Read Online Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham - Free Book Online

thought about everyone he cared for and never got to see, but as the months turned into years he’d forgotten his baser longings for her; he had even ceased to recall her features distinctly. But now that he had seen her, Hugh suddenly felt an intense ache in his groin. He rose from his seat and made his unsteady way over to her. “Emma,” he said, taking her hand. “I’ve missed you.”
      “Welcome home, Hugh.”
      He took her arm and lurched through the nearest doorway, which fortunately happened to lead outside. “Sweet little Emma,” he whispered, backing her against a wall and kissing her.
      “Hugh!” Emma wrenched away and glared at him. “You are drunk.”
      “But I know who the prettiest lass in this castle is. Please, Emma.” He tried to kiss her again but succeeded only in kissing the wall behind her as she yanked to the side. “Don’t be so cruel, Emma,” he complained, rubbing his sore lip. Undaunted, he put his hand on what he thought was her bosom and ended up touching her shoulder instead. He frowned in disappointment at its lack of softness.
      “Hugh! You have been in prison for so long and are so far in wine that I will forgive your boorish behavior, but enough is enough. Stand back and listen to me. If I allow you to visit me tomorrow, will you leave me alone now?”
      “Tomorrow,” he repeated carefully, as if Emma had coined a new word.
      “Yes, tomorrow. At the house my father had.”
      “Your father's house,” agreed Hugh. “Tomorrow.”
      “Yes. My father's house, tomorrow. Now leave me in peace. I shall have my man take me home.”
      She walked away briskly, leaving Hugh to make his meandering way inside, where in due time he was put to bed, a production that Hugh foggily recalled afterward as involving at least two of his mother's servants and perhaps his mother herself. Dim as his memory was on this particular point, it was achingly sharp when it came to his ill behavior with Emma, and late the next morning, thoroughly ashamed of himself, he rode to the manor house where Emma had lived with her widowed father. There were more ruts on the path between Hanley Castle and Emma's house than he remembered, or perhaps it was only that his horse had managed to find each of them, every one of which sent a jolt of pain through Hugh's throbbing head. Despite the difficulty of concentrating, he managed to keep the red rose he held from being crushed. “For you,” he said when he was left alone with Emma. “I’m sorry I acted like such a knave.”
      “It's beautiful.”
      “But you appear to have a garden full of them, I noticed when I arrived here.”
      “Yours is prettier than any of mine. It's much more red, for one thing. Come. Sit and talk for a while.”
      Emma's house was a small manor, with a kitchen, a great hall, and two private chambers, along with some outbuildings. Hugh sat uneasily in the seat Emma offered him in her own chamber. The sleeping area was curtained off from the sitting area, but Hugh knew what lay behind the partition. He had never been so close to the bed of a lady, and it had been a very long time since he had made conversation with one either, except for his mother and his sisters when they had visited him in prison in his last months there. Having sat on the stool offered to him, he decided to start by elaborating his apology. “I don’t know what came over me, my lady. Well, I do know; too much wine. Father told me once that I couldn’t hold it all that well. But—”
      “Hugh! Since when did you call me ‘my lady’? Please. We have known each other too long for such formality, haven’t we?” Seeing that Hugh still was at a loss for words, she added, “Is it odd, being free after so long?”
      Hugh grinned in relief. “It's very odd. I awoke this morning and fretted about how I was going to get permission to go out and see you. I’d just remembered that I didn’t have to do so when I heard this rustling