Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Lies would no longer serve her well. She had no choice but to tell him the truth. “Hertha, Hume, and the children. They needed a new home, a permanent one where they would be safe, where Lord Ivan could not harm them. Hertha, Hume, Doritt, and Edward were to go with me to my new home. If our marriage did not take place and the children remained at Clan Strathearn, there is no telling what Lord Ivan would have done to them and to Hertha and Hume for helping not only them but the other children as well.” Tavia shuddered. “And when Lord Ivan so generously proposed to unburden you from our marriage, I must admit I was relieved that my plan worked for he would have made me suffer horribly for his defeat.”
That got Bhric’s anger boiling. “Has Lord Ivan ever tried to harm you?”
“Nay, my da kept me a distance from him and thankfully my da rejected his request for marriage to him. Lord Ivan claimed he changed his mind when he saw that I had a permanent limp. He would not have a damaged wife. His way of saving face when his proposal was rejected.”
“Yet he proposed to take you off my hands.”
“Aye, to make me suffer for his failure in keeping the children from him that he had worked to the bone. No doubt I would have never seen a year let alone a few months as his wife and the thought of what he would have done to me…” She shuddered again.
His wife had lied and plotted and sacrificed herself to help others, children she had not known, members of her clan, and her clan at large. If she protected those so unselfishly, what would she sacrifice to protect her husband, children, and clan? His wee wife was far more courageous than he had thought.
Bhric reached down to swipe his arm around his wife’s waist and lift her out of the chair to plant her firmly against his chest. “What will you do to protect me, wife?”
“Whatever I must, husband, and on that you have my word,” she said without hesitation and settled her lips over his to seal her promise with a kiss.
That she sealed her word with a kiss surprised him, but it also stirred an arousal in him which naturally had him commandeering the kiss. He took charge, an unexpected jolt of desire racing through him.
The unsure retreat of her tongue when his slipped into her mouth let him know she was unfamiliar with an intimate kiss, and he introduced her to it slowly until she began to respond., slow and hesitant. That of course only flamed his desires, and he ended the kiss when he grew far too aroused, especially when the thought of not waiting to bed his wife rushed into his head.
He rested his brow to hers and he thought to tell her that they would make this a good marriage perhaps because that was what he had hoped for with a wife. But it was too soon to tell, too much yet for him to learn about her. However, he would have something from her, something important to him.
“You will give me your word that from this day on you will speak only the truth to me and never be fearful of doing so,” he said and was pleased by her quick response.
“Aye, you have my word, husband.”
He set her on her feet. “Why did you not tell me who you were when I snatched you off the ground?”
“You frightened me, and your words were harsh,” she said without hesitation, “and my limp was more pronounced from my walk in the woods. I feared that you would think like others that I was less valuable as a wife because of it.” She bit at her bottom lip as if to stop herself from saying more.
“Say it,” Bhric urged, knowing what she would say and knowing it was the truth.
“My fear proved true, but then I expected it to. My da had not been approached by any clan with offers of marriage… until your mum.”
His mum had not mentioned Tavia’s limp to him, which meant she had not seen it as a deterrent. She had seen something else in Tavia, something that she had inherited from her mother and that Bhric’s mother knew would serve him well. He wondered what that was.
One thing was clear, his wife had remained strong through endless ridicule over her limp and that could not have been easy. It did not set well with him that he had condemned her as others had without any consideration for what she must have gone through or the courage it must have taken her to get through it. He was beginning to see his wife differently and thinking she just might make him a good wife after all.