Page 13 of This Heart of Mine (O’Malley Saga #4)

“I am a poor bride,”

Angel said, but she smiled as she looked down at her husband’s ring with the Southwood family crest now on her finger. When the cleric had asked for the ring, they had suddenly realized they hadn’t one, and Robin had drawn his own ring from his finger to use as the wedding band. Later, he had promised, she would have a proper one.

“Nay, child. You must be dowered properly, and since you have been my royal ward all these years, it is my duty to see it done,”

the queen told her. “For each of the thirteen years you have been in my care and charge there will be a hundred gold pieces, plus an additional two hundred as my bridal gift to you. Finally, my lady Southwood—”

and here the queen smiled at the sudden look of delight that passed over Angel’s face—“I present to you this necklace.”

The queen reached up and unfastened from about her own neck a small, exquisite necklace of pale pink diamonds set in gold. “For you, child,”

she said, and, turning Angel, she fastened it about the startled girl’s throat.

Angel’s hands flew to her face, and then one hand stole to her neck to feel the necklace now lying there. “Madame … madame …”

she stammered, feeling totally foolish at her inability to say thank you. No one in her entire life had ever been so kind to her. Never! The queen reached out to pat her cheek, and then, raising her goblet, said, “Once long ago I raised my glass to Geoffrey Southwood on the occasion of his marriage to Skye O’Malley. As I recall, I arranged that wedding, too! It seems to be a royal custom of mine seeing that Southwoods are married off safely. Good health, long life, and many children to you both. God bless you, my dears!”

Then she drank, and the others drank with her.

Shortly afterward, the queen departed back to Ardern Hall , and the four young people returned to the Mermaid. This time Robin insisted that Angel ride before him on his horse, so Velvet was left to herself in the coach. The moon was waning, but the night sky was bright with myriad stars. Alex rode discreetly ahead of his friend, giving the newlyweds some measure of privacy.

Robin Southwood couldn’t ever remember being so happy in his entire life. All of his days he had been privileged and pampered, but marriage to this lovely creature who was now nestled in his arms meant more to him than anything else he had ever had. He could feel her trembling ever so slightly against him and it distressed him that she was afraid. He would not openly address her fear, for he knew it would embarrass her, and so he sought to distract her.

“When we go back up to London, we shall go to my mother’s warehouses along the river and find all kinds of wonderful materials to be made into gowns for you, my darling. You are surely the most beautiful girl ever born, and a beautiful gem should have an equally beautiful setting. You will let me help you choose, won’t you? I picture you in jewel colors, for they will be perfect with your exquisite pink-and-white complexion.”

“You are most kind, my lord,”

came her soft reply, but her head remained turned away.

“Look at me, Angel. Do you know that you have never looked me directly in the eye? Look at me now, my lady Southwood.”

She turned and blinded him with the flash of her marvelous turquoise eyes. There was a small smile on her lips. “Lady Southwood,”

she said softly. “I am, aren’t I? I really am!”

He grinned back at her. “You are, Angel. You are most assuredly my lady, Angel Southwood, Countess of Lynmouth, married in the sight of God, Her Majesty the queen, and by the queen’s chaplain.”

“Oh, my lord, what have we done?”

“Nothing yet,”

he replied mischievously, then chuckled as she colored a most becoming rose. “Now, madame, I shall issue you my first husbandly order. Will you please call me Robin, my darling wife?”

“Are you sure we haven’t made a dreadful mistake … Robin?”

“No, my lovely Angel, we have not made any mistake. Even the queen knew this rather hasty marriage was right. I love you, and I hope in the days to come that I can teach you to love me. You must never be fearful of me, Angel. You must never be afraid to speak your mind or to ask of me what you will. I will always listen to you. Now before we arrive back at the inn I would discuss tonight with you.”

“Tonight?”

“Our wedding night, but, dear Angel, if you prefer, it is a time that may be postponed until you learn to know me better. The choice is yours to make, sweetheart.”

She was silent for what seemed to him a very long time, and then she spoke in a soft voice that he had to bend over her to hear. “I know you a great deal better than you would believe, Robin, for Velvet loves you dearly and has always spoken of you. I know that you will not hurt me, for you have always been wondrously kind. I cannot, however, think of a more fitting way,”

she finished mischievously, “for us to get to know one another better than to celebrate our wedding night as it should be celebrated. One thing I would warn you of, however. Despite my years at court, I am truly a virgin, and not particularly knowledgeable. I only ask that you be patient with me.”

