Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 95326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
The distinct memory almost had her forgetting what he had asked her and thankfully she was quick to recall it. “I do not know where she would go if not home or the reason for her not returning home. Leora is not fearful like me—”
Cavell interrupted her with a chuckle. “You… fearful?” He chuckled again. “You do not know yourself, wife, if you believe that.”
He thought her fearless? That was far from the truth. “I do what I must but that doesn’t mean I am not fearful.”
“You underestimate yourself. Besides, fear resides in everyone. It is whether you have the coverage to rule over fear or let it rule you. You definitely have courage, wife.”
“You are so sure?” she asked, thinking otherwise.
“I am proof of it.”
“How so?”
“It takes courage to wed a Gallowglass warrior and even more courage to hunt him down and slip into his bed without him realizing who you truly were.” He walked over to her, resting his hands on her waist and lowering his head enough to look questioningly into her eyes. “Now, wife, do you have the courage to tell me if you were truthful with my father when you told him that you cared for your husband deeply?”
“I need no courage to speak the truth. I do care deeply for you. You have not been unkind to me. You have kept me safe since meeting you, and you did not hesitate to return to the abbey to help my sisters once you learned the truth. And I find I enjoy your company. You are mostly easy to talk with and I favor your kisses.”
His smile teased as he playfully praised himself. “I am a good kisser.”
Elsie liked his playfulness. It always brought a smile to her face and no man had ever teased a smile from her as her husband did now. No man had ever wanted to make her smile like her husband did now.
“Since you are the only man who I have ever kissed, I will trust your word on that,” she said.
“That you will, wife, since I am the only man whose lips will touch yours.” He sealed his edict with a powerful kiss as if to leave a mark that let all know that she belonged to him.
Elsie had savored every kiss with her husband, fearful it might be the last since he might decide to walk away from their marriage. However, hearing him declare that his lips would be the only ones that ever touched hers made her think that he had decided to remain in the marriage.
He finished the kiss with a brush of his lips over hers, then whispered, “Only me, only ever me.”
“Aye,” Elsie whispered, “only ever you.”
His words combined with hers rang like a declaration in his head. If they pledged themselves only to each other, what did that mean?”
He stepped away from her and went to fill a goblet with wine that had been left for them.
His words as well as her own had her asking, “Do you care for me, husband?”
She asked the very question he was asking of himself. “A good question, wife, and one with which I struggle.”
“Why?” she asked and went to take the goblet of wine he held out to her, then he poured another for himself. “It is simple enough to answer. You either care for me or you do not.”
“It is not that simple, wife.”
“It is not that difficult,” she countered.
“How do you know you care for me?” he asked accusingly as if intending to prove her wrong.
She responded promptly. “I feel it.”
“What do you feel?” he challenged, needing to hear and know if what he was feeling was similar to what she felt.
Her response came easily, letting her words flow without restraint, finally able to release what had been building inside her. She waved one hand out wide. “Everything. It seems like life itself is more alive when I am with you. I think my heart smiles when you are near, I feel content, and when you embrace me, I feel—cared for. A blessing for sure since I had been warned that it might take time for me to feel anything at all for you. So, I do understand if you have yet to have any feelings for me, though I hope with time you may come to at least care for me, if we choose to remain in the marriage.”
Her words hit him like a punch to his gut to think their marriage would end and he would see her no more, make her heart smile no more, never embrace her again, never…
He grabbed the goblet from her hand and placed it and his goblet on the table and turned with such force toward her that instinct had her jumping back. But his hand caught her by the back of her neck and yanked her toward him.