I awoke three mornings later and the warrior slumbered on beside me, one of his massive arms flung over me, right below his child in my belly, his hand curled around my hip. I did not like that he was still insisting we share the same bed chamber. It angered me that I was in his bed only because he did not have her around to sleep with.

Quietly, like a mouse, I tried to move out from under his arm. Never had we woken up together in the same bed, except for these past few nights, and I did not like that I liked it. I could not get used to this because of her, and I found I was still bitter that she had awoken in my husband's arms like this many, many times. Just as I thought myself free from his arm, it closed tightly around me and pulled me closer to him. The warrior propped himself up on his arm and looked down on me.

"Good morning, Calissande," he smiled gently at me before I looked away without returning his smile. "I do not believe I have ever rested as well as I have since we began sharing a bed."

"My sincerest apologies for not being more exciting in bed and thus able to prevent you from resting like her."

His brows pulled down over his eyes. "I am unclear as to the meaning of that, but it sounds like an insult, my lady wife."

"Never mind. The meaning matters not. I shall sleep in my own chamber tonight. I do not wish a habit to form before you remind of my place and return to having her in your bed."

"She is gone, my lady wife. She will be with me no more."

"Where has she gone? To one of your other estates to wait for your return?"

"No, Calissande. When I left for court with her that day, I was...angry with you, and I let you think she was accompanying me to court. She was not."

He looked momentarily chagrined for allowing his temper to get the better of him and deliberately misleading me, but then his face returned to its normal stern look.

"A camaspoza would never be allowed at court, a fact you did not know because you knew nothing of camaspozas, much less the protocols surrounding them. When I realized you were serious in your distaste and dislike of the situation, she was returned to the training center without censure, meaning she had done nothing wrong, had broken no rules and could be reassigned. Sir Alcarn handled the business for me as the King wanted me at the palace posthaste."

"There are protocols for camaspozas?" I was astounded at this. How difficult was it to be a common whore?

The warrior looked at me as if he couldn't believe what I was asking. "Of course. Very strict rules that must be followed so as not to interfere with the marriage relationship or the household."

"My, we can see just how well that has worked out for you!" I told him in falsely sweet tones.

Those serious eyes pierced me. "My lady wife mocks me, I think."

"How you must miss her, the woman you put above me. The warrior is now desperate enough to allow his wife into his bed instead of the one he truly desires."

"I never put her above you, Calissande. Never. Not once. That would be unthinkable."

"You put her above me every single day that you allowed her to take my place in your bedchamber. Why, you couldn't wait to introduce her to me the very first day we arrived at Bellford Keep. You humiliated me immediately upon my arrival at my new home."

He reared back. "Never, Calissande. That first meeting was conducted perfectly; it went exactly according to protocol."

"There are protocols for introducing your mistress to your wife?" This was unbelievable to me.

"She was not my mistress," he corrected me, his jaw clenched, and it sounded like he was grinding his teeth together, maybe to keep from snapping them at me.

"Your camaspoza then. It's the same thing."

"It is not at all the same. A man chooses a mistress if he so desires. A camaspoza is assigned to him."

"Assigned? You didn't select her yourself?"

He shook his head. "No. She was sent to me from the training center as soon as they were notified I had married."

Training center? These women were trained?

I did not realize that I had spoken my disgust aloud.

"Yes, there is a training center specifically for camaspozas. There, they are taught how to serve and how to comport themselves in their role."

By my grimace, he knew I found it distasteful.

"It is not your way, I realize. It must seem odd to you, but it is the way of most kingdoms. Your father's kingdom is one of a few exceptions, I have been learning. I questioned the courtiers on the ways and customs of other kingdoms so I could try to understand your obvious objections to our situation."

"I am still trying to comprehend a woman being taught to serve as a camaspoza. Was she actually trained to always be available whenever you want to be with her? You just...you just call for her and she comes running to you?"

"I would never call for her. I snapped for her when I had a need, and I never snapped because I wanted to be with her."

"You snapped for her? Like you'd snap for a dog and she would come running like a well-heeled bitch?"

"I have never thought of it in those terms, but I suppose it was rather like that."

"Why would you not just call her name so she would come to you?"

"She has no name, Calissande. And that is all according to the rules, which are clear and never to be broken: the camaspoza is never called by name, never fucked face to face and never kissed. She is nothing more than a body, not a person."

"You were sleeping next to her night after night, and you don't know her name? How do you not know her name? What did you talk about?"

