The Conqueror (Hot Knights) by Mary Gillgannon Page B

motioned to one of the squires. “Have the woman come and sit with me.”
    She looked startled when the squire spoke to her. Her gaze found Jobert, and she shot him a hostile look. He met her expression with amusement. Their eyes locked and held.
    Jobert let his glance move down her body. Her face went rigid as she guessed his thoughts. She walked stiffly toward him.
    He gestured to the bench beside him. “Sit down, Lady Edeva.”
    “I am no lady to you,” she said through clenched teeth, although she did his bidding.
    He pointed toward the bowl of pottage a squire had brought. “Eat. You have worked hard today, and I am well pleased.”
    “I do not do any of it to please you!”
    “But you have.” He touched the wool of his new tunic. “Your needlework is the finest I have seen. And your skill at ordering servants—verily I proclaim you a worker of miracles for the changes you have wrought in this place in one short day.”
    A muscle jumped in her cheek, and she clutched her eating knife with a vigor that suggested what she wished to do with it.
    “I’ll say no more,” he said. “I would not have you claim a bellyache because I disturbed you while you ate.”
    She made a disgusted sound, and then began to take careful bites of the stew.

SEVEN
    E deva could feel his eyes on her as she ate. It made it difficult for her to swallow.
    Putting down her eating knife, she took a sip from the cup in front of her. She made a face. “What is this?”
    “The last of the wine from our traveling rations.”
    “’Tis wretched stuff.”
    He regarded her with a wry expression. “Better than the ale we had last even. None of the men would drink it. The brewer tapped it too soon. Now, we must wait for another batch.”
    “Water would be better.”
    He nodded. “I’ll have some fetched for the ewer in the bedchamber.’
    The word “bedchamber” made the rest of Edeva’s appetite depart. Any moment the Norman might suggest they go upstairs. Would he sleep with his clothes off? Insist she remove hers?
    Heated images swirled in her brain.
    She forced herself back to the present. There were important things they needed to discuss. “I have promised the women that your men will leave them alone,” she told him. “Otherwise, they will not have the time or energy to do their duties.”
    He nodded. “I agree with you, although ’twill not be easy to make the men give up their pleasure. They have grown used to rutting wherever they please.”
    “Well, they will have to learn to curb their lust!” Edeva said hotly. “To run smoothly, the manor requires not only the efforts of the servants who live within the palisade, but the sokemen and their families in the village. We cannot do the butchering, nor process the wool, nor do many other important tasks if the villagers are afraid to enter the palisade. I am used to having several of the sokemen’s daughters spin and weave for me all winter, but they will not come this year unless I can assure their parents that they will not be ravished by your men!”
    The Norman grunted. “I am aware that I need the aid of the villagers. Without them to fish the river, to gather nuts from the wood and to tend the beehives, we will be doomed to a monotonous diet this winter. And by next spring, they must be ready to plow and sow the fields or we’ll all starve.” His voice rose in frustration. “I know these things, but I am not sure of the means to gain their cooperation. How can I convince them I do not mean them ill?”
    “You will not convince them until it is the truth! As long as your men feel free to rape any woman who crosses their path, why should my people trust any Norman?”
    “Have any of the men bothered you?” the Norman asked, his voice sharp.
    “Of course not. As you have said, they are all afraid of me.”
    “Mayhaps that is the means of it then. You must teach the other women to be as fierce as you are.”
    He was teasing her. Edeva felt certain of it. She