by Ashlee Price
“You didn’t come home last night and you smell of a woman and ale.”
He wasn’t going to argue with either point, but he found himself shrugging off. “I suppose so. Sometimes I go out afterwards.”
“Why did you marry me?”
“I needed a wife to help out with the cooking and women chores.”
“Is that all?”
No. “Yes. That is all I need you for. We can be good friends.”
She didn’t like the answer and Callie wished that she had stayed home. At least then she wouldn’t have any falsehoods to believe in. She would have known exactly what she was. “And I am to not say anything about the other women? Is this something normal here?”
He almost laughed at the question, but he knew she was being serious. “Just think of it as one less thing that you have to do.”
Callie looked down and then turned her back to him. It was not what she wanted to hear and it made her feel like she must be hideous to not even arouse her own husband. She fought back tears and questioned what she was thinking coming all the way to Scotland. It would seem that she was worth much of the same there as she was back home, which wasn’t much at all.
Callie felt a hand on her arm and she looked back at him when he said her name in such a way. “I don’t want you to be mad at me Callie.”
She pushed the wetness from her eyes and told him that she wasn’t. “I just expected more is all. I know what it is now.”
Thomas should have liked the idea of her understanding how everything was, but he didn’t. Thomas wanted to be able to change his mind. He stopped her from walking away. “What did you expect?”
Callie found it hard to meet his gaze. “I was hoping for love.”
***
Spurgis was in Ireland, finding his next round of women to sell the dream to. He made Scotland out to be the land of plenty and in need of good women. He didn’t care what they thought or expected, all he cared about was the money in his pockets. It was almost time to go back and he was in the last pub he planned to stop in. It had a few rooms that were rented out on the top and he stayed there sometimes when he had time.
This trip hadn’t gone so well though and he only had a few that were willing to make the trek across to the new country. Spurgis just needed a few more women to go with. He stopped as he made it into the interior and saw a drawing of a woman that he had seen before. It took a minute before he realized that it was the one that he had married off the week before. She was the one that had been a fright when she got off the boat, but then looked like the picture when he had seen her on the docks. Callie Winguard is what the paper said. There was a reward and his eyes went to the amount. Someone wanted the woman badly and Spurgis had just found a way to make some more money.
He looked to the address written on the bottom of the flyer and smiled to himself. After a moment he pulled it from the wall and walked back out the pub without a drink. He had more things on his mind and as he made his way to the man’s house listed on the flyer, he hoped that the girl hadn’t been found yet. Spurgis didn’t care what she was wanted for. All he cared about was how he was going to spend the money once he got it.
After a short knock, the door was answered by an old man with white hair and devilish black eyes answered. Spurgis was taken aback for a moment, but he finally got himself together enough to hold the piece of paper with the drawing of Callie.
“Do you know where she is?”
Spurgis nodded and was pulled into the stately house. He was sure that his luck had finally changed. The man was obviously wealthy and he hoped that he could get the price written. Spurgis was happy to share a drink with the man and tell him what he knew. He even promised to bring her to him, but the man declined, saying that he planned to get her himself.
“Well if you don’t mind me asking, what do you want her for?”
He shrugged and set the drink down. “It is my business why I want her, your job is to make sure she is where you say she is. That is what I am paying for.”
Spurgis nodded that he understood, but he failed to mention the bit about her being married off. If he had told him the why, maybe he would have given him all of the information. Instead he took his money, not as much as advertised and went on about his way. He didn’t think once more about the girl or the guard that he had sold her to. It seemed that everyone wanted Callie.
Chapter 6
Chris looked down at the picture and smile to himself. She was the one that got away and it had kept him up at night. Now he was going to find her. The boat that he was on was a lot bigger than the one that she had traversed the distance from. He was there early the next morning. Chris didn’t know about her husband and was quite surprised when it was a large guard that answered the door instead of the curved raven-haired beauty that had ran away.
“What?”
Chris took a step back from the door. “I am here to take Callie back.”
“Callie back?”
Chris was not sure why the man was looking at him in such a way, but Thomas didn’t like the few words that he had caught. Callie wasn’t going anywhere.
“Yes, I own her and she ran off, so now I am here to pick her up.”
“You own her?”
The other man nodded and put out a piece of paper that Thomas was to look at. “As you can see, the paperwork is all right here. She is my property and I am here to pick her up. I was given this address and I am here to collect her.
“You don’t own her. I don’t care what your papers say. This is Scotland and you are not taking her anywhere.”
Chris was still not sure why the tall guard was upset. It was like he knew her personally, but he knew that she had been gone less than a week. Surely she had not made connection so quickly. He pulled his coin purse out and handed Thomas some money. “Here, for your help.”
Thomas still didn’t move to take the money. “I am not going to help you. You need to leave now.”
