Lie Down in Roses
Page 47
“And?” His arms tightened around her.
She smiled, and then laughed. “You knave! You already know.”
“Well, Edwyna did blurt out something. I thought you might care to tell me, though.”
“We could have a son this time,” she whispered.
“Aye, we could,” he said, and he reined Pie to a halt, and allowed his arms to sweep fully around her so that he could kiss her long and deep and with a sweeping tenderness. At length he drew from her, and he smiled, and together they looked out again. Aye, the castle had burned. But the stone stood, as tall and proud as ever. The air was clear and the sky was blue above the charred but noble foundations of Edenby.
“Tristan, look at how the sun dazzles upon the parapets!” Genevieve whispered. “I feel the most incredible happiness; yet I wonder if I should?”
“Aye, love,” Tristan murmured. “Happiness must be taken and cherished when it comes.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her gently, pulling her back closer in to his embrace, cradling his hands beneath her breasts. “As for me, Lady of Edenby, I, too, am incredibly happy. More pleased than I had ever dreamed possible. Indeed, lady, you do please me again, and again, and again.”
“Knave!” she charged him, laughing.
“Aye—but most adoring, ever revering, bewitched and beguiled husband as well. A red rose of Lancaster, madam, most earnestly seeking to entwine with the white rose of York. England united . . . our house united.”
“In truth, do you think?” Genevieve whispered. “Have the wars really ended at last?”
“Ours have, my love,” he said firmly. “Our house is one.”
She smiled, content. “Aye, Lancastrian lord! This white rose then casts her thorns aside forever!”
Tristan grinned and nudged Pie forward, and as they came near the gates he whispered softly in her ear.
“Come, love, and please me, and where we have no bed of our own this night, still we’ll lie forever in a bed of roses, soft and aye! plucked of those demon thorns—forever.”
The sun climbed high above the cliffs and rock and walls of Edenby as they made their way forward; and the sky came gloriously alive in shades of gold and crimson with the coming of the new day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Heather Graham has written over two hundred novels and novellas and is a founding member of the Florida Romance Writers chapter of RWA. She has been published in approximately thirty languages, and has been honored with awards from Georgia Romance Writers, Affaire de Coeur, Romantic Times, and more. She has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as The Nation, Redbook, People, and USA Today, and appeared on many newscasts including local television and Entertainment Tonight.