“It never occurred to me that you would not be a virgin, Angel,”

came his quiet reply.

It was at this point that they arrived at the inn, and, quickly dismounting, Robin lifted his bride from the saddle. Hand in hand, they entered the building and made their way upstairs to the rooms that the earl had booked earlier. It had been planned that Velvet and Angel would share one of the bedchambers while the gentlemen slept in the other. Now Robin led his wife into that second room, stopping only long enough to remove Alex’s saddlebag and place it in the small parlor where they had eaten earlier. Once in the bedchamber with Angel, he closed the door and threw the bolt.

“I—I have no nightgown,” she said.

“There is no need,”

he answered, and then, pulling her into his arms, he kissed her passionately, not even hearing the door to the parlor open and close outside.

“They can’t be here already,”

said Velvet. “Surely they would have waited for us, Alex.”

His eye lit upon the saddlebag. “They are here, Velvet.”

“Oh, good! Let us have the innkeeper make a caudle cup, and we shall drink to the bridal couple’s good health!”

She moved to the door, but he blocked her path.

“Nay, lass. The bedchamber door is shut, and I do not think Robin would welcome our intrusion at this time.”

“But there’s been no caudle cup! ’Tis a poor bridal ceremony without a celebration.”

Alex smiled. “Many a couple has done without the caudle cup, Velvet. There are other things more important to a bridal couple on their wedding night.”

She snorted, but then a slow flush crept up her neck and into her face. “Oh,”

she said helplessly.

Alex chuckled. “Go to bed, lass. The queen reviews the troops on the morrow, and that should be something to tell your gran-children one fine day.”

“Where will you sleep?”

she asked, realizing his predicament.

“Out here on the floor by the fire,”

he said. “I’ve laid my head in worse places in my time, lass. Good night.”

The night had grown chill, and Velvet wasted little time in unlacing her gown, removing it and creeping beneath the covers wearing only her chemisette. Outside the tiny window she could hear the cricket songs, soothing and cheerful. Beyond her door she heard Alex moving about for a short while and guessed from the friendly crackle that he had built up the fire in the little fireplace. She smiled wryly, considering the possibility of changing places with him: her cold bed for his floor by the fire.

She was just dozing off when a short, piercing cry rent the quiet. Trembling, she sat up, listening intently. It had been such a piteous cry. Where had it come from? Then she heard a low moaning and realized that it came from the other bedchamber.

With a little sob, she leaped from the bed and fled out into the parlor straight into a protective pair of warm arms. She couldn’t seem to stop shaking. Alex gently lifted her up, then cradled her in his arms as he sat down in a chair by the fire. He said nothing, waiting instead until she had quieted. Finally she gazed up at him, saying, “Did you not hear that terrible cry, Alex? Then I heard moaning through the wall. It gave me such a fright. Is this place haunted?”

“Nay, lass. ’Tis not haunted. I imagine the cry you heard was your friend, Angel.”

“Why would she cry out as if hurt? Robin would never hurt her!”

Velvet protested.

“ ’Tis not a hurt a man inflicts willingly upon a maid, lass.”

“I don’t understand,”

was her reply. “What do you mean?”

There was simply no delicate way for him to put it, and besides, he thought somewhat irritably, he should not be the one to have to explain such things to her, yet now he had no choice. “Your friend cried out when Robin pierced her maidenhead,”

he said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, God,”

she whispered, and he could hear the fear in her voice. Then she began to tremble again.

“It only happens once, Velvet,”

he said, helplessly attempting to calm her fears, and his arms tightened about her.

“I am so afraid, Alex,”

she said. “I am so afraid of this wild Scots earl who demands marriage of me. My mother has never explained to me how it is between a man and a woman. Oh, I’ve watched the animals at the farm mate, but ’tis not the same for people, is it? Oh, Alex! I feel such a fool!”

“Velvet, Velvet,”

he murmured at her soothingly. “ ’Twill be all right, lass, you’re nae a fool for not knowing what lovemaking is. You’re but a maid, and your earl will be glad of it, sweetheart.”