"There are two points in your words I must clarify for you, my lady wife. The first is that talking is expressly forbidden. The camaspoza is there for one purpose and one purpose only, and it is not talking. If she were to ever speak to me, or I to her, she would be returned to the training center and from there it would be determined if she would be reassigned to another or remain at the center as a servant, depending on the severity of her transgression."

This was so contrary to what I had imagined had been happening in his bedchamber that I found it hard to comprehend. It sounded like a horrible existence and I shuddered at the thought of being a camaspoza.

"And to clarify the second point," he continued, "I did not sleep next to her, my lady wife. She slept on a pallet across from the bed; never was she in the bed with me."

"I cannot see you on the floor to...to do what you needed to do."

He huffed out a disgruntled breath that sounded like a growl. "I do not like talking with you about such things, as it is not seemly knowledge for a lady wife, but I need to clarify some points for your understanding. A camaspoza knows one snap means she should get on her knees and two snaps means she should bend over the end of the bed and lift her skirts. She is never, ever in the bed."

"How very well trained both of you are. I am surprised you never confused us and snapped for me."

He looked horrified. "That would never happen. There is no way I could ever confuse my lady wife with her."

"And yet you introduced us to one another, as if you were proudly showing off your perfect little camaspoza."

"The First Meeting is an important step in the protocol, Calissande. If you did not meet her, the Gifts of Appeasement could not begin."

"I have no idea of what you are speaking."

"I realize that now," he said, his tone growly again. "I did not understand that then."

"Why would you even feel it was necessary to introduce her to me? Did you think we would become lifelong friends since we shared my husband? Did you truly think it a wise course of action?"

His hand reached out to touch my face, but I flinched away, making his mouth tighten. "This is not right, explaining such matters to you, but as you did not grow up in my kingdom, our customs require explanation so you can get over your hurt."

Somehow I doubted that his explanations could ever take away the hurt and pain of what he did to me. But truth be told, I was both horrified and fascinated by his culture that was so different from my own.

"When you bring your lady wife into your home for the first time, the lady wife, the husband and the camaspoza meet in the husband's private room. The camaspoza, her eyes downcast -- never should she look the lady wife in the eye -- sinks to the floor in front of the lady wife and touches her head to the floor. The husband says only, 'You and everyone must bow to my lady wife, the treasure of my heart." Then the husband says to his lady wife only two words, 'The camaspoza,' so the lady wife knows that this is not a servant, though she is dressed as one. I did that all right and proper, Calissande, exactly as it should have been."

"I had no idea what a camaspoza was."

"I am painfully aware of that, Calissande. When she was dismissed, you asked me what she was to me, and I did not know how to answer because that question would not have been asked in my country. The lady wife would have known exactly what the camaspoza was. So you unknowingly broke protocol, but then you continued it properly when you fought with me after I explained she would be in my bedchamber at night with me to meet any needs I had. Every lady wife is expected to argue, for up to six months. After that first argument is the giving of the first Gift of Appeasement."

I could not believe what I was hearing. He accepted what he was telling me whole heartedly, saw nothing wrong with it.

"You will remember that I called you back into my study after you stormed off, and I offered you a diamond necklace. You were supposed to accept it, but instead, you rejected it. I did not know what to make of your rage, Calissande. It was baffling to me. Protocol said you should have accepted the necklace and thanked me prettily, only to resume arguing the next day. I was very much at a loss when you yelled at me and refused my gift. So I wrote to my father to ask him for guidance, and he said that you were one of the lady wives who would make certain the gifts lasted for the full six months and then he joked that it was fortunate I had such a large coffer to keep you in presents for that long."

He grinned at me, recalling the hilarity of his father's words. He actually thought I had been holding out for more gifts.

"The months of gift giving are called the Time of Taming and although each one might go differently, in the end the lady wife, satisfied with her gifts, settles into her place in the household. She is considered tamed and at peace with the camaspoza. My father assured me that I should continue with the gifts, perhaps leaving them in your chamber instead of presenting them to you directly. He also told me that you would continue to fuss and be angry with me, but you would come around by the end of the Taming."

Well, that explained the rings, earrings, ribbons, hair brushes and other baubles I kept finding in my chambers, the new dresses laid across my bed.

At that moment, my stomach growled in hunger and the warrior laughed.

"I would go downstairs to eat with you, Calissande. I tire of this subject and can see you are thinking. We shall talk some more until you get over this."

When he got off the bed, he held out a hand to me, and again I refused it. He honestly believed that this was a minor inconvenience I needed to get over.

His explanations may have given me some understanding of our bizarre (to me) situation, but it did not give him forgiveness.