Fairest of Them All (Marriage by Fairytale Book 4)

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  He lowered his head and sealed the promise with a kiss. Sure, their relationship wasn’t going to be typical, but one didn’t need typical to be happy. For the first time in a very long time, he began to feel a sense of excitement about the future. The heaviness that had been hanging over him for years was lifting. Perhaps, this was a sign of things to come. If Viola could find a way to give him hope, then she just might do the same for Tabitha. And perhaps he might help ease some of the heartache she was going through over her brother’s death.

  Once the kiss ended, he took her back into his arms. “Tell me more about your life.” Deciding they’d had enough talk of grief for the time being, he opted to go with a more joyful topic. “What’s your favorite memory?”

  She paused for a long moment then said, “My favorite memory is when I first saw my twin sisters. I was nineteen when Joanna and Pamela were born. They were so little, but they were perfectly formed. I took the time to count their fingers and toes. Their eyes were wide with wonder. I think they were taking everything in around them. I remember looking at them and thinking…”

  When he realized she wasn’t going to continue, he asked, “What were you thinking?”

  “It doesn’t matter.

  “It must matter if it’s your favorite memory.”

  “I feel embarrassed to even continue.”

  “I won’t laugh at anything you have to say. Unless you tell a joke. Then I’ll laugh.” His attempt at humor worked, for he heard her chuckle. He squeezed her shoulders. “You can tell me. Anything you have to say is safe here.”

  “Well, all right. I was still in my first Season when they were born, and as I was looking at them, I was thinking that once I got married, it was only a matter of time before I had a child of my own.” She cleared her throat then hurried to add, “It was also a good memory because it was one of the last times my entire family was together. My mother, my father, my brother, and my aunt were all in one place, and we were celebrating a happy occasion.”

  Noting how quickly she brushed over the fact that she used to dream of having children, he said, “When I married Tabitha’s mother, we were looking forward to giving her brothers and sisters. I remember how lonely I was while growing up. My mother had two other children, but they died at birth. I was the only one who survived. My father died shortly after I was born. I didn’t grow up in London. I grew up at the country estate with my mother. I used to pretend I had a brother or sister when the days got long. I always thought when I married, I would have as many children as I could. I don’t think wishing for children is something to be embarrassed about. I think it’s natural. Besides losing my past wives, the one thing I regret is that I wasn’t able to give Tabitha any brothers or sisters. The poor girl not only had to grow up without her real father and mother, but she had to grow up alone. All I can hope for her at this point is that she marries someone who will make her happy. We should all have some happiness in our lives.” Realizing he had, once again, taken on a somber topic, he asked, “Tell me another happy memory from your past.”

  “As you were talking about childhood, I recalled an incident from my past. You might find it funny,” she said.

  Already smiling, he encouraged her to share it.

  “Oliver and I played a lot of hide and seek when we were children. We’d find all sorts of nooks and crannies in the townhouse to hide in. But since I was six years older than him, it wasn’t much of a challenge to find him. One time, when he was seven, he found a hiding place that baffled me. I searched for him for twenty minutes. Then I gave up and went to get something to eat. I assumed he would grow bored of waiting for me to find him and come out.”

  “And he didn’t?” Evander guessed.

  “No, he didn’t. And I got wrapped up in reading a book. It wasn’t until an hour later that my mother and the maid asked me where Oliver was. At some point, they had started looking for him and couldn’t find him anywhere. We all spent another half hour looking for him until the maid found him under a blanket in the corner of his armoire. He had ended up falling asleep, so he didn’t answer us when we called out for him.”

  Evander laughed. “I imagine he made all of you panic.”

  “He did. My poor mother was just about in tears. She was ready to start searching outside the townhouse for him.”

  “I’m glad everything turned out all right.”

  “It was the best thing that ever happened to him. He never let me forget that he had managed to outwit me at hide and seek,” she replied with laughter in her voice.

  “Did you play hide and seek with him after that?”

  “I did.”

  “Did he ever hide there again?” he asked.

  “No, unfortunately, he didn’t.”

  “If I was him, I wouldn’t hide there again, either. I would know you’d check there before looking anywhere else.”

  “Yes, that was probably why he never chose that hiding spot a second time.” A moment of silence passed between them before she asked, “What is your favorite memory?”

  He thought for a minute and then settled on the one that always made him smile whenever he thought of it. “My favorite memory is the first time I rode my horse by myself. Up to that time, my mother would insist on coming with me, and if she was unable to, she would have the stablemaster go with me to make sure I didn’t get hurt. The day she finally let me go, I took the horse all over the property. I wanted to check everything out. I even ventured down paths no one else had ridden. It was the most freeing time of my life. No one was around to tell me what I could or couldn’t do. For the first time in my life, I could follow my whims.”

  “That sounds like fun.”

  “It was,” he whispered. “I rode out past the gazebo and trees. I discovered a creek that day, and I decided to take off my boots and dip my feet into it. My mother had read me a story about a man who swam in a river, and the story mentioned how cold the water was. I knew a creek was much smaller than a river, but I wanted to know if the creek’s water was cold. And it was.”

