“How did Melanie get so many people here in just a week?” Fiona whispered as the greeting line died down a little.
“I've stopped questioning how Melanie does anything. The woman's a genius, and she can get people to do all kinds of things. I'm sure you know about her volunteers at the children's hospitals. Some of those people I never would have imagined doing something like that for free, but they do.”
“You've got an amazing family.”
“Remember, they're your family too.”
Before she could respond, there were more guests to greet.
Once it seemed everyone had arrived, Fiona and Seb went to mingle with their guests. Fiona felt really awkward about the whole thing, and she never seemed to know what to say beyond a thank you for coming.
Within ten minutes, her distress must have been obvious to her air witch relatives. Leo was the first one to come to her aid, walking around with her and making the guests laugh. Her involvement was almost tangential, and it helped her relax when the focus wasn't strictly on her. Thirty minutes later, he and Melanie nodded to each other as she appeared next to Fiona. Fiona knew air witches could communicate telepathically, and they must have been doing just that.
Melanie provided the same service, answering questions about her babies, telling anecdotes about the people they were talking to so that Fiona felt involved, but not on the spot. Almost precisely thirty minutes later, it was Seb who Melanie nodded off to.
Seb didn't tell jokes or talk about babies, but people talked to him like they were confiding in a friend. It was as if he knew precisely what to say to each person, and it got precisely the response he was looking for. He didn't have to do anything but be himself, and it was like people were in awe. He was charming when he talked and trustworthy when he listened. Fiona tried to take mental notes on how he did it. Maybe if she could do a portion of that, she could really live up to her new role as Seb's wife.
Dealing with people was so much easier when it was over the internet.
The party went on for five hours before the last guests had left, and Fiona had never been alone after that first panicked ten minutes or so. Justin and Skylar took turns with the others, each staying with her about thirty minutes.
And more importantly, Fiona noticed that as the time went by, she felt more comfortable contributing more now and then to the conversation. She got more confident with what she said, and with that, got more confident that with practice, maybe she could do this herself soon. Not today, but soon.
When the last guest left, Fiona started to pick up dishes and discarded objects, but Skylar shooed her away.
“Melanie, go back to your babies. Suzy probably has her hands full playing babysitter. Fiona and Seb, you two go enjoy yourselves. We threw the party for you, and you're not going to be picking up after your own party.”
Fiona opened her mouth to protest, but Seb grabbed her hand. “When Skylar says something like that, it's best to listen.”
Seb held her hand all the way back to their bedroom. As soon as he had closed the door, she was on him. No tentative first kisses, no messing around. She went straight for hard, passionate, can't-get-enough-of-you kisses. He seemed startled, but responded in kind. Fiona started stripping away his clothes in between kisses, making sure he never had a chance to say a word. Her own clothes disappeared in the same manner.
Fiona pressed her advantage and forced him into sitting on the couch with very little protest from the object of her intentions. Then she lowered herself onto him and began to bounce up and down. As with the kisses, she went straight for the heady, passionate, all-out sex. She left it so that he had no choice but to rise to the occasion. He tried to flip her over, but she resolutely remained on top. Fiona ensured her own orgasm, then nearly forced him into his own.
Then, and only then, did she allow him to talk. “What was that about?”
“I wanted you.”
“I could tell,” he said wryly. “But you've hardly even seemed to like me recently.”
Fiona started at that. “You thought that?”
“Yes, I did. I know you married me because our magic was aligned. You've indicated plenty of times that you want merely to do your duty. You don't even want to be Duchess, for goodness' sake!” He looked angry. “You'd rather get pregnant days into our marriage than try to form a lasting bond of a more romantic sort. But you'll use me for sex, should the need arise. What am I supposed to think, Fiona?”
She was horrified. Indeed, she could see exactly how it would look like that. She'd screwed this up from the start, it seemed. And she was still screwing it up now. She cast around in her mind for the words to assure him that it wasn't true.
“It's alright, I assure you. My mother didn't like my father either. I'll get the other bedroom set up for you tonight. But don't get confused,” he said, his anger turning to a more cold rage boiling under the surface. “I'll let you do your duty, and bear an heir, whatever you decide you need to do. But you don't get to have it both ways. You don't get to have your fun then dismiss me when you get sick of me again.”
He got up and went into the second bedroom that Fiona knew was beside the master but had never been in. She got up to follow him, but realized she still didn't know what to say and got dressed since it seemed silly to stay naked after what just happened. Then she sat down on the couch and listened to the noises of Seb doing whatever he was doing in the second bedroom. She tried to think of how to counter his allegations, but it was true that from what he had seen of her, she had been precisely like that.
Not sure whether she should let him cool off or go while his emotions were still high, she hesitated at the door. But if she didn't say something, she'd make herself sick. Well, sicker than she was already feeling.
“Seb?” She called out, swinging the door open without waiting for a response. “Can we talk?”
“I've said all I think I need to.”
“But I'd like a chance to talk as well.”
