* * *
The feeling did not fade even when we woke the next morning. The innkeeper had left a basket of fresh berries and newly baked bread outside the door and we broke our fast without a stich of clothing on. As we ate, we sampled each other. I would pop a berry in my mouth and gasp moments later to discover Antony’s tongue tasting my shoulder blade. Shyly, I explored his body as well, as much as I dared.
We were both aglow as we dressed for the day, and my heart felt as though I’d never known a moment’s worry. Surely this was what it meant to be loved. There was a part of me that wanted to feel pity for Wallace, who’d most assuredly never known such a thing, but I pushed thoughts of him aside. I was enjoying my new husband far too much to worry about the old.
“It won’t be long until we reach my farm,” Antony told me as he helped me in the saddle. “I… I can’t wait for you to see my home. It isn’t much, but—”
“I will love it, dearest. As I do you,” I assured him warmly.
He grinned up at me to hear me speak so freely of love but said nothing more as he mounted his own horse.
I could not have said if our journey took minutes or hours, for I kept sneaking glances at Antony, and each time I did, my body filled with a rush of delicious excitement. I tried to turn my mind from such unladylike thoughts, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he would make love to me that evening—or perhaps even when we’d reached the farm. The occasions when he caught me looking at him were best of all because then I’d get to see the light of his smile which would make me giggle with a giddy rush of delight.
When he drew up his horse, I pulled on the reins to stop beside him. “This is my home,” he said, and the note of pride in his voice was unmistakable.
At first, I was too absorbed in watching him to see anything, but when I let my gaze follow his, I was astounded by what I saw. Instead of the run-down farmhouse I’d been expecting—indeed, he’d made mention more than once that he lived on a farm—a large, sprawling house sat tall on a large stretch of land. It was pretty—all green and gold in the sunlight, which was rare for the winter months. Surely it couldn’t all be his.
Yet, when I turned to him and saw the twinkle in his gray eyes, I knew that it was. I looked at the land again, seeing field after field of silver wheat waving in the light breeze, a few apple trees, and animals herded into pens. I wondered, not for the first time, what kind of life I could expect as his wife. My very next thought was that it would be bigger and more beautiful than I’d ever expected.
“You… you’re a lord.” The thought hadn’t even been made clear to me until the words were out, yet I knew them to be true. “You never said.”
“Forgive me the deception, my lady. It was not my intent. It is not something I boast of.”
I turned back to him, my gaze sharp, but one look at him and my gaze softened. He had a point, after all.
“All shall be made plain over dinner, wife,” he assured me rather cheerfully as he dismounted his horse. “But suffice it to say that I inherited the title from my father and am a small lord of an even smaller land.”
“Yes,my lord,” I murmured pointedly as I allowed him to help me down from my horse.
“Ah, do not sass me. I fear your bottom has not yet recovered.”
I was about to reply when his fingers tilted my chin up and his lips seized my own, robbing me of words. By the time he released me, I couldn’t begin to remember what I would have said if given the chance. Just then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a boy walking toward us. I turned to my new husband, the question ready on my lips when I looked at the lad again. There was no need to ask who he was. The child was no more than eight or nine, his hair long and sandy blond, his eyes a bright, cornflower blue, but there was no mistaking that hard jaw and the dimple in his chin. He was Antony’s through and through.
Antony caught my eye and clucked his tongue. “Do not fault me, my lady, for you never asked,” he chided me gently.
I bit back any remark I might have made, for he was right, of course. I hadn’t asked a single thing about him, and having the fact before me filled me with shame. Antony had been so unendingly kind to me that I feared I might never be able to repay him.
“Do not worry,” he whispered in my ear as he looped his arm around my waist. “There will be plenty of time to learn about each other.”
I had only just relaxed when the lad stopped in front of us. “Hello, m’lady,” he said, offering a clumsy bow that made me want to giggle. His eyes were so serious as he looked at me, though, that I forced myself to squelch my smile. “May I introduce myself? I am John, son of Antony of Briar Farm.”
“Well met, John,” I said warmly, bobbing him a little curtsey.
The boy’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as he looked from me to his father. “Is she the princess?” he asked in an awed whisper.
Antony’s burst of laughter made me turn to glower at him. “No, my boy, but she thinks herself as good as.”
My hand rose to my chest as I gasped, affronted. “Antony! How could you say such a thing?” It wasn’t until I’d asked that I saw how his eyes laughed at me. Annoyed at being the butt of his joke, I turned away from him with a loud “hmph!” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him reach for me, but I sidestepped his grasp.
When he lunged for me, I wasn’t quick enough and found myself caught up in the web of his arms. “Let me go!” I demanded, but the moment his mouth came crashing down upon my protesting one, the little bit of fight that I’d possessed fled.
“Now, is that any way to speak to me in front of my son?” he murmured close to my ear so that only I could hear. “Especially to your lord and master?”
The words sent a shiver of pleasure throughout my body and I blushed to know that his son was watching the exchange between us. “I don’t know that I will ever call you that.”
“Perhaps not,” he allowed with a smile. “But you think it just the same. Ah,” he warned, holding up a finger as I opened my mouth to reply. “Before you sully your lips with a lie, think of the consequences, for I know you far better than you realize, Cecily. Far better.”
After delivering his warning, he released me and I dipped down in a low, elegant curtsey. “As you say, sire.”