  He’d usually told his mother everything, but going to the creek was one of the few things he hadn’t told her. In fact, it was one memory he hadn’t told anyone about until now. It was strange that he felt compelled to tell Viola about it, but he felt the compulsion all the same. He liked Viola. She seemed so practical about things. She was focused on what she needed to do. She had also been careful to abide by his requests. She wasn’t asking more of him than he was able to give.

  “It sounds like the perfect day for a ten or eleven-year-old boy,” Viola said.

  He thought over what he’d just told her, and he didn’t recall mentioning his age. He hadn’t been that young at the time. He’d been fifteen. Why would she assume he’d been younger? Should he tell her the correct age, or should he let the matter go?

  “I haven’t been to a creek, but I have seen a river,” she continued, saving him from having to decide on which course to take. “My aunt and mother took me and my brother to the River Thames several times. We enjoyed walking across the Westminster Bridge. One time, though, they paid a man to take us on a boat ride. It never occurred to me to touch the water to find out if it was cold. I did, however, lean over the boat and see my reflection. My mother thought I was going to fall in and pulled me back.”

  She chuckled, and he chuckled along with her. “I suppose it’s in a mother’s nature to worry about her children.”

  “I’m sure it is, but my mother offered me some freedoms. Well, freedoms a girl in London can have. Gentlemen and boys are able to do much more.”

  Were they? He wondered what kinds of freedoms they had that ladies and girls didn’t.

  He heard Viola yawn and decided he would let her sleep. She’d had a busy day. He was sure she’d be just as busy tomorrow. She had a life outside of this attic. She was a part of the world. It was only at this moment in time that she was here with him, secluded from everyone and everything else. He wanted more of these moments with her, but he w
ould have to share her with the world.

  He pulled her closer to him and kissed the top of her head. He was glad she’d chosen to stay with him for the night. Maybe he would stay in London in this townhouse after Tabitha married. His original plan was to leave this townhouse once Tabitha married and let Viola live here. He was supposed to return to the country where he’d live out his life with the contentment of knowing Tabitha’s future was going to be better than her past. But if Viola was going to be here, he liked the idea of being with her. Perhaps they might even have children together.

  Staring off into the darkness around him, he let his mind wander in directions it hadn’t gone since his first wife died.

  Chapter Eleven

  Viola heard a series of knocks at the door and stirred from her sleep. At first, she thought she was in her bedchamber, and she wondered why the maid would suddenly come knocking at her door when she hadn’t come up here in the mornings before.

  She opened her eyes to a blanket of darkness. She stiffened for a moment before she remembered she was in the attic. At some point in the middle of the night, she had fallen asleep here.

  Evander’s bare body brushed against her as he got out of the bed. Her skin warmed at the memory of the night they’d shared. He’d made her his wife in every way, and she’d enjoyed each moment of it. Even now, her body surged with desire to make love to him again.

  Evander opened the door and walked down the steps. She clasped the blanket closer to her chest. For a moment, she caught a hint of daylight as Evander opened the door at the bottom of the stairs. She didn’t think he ever left the attic. What was he doing?

  The door shut, and once more she was enveloped in darkness. She heard Evander come back up the stairs. He proceeded to close the attic door, and then a sharp sound echoed through the room. She gasped and sat up.

  “Viola?” Evander asked.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “The butler left my breakfast at the bottom of the stairs, so I brought it up. The sound you heard was me setting the tray on the desk.”

  She relaxed.

  “It’s nine in the morning,” Evander told her. “He comes by every day three times. Nine, two, and seven. He brings the tray for each meal, and when I’m done, I return it to the bottom of the steps. We manage other common tasks in a similar way.”

  She straightened up in the bed and scooted to the edge of it. “So, it’s nine in the morning right now?”

  “Yes.”

  She heard footsteps come closer to her before the bed shifted under his weight. She reached out for him and realized he had put on a pair of breeches.

  He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. For some reason, the kiss seemed much more sensual than she thought he intended.

  “I liked that you stayed with me last night,” he said. “It was nice to get better acquainted with you.”

  Once more, her skin grew warm. “It was nice for me, too.”

  He put his arm around her waist and drew her to him. “Will you be coming by again this evening?”

  Feeling unbelievably shy, she whispered, “I will if you want me to.”

  “I want you to.”

  Then his mouth was on hers, and she melted in his embrace. She was helpless to resist him. Even if she’d wanted to stay away, she wasn’t sure she could. There was something about him that drew her to him. She didn’t know if it was his tenderness, his touches, or something else, but she was powerless to resist him. And the truth was, she didn’t want to resist him. She wanted to be here with him. She wanted to be in this attic where time seemed to stop and the outside world didn’t exist. It was just the two of them, and she wanted very much to let him consume her.

  She urged him to lie down and got on top of him, realizing too late that he wasn’t fully undressed. She apologized and got off of him. “You probably want to eat your breakfast.”