“Then at least help me make the bed while you do.” He tossed one side of the fitted sheet at her.
“Stop this and listen to me!”
“Fine. What do you have to say?” He fisted his hands on his hips and stared at her.
“It's not like what you think. I've behaved terribly. I never meant to... I never meant to give you the impression I didn't like you. Please, be patient with me for a moment while I try to explain. I don't have any pretty words that will explain it nicely. I've been looking for my bond-mate my entire life. My adoptive parents loved each other very much. I suppose I thought it all just came at first glance or something. It seemed so easy. Then I met you. You're nothing like my uncle, for one thing,” she laughed bitterly. “I've lived on the run so long, so long. And your entire life is public domain now.
“I don't know up from down around you. You're handsome and sexy. But you're skeptical of me. It set something off those first few meetings, when you wouldn't even consider that I could be aligned with you. So you made me doubt. Was I unworthy? If so, how could I prove to you that I wanted the same thing that my aunt and uncle had? It made sense to me that if I didn't take the title of Duchess that you could see I wasn't looking at you as desirable because you were the Duke. Then tonight, you and your family were so nice to me, absolutely beyond what I could have expected. I wanted to thank you in a way you'd appreciate how happy I felt. In my limited experience with men, they enjoy sex immensely. Again, it made sense in my mind that I could pay you back with sex.”
Fiona sighed weightily, avoiding his eyes at all costs. “I suppose what it all boils down to is that all I wanted was a bond with and a marriage to someone who I loved and who loved me too. I don't care about titles, or money, or really even duty. In my haste to make it all perfect, I've screwed it all up, and I've gone about trying to make a loving relationship in entirely the wrong way. What made perfect sense to me is apparently not at all what made sense to you.” She felt the tears coming, welling behind her eyes strongly enough t
o give her a headache. “Please, leave the sheets. I'll do them myself.” She turned away, looking for something to get her hands on so she could look productive. But there was nothing on that side of the room but the wall, so she settled for grasping her hands together tightly and waiting for the noise of the door to indicate that Seb had left.
She kept waiting until she felt his hand on her shoulder, and she immediately stiffened. “I'm sorry, Fiona. I reacted badly, and I made assumptions I shouldn't have. It looks like you're not the only one going about this in the wrong way.” His soft voice sent her over the edge, and the tears came in a deluge. She couldn't have stopped them at that point if she had wanted to. He put gentle pressure on her shoulders, and she let him turn her to face him, crying into his shirt.
“You got dressed just so I could get mascara on your shirt.” She half laughed, but it didn't really even stem the onslaught of the tears.
He petted her hair down and let her cry without regard for his shirt. “Look at the pair of us, huh? We're both looking for something and someone, but we're both too damn stupid to really talk to each other and tell each other what we want. So here's the deal. Let's set our emotions aside since we've both been having some strong feelings tonight and that doesn't help anything. I'm going to go into the bathroom off the master bedroom and get cleaned up and calmed down. Use the bathroom in here for the same. Then in ten minutes, we're going to meet on the couch out in the living room and we're going to talk. We're going to talk like we never have before, and like we'll need to many times in the future I'm sure. But we're going to be calm and rational when we do it.”
“Alright.” She pulled away and went into the second bathroom to calm herself down. Fiona did some breathing exercises, cleaned the smeared mascara off her face, and tried to relax. She thought about her parents and how they would talk, both with each other and with her. They put everything out there, nothing left to doubt or to misconstrue. Then together, they solved whatever the problem was and moved on. That's all she had to do here. All? It wouldn't be easy, but it was necessary.
The ten minutes passed, and probably a few more, and then Fiona got back out to the living room, where Seb was waiting for her on the couch. He had changed his shirt, and it looked like he had tossed some water on his face too. Seb patted the couch beside him when she would have gone for the other. So she sat down next to him.
“We've got a lot to talk about, and I'll start,” he said, reaching for her hand. “I don't remember my parents together, but I heard the stories. Their fights were legendary. Her suicide has never been forgotten, and many members of the Coven at the time blamed my father for pushing her over the edge. I've been at war with myself for my entire life, both worried that I'd end up like my father and hopeful that I'd end up like my father. Drake did a lot of good for the Coven, and I've tried to keep that up. But his relationship with my mother Gladys was toxic, and it poisoned everything and everyone around it. She bankrupted the Coven, and that was the least of it. Since I was young, I've been afraid I'd make a mess of my own match like my father did. I think I was looking for it to fail because I was so sure it would. I took the least provocation and turned it against you because I was afraid.”
He paused for a second, and Fiona took that chance to respond. “I was raised in the opposite environment, where everything seemed so easy. Looking back, I remember their fights, but those memories have been eclipsed by the good times. I forget how hard it was for them to maintain the relationship that was so strong most of the time. I thought it would come easy, but you're not an easy man, Seb. You've got a powerful personality, you're a real alpha male, and I wasn't prepared for that. If you were looking for me to fail, it was easy enough to find because I started off on the wrong foot.”
