norman

He leaned his head against the rock. Christ, when was the last time he__ seen the humor in life? And now, of all places, in an enemy camp, with a strange woman who made him burn. Burn with desire. Burn with need. A desire and need not only for her and her body, but for something he couldn__ quite name.

She led them to their pallets, again encircled by other pallets. She sat down, sighing at her aching muscles, and caught his gaze. __ou may, er, wrap your arms around me if that will make you feel I am safer._ He chuckled--a hoarse chuckle, rusty, but a chuckle nonetheless. She__ take it. __ay I indeed?_ He lay beside her and pulled her back against him, settling her head on his arm, bunching the other hide up to use as a pillow. __f I must._ His warm sigh tickled across her neck. __fter all, I must ensure that pinkie does not wander._ Would Robert never let her forget that?

She flapped her hands, anxious energy coursing through her. __ow can you be so calm?_ He got to his feet, unfolding with an easy grace. He held out a hand, his dark eyes focused solemnly on hers. __ome with me._ __or what?_ __hat__ part of the lesson._ Was it her imagination, or did a twinkle of humor stir in those eyes? __enter yourself, and grab onto the here and now._ That made no sense__hat was he now, Sir Medieval Zen Master? But she slipped her hand into his strong, calloused one. He hauled her up until she bumped into his chest. With a finger under her chin, he tilted her face until she looked in his eyes. __isten to the world around you. Hear the birds? Hear the small animals scurrying? You are in this moment, this moment only, and sometimes that__ all you can do, all you can be._ His finger pulled away, brushing against her skin, and he tapped her nose, stepping away.

Ah, cariad, finally I have you to myself, with a bed behind me, and what do I do?

She straightened and crossed her arms. __ can__ sleep with you,_ she blurted._ __s you please.___s you please?_ She stepped back, the rough wood of the bench bumping her upper calf. She__ braced herself for a battle and now felt oddly deflated. __ou aren__ going to try to talk me into it?___ need not talk women into lying with me.

She needed a distraction. __as that your mother?_ The splashing stopped. __re you going to converse while I bathe?_ __hy not?_ __eels rather unseemly._ She laughed, picturing him sitting there, shocked and indignant. __e__e supposed to be married, right?_ __ou have a point, however I would rather not discuss her right now._ __ think you__e evading me.___ayhap. Is it working?

It was the French of the Normans that, grafting itself onto the barbaric Saxon tongue, gave it its most magnificent blossoming. And, in these new countries, where both English and French are intertwined again, it is as if English were bathing itself in the fountain of its own youth, and as if French were remembering the buried treasures it had thought forgotten.