Christine agrees

Christine looked back and forth between the two, first at Marielle's sparkling eyes and mischievous grin to the Verderer's somber blue eyes that stared at her with an unsettling steadiness. She could not be sure what the goodwife had in mind when she invited Christine to share their bed, but she did know what she wanted from her handsome savior. How could someone as sheltered and innocent as she was crave the touch of a happily married man so much that she was willing to be with him even with his wife in the same bed?

Christine had at best only the vaguest idea of how she might use her young body to bring pleasure to a man. She was, she suspected, even more sheltered than most other young noblewomen her age, as her experience was limited to a few clumsy kisses shared with William. Her father had hoped that given some time alone with her that her eager suitor might convince Christine to accept his proposal, but in fact, William's kisses had made little impression upon her. It was just as well, because with her mother as sickly as she had been the past few years, she was in no way prepared for what a groom might expect from a maid on his marriage bed. What she did know though, was that every glance from the Verderer made her core bubble like a cauldron of porridge in a way that William's kisses never had.

She was unable to even form the words to accept the couple's offer, but with a timid nod she committed herself to a path that was even more precarious than the old road through the forest from her father's castle to Oldchester.

Thankfully, the Verderer did not accompany the two women to the bed chamber and Christine was able to slip out of the fine white gown without having the disquieting blue eyes of the Verderer watching her every move. Wearing nothing but the soft cotton shift Christine sat on the bed as Marielle too pulled her garments off until she wore a shift that strained to contain her breasts. Compared to this buxom woman, Christine's apple-sized breasts seemed inadequate, and she realized how silly she had been to think that a grown man like Werner might be tempted by her girlish curves.

Almost as if she sensed Christine's doubts, the Verderer's wife flung back the covers and pulled her into her arms as they settled into the great bed.

"You are so beautiful, Evelyn." Marielle squeezed her tightly into the very bosom that Christine had just been envying, "my Werner is going to love you, honey."

"What will he do?"

"Nothing you don't want him to," there was a fierceness to the Verderer's answer that made Christine wonder at this woman's confidence, "but if you give us a chance, I can promise you this will be the best night of your young life."

"So I'll be ruined." Surprisingly, the idea did not worry her much at all. Compared to Prince Henry Werner was a saint, and if she had agreed to wed Sir William, she would have been claimed by a man who, at best, bored her. "Will any man want me after this?" Christine couldn't even believe she was discussing her deflowering with the wife of the man who she couldn't stop thinking about.

"Oh sweetheart, losing her cherry doesn't ruin a woman, it just changes her." She brushed a lock of Christine's hair behind her ear tenderly, "You are going to be so much more once I get done showing you what I know." Any other questions Christine might have come up with wiped from her mind when the Verderer entered the room and began to strip off his quilted tunic. He didn't even glance at where his wife and Christine lay under the covers, but the two of them watched him with undisguised interest.

Wearing only a pair of cut-off leggings, the Verderer moved to the bed and slipped under the covers settling into the bed, so Christine's petite body was pressed between his bare chest and his wife's ample bosom.