Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Fia said what she felt. “The only word I can give you that I know without a doubt I can keep is that I will always love you and keep you in my heart until my dying day.”
“Nay,” he said, shaking his head. “It must be beyond your dying day, for it is with you that I finally feel what it is to be loved and I never want to let you go.” He kissed her again, but it was not with tenderness this time, it was with a need he had never known, a need that filled him with a joy he had never known. If she was not a witch and did not bewitch him, then it could be only one thing… he had fallen in love with his wife.
He kissed her with a mixture of tenderness and impatience since he ached for more.
He ended the kiss reluctantly, but he needed to tell her. “You are mine. You will always be mine.”
“And you will belong to me and always be mine,” Fia said softly as if exchanging vows that had true meaning to them.
“Aye, wife, I pledge that to you,” Varrick said, and he did not think his heart could swell with any more joy but it did.
Varrick stepped away from her and began to disrobe, loosening his plaid to rid himself of his shirt first, and Fia did the same, her hands trembling.
He stepped forward and took hold of her hands. “I will not hurt you. You are safe with me.”
“Somehow I have known that since we first met, when I should have thought otherwise,” she said. “It is just that… I know only what I have been told or heard from other women, and while some spoke of coupling pleasantly, others did not, and some would not speak of it at all. And what of this unrelenting ache that settles in my lower parts when you kiss me? Is that something to be expected?”
“Aye, that and more,” he assured her, his own ache growing even more, knowing that she desired him as much as he did her.
He lowered his lips to hers and barely brushed them when a shout stopped him from going any further.
“Lord Varrick!”
He reluctantly stepped away from his wife and slipped his shirt on. He wanted no one to know what went on between him and his wife, not yet. Not until he could make certain she would be safe.
Varrick opened the door having recognized who had shouted out to him. “What is it, Corwin?”
“You need to come see this,” Corwin said.
While Varrick would have preferred not to leave his wife, Corwin would not trouble him if it was not important. “I will be right there. You have two warriors ready to stand guard outside this door?”
“Aye,” Corwin said.
Varrick closed the door and went to his wife. “When I return, we will finish this.” He ran his fingers along her soft cheek. “Nay, we will begin our life together as husband and wife.” He kissed her gently, grabbed his cloak, and once at the door turned. “Two guards will be outside the door. You are safe.”
Fia wanted to ask what was taking him away, but his tender touch had sent a rash of flutters throughout her body, and she could barely think straight. And the ache down below had grown worse. She hoped he would not be long. She feared if too much time passed, she might question that what she was about to do was foolish.
She returned to sit on the bench in front of the hearth and removed her boots to stretch her stocking-covered feet out to the heat.
What was it her mum had said about love?
True love is confusing and maddening, but the heart simply cannot live without it.
Could her heart live without Varrick?
“Nay,” she whispered without hesitation and smiled, joy squeezing her heart. Hurry back, Varrick, she silently called out to him.
I will.
Fia turned to look over her shoulder, expecting to find him there, having heard his response as if he was there with her. She hugged herself, hearing him so strongly in her head made her realize the wisdom of her decision to seal their vows and stay his wife. She had found a love as strong as her mum and da’s, and someday Varrick would realize the strength of it too.
Varrick stood staring at the two dead men.
“How can this be?” Corwin asked, staring at them as well. “There is not a mark on them and yet they had been dragged away by the hell hounds screaming. Fear builds in the clan warriors. The warriors who found them tell the others about this. I do not think it is good for any of us to remain here. Leave the witch to see to it on her own.”
“I will not leave my wife here alone with no protection,” Varrick said.