His eyes gleamed. “Lay them out.”
“If we are to be married, it must be a true marriage. With vows, before God. I know it cannot be in a church?—”
“Why can’t it be in a church?” he asked, puzzled.
She stared back at him, equally puzzled. “We can’t go in churches.”
“Says who?”
Her mouth dropped open. “I…”
Bacchus, she realized. Bacchus had put that command on her, as well as a myriad of small, onerous dos and don’ts over the years. And she was free of all of them.
Kendrick’s speculative gaze moved from her to the covered windows at the end of the room. “I’ve never encountered an impediment. Some may not be able to enter churches, but they’re hindered by their own souls, I think. I have found nothing to fear in a church. If you wish to be married in one, we can accomplish that. You can even be written in the registry.”
She blurted out, “Will that be legal?”
Kendrick looked back at her steadily.
“Oh. Silly question.” She ducked her head. “I would like it to be in a church,” she admitted slowly, “but then Elspeth could not attend. Her command is still in effect. Sparrow’s might be as well.”And there is some part of me that is still afraid, she admitted to herself.
A muscle in Kendrick’s jaw ticked, but he nodded.
“What about banns, or a license? There might be questions without them…”
“We will not need the banns read. The priest will see it my way.” He smiled. “What else?”
“Well, I’m Church of England, but we can discuss more particulars later.” She swallowed. “As a real marriage, I expect fidelity.”
“Genevieve, you have only known me a short time, and you have no reason to believe my word holds. But the only thing we emerge from the grave with intact is our word of honor. Too many vampires decide that power is a sufficient replacement. But that is not so. If I make a vow or swear an oath, I keep it. And is not marriage a vow?”
“It is—but you wouldn’t know it based on some of the behavior I’ve witnessed from human and vampire alike.” She fisted her hands in her skirts.
Kendrick’s keen eyes glinted. “You worry that I will find forever too long a time when not hemmed in by ‘till death do us part’?”
“Vampires get bored. I’ve always thought that the main reason for the general aversion to marriage.”
He smiled and ran a finger down the curve of her cheek. “Fools, all of them. Jenny, how could I ever grow bored with you?”
Genevieve stammered, “T-That’s another thing. I do not… I am not sure…” She set Fletcher’s hand down and crossed to the window. She couldn’t say this.
She wiped her hands on her skirts. She had to say it.
She felt Kendrick follow her, though he didn’t make noise on the floorboards missing their rugs. “What?”
“I know you wanted a real marriage, and—truly, I do not think that I would want ashammarriage, but—I don’t do well with touch,” she forced out. “Because of what my body remembers and my mind does not.” Her throat closed, her body already flinching.
Gently, Kendrick said, “Genevieve, I noticed.”
She clenched her hands so tightly that a seam in her glove burst. “It’s foolish.”
Kendrick set his hand over hers, a slow, quiet touch. “No, it isn’t. Do you know if it’s more to do with blood drinking, or physical intimacy?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Likely…the latter.”
“As long as we do one or the other, that’s needed to convince the general populace. Don’t worry about anything else.”
“But you said it would have to be real,” she pushed on doggedly. “That people would be able to tell. I can’t promise I could…be a wife in the full sense of the word.”