  “That can wait.” He reached for her hand before she left the bed. “I want to be with you again. I can remove the breeches in no time at all.”

  He let go of her. She felt the bed move, and in the next instant, he was encouraging her to get back on top of him. Her body prompted her to obey his leading, and she straddled him. He took her hand and brought it to his arousal. She took a moment to study him. His shaft was hard and thick, and a bead of moisture was on the slit of the round tip.

  He groaned and squeezed her hips in a way that let her know he liked what she was doing.

  Eager to have him in her again, she rose above his erection and brought it into her. They both groaned in pleasure. He filled her perfectly. She had no idea gentlemen had something on their bodies that could make a lady feel so good when it was inside them.

  Evander brought one hand between her legs and rubbed her sensitive nub. At once, her core squeezed around him, and she could no longer remain still. She had to move. She began rocking her hips slowly, enjoying all of the sensations that were still new to her. She told herself that she should take her time and savor this moment, but soon, she needed to go faster. And then faster. And faster still. She followed her body’s promptings. Now that she knew where this act could lead, she strove for the peak.

  He put his hands on her hips and guided her along, doing his part to get her there. And then, just when she didn’t think she could bear the tension anymore, she climaxed. She stilled and cried out, glad she hadn’t had to wait until this evening to experience this state of heightened pleasure again. She was looking forward to making love again this evening, of course. This was something she wanted to do many more times, but having had her release this morning would help her wait until she could be with Evander again this evening.

  Out of breath, she relaxed, only barely aware that he had begun moving inside her. He proceeded to make love to her until he grew taut. Once more, she felt him throbbing inside her. He reached up and cupped her breasts in his hands, and she covered his hands with hers.

  After a long moment, his tension eased, and he let out a satisfied moan. “That was more intense than last night.”

  “Yes, it was better.” And she hadn’t thought that would have been possible given how much she’d enjoyed last night.

  He released her breasts and brought her down to him so that he could kiss her. They spent several minutes just kissing each other, neither in any hurry to get started on the day ahead of them. But the moment couldn’t last forever. She had to go to her bedchamber and get ready for the day. There was so much to do.

  With a sigh, she got off of him. “As much as I’d rather be here, I need to leave.”

  “You’ll be back this evening?” Though it was a statement, his tone hinted at a question.

  “Yes, I’ll be here. I’ll come after dinner.”

  He rose into a sitting position and kissed her shoulder. “That will give me something to look forward to.”

  “I’m looking forward to it, too.”

  He got up from the bed. “I’ll find your clothes. This attic is smaller than a bedchamber, but there are plenty of places clothing can hide.”

  She smiled. “I’m glad you’re searching for them because I wouldn’t know where to even start looking.”

  “I found your gown.” After some movements later, she felt the soft clothes settle on her lap. “I think this is everything.”

  She had to put everything on to make sure he was right. Once she had her slippers on, she turned back to him and gave him a lingering kiss before she got up from the bed.

  He stood up with her and led her to the door. Perhaps she would be able to find her way around in the future, but for the time being, she still couldn’t figure out where any of the furnishings were in relation to the door

  “Thank you,” she said when he put her hand on the doorknob.

  He squeezed her hand. “I hope the day is a good one for you.”

  She almost returned the sentiment, but she wasn’t sure any day tucked up in an attic could be a good one when a person was all alone. So she opted to ke
ep quiet and proceed down the steps.

  When she reached her bedchamber, she saw that it was a little after ten. She rang for the maid and asked for a bath to be brought up for her. Even if the maid was too frightened to help her change clothes, she could at least manage to bring up hot water and a tub, especially since the maid had others to help her.

  Fortunately, the maid didn’t fight her on the request, and before long, Viola was soaking in a hot tub. She only took a few minutes to close her eyes. As much as she wanted to recall how wonderful being with Evander was, she needed to focus on the day’s events.

  She wanted to pay her aunt and sisters a visit, but she also needed to see if Tabitha’s mood had changed since last evening. She wasn’t sure which she should do first. After some consideration, she decided she’d talk to Tabitha first if Tabitha happened to be in the drawing room. If Tabitha was in her bedchamber or hiding from her, she would pay her family a visit this morning instead.

  With the matter settled, Viola finished her bath and then got ready for the day. By the time she left her bedchamber, it was a little after eleven. The day was quickly slipping past her. She couldn’t recall a time when she’d felt as if things were going too fast.

  She went to the drawing room and saw that Tabitha was playing a game of cards by herself. Well, that was her answer. She’d talk with Tabitha first.

  “Did you sleep well last night?” Viola asked as she approached her.

  Tabitha glanced up from the desk. “You missed breakfast. I couldn’t help but notice you weren’t here since you were the one who wanted to eat in this room yesterday.”

  “I decided to take a bath this morning.” That was all Viola was going to tell her. She’d rather die than tell anyone she’d been with Evander all night and had been reluctant to leave him this morning. Besides, it wasn’t anyone’s business.

  Tabitha shrugged. “I just thought you liked to get up early.”