Lord Reynard's Fancy

Thanks to every loyal reader who's hung around while I've been ill. Chapter Seven is finally here and Chapter Eight is coming. Please remember to vote, and comments are always welcome. I deeply appreciate politely phrased and constructive criticism! Hope you enjoy some sexual action at last!

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Lilac rose and carried the slumbering Nan to her own chamber and bed, a treat she often bestowed on the orphans. When she returned she looked bowed down by a weariness Sir Reynard had never seen in her before. He marked that she had discarded her soaked woolen kirtle without bothering to change the damp one beneath. He moved the bench closer to the fire to keep her warm, pulled Lilac down next to him on the bench and handed her mulled wine, which she silently accepted and quaffed down at once. He did not loosen his hold on her hand. She did not pull away, but leaned upon his shoulder and stared into the flames.

"Lilac..." he could not continue for the lump in his throat.

"My father hates me, for I killed my mother. She died a-birthing me. I know not if he loved her so very dearly or simply wished to rule her comings and goings as cruelly as he did mine." She was blinking every instant.

"Nay, Lilac, this is folly. No babe kills her mother, you would not say so of Nan."

"Nan's parents and her brothers died of a fever."

"It is all the same, and you would know this if your heart did not grieve you so." her knight said, reaching up to stroke her hair.

Lilac said nothing.

He sighed and spoke again, "By my troth, you are a worthy soul. Men give you hate, and you give us all love in turn." He kissed her brow gently, truly meaning only to soothe her.

Until she raised her woe filled eyes to his, then her free hand to his beard stroking it hesitantly. All his former longing seemed to rush upon him tenfold. Lilac's face remained comely, her body soft and appealing, yet added to these now were sorrow and loneliness and they worked on him beyond the power of her most dazzling smile. He would wed her, ease that sorrow forever, plant his seed in her and give her a family of children to ensure that even in his death she would never feel so alone again.

"All men do not hate me," she sighed heavily, "only my father. You have never given me hate, though I have tested you past a statue's endurance with scorn."

"Not so, not scorn, but beauty and cheer and music have filled my house since you came." he hummed one of Lilac's favorite tunes and kissed her cheek and chin as the lyrics directed. This won a smile at last.

"I knew not you heeded the words."

"Always! My mother did sing it to me, and kissed me cheek and chin when I was no taller than Nan. When my father was home, each did take a side. It made me to laugh and fall back asleep when nightmares plagued me. They doted on me for I was their youngest and only living child."

"My father never kissed me where a blow would serve, and a blow did always serve."

"On the morrow I will serve him blows enough in recompense to make him smart until the second coming." Lord Reynard snarled.

"You cannot..."

"...Do not shield him Lilac, he merits it not. Striking a blow on another man full grown be one thing, striking a tiny child ano..."

"...You mistake me, I would look on and cheer, I am not so worthy as you believe me. I do not tell you that you may not, I say that you cannot. My father dwells not here anymore. He left when I came to the manor, being a freeman, having coin enough to marry again and seeing none here he wished to wed."

"That coin was your dower and he does know it!"

This was true enough. Wishing to bed Lilac though he did at the time, he knew full well the men in his company would vie for her still, the more if she had a dowry though he paid them generously. Men of honor did not bed maidens and abandon them, the dowry would leave her choice to a husband who would please her. No matter, he had resolved now to please her so greatly that no other man could stand a chance in his wake, and she would cleave to him so dearly that she grew blind to all others.

His rising passion was dashed by her next words.

"He has not honor as you do. You watch over and protect all, he could not manage even one in his charge. Indeed, you are my image of a kind and worthy father."

Conversing they had turned to face each other, and Lilac gazed up at him smiling, her eyes adoring.

"Lilac, I would not have you look to me as your new father!"

"MY father!" she replied with a look of rebuke, then continued as her voice grew softer and she drew nearer, "Nay, I would not look to you as my father."

She raised her mouth to his with an eagerness even his most vivid dreams had not hazarded. Groaning with relief and desire, he kissed her in return with tenderness tempering his heated blood. It appeared quick enough to him that Lilac had learned to kiss enticingly with some lad about the village, though he had never seen her betray more affection for one than another. She melted into him and parted her lips.

"My thanks, village lad!" he thought hazily as tenderness started to give way to the raw and unrequited lust that had tormented him for months.

Lilac's wine soaked tongue stroked his and he felt his blood kindle to flame. He pulled her onto his knee deepening their kiss, and stroked the soft skin of her throat as her arms enfolded his own neck. It was soon clear that she was beyond her knowledge, yet not her depth. His fierce aggressive temper was legendary, and it rose to the surface in his passion, yet Lilac responded to all with a purely feminine yielding that had him drowning in a sense of the whole of creation as male and female and deeply, completely right.

Before he knew it he was thrusting his tongue into her mouth over and over as she moaned and writhed on his lap, and he knew he must check himself if he did not wish to pain her over much when he took her maidenhead. They could wed at Mass in the morn and none would be the wiser. He started to sprinkle kisses over her face instead: nose, brow, cheeks, chin, jaw. He murmured gentle words to her as he placed kisses down her throat.

"You are so fair, Lilac, so comely. When I laid my eyes upon you at the inn when we marched home, I wanted you just where you are now in that moment." he whispered as she in turn kissed his brow, his hair, the back of his neck. She had one hand curled in his beard and stroked the contours of his back with the other. "My weariness dropped from me and my heart pounded as in a battle." He slid his hand slowly to her shoulder and trailed his fingers along the edge of her chemise.

"You also," she panted, as he started to unlace her and caress her breasts, "I set eyes on you and felt, nay knew, I had never gazed on a true man before." Lilac started fumblingly unbuttoning his doublet as she suckled on his earlobe.

Those sensations and such praise moved him to follow his fingers with his mouth, pushing aside her still damp shift and drawing his tongue down her breast.

"I wanted you near me for the rest of my days." she sighed to his joy, leaning back in his arms to give him better reach.

As her drew her nipple into his mouth, though, Lilac started up with an anguished cry and tore herself away from him.

"Forgive me, I am sorry!" she cried out as she ran to her chamber.