She looked up at him, her face streaked with tears. She looked so very young and woebegone that his heart almost burst with the love he felt for her. Her next words startled him.

“Make love to me, Alex,”

she said softly.

“Velvet lass!”

“Make love to me,”

she repeated. “You’re my friend, Alex. You showed me kissing. Now I want you to make love to me so that I will know what to expect.”

She was very serious, and he resisted the urge to chuckle bubbling within him.

“Sweetheart,”

he said patiently, “it would not be right for me to take what is rightfully another man’s. A maidenhead can be only lost once.”

Now it was Velvet’s turn to giggle. “I didn’t mean that,”

she said. “Surely there is more to lovemaking than just that.”

She looked at him questioningly.

Alex felt his heart leap with excitement within him. Every time he was with her now, he found himself wanting more than just the sweetness of her lips. “Do you trust me enough, Velvet, to accept my word when I tell you we have gone far enough along Eros’s road?”

She nodded, her eyes wide, her face solemn as a small owl’s. Deep inside, he repressed a hard shudder. She was so damningly innocent and so incredibly tempting a tidbit. He envied Robin, who was now making love to his bride. This lovely girl in his lap was his betrothed wife under the law and he longed to tell her the truth, to take her into the other bedchamber and initiate her into the many arts of Venus. Instinctively he knew she would be an apt pupil.

“Well?”

Her voice pierced his consciousness, and she looked up at him curiously.

Brazen little minx, he thought, amused. Then, with a swift motion, he opened her chemisette and, sliding it over her silky shoulders, bared her to the waist. Velvet gasped with surprise at this bold maneuver, and Alex’s head swooped down as his mouth found hers in a blazing kiss. A ball of fire burst within her stomach and spread flaming throughout her whole body. His lips worked on hers, teasing them open, and, with a swift movement, his tongue touched hers. Her heart hammered wildly in her ears as his tongue’s warm smoothness caressed the inside of her mouth, touching her sensitive flesh, running along her teeth. He had never kissed her like that before, and Velvet, though a little bit frightened, found it wildly exciting.

Then his big hand began to caress her satiny flesh, smoothing the roundness of her shoulder, sliding down her long arms, moving up her bared torso to cup a breast. She thought that she Would faint right then and there. An incredible, aching warmth began to seep through her veins. When Kit Marlowe had touched her, she had wanted to die from the shame and frustration of her anger and helplessness, but this was different. Alex’s hand was gentle, loving. She knew that should she ask him to stop at any moment he would comply with her wishes. She did not, however, want him to stop, and that in itself was puzzling to her.

“Dear heaven, lass, but ye are so beautiful!”

She heard his voice mutter thickly in her ear. Her head fell back, and his lips slowly kissed the long line of her throat; his hand tangled in her auburn hair, cupping her head as his lips found hers once more. She was conscious of his hand touching her breasts again, his fingers gently teasing her nipples until they thrust forward, throbbing with the sweet torment he was inflicting upon them.

Velvet shivered with pure excitement. If this was lovemaking, it was wondrously sweet. With a sigh of rapture, she tried to move closer to him. The arm that had been cradling her head moved down to encircle her waist. The hand that had played with her young breasts now slipped down beneath her chemisette. Then he slowly began to move it upward again, sliding it easily along the smooth skin of her long legs. For a moment, she considered the lightness of his actions, but honeyed heat once more raced through her veins, rendering her helpless to impede his movements. Her consciousness became peopled by a thousand small, fluttering butterflies, and she was only aware of the pleasure he offered her.

As he stroked the softness of her inner thighs, Alex knew that he must stop. Already he was perilously near to losing his own control. His manhood ached with longing for Velvet, and he was regretting that he had ever let the wench tease him into this. Better he had waited until their marriage, when the natural conclusion of such loveplay could be effected. Slowly he removed his hand from beneath her garment and held her close.

“Enough, lass,”

he said quietly. “I can bear no more and keep my promise to preserve yer honor. Ye’re ripe as a peach, Velvet, and I am hungry to pluck yer fruit.”

“Please, Alex, just love me a little while longer. I hurt with such a strange wanting.”

He kissed her gently. “Nay, sweetheart. Remember yer promise to me. We must stop now.”

Quietly he redid her chemisette, pulling it up and tying the little silk ribbons.

She signed. “Will you love me again soon, Alex?”