“What is it and how could anyone wear such a garment? It would reveal more than it covered.”
Maude’s laughter escaped. “You are right—that is the purpose of a dancing costume.” She watched Lyonene’s puzzled eyes. “My mother was a Saracen, brought from the Holy Lands by my father. He fell in love one night while she danced in … in a place there. He was a good man and cared naught that my mother had often … danced.” Her voice was strained.
“He brought her back with him from the Crusade and he was good to her. I was not very old when he died, and overnight my mother turned into an old woman. Although she often danced for my father, after his death she never danced again. But she taught me the dance and gave me the silken clothes.” She grinned at Lyonene. “I have not been so faithful as my mother to any of my husbands.”
She stood up and bade Lyonene follow her example. A startled gasp escaped from Lyonene’s lips as Maude roughly ran her hands over the younger woman’s body.
“You will do,” Maude stated. “Now remove those garments.”
“I will not! I cannot imagine your reasons, but I will not remove my clothing.”
Unperturbed, Maude continued. “How else do you expect to wear the clothes if you do not remove your others? It will not fit over them.”
“I have no intention of wearing your dancing thing. The silk is nice but I do not intend to put it on.”
Maude’s voice sneered. “Do you think you are the only young girl brought on this trip to Wales? Have you not seen the other two who cast hungry eyes on Ranulf? They paid much to go on this journey and they did not pay with gold. So, you take my meaning? They know that Lord Ranulf sometimes chooses a young girl to pass the night in his tent on these journeys and they are willing to sell anything to get that privilege, for he is a gentle lover and pleases the women and afterward is very generous with his gold.”
She watched as Lyonene looked anxiously in the direction of Ranulf’s tent.
“There is no woman there tonight, but tell me of your feelings when one night you hear a woman’s low laughter coming from that tent and then her cries of pleasure? Would you then be glad you shunned my mother’s dancing silks? Could you be content to sit and listen to Ranulf’s sighs as he…”
“Cease!”
Maude smiled. “I thought as much. I will teach you the dance. It takes years to become expert, but these English soldiers are not taught to appreciate such a dance. My Lord Ranulf will see you only in the dim candlelight.”
Lyonene blanched. To wear that thing, and before a man! It was not thinkable.
Maude rea
d her thoughts. “If you do not go to him, then you will need to listen to the other women’s cries. Shall I describe what the last woman on the last journey told me of Lord Ranulf’s bed?” She laughed as Lyonene covered her ears. “Then come with me and we will see how well you learn the dance.”
With shaking fingers Lyonene began to remove her coarse woolen clothes as she stood before Maude, hidden among the trees. When she stood completely nude, Maude turned her again and again to inspect her, while Lyonene clenched her teeth, resolving with each second to remove herself from the old woman’s penetrating gaze.
“Good. Very good. It is hard to believe that once I had a body such as yours. Now we will dress you.”
About her hips and between her legs went a jeweled belt, barely covering her. The transparent garment went over her legs, the gold bands tight around her slim ankles. She saw then why the waist was so wide, for it did not reach her waist at all but rested on the belt above her hips, far below her navel. The slim gathered strip of silk went about her breasts, tied behind her back. Lyonene’s breath escaped her when Maude tied the fabric very tight, and she gasped when she saw that as a result of the taut fabric, her breasts strained and pushed and curved well above the silk, little of them concealed. The tiny vest only emphasized the curves of her breasts and the deep indentation of her waist, the hips that swelled above the sparkling belt.
Lyonene’s embarrassment was brief, for the beautiful clothes gave her a strange feeling of sensuality, and she liked the feel of her long hair as it touched her bare arms and the back of her waist.
“Yes, yes,” Maude trilled. “It has its effect on you. That silk is blessed with many nights of pleasure and it holds its memories.”
In spite of herself, Lyonene could not erase the feeling of sensuality that the bare skin and silken costume gave her.
Maude brought a strange stringed instrument from behind a tree, and Lyonene listened as she played a foreign tune for a moment. Then, humming, she rose to begin sensuous movements, moving her hips and stomach in a slowly rotating motion. She nodded for Lyonene to follow her actions and was surprised at the ease with which she made the intricate movements.
“Good, yes, good,” Maude murmured as she returned to her instrument. Lyonene closed her eyes and moved with the music. She heard little commands from Maude, so put that they seemed to blend with the music: “Bend your knees more. Now, slowly, yes. Now, faster. I want to hear the bells.”
Lyonene had been vaguely aware of the tinkling of little bells but now she realized that the sound came from her costume, that the bits of gold that covered the edges of the vest, belt and cuffs were hundreds of bells. The faster she moved, the more they gave out their sparkling little sound. It gave her a special delight to hear their sound, related as it was to her movements. The music became faster and the bells rang louder.
She could almost imagine Ranulf’s eyes, dark and inscrutable, as they watched her. She felt a sense of defeat when the music stopped and Maude bade her remove the dancing costume.
“You have done well. Tomorrow I will tell my lord of a new dancing girl, and he will be pleased. But now you need rest, for you will be tired on the morn.”
Still carrying the strange feeling of deflation, Lyonene went back to the camp to sleep near Maude under the clear stars. She was exhausted and slept heavily.
In the morning Lyonene’s muscles were sore and every movement astride the little donkey hurt. She was glad for the pain, because it kept her from thinking about what she was doing.
Again they paused only a short time for dinner, and Lyonene was very aware of the other two women who constantly hovered about Ranulf. She could hear Corbet’s voice as he made caustic remarks about the women and the way they flaunted themselves.