“Lists. Why do you always think I am making lists, my lord?”
He cocked his head at her. “You always are, just as I am.”
She cocked her head back at him, then gave him a look that made him want to grab her off her mare’s back, set her facing him, and wish them alone, all in the space of a moment. Would she enjoy him this time? Probably not, it was too soon. He needed time and privacy, aye, lots of time, and his wits about him this time. He grinned, looking around at the score of men who rode around them, then back at her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Merry asked.
“I am remembering our one night together. I am remembering how your breasts felt in my hands, how you tasted. I am remembering how it felt to tear through your maidenhead.” Simply saying that word made him shudder. “And I am remembering how Gilpin thought murder was being done in my chamber.”
She said nothing at all, looked straight ahead between her horse’s ears.
“I am sorry I hurt you, Merry.” Still she said nothing. He arched a black brow. “What is this? You do not wish to berate me? You do not wish to tell me it was all my fault?”
“It was your fault.”
“Ha, I was not even there, not really, just the husk of myself. One minute I was dreaming of mighty deeds, the next moment Blanche was astride me, her breasts in my hands. I remember I did not understand why she was still wearing her bedgown.”
Again, she cocked her head at him, then in the space of a moment, he would swear she was embarrassed. Well, she should be, since she’d been the one to come to him. She raised her chin. “I have nothing to say about it.”
He was charmed. He said, voice low, “You certainly had a lot to say then.”
“A lady must speak upon certain occasions or else be ground under.”
“Ah, so you’re no longer embarrassed about what you did. Now you’re all smug and pleased with yourself. I wager if we were walking, you would be swaggering. No, don’t look at me like that. It is how you looked at the king and he nearly drooled on you. I will do more than drool, believe me.”
“I did nothing to the king. It is merely a look, of little account.”
“Did the queen’s ladies teach you how to do it? I never saw that look before you poured it full measure on the king.”
“My lord, we are nearly home!”
Garron slapped her horse’s neck and rode to the front of the column. He looked toward Wareham. His home and it would be his child
ren’s home. A dynasty, he thought. If life dished out more good than bad, he and Merry would build a dynasty that lasted until time passed into a far-distant future.
He shouted at the top of his lungs, and galloped toward Wareham.
47
There were piles of silver pennies, not a single one was cut, all were whole, glistening in the dull light in the lord’s bedchamber, so many of them, piles upon piles, guarded in shifts by a dozen men, and two of his most trusted men, Pali and Hobbs, in charge.
Garron reached down and gathered a handful and watched them slide through his fingers. The silver weighed heavy. The silver also would make him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, even after the king took his own generous share. There was still so much to be done here at Wareham and now he was wealthy enough to accomplish anything he wished to do.
Burnell said complacently, as he sifted through the piles of silver himself, “Our precious king will be so pleased with you, my lord, I doubt not he will bestow another barony on you. Mayhap even a knighthood for Aleric.”
Garron heard Aleric draw in his breath behind him. He looked up at him. “Sir Aleric. Now that has a nice sound to it.” And another barony for his dynasty? “Ah, do you believe the king will require more than a just share for this barony?”
Robert Burnell did not look up from the pile of silver coins he was counting. “Again you indulge in irony, my lord. We will count the silver, and then we will count it again, and then we will see.”
He was distracted when Merry called out, “Miggins tells me Jason of Brennan is now a very smelly old woman. He cursed you and God in the same breath, she says, and he is demanding trousers.”
Garron turned to see Miggins standing beside Merry, grinning from ear to ear. He grabbed her up and whirled her about. “What say you, Miggins, shall we leave the thieving lout in his gown?”
“Aye, lad, he makes a fine old crone. But ye know, he hasn’t cursed so much the past two days. Ah, but his rage, Pali told me it still pours off him like rancid oil. I wanted to kick him and so my sweet Pali here stepped aside. I slammed my shoe in his ribs, dug my toes right in. Aye, the little coward yelled proper loud.”
Garron said to Hobbs and Pali, “Thank you both for guarding the silver. It is Wareham’s future. Pali, that was a fine reward for Miggins.” He rose, dusted off his hands, called out to the dozen or so people in the lord’s bedchamber, “The silver is well guarded. Let us see what our old crone has to say.”
As the procession walked down the narrow stairs to the granary, Hobbs cleared his throat. “A surprise awaits you, Garron.”