“I want to know the nieces and nephews you speak of with such fondness. I want to go home with you to Northumberland. I want us to raise our children there.”
She took the last step and stood before him. “I do not want to waste more time or spend another day apart.”
“I love my mother, but I think we should wed before you meet her,” Stephen said, his face lit by the smile she loved so well. “I can’t risk having her scare you off.”
In the next instant, she was in his arms.
“I tried to keep my hope,” he said into her hair, holding her tightly. “But it was hard.”
He lifted her off her feet and twirled her in his arms. With his eyes warm on hers he said, “Every day of my life, I will thank God you chose me.”
He kissed her then. A soft, warm kiss that made the world swirl around her. She pressed against him, glorying in the joy and comfort of having his arms around her again.
Stephen was hers. Always and forever.
She leaned back and fiddled with the collar of his tunic. “ ’Tis hard to see why we should wait for the ceremony, since we’ve already…” She let her voice trail off, having no doubt he understood what she was proposing.
“I’ll take no chances with you,” Stephen said, laughing. “We shall make our pledges before witnesses tomorrow, but I shall hear your pledge to me now—beforewe do aught else.”
Stephen had attended numerous betrothals over the years, but he’d never paid the slightest attention. Still, he was fairly certain all he had to get right was the essential promise to make it binding.
“Lady Isobel Hume, I pledge you my troth and take you as my wife.”
Isobel raised an eyebrow—in appreciation, he believed, of his admirable simplicity.
“Sir Stephen Carleton,” she said in turn, “I pledge you my troth and take you as my husband.”
“Now I have you!” With immense satisfaction, he pulled her into his arms.
He felt awash in his love for her. He smiled, thinking of hardheaded little girls with bouncy dark curls and serious green eyes. And, God forbid, wooden swords in their pudgy little hands. Girls like that would need brothers to keep them out of trouble.
Isobel pursed her lips and tapped her finger against her cheek. “Is there not something more we must do to make the promise binding? Something that makes it… irrevocable?”
Irrevocable.
“I believe,” he said, his voice turning husky as he leaned down to touch his lips to hers, “ ’tis consummation after the promise that does it.”
They kissed for a long, tender moment. When she opened her mouth to him and pressed against him, his desire grew into an urgent, pulsing need. He lifted her in his arms to carry her to the bed.
“Come, wife, we are to bed.” He smiled—he’d waited a long time to say that.
He awoke hours later, suffused with contentment. Nothing and no one would ever take Isobel from him now. With her at his side, he was ready to take his place in the world. He would claim his lands, serve his king, be a husband and father.
His life was full of golden promise.
Epilogue
Northumberland, England
1422
Ouch!” Isobel sucked on her finger and set her needlework aside.
He should be here by now, should he not? She paced up and down the empty hall, glancing toward the entrance at each turn.
Where was he?
Sunlight fell across her face as she passed one of the long windows, reminding her how much she loved this house. She and Stephen built it on the Carleton lands. It held only good memories for her.
