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“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.
She had been on his mind frequently of late. Actually, she would not leave his thoughts whether she was with him or not. He even found himself missing her when he was not with her. He was growing accustomed to her and perhaps that was not a bad thing. Why then delay consummating their marriage?
He asked the question without thought. “You have never been with another man?”
“Never,” she said.
“What of the traveling merchant?”
“Kevin is like a brother to me. He took time to talk with me. Tell me of his adventures, encourage me when I needed it,” she said. “You are the first man whose hand I ever felt in mine, whose lips ever touched mine…” Her cheeks blossomed red. “Whoever saw me naked.”
“And that is the way it will always be,” Bhric ordered, ready to kill anyone who dared to touch his wife improperly.
“It is the only way I want it, my lord, and on that you have my word,” Tavia said with a firm lift of her chin.
He felt a strange jab to his heart, not a worrisome one but a pleasurable one. He liked that she wanted only him, but was it out of duty or was there more to her declaration?
“I am ravenous,” he announced, which he was but they had also talked enough for now, leaving him much to consider.
“So am I,” she said, feeling their talk had settled some things between them and hoping it opened a path to the start of a good marriage.
Fen was on his feet when the door opened and he followed them into the Great Hall, his eyes wandering to Bhric every now and then. They returned to the trestle table where Tavia had been sitting and servants soon brought more food to them. Fen went and laid by the hearth not disturbing them, though Tavia made sure he was fed, not that anyone would go near him. She placed the food in front of him herself.
“Was there troubling news from Sven?” she asked as they ate.
Bhric saw no reason not to tell her and it was better that he told her then for her to hear it through whispers and gossip. “A wild boar was killed and left in the woods.”
Tavia tilted her head in question. “Why would a hunter kill a boar and not take the meat?”
“It may have been a ritualistic kill.”
