Always Read Online Free PDF Page B

Adela shared a dismayed look, their own eyes filling with tears at the realization. They had been too distracted to consider that truth.
    â€œWell…” Sister Eustice glanced desperately around, everywhere but at the young woman who had been her student in the stables since being a small child—young Rosamunde had latched onto Eustice’s voluminous skirts and trailed after her the moment she had gained her feet and been able to walk. The nun had taught her everything she knew, and the look on Eustice’s face conveyed her misery at their separation.
    â€œAye,” Adela murmured unhappily, her own watery gaze on the floor. She had been taken with Rosamunde from her birth. The baby’s red curls and sweet smile had melted her heart as nothing else ever had. Contrary to tradition, she herself had overseen the girl’s lessons in theschoolroom. She had spent hour after hour feeding the child’s expanding mind, encouraging patience, and curbing the temper that seemed always to come with redheads. The rewards for her effort had been great. Rosamunde was everything she had ever wanted in a daughter. With a grimace of pain, the abbess rose to her feet.
    â€œEvery bird must leave the nest one day,” she said practically. She moved to the door, only to pause and glance back uncertainly. “I never thought you would leave us, Rosamunde. I was not warned.” Adela sighed unhappily. “Thinking you would not need the knowledge, there was much I neglected to teach you about marriage and the marital bed.”
    â€œThe marital bed?” Rosamunde frowned worriedly as she noted the sudden stain of embarrassment on the older woman’s cheeks.
    The abbess stared at her, at a loss for a moment, then turned abruptly away. “Sister Eustice shall enlighten you,” she said abruptly. She started to slip out of the room, then paused to add, “But quickly, sister. The king is most impatient to have this business done.”
    The door closed, leaving Eustice staring at it in stupefaction.

Chapter Two
    â€œThe marital bed.”
    Rosamunde turned her gaze from the closed door to Eustice at the other woman’s firm words. The sister had drawn up her shoulders, her expression full of purpose, Before she could continue, though, Rosamunde asked, “Shall I dress while you explain?”
    Eustice blinked at the interruption, then sighed and nodded. “Aye. Your father appears to be in something of a hurry. Mayhap that would be for the best.”
    Slipping off the bed, Rosamunde quickly removed the breeches she had been wearing to work in the stables. Eustice immediately took them from her and began to fold them neatly as she began again. “The marital bed may be unpleasant, but it is your sacred duty as a wife.”
    â€œUnpleasant?” Rosamunde paused in undoing the laces of her tunic. She eyed the other woman with dismay. “How unpleasant?”
    Eustice made a face. “Quite, from what I gather. Mymother used to stay abed at least half a day after my father exerted his husbandly rights,” she confided.
    Rosamunde’s eyes grew round at this news. “It must be very draining, then.”
    â€œOh, aye,” Eustice agreed with a firm nod. “And noisy.”
    â€œNoisy?” Rosamunde sank to sit on the bed again.
    â€œYou are supposed to be changing,” the nun reminded her. Rosamunde stood again and began to fuss with the laces of her top. Sister Eustice admitted. “When I was a child, my sister and I listened outside our parents’ bedchamber one night.” She flushed at Rosamunde’s arched eyebrows, and shrugged. “I was a naughty child, forever getting into mischief. Not unlike someone else I know,” she added pointedly, making Rosamunde grin. “Anyway, we listened and…”
    â€œAnd?” Rosamunde prompted.
    Eustice scowled at her. “Continue to change,” she instructed. She was silent