“I was looking for both of us to fail, and part of the problem was looking at my own weaknesses in this relationship. But enough of what caused us to be in this argument. Let's talk about fixing it. So let's try to articulate what each of us imagined in the ideal marriage, and we'll see what we can do to make this one into that ideal. I'll go first again.
“I want a wife who will stand beside me and help me make the Coven into the best Coven it can be. I want to share everything with her, from responsibility to success to failure to stress. I want her, by which I mean you, to step up and be an exemplar of what a strong Duchess can be and what a great Coven member can be. I know you'll make mistakes, just like I'll make mistakes. But I want us to rally back as a team.
“In private, I want a wife who is my partner. I want her, you, to see the bad parts of me and either not care or work with me to make things better. I want to share the best parts of my life with her and feel totally at ease with you because no matter what, we're a team. I want a mother for my children, sure, but I only want that once we've built a strong relationship to bring them into. I want to have a close and loving marriage that's making us both into better people before we bring kids into the equation.” He smiled. “I know that's asking a lot, but I did say 'ideal' right?”
She smiled too. “I know what you mean. When I thought of marriage before I met you, I always envisioned staying on the road, always trying to be one step ahead of the Dark Order. But what I want is still the same even though we're in a fixed location. I also want someone who is my partner through the bad and the good. I want someone who respects me and my abilities. I want the ability to be independent and trusted to do the right thing, but if something does happen and I fail, I want to know that he'll be right beside me, making it better. I want him to not judge me, and to just love me no matter what.”
Seb took her other hand in his. “From my angle, it looks like we want a lot of the same things. We just need to work with each other, especially in these early stages of our relationship, to build it into what we want it to be. We need to be tolerant and we need to talk about anything and everything that comes up. It's too early to really be talking love yet, so let's work on the affection that we've got for each other and make things work.”
“The biggest thing that I've noticed that's different between your ideal situation and my ideal situation is that I saw someone who'd be a rambler like me. You saw a Duchess to stand by your side. But it's time that I stopped running. If I bring my experience and knowledge about the Dark Order and become your Duchess with all of that, we've got a strong chance to bring the fight to them and stop them from threatening more people. If your ideal wife is a Duchess and a partner, then I'm prepared to be a Duchess and a partner. I balked at first, as I said, partially because I wanted to show that I wanted you and not your title. But if that's not a concern, let's do this all the way.”
“You mean it?” He sounded so hopeful she knew she had made the right decision.
“I mean it. How do I become the Duchess?”
He smiled. “We've got a Sunday Coven meeting tomorrow. First order of business, I'll introduce you as the Duchess. I'll give you the office that's been empty since before Gladys died. I'll try to make it easy on you, but I'll give you some of my work starting Monday. With the condition, of course, that if there's any problem or any confusion, I'm right there to help you out. I don't want to throw you in the deep end without a life jacket, alright?”
“Sounds good.” She kissed him. “Sounds really good. Can I make an announcement tomorrow at the meeting? First thing as Duchess and all?”
“Of course. What would you like to announce?”
“It's more of a request. I want to ask the Coven to look through any old stuff that they have, documents, letters, books, anything, to find mentions of runes or sigils. From what I saw of the documents removed from the Dark Order's hideaways, they're doing a lot of the work of the sacrifices and the spells through runes and sigils. If I can decipher all of them and possibly look at what they might do and might use, we'll be one step ahead. I know a lot about them, but I'm sure that there are gaps in my knowledge and probably areas I haven't explored at all.”
“And with your great idea, because that is a
great idea, and that interview that will air tomorrow, we'll make a strong Duchess out of you.” He smiled proudly at her. That's what she wanted to see from him. Pride and affection.
“We'll make a success out of this marriage yet.”
“Yes, I think we will. Now come here, I want a hug.” He just held her, and she let herself truly enjoy being held.
After a while, he let her go. Then he smiled fondly at her. “I've got a Vincent Price movie you'll just love. It's about a man named Dr. Phibes and his love for his wife.”
At the end of the movie, Fiona turned to him. “That's creepy love. He killed people through the movie because of a perceived fault.”
“I didn't say it was the nice wholesome love that we're both looking for. I just said it was love for his wife.” Seb grinned cockily. “I thought it would be like a reality check.”
“Hah!”
“There's another when Dr. Phibes comes back. Want to see?”
“Hell yes, I want to see it!”
After the movies, they went to bed, cuddled up with both of them in the master bedroom. The second bed never even got made.
87
CHAPTER SIX
The next day, Seb tried his best to help his wife as she worried about how people would see her. She worried about how the interview would turn out, how the Coven would take it, how the announcement that she'd be Duchess would be taken, how she'd be as Duchess, and more. He tried to take it all in stride, but at some point, it cascaded into silliness.
“Fiona. Now you're worrying too much. You're going to be great, the interview went off well, and if people don't think you're the best Duchess we've had in a long time, they will come around. My family loves you even though they thought you weren't going to be Duchess.”
The Dutiful Witch (The Ward Witches) Page 7