Status Updates From This Ravished Rose

I hate how h's in Bodice-rippers give in so easily with just a kiss. Only page 34 and already she has slept with him after a kiss. Why? Make him work for it and maybe have a conversation first!

Whatever the burden he bore she meant to discover it this night and the brandy was potent. She knew with a strange intuition that James was fleeing from himself. She knew clearly that he loved her as much as she loved him and this gave her the courage to fight for him. Whatever the night might bring it would be well worth the battle joined.

In this autumnal time of waiting, Katherine knew herself at last. She had come to the end of attempts to wrest from life that which she could not have. She would beg the crumbs of love from no man’s table. Her destiny would be her own. What form it would take she did not know, but she would be ready.

Ruefully, she thought that now she was a combination comrade and solacer, a foil for the sardonic give and take that still characterized their relationship, a wench to be bedded, and now a compatriot in treason. It did not really matter; he was the center of her life though she was but a corner of his.

His warm breath tickled her cheek and his hand rested on her breasts as he said, “Are you then with me, Katherine?”
“Aye, my dear lord, to the death.”
His low laugh made her realize what she had said. “It will not come to that.” Then his ardent hands lifted her to their mutual will.
Outside in the streets the time that was to shake all England had already begun.

Later in the reaches of the night, lying in the curve of his arm, too relaxed and slaked for any other passion, Katherine was able to tell him of Frances and her words, and of the gypsy. She did not yet trust the warmth between them enough to tell the full horror of her kidnapping. When the time was ready, she would speak.

The gypsy’s words fell like rocks into the pooled silence. “I cannot speak fair words. The beast mark is on you and you go into deadly peril before one more powerful than I. Watch and beware. Bear your love for the bright shrouded one before you as a talisman for there is your salvation if there is to be any for either of you. The power pushes me back, I can say no more.”

...The path curved and dipped as it seemed to grow smaller. Katherine felt restored; she had not realized how very much she needed to be alone at times. All that was missing here were the still waters of the Psalmist’s song. A branch dipped down in the wind and was tossed up again. Peace came to her as she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply of the freshness that surrounded her.

She could not see the flowers but the earth scents of the greenwood soon lured her deep into it. A bird burst into song over her head and abruptly stopped....

“He is a man torn.” She whispered the words and, as she did so, she pictured the tenderness and anger with which he made love.

Katherine thought that she would never understand the deep conflicting needs of her husband. She only knew that she loved him with all the fire and passion that was in her heart and that she would take him on any terms.

Katherine was a realist, or perhaps women saw these things more clearly than men. She said, “How should that mark him so even until still?”
“His ideals were shattered, lady, and all his caring mocked. I think his kind truly love but once.”

...How he loved that woman! Her eyes, he told me, were the color of Mary’s own veil, her hair the color of sun and moonlight mixed, a fragile wraith.”
“And she was rotten under the beauty.” Katherine snarled this between her teeth. She was weary of Margaret of Burgundy and wondered, as always, what about the passion with her had so stirred and marked James. Had not others loved and been betrayed?

The wine was going to his head and his voice was slightly slurred as he said, “I have always hoped that James would wed and forget the past. At least he shares it with you....

He touched her hand. “For your own sake, keep whatever bargain you have made with James and do not trifle or give him reason to fear that his trust is misplaced. He is the worthiest of men but he is capable of great cruelty in his sorrowing.”
“I am aware of that for I have had experience of it.”
“I thought you might have.”

“Only truthful. James has kept his vow,” she said dryly. “I know about Margaret, you need not try to hide these things from me.”
The young man sighed with relief. “He must love you well to share such things with a new bride. He loved her passionately, you know, men of his nature seem to. While I…” He had borne as much seriousness as he could and was ready for laughter. “I love all the fair.”

“I will admit that I was quite surprised when news of the marriage came. James once vowed to me that he would never care again for a woman but would use them as they were meant to be used.” He blushed as he spoke and cursed himself for it. “Forgive me, Lady Katherine, I did not mean to speak in such an unseemly fashion. I forget myself.”

He demands entrance, Lady, and was most angry when informed of your orders.”
“Admit him only and bring him to the hall.”
She sat in the great chair of authority, surrounded by her trusted guards, a sharp dagger at her waist, when the young man was escorted in.

“Much of the time is a blank, ever since that borderer ripped my stomach open. There have been gray shapes, dreams, fires, beyond that nothing. Tell me.” Katherine had known that this time would come. Sir Anselm had told her, “You must be honest with him when he asks. Withhold nothing for his grasp on this world is fragile. He must trust you.”

“Other men love and are not torn apart by it. Why James?”


“He has ever felt things deeply."

“Yes, he told me of the summer preparation and the victories.” The words were clear and casual, the gray eyes lucid.
Katherine wanted to throw her arms around him but she said simply, “It is good to hear you speak, my husband.”
He smiled at her. “The dreams were not true. I know that now."
"They were indeed false." She would have agreed to anything he said at this point.

“Have no fear, Lady Katherine.”
“How can I ever thank you?”
Richard of Gloucester smiled then and it lit his rather forbidding face with warmth. “Loyalty, my lady.”

In the aftermath of such emotion Katherine felt as if she had been beaten. She lay exhausted on her bed after taking a burning hot bath and a sleeping potion. Her mind roiled as she tossed unable for the moment to rest. She knew that James would live to hate her once more but for a small space in time they had met in different kinds of love and that must sustain her in the days ahead.

So upset at Jamie. He doesn't just call out his ex's name during sex but ALSO on his death bed. JC dude. He's the quintessential stereotype of a guy who fell hard in love, was wronged, and never got over the woman and hates all women as a result. This isn't mentioning him failing to provide adequate support for his wife while he's away. So not my fav type to read about but this book is compelling I have to finish it.

Charles blushed as brilliantly as the fire. By the Cross, she has courage. There is only swift thought and action. She faces what she must without an outcry. Here is one worthy of chivalry. He stared into space and dreamed briefly of a daring rescue and her green eyes glowing with gratitude.

Charles blushed as brilliantly as the fire. By the Cross, she has courage. There is only swift thought and action. She faces what she must without an outcry. Here is one worthy of chivalry. He stared into space and dreamed briefly of a daring rescue and her green eyes glowing with gratitude.

So she spoke endlessly of him and how it might have been had they truly loved each other and, in the telling, found that some of her own hatred and pain was diminishing. Katherine found herself wanting to believe in love and truth, the honor of knighthood and the pride of courage. Sometimes she longed for Lady Dorotea with whom she had been unflaggingly honest; until the end when it had not been possible.

Later, as she lay in her bed listening to the calls of the night birds, Katherine knew that only ingenuity could save her. “Ingenuity and courage,” she whispered.

Nightbird calls mingled with the call to Mass as Katherine paced in the garden, her gown snapping and swirling as she turned. Unbidden thoughts of an aging husband or an eager experienced merchant came to her. Very well, so be it. But she would have more of Jamie before she decided. If he truly wanted her as his mistress she would be that and gladly.

She thought of the peace here and longed to be part of it. The nights were otherwise, for in her restless tossing dreams she saw gray, fierce eyes looking down into her own, felt the hunger, of her body against his, and the awakening of a desire that had no place in the ballads. She would wake with her loins burning and her mouth dry, the sound of mocking laughter in her ears.