Wanton by Catherine Lloyd

Author:Catherine Lloyd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: guardian ward love story, historical erotic taboo romance, king johns england historical romance, medieval adventure romance, medieval outlaw erotic love story, sexy action historical romance
Publisher: Writewood Creations

BROTHER HUGH was a full head taller than me. I could not tell his form under his tunic and cowl but his hair was thick with brown waves. As a postulant, he had still not affirmed his commitment to the monastery and so was not shaved on his crown as Brother Philip was.

“They are pressuring me to do so at the next Tonsure. The abbot daily brings me petitions from my father threatening to reduce his generosity if I cannot be made to obey.”

“It would be more rational to give you a portion of your father’s inheritance and allow you to marry,” said I. I was bent over a parchment and made neat evenly spaced pricks in the margins with the awl. Between these points using a plummet of silver, I would rule a straight line.

The Scriptorium was a small room, comfortably furnished with oak desks that were cunningly raised at one end, tilting the working surface to the scribe. Hugh and I sat on benches placed before our desks. There were rugs under our feet, and shelves for our inks and quills and many, many books. We were often left alone in the Scriptorium to our shared delight. It was well-lighted by a bank of windows and warmed by a great fire blazing on the hearth. Sounds from the outside world did not reach our ear. Brother Hugh decamped to work every morning just as soon as he possibly could now that I was his assistant. He had shown me how to prepare the parchment for his calligraphy—elegantly scripted Latin letters. With my help, he was able to make quick progress on the folio the abbot had requested for Christmastide.

“Reason is not my father’s gift, Brother Callum. The firstborn inherits, the second son takes up orders. I was educated for this purpose and so here I am.”

“It is a prison of another sort,” I murmured.

“What say you?”

“Nothing of significance. Only that it seems to me all men must submit to a prison of one kind or another. A man of my acquaintance once mourned to go to sea but the land held him and his duties as a husband.”

“I should trade my prison for your friend’s and gladly,” he said quietly and dipped his quill in red ink.

I gazed at him from across the room in the slant of light that fell across his face. Motes of dust circled his head in the wintry sunlight. Brother Hugh’s eyes were wide and brown like the earth after a spring rain. He was young, my age I reckoned or a year older. We had liked each other straight away, engaging in long discussions and strenuous work out-of-doors where Hugh would drive his body to near exhaustion so he could fall asleep at night. We had been assigned a cell together by the abbot when my petition was accepted.

The first thing he noticed when I had settled in was the broadsword. We stood in a space so cramped there was less than a foot between us.

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