Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Not pity. She was not one to be pitied. It was more outrage, that someone so worthy of love and marriage would be left at the altar. By Fortenbury, that stuck-up prig.
August decided he would not try to bed Elizabeth tonight, though the boisterous crowd sang slurred Welsh verses that doubtless encouraged that very thing. He would hold and soothe her, though, for she’d endured a trying couple of days.
“Any room for me?” he joked as the guests bore him to the bed.
She gave a nervous laugh and moved over as they tossed him onto the blankets.
He did not like that she was nervous.
“Very well,” he said to the crowd. “You’ve brought me here. I can handle the rest without your assistance.”
His strident tone registered with all but the most inebriated, and they were escorted out by the ladies, including Elizabeth’s mother, who blew the couple a kiss before she firmly shut the door.
“Goodness, they are vivacious,” said Elizabeth.
“They are drunk,” he replied with a chuckle.
She pushed her hair back. It was in a loose braid, giving her a charming, unkempt appearance. “So much energy, after such a long day.”
“I have a feeling some of them are just getting started.” He rose from the bed to lock the door from the inside, lest one of them arrive to join them later. That done, he went to check the fire and noticed trays of food and mulled wine on the tables nearby. “They’ve left us sustenance, Elizabeth. Come look.”
She hopped down from the tall bed. “Goodness, what a lot of food for two people.” The plates were full of sweet things, cakes and biscuits, and candies in jewel-like colors. “I’ve already eaten so much. How wonderful to be the married ones and be spoiled with all this.” She didn’t touch the food but wandered to the center of the chamber. “It’s a magical room. Are we at the very top of Cairwyn’s tower? Oh, look at the great window.”
She was off again, moving away from him, like a bird who couldn’t find a place to light. He took off his formal coat and waistcoat, then went to stand beside her as she peered from the frosted panes of glass. From the room’s vantage point, they could see fields and forests of white.
“Isn’t it gorgeous out there?” she said. “We had a beautiful winter day for our wedding.”
“It’s what you wanted. What you deserved.”
“It wouldn’t have been possible without you.” She turned to him, staring at his shirt as he loosened his cravat. “I suppose someone might have married me eventually, but goodness knows what kind of scoundrel he might have been.”
I have my scoundrel moments, he thought. He was uncomfortable with the worshipful way she regarded him; he was a very normal man.
“I am nervous,” she blurted then. “I’m so nervous tonight, August.”
“Why? Because of ghosts?” He glanced back at their nuptial chamber, with its ancient furniture and carved-stone fireplace. “It’s haunted in here, isn’t it?”
“Well…yes.”
He’d been joking. Now hair rose on his arms and the back of his neck. As for Elizabeth, her gaze trailed from his face to his lips, to his jaw, and down to his open collar. He knew why she was nervous. Forget about ghosts. He was the specter in her imagination.
“What do you know of men and women?” he asked. “Is that why you’re nervous? Because we are wed and…?”
And here together. Alone. I don’t know whether to reach out and touch you, Lisbet. He’d touched her before. He’d spanked her several times.
“I wanted to be wed,” she said, as if to reassure him. “Of course, I would have been here with Lord Fortenbury, waiting for…whatever is to come. Now I’m here with you.”
It was the waiting, then, that made her nervous. The uncertainty. He could fix that.
“Would you like me to kiss you?” he asked.
She swallowed hard, nodded. Was she about to cry?
“I don’t know why I’m shaking,” she said. “I’m sure I would love to be kissed. It’s just… I thought I knew things. I do know things, but about this, I am so foolish and worried—”
“There’s nothing to worry about.” He reached across the anxious space between them and touched her arm, slid his hand up to her shoulder. Gently, he tugged her toward him. “If the ghosts are telling you to be afraid, they don’t know me very well. Anyway, I’m going to kiss you now.”
“All right.”
“Tilt your head up for me?”
He was used to bolder women. Experienced, seductive women. Her innocence was novel and strange, as were her maidenly nightclothes. For God’s sake, he didn’t want to muck this up.
He cradled her face in his hands and leaned close, pressing his lips to hers. Ah, how yielding she was, how halting and sweet. He lingered in his task, measuring her delicate breaths until he drew away.