To Love Again by Bertrice Small Page B

hand.
    Berikos, in an effort to mend fences with his young wife, told her, “I will share a secret with you, Brigit.” He leaned close to her, and his head spun with the intoxicating fragrance she wore.
    “Tell me,” she said, her red lips pouting seductively, “and then I shall tell you a secret in return, my dear lord.”
    “I have sent to the Saxons for a warrior to come and teach our men what they have forgotten about fighting. If all goes as I hope it will, we may begin taking back the Dobunni lands stolen by the Romans next summer. With the legions long gone and certain not to return, all that are left of the Romans are farmers and fat merchants. We will destroy them. They think the Celtic tribes have grown into lap dogs, but we will show them otherwise, Brigit. We will regain what is ours with sword and fire! Our success will encourage the others to take their lands back as well. Britain will be ours once more. It will be like the old days, my beauty. Now, what have you to tell me?”
    “Do you remember the Gypsies that came on Lugh? Well, one of my serving women learned a secret from them that will give you pleasure such as you have never dreamed of, my lord.” Her voice was breathy, and his heart beat faster with his excitement. “It has taken me all this time to learn the technique to perfection, but I have finally mastered it. Tonight, I shall show you. Do not drink to excess, Berikos, or my efforts will be wasted upon you.” She licked her lips suggestively.
    He shoved his goblet aside. “Let us go now,” he said.
    “But if you leave,” she protested faintly, “the feasting must be done. It is early yet, Berikos. Let us wait a bit longer, I beg you.”
    “The Samain fires are long burned out,” he replied. “My fire for you, however, blazes hot, Brigit, my wife.”
    “Bank your fire for a little time, my lord.” She smiled winningly. “Will it all not be the better for the waiting?” She kissed him hard on his lips.
    “As my granddaughter so forcefully reminded me this afternoon,” Berikos said grimly, “I am no longer a young man.” He stood up, pulling Brigit with him. “Come! The night grows older as quickly as do I.”
    They left the hall, and Ceara smiled bitterly. “Brigit reminds us once again that it is she who guides the old stallion leading this herd.”
    “I wonder what she did to get him to go so early?” Maeve said.
    “Some suggestion of lustful games, you may be sure,” Ceara said. “He always had a large appetite for women’s flesh. His appetite is obviously still large, but can it overcome his age?”
    “You sound jealous,” Maeve said, astounded.
    “Aren’t you?” Ceara replied. “I may be considered an old woman by virtue of my years, but why should my desires not rise as hot as Berikos’s desires? I would not mind if he visited my bed now and then. He was always a good lover.”
    “Aye,” Maeve agreed, “he was. Now that we are older, no one admires us, or asks Berikos’s permission to share our beds. It is lonely.”
    “Remember when we were younger,” Ceara said, “Berikos was so proud of how other men desired his wives when they came to visit. It always gave him great pleasure to extend his hospitality to our beds. And he had his share of the visiting women as well. Do you remember the time when those three chiefs of neighboring tribes arrived to discuss an alliance, and they admired us?”
    Maeve laughed at the memory. “Aye! They had comealone so others would not know of their coming. Berikos was forced to parcel us out, and then he was left without a bedmate that night. Brenna was almost ready to have Kyna, and so she could not be with him. The only other women available were all related to him. Ohh, it seems so long ago!”
    “It was,” Ceara said. “The old ways are dying, and men are not so ready to share their women now as they were then. It is too bad, isn’t it? The right precautions kept one safe from unwanted pregnancy, but a