He went to shut the door and he was stopped by a hand on it. Thomas was not even fully awake, but he knew that whoever the man was, it didn’t matter. No piece of paper was going to make him lose his wife. She may be a little hard to understand and deal with, but he had fallen for her and she made everything smoother in his life.
Chris tried to reason with him, but in the end he threatened to get help from Lord Farish, the landlord. It wasn’t something he wanted to do, admitting that he had lost her, but he would if he had to. His revenge was fueled and burned far hotter than anything else in his life at the time. He couldn’t just let her and her family get away with it. She had offended him and he could not let it go. He meant to have the guard fired as well, maybe even hung for daring to stand in his way. When Chris left the small house, he was in no mood. What he had thought would be so easy was getting more and more complicated by the minute. He didn’t know what to say, but he knew that his revenge wasn’t going to happen that day. He would have to get the Lord Farish to agree to see him and then ultimately help him get her back.
Callie had been woken up from the loud noises in the front. When Thomas shut the door, shaking his head, he stopped when he saw Callie sitting there. “I take it you know him?”
She shook her head that she did, but didn’t say anything else. He was there a lot quicker than she thought he would be and Callie had to wonder how he found her.
“So are you going to tell me what is going on and why he thinks he owns you?”
Callie was still wearing her night gown, yet she had forgotten. Her mind was on other things besides clothing. He noticed though, watching her move around the room as if she wasn’t sure what she was doing. “He bought me, if a person is really meant to be bought and I didn’t want to give him what he wanted, so I left.”
Thomas didn’t have to think hard to know what the man wanted. It was what any man would want from such a beautiful woman. It was hard to want anything else but that. He couldn’t even say it out loud in his head, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to stop
the need that welled up inside of him. He needed her badly and the idea of another man laying claim to her made him even more upset. There was innocence about her that most men would give their right eye for the chance to pluck from her. Thomas was just as guilty as all the rest. All he had wanted to do since meeting her was pull her down underneath him so he had ravage her.
She was getting red faced and looking away before Thomas realized that he was staring. It was really hard not to, considering. “How can you be sold?”
Callie sighed and shrugged. “It’s a long story.”
“So you didn’t want a husband to take care of you?”
“Well, yes. I didn’t think he would find me here. I don’t know how he did honestly.”
Thomas wasn’t prepared for that and he worried about leaving her there while he patrolled. The idea of something happening to her was not something he was prepared to think about. He had to feel like he was set up in a way though, like she knew what was going to come. Even he didn’t know how much of the man’s threat he was going to go through with.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Callie. This I promise.”
He left her to think about all of it and she hoped he was right. Chris had wanted her and when he had offered such an insane price to her father, he had taken it. She would wonder if there was drunkenness involved, but it didn’t matter. In the end she was sold like she was livestock and woken up in the middle of the night to go with her new owner. Callie had been scared and instead of going with the man, she had run for her life, only going back to her mother to get a plan of where to go. That was where she learned about Spurgis and getting married. At least she wouldn’t be owned, she had reasoned to herself and Thomas had ended up being even better than she could have imagined.
***
Callie had thought about it all day. She didn’t answer the door when someone knocked later, afraid that it was Chris coming back to take her away. She wasn’t sure if everything in her marriage was perfect, but she knew that she needed Thomas to want her to stay. There was one thing that she could think of to endear him to her and she made plans for when he came home later that evening. Callie just hoped that he wouldn’t stay out again. The idea of him with someone else was not something that she was prepared to live with though, so she knew that she had to fulfill all of his needs, even the more basic ones.
When he got home later, the house was cleaned and there was food on the table. He had become accustomed to it and there was a fear that it was all going to change if she was taken away from him. It was the last thing that he wanted to happen and Thomas knew that he was going to have to fight for her. It was all he could think about until he saw Callie come out of her bedroom. She was wearing a blue dress that made her eyes sparkle and she had a look in his eyes that he had seen from the most erotic women. His wife had never looked at him like that and Thomas was finding it increasingly hard to keep his needs separate.
Chapter 7
He sat down at the table and his eyes took in the rise and fall of her chest. She was giving him the eye, but it was Thomas that finally said something.
“Something is different about you Callie. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I think we should become a real married couple Thomas.”
He knew what it meant, but it still didn’t register in his mind. “Don’t you want me?”
Thomas nodded that he did before he really even thought about it. He didn’t have to think about it because it had been on his mind since meeting her. Every night he had come home to yearn for her and after she had showed her displeasure of him having another woman, Thomas had just been letting it build up. His last try at satisfaction had not been enough and he knew that it was because of the woman across from him, seated at the table. It was Callie that he wanted in every way and he had recently figured that it was worth the risk. A stranger coming to take his wife back was enough to prompt him into really thinking about it all.
“How can you ask me that?”
