“Then, Owen, I owe you the same vow.” She reached for him. He took her hands in his and lifted them to his lips, kissing the backs as she began. “I, Diana Dowding, take thee, Owen Arnold, to be my husband. Living as though we are. To have and to hold from this day forward, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, to cherish and to obey, until death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance, and thereto, I plight thee my troth.”
“I love you so much,” Owen whispered as he leaned towards her, kissing her another time.
“I love you,” she murmured between kisses as he laid her back down on the bed.
It was the perfect moment for Diana. They had exchanged vows in the only way that they could, but with her heart truly behind those vows this time, she knew she would keep to them, and there was a part of her that was confident God would agree. This was the wedding that should have always taken place to begin with.
With their bodies pressed together, they parted from their kiss and Diana drew her legs up around his hips. She was startled when he moved the two of them forward, until she was perched on the very edge of the bed, and he was standing off it. Gently, he took hold of her knees, lifting them higher around his hips as he lined up his length with her centre.
She could feel him teasing her for a minute, the mere temptation of what was to come.
“We can live a life like this, Diana,” he said softly to her. “Where we never need to be ashamed of loving each other in this way.”
She bundled her hands in the bedding beneath her as he slid inside her. From what they had already shared, her body was more than ready for him, slick and wet. He moved slowly at first, in and out of her, building up the heat that their bodies were sharing.
With each gentle thrust he made Diana found sounds falling from her lips. Sometimes it was his name, other times it was just noises. When she found herself pleading for more, longing for more of this pleasure, he obeyed her, thrusting forward.
The faster he moved, the more frenetic she became, with the thrill echoing through her body in such a way that she no longer had control of her limbs. Her legs were quivering around Owen’s hips and her arms would not stay still, repeatedly finding new areas of the bed sheets to pull at.
When his body left hers, she whimpered at the loss of touch. He chuckled and bent down towards her, kissing her softly on the lips.
“There is something I wish to try, love.” The nickname made her reach up, elongating the kiss for that few seconds longer. When he pulled back, he urged her over, so that she turned to lay on her front on the bed, with her feet on the floor in front of him. She pressed her hands into the bed, lifting her shoulders up just as his length moved to her entrance again.
When he pushed inside her, the pleasure was different this time, somehow deeper, somehow more thrilling. She didn’t stop from moaning his name as he began to thrust, with a pace much faster than before.
As her pinnacle came towards her, she felt like she was plunged into a kind of ocean, with waves of pleasure rocking her back and forth, and her body unable to swim out of its depths. Not that she wanted to, she would have happily drowned in that thrilling feeling Owen had created within her.
As she began to come down from her high, she could feel Owen becoming more urgent in his movements, and his moans grew more guttural as he thrust towards her, nearing his peak too.
“Do not pull out, Owen,” she begged him. “Please, stay.” It was a commitment to him. With the vows they had just exchanged, she wanted to give herself to him completely. She reached back and placed a hand over his that he was resting on her hip, holding him to her.
He must have heard her for he thrust a few more times before he finished, climaxing inside her as he moaned her name. Diana felt a spread of warmth through their connection, elicited from his release.
He collapsed down on top of her, peppering the back of her neck and her shoulders with lots of kisses.
“That was …” He gasped, apparently unable to find words.
“I know,” she said softly, giggling as she brushed her hips back against his, eliciting another moan from him.
“This is it now, Diana.” He leaned down, peppering more kisses on her neck as he whispered in her ear. “The two of us, starting a life together.”
“I cannot wait for it to begin.”
Epilogue
“Are you ready?” Owen called to Diana from the library doorway. She turned to face him, still halfway through packing all the notes and pages she had written for her story.
“Not yet,” she said hurriedly. “How long do you reckon we have?”
“Before the majority of the staff wake?” Owen scratched his chin in thought. “An hour more maybe.” She nodded and returned to her task. “I’ll get the bags.” As he hurried off, Diana tried to open the desk drawers another time, but one drawer remained firmly locked. It was the same one she had seen Gilbert open with a key. She checked the spot where he had once hidden the key, but finding it empty, she had to be more creative.
Delving into another drawer, she pulled out a paper knife and jammed it into the locking mechanism of the drawer. It took a few errant pushes against the knife, but eventually the lock gave way, breaking under the might of the fore, allowing her to slide open the drawer.
“Oh my,” she said, gasping at what fell open before her. Rather than just the papers she had spied before, there were bank notes, promissory notes, and coins. Slowly, she pulled each of them out, her eyes dancing along the values on each note with amazement.
“You should take them.” The new voice at the doorway made Diana whip around and drop the notes from her hand, letting them drift down to the desk.
“Jessie?” Diana said, startled to see the maid awake so early. The sun had barely risen, and the staff were not yet supposed to be at their duties. “You’re awake.”
