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sir,” Emma replied, torn, now she was fully conscious, between what her head was telling her and what her heart desired.  Feeling him hard up against her, she couldn’t resist but yield herself up to him.  “You are,” she said with a gasp at the thrill of his entry.
    “Then, be assured, Emma,” Lord Robert said, thrusting himself deeper, “you are going nowhere.”
    Lord Robert ventured to smother his nurse in kisses as he moved on top of her but Emma recollected herself.  She pushed Lord Robert’s shoulders away and looked him in the eye.  “This is wrong, my lord,” she said, struggling still to divorce her logic from every urge she felt inside.  “We cannot do this.”
    “Emma, you are mine and I will have you,” the Norman lord replied.  “You cannot renege.”
    But his rhythm had been broken by Emma’s resistance.  “I will have you,” he reasserted, knowing already that his quest was fruitless if their passion was not shared.
    “You could take my body if you chose,” Emma said softly, “but, my lord, it would not come with my soul.”
    With Emma’s words, Lord Robert withdrew and sat back on his haunches, defeated.  “What would secure your soul, Emma?” he asked soberly.
    “Your love, Lord Robert,” she replied, “your true and exclusive love.”
     

 
    Chapter 11
     
    The door to the nursery opened.  The figure of Fiona, with a shawl wrapped about her shoulders, was lit from without.  “Get up,” she told Emma.
    Emma rose from the floor, pulling up a sheet with her to preserve her modesty, being still in a state of disarray after her visit from Lord Robert in the night.
    “Typical,” muttered Fiona, looking around the room, “he gives her a bed; she sleeps on the floor like a dog.”
    Emma registered the comment but felt too chilled and self-conscious to react to it.
    “I have been discussing your fate with my future husband,” Fiona began when Emma stood upright before her.  “To speak plainly, I do not trust you, but he thinks otherwise.  I have reached the conclusion that you must make a choice: if you remain here, your movements will be monitored when you are outside the confines of this room; otherwise you will be locked in this room, so that I know where you are.  If you find these terms unacceptable, you are free to leave immediately.  What do you say?”
    Emma was speechless.
    “Perhaps you need time to think,” Fiona suggested.  “Get dressed, Nurse and make up your mind – and be sure to plait your hair – I will not have women in my future husband’s household looking wanton.  When you have dressed, you will come to me and give me your decision.”
    Fiona was about to leave but she felt an irresistible urge.  Emma still stood before her, frozen.  “Drop the sheet, Nurse.  Let me look at you.”
    Emma thought she must have misheard the lady.
    “You are my future husband’s servant.  I wish to see that you are in good health.  Let me look upon you naked, I say.”  Fiona smiled to witness the discomfort that her order brought to the nurse.  She waited, certain the woman couldn’t refuse her demand.
    Emma lowered her head, closed her eyes and let the sheet fall to the floor.
    Fiona immediately registered Emma’s full breasts.  “A comely little slut you are indeed, Nurse,” she observed, surveying Emma’s form more fully by scanning her eyes down Emma’s torso and resting them unashamedly on her crotch.  “If you choose to stay, I think I will permit the soldiers who guard your room to take their pleasure with you.  They are mostly common men and exercise little discernment in their choice of women.  And it would be a shame to let all that fresh meat go to waste,” Fiona joked, eyeing Emma’s wide hips.
    Emma had opened her eyes and raised her gaze, alarmed at Fiona’s suggestions.
    Fiona looked Emma in the eye.  “Their tastes are such, I shouldn’t be surprised if two or three of them didn’t want to have a go at you all