Callie didn’t know what that meant and she looked down. It had taken all of her courage to say anything, but she knew that the only way he was going to stop her from going back to Chris, was to want her in all ways. She had to be the good wife and in the back of her mind, Callie figured that once her innocence was gone, Chris would have less want for her. He only wanted her so he could control her and be the first, but if she was already taken, maybe she wouldn’t appeal to a man like that anymore.
“I, I don’t know the way of men.”
Why was everything she was saying driving him crazy? Did she know what little things like that would do to him? Was she really that innocent?
“I think you know enough Callie, to know that the man this morning wants what every man wants from you. I am no different.”
It was what she wanted to hear, but it also made her shiver inside a little and look away. Callie was aware that many men wanted the same thing from her, but it did nothing to make it any easier to read the need for her in his eyes.
“Then why have you not…?” She couldn’t finish the sentence, though neither one of them needed her to. It was clear what it was that he hadn’t done. They had been married a week and she was as untouched as when she began. Callie was starting to worry that something was wrong with her. There was nothing she seemed able to do about it though. This was her last chance before Chris came the next day.
“I don’t have good luck with women that I… do that with. I don’t want to ruin it.”
“You wouldn’t.”
He sat back and saw something else on her face. It wasn’t just lust that he saw, but fear as well. What was she so afraid of?
“And this has nothing to do with the man here this morning?”
Callie looked away for a moment. Was she that easy to see through? It appeared she was and he was not giving her any slack whatsoever. “Chris coming here has nothing to do with the fact that we are married now.”
Thomas didn’t like the answer and it felt like he was being manipulated. He didn’t have to look hard to find something more in her look. She was not trying to seduce him because she was dying to be with him. It was because she was afraid and wanted his protection. That was how he saw it and he gruffly told her that she didn’t have to do anything to get that. “You are my wife Callie. I told you before that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. I meant it.”
***
He went to bed that night and wished that he had gone against his first thoughts. There was something about the way she had looked at him, but he didn’t want her if she didn’t really want him. In the end, he had thought about it too much and for too long and by morning, Thomas was waiting for the man to come back. He wasn’t going to be welcome there and he had already decided that no matter who told him to do what, Callie was not going anywhere with anyone.
When the knock finally came, it was only the man that had been there the day before. He was there to offer more money and Thomas knew that the lack of help arriving, told him that Lord Farish wasn’t going to hear his plight. It was Scotland and though they may have done things differently there, she was his wife and there was nothing that Chris could do about it. No matter what could be said about Callie, she had found a way out of it.
Thomas told her later that evening when he got back what had happened and told her that she was free now. Callie thanked him, but she didn’t like the way he said it. She didn’t want to be free. She wanted to just be his wife. Callie wanted a family like every other woman and as Thomas still didn’t go to her at night, she felt like she was on the right road to getting everything that she wanted.
The two got closer together and it was several weeks later before Thomas’ needs came to a head again. It was too long to go without a woman and he noticed his wife a lot more than before. He also noticed more of all women. He just couldn’t get it from his mind. Callie seemed to notice a difference because she was getting closer to him and making more contact as they went through the days. At ni
ght she went to her own room though and he was left to think about the soft touches that they shared. It was a slow torture for Thomas and it was becoming harder to not wish for more.
Callie had learned a lot about her husband from gossip in the village. He was known to be something of a ladies’ man and he even turned the charm on her so much sometimes that she could barely keep her breath, but he never let it go any further. The tension in the house was rising and Callie tried to figure out a way to ease them. She wished that she knew what he wanted, wished that she could take away all of that self-control.
There were several times that she had tried in her own ways. She made him his favorite meal and made sure he had everything he needed. That didn’t work. So she started dressing with her neckline lower and giving him the same look that she had seen more experienced women use. That didn’t work either and Callie was really starting to think that she was never going to be able to catch his eye. She had tried everything in her arsenal of feminine wiles that she knew of and nothing seemed to work.
***
So several weeks into their marriage, both had gotten more relaxed with each other amongst the constant tension that crept in between them. Thomas didn’t stop on the way home anymore, hadn’t since she had shown such displeasure and though he thought about taking her in all ways, he was still worried that it would destroy the relationship. He wasn’t good with the after and even though he doubted he could ever tire of her, there was still something holding him back.
But all that was about to change and he didn’t even see it coming. He was home a little earlier, Bertraud taking the last post patrol by himself for the castle. He didn’t know why, but he really wanted to see Callie. They had been getting along well and she had promised to make him a dessert that he hadn’t had since he was a child. He expected to catch her in the middle of making it, but instead he caught her in a tub of hot water. There was nothing left to the imagination and he swallowed hard. She didn’t see him yet, washing herself with her back to him and he had to stop himself from dropping what was in his hand.