Mary had sent the letter off to her parents the very next day after that dinner with Leith’s friends and that had been in late November. Five months later she had not heard from them. It pained her dearly, but she had to accept that they had deemed her as dead to them.
Lady Robasdan had volunteered to have the dress made and a month ago, she had sent up a beautiful green and ivory dress with silk slippers and a silken headdress. At first, Mary had been hesitant to even touch it as it felt too luxurious for her. Now, however, on the day of her nuptials, Rinalda was helping her in the dress when someone knocked at her door.
While she was tugging at her sleeves Rinalda went to answer it. Mary was fixing the neckline of her tight bodice and asked, “Rinalda, who is there?”
“An old friend,” the missing voice of her old maid Tina had Mary spinning, nearly tripping over the hem of her dress in her rush to her old friend.
Hugging Tina with all her might, Mary nearly let the tears that sprang to her eyes, flow. Tina was hugging her back just as dearly. When Mary did pull away, she pressed her right hand to her stinging eyes, and choked out. “You’re here!”
“I am,” Tina said as they went over to a set of chairs. “You’re looking well, Miss.”
Mary sensed a note in Tina’s voice and frowned. “What’s wrong, Tina?”
Tina sighed and took something from her coat, a letter that she handed over to Mary, “Miss, please understand that your parents were not happy to receive the news of your pending marriage. I, on the other hand, was very happy for you. I asked them to dismiss me from their service so I could be with you.”
She opened the letter only to see it was a single line, ‘Do what seems best for you but know that you have shamed us.’
The words cut her deeply, but a part of her, deep inside, had known that. She stared at the note and breathed in deeply. Slowly, she folded the note and set it aside.
She then reached out for Tina and hugged her. “Thank you for coming to me, I’m so glad to have you. I want you to meet my husband-to-be and the rest of his family.” She then gestured for Rinalda, “Meet Rinalda, she is as close to me as you are. So…help me get ready?”
* * *
Aaron Balloch held her hand as she mounted the steps toward the chapel. The wide wooden doors were opened, and the chapel’s windows were as wide as the doors. There were bunches of bouquets of purple heather placed around the room. At the dais where the clergyman waited, was Leith, Tarrant, and Theodor, all of them dressed in their formal plaids.
Leith came forward and took her hand from his father. He leaned in and whispered, “Ye are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, ye’ve held me mesmerized since the day we met.” He kissed the back of her hands.
Mary held his hand, “A while ago someone asked me who my husband would be. Is he is sturdy, dark-haired? Green-eyed? Short and blond? Lanky and redheaded? A man of education? A poet with many verses? A warrior with shield and sword?”
Leith did not hide his grin. “And ye said, ye need loyalty from him, for him to be educated, and for him to care for those around him, but what really matters to ye was his heart.”
“I said to myself I would not care, if only he loved me,” Mary added. “I suppose I got what I wished for.”
“Believe me, love,” Leith said replied, “I’m here, and I willnae leave ye.”
The priest cut in by clearing his throat. “Shall we continue?”
“Aye,” Leith said while his eyes were on Mary. The priest instructed them about the vows and Leith began his. “I, Leith Balloch, take ye, Mary Thompson, to be my wife. I will honor ye with my heart and protect ye with me life, until death sees fit to part us.”
She smiled, “I, Mary Thompson, take you Leith Balloch, to be my husband. I will honor you and love you, with my whole heart, until death sees fit to part us.”
Her hand was taken and a ring, topped with a brilliant blue jewel was put on her finger and a matching brooch pinned just over her heart.
Leith held her close and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then kissed the ring, “Mary, ye hold me heart in yer hand. Whatever ye ask, I will give, whatever ye ask of me, I will have it done. Ye will want for nothing and neither will our bairns.”
“Ye may kiss yer bride, Young Lenichton,” the priest finished while closing his book.
Cheers, and cries of joy filled the air as he kissed her, and the whistles came when he slid his arm beneath her legs and lifted her. “Missus Balloch, it will be me pleasure to take ye to our feast, if ye will have me or would ye rather rejoin to our chamber.”
“Give the woman a moment to breathe before she gets swollen, Young Lenichton,” Tarrant called out. “To ye, me friend, I wish ye all the happiness in the world.”
“A word from the wise and more experienced, Young Lenichton, dinnae ye ever tell yer wife about her in a rags, ever again,” Theodor grinned.
Aaron’s booming voice cut in, “Long may yer chimney smoke, and may the Almighty bless your home with bairns, may you have more happy days than those of misery, and escape the clutches of the devil and see the cloud of heaven. Be hale and hardy until yer old enough to be stuck in the sun.”
Kissing her again, Leith smiled, “The feast, leannán.”
* * *
Slipping into the marriage chamber, hours after the ceremony and feast, Mary was aware of Leith on her heels. She had made it barely three steps in when she had to stop and examine what was before her. The hearth had a roaring fire and before it was a large sheepskin rug. A plate of diced fruit and goblets were beside them.
“Leith…” Mary asked as she turned to him, “what is this?”
He cupped her jaw, and she rubbed her cheek against his callused palm, feeling his tender touch, “It’s for ye, leannán, have ye never dreamed of making love by the fireside?”
She blushed, “I have not…well, not before this.”
Leith’s smile was sly, “Do ye want to?”
Lacing her fingers in his, she tipped on her toes and kissed him. “I do now.”
His eyes glimmered in the intimate warmth of the firelight, and his mouth crooked up at the edges. “Yer wish is me command, love.”
Leith’s sincerity made her heart melt and desires trembled inside her. Cupping his jaw, she kissed him, pouring into the meeting of their lips all she could not say: her gratitude, her appreciation, her awe of him, her love of him, and her lust for him.
Leith took control and his hand dug into her hair. The kiss turned ravaging as if he wanted to devour her. She was going to let him consume her. Moaning in his mouth, she felt him disrobing her, plucking at the laces of her dress and tugging it off her.
He rucked her smock up and yanked it over her head. His hands dipped to grab her backside and pulled into him. She could feel his hardness on her belly as he kissed down her jaw and bit at her pulse point.
“Get on the fur, love,” he said huskily, “and spread yerself for me.”
Trembling, Mary lay down sideways to the flicking fire. She sucked in a breath, lifted her legs and parted them. She could feel his eyes running over her, leaving a trail of heat that was hotter than the fire in front of them. He tugged his clothes off. When free from his braies, his manhood stood thick and hard.
He sank to her side and kissed her while his hand slid to fondle her breast. His kisses became hotter while his hand slid down, trailing over her trembling belly and then to her intimacy. His fingers stroked her, teasing her nub but not sinking inside her.
Mary lifted her hips and wordlessly asked him to slide his fingers into her, but he did not. Instead, he kissed down her body, sucking her nipples to points and licking down her belly to get to her
“Spread for me, Mary,” he ordered and she realized she had closed her legs. Opening them again, she felt his hands grip her thighs, and his hot kiss on her thighs, before he licked her, the slow, lazy, tortuous circling of his tongue on her bud made her writhe with delight.
Wild with an urgent need, she gras
ped his head and let her legs fall to the sides, giving him full access. She let him take her with his tongue, riding wave after wave of sensation and his tongue dipped inside her and lapped at her folds. Her spine was arching as he continued to dine. With his lips and tongue suckling on her nub, her vision blurred.
When he placed her legs on his shoulders, she let her lust take over. Her hands raked through his hair and her cry came uninhibited.
Leith let her legs drop as he kissed her, and Mary allowed him to dominate her mouth. His lips were firm, the antithesis of her soft pillowlike ones, and he kissed her with an intensity and intimacy that made her blood boil.
Her body was hot; it seemed to burn from the inside out, every nerve, every drop of blood, and every inch of her skin felt on fire. His hands closed over her breasts, caressing, and kneading her flesh to a heaviness.
“Leith,” she gasped, “please.”
Her begging must have fallen on deaf ears, or probably not, as Leith reached over to one of the goblets and tipped red wine on her skin. The wine dripped on her skin, the coolness had her arching back. Leith let it drain down her middle before he dipped to lick it off her. He dragged his tongue from her belly to her breast and suckled them.
He then gave her the goblet to sip and she tasted the sweet wine. “I thought you don’t drink.”
“For ye, love,” Leith smiled, “I’ll make an exception.”
He drizzled the wine between her breasts then licked, suckled, and nibbled at her skin without mercy. Leith grinned wickedly and poured the wine between her thighs. Without preamble, he lapped it off her there too.
The throbbing need between her thighs intensified at the touch of his lips drinking the wine off her. “Leith, please, I need you to take me and end this torture.”
She slid her hand from his back, under his arm and then up his chest, “Please, I’m burning from inside.” Mary nearly sobbed with relief when his fingers slid along the slick swollen folds and dipped inside.
Feeling him inside her, she cried out in reprieve, but it was not enough, and she craved more from him. She craved to be filled by him. Another finger slid into her aching heat, followed by another, creating the fullness she craved and the pressure inside her had her toes curling.
He kissed her neck and suckled at her breast as he stroked her and pumped his fingers in and out. Mary felt a wild abandon begin to build inside her as she began to teeter on the precipice of ecstasy