful wife in body perhaps, but whose heart belonged to another man—what a prize that was! Roger’s words echoed treacherously in his ears. You and I are enough alike. She didn’t want Hal. That was clear enough. Would it be Roger she would think of when Hal finally bedded her? He’d swim the Ouse naked in front of the entire Guild of Smiths before he’d tolerate that.
    He dropped his hands and stepped back. Joanna put a hand on his arm but he shrugged it off.
    ‘Stop that!’ he snapped, more harshly than he intended.
    ‘Last night you said you would not wait forever,’ Joanna said. Her voice was tight with anxiety.
    ‘It was a stupid thing to say,’ Hal answered. ‘Call it the voice of the wine rather than mine.’
    He walked to the window and flung the small shutter open, letting grey daylight into the room, and turned back to her.
    ‘If I’d wanted you under any circumstance I could have taken you last night,’ he said. ‘It is my right as your husband but I chose not to. Where would the pleasure be for me in knowing you would hate every moment or be thinking of another?’
    ‘I wouldn’t be...’ Joanna began but Hal hushed her.
    ‘Yes, you would. Don’t lie. I know your heart belongs to my brother,’ Hal growled.
    She had the dignity not to contradict him. There was no reason to expect her feelings to have ceased when she spoke her vows but jealousy flooded Hal’s veins. Perhaps he should tell her of his brother’s indifference to her marriage, but what purpose would that serve, other than to make her even more wretched? He wasn’t that cruel, but if he waited for her love to die of its own accord he would be old and grey.
    Roger was not the only man capable of capturing a woman’s attention, though. Hal crossed the room in two strides and before she could protest he pulled Joanna to him.
    ‘I’m a proud man, Joanna,’ he breathed, staring at her intently. ‘I don’t want to see you quaking with terror whenever I speak to you and I certainly don’t want you forcing yourself to seduce me. I will not come to your bed until you ask me. I’m going to kiss you, though. I deserve that at least.’
    She gasped in surprise and he nearly released her, but instead slipped one hand behind her neck, tilting her face to his. The other he put around her waist and held her gaze, silent and unblinking, his expression commanding her not to look away. Still watching, he bent towards her and covered her mouth with his. Joanna’s eyes widened as she pushed her lips hard against him, opening her mouth wide. It struck Hal that for all his enthusiasm, Roger had no subtlety if that was what she had come to expect. Hal drew away. He lifted a finger and placed it over her lips.
    ‘Wait,’ he ordered. ‘Close your eyes.’
    He captured her bottom lip between his and tugged gently. Joanna gave a soft moan of surprise but he ignored her and held still, waiting for her top lip to close over his before he began to move his mouth slowly and firmly over hers. She tasted of honey and was as soft