He returns with the promised gifts ... sort of.

An hour or so later, Merthin unlocked the door to her cell and stepped in with a small package under his arm. Even though Merthin had seen her naked before, Christine pulled the blanket up to cover her naked form. The grey-haired man smiled at her in an almost fatherly grace and set the package down on the foot of her bed.

"Some clothes and books, Lady Christine." He spoke gently, averting his eyes as he turned away. "I'll leave you to get changed, milady. I want to make sure that I was not followed."

Christine's optimism faded a little when she took the scrap of silk from the bag that Merthin had brought her. The sheer silk was so skimpy that she could almost compress the entire garment into her small fist. It was, she tried to console herself, better than being naked but after she tied the last ribbon, she knew that the garment was designed to enhance a woman's beauty, not conceal it.

The books were not much better. The first leatherbound volume was a book of courtly romances set in the courts of Aquitaine. The words were scribed in an old-style script in a slightly fading ink that was not all that different from the books in her father's library. It was the illuminated lithographs accompanying the stories that first caught her attention. One illustration after another depicted maidens of the court undressed and spread out upon their beds in poses that made her blush.

The second book was even worse. The unfortunate tale of a Christian maiden living from her father's castle in the Outremer lands not far from Jerusalem. This young noblewoman was even younger than Christine when her father's lands were overrun and she was taken to the ****-pens of Damascus and bought by a Mohammadian Imir and taken to his hareem. This book had fewer illuminations, but the words she skimmed over in the passages were perhaps even worse than any pictures might have been. She was reading with horror the description of the young Christian girl's initial inspection when she heard the key in the lock announcing Merthin's return.

Merthin smiled broadly when he saw the chaste Lady Girard dressed in the lacy silk lingerie stuffing his book back into the bag she had taken it from. More than once the Baron Gerard had spoken of his daughter's thirst for books and bemoaned the hours she spent hidden away in his library instead of mingling with other young men and women her own age. The grey-haired notary knew that this sweet thing would not be able to resist the temptation of the unknown books and he could only imagine what her reaction would be to those erotic books.

"All clear, my dear." Merthin pretended not to notice the guilty way Christine had stuffed the book away, "I brought us some food." His assumption that by now his guest would be hungry was spot on, and as she saw the bread, cheese and cold meat, she seemed to forget about just how revealing the silk night-gown was.

Merthin however, was keenly aware of how sexy the chaste young noblewoman looked dressed like one of Lady Scarlet's whores. He had to consciously keep from leering at her as he uncorked the bottle of wine. After a glass or two of wine he should be able to do just about anything he wanted to this innocent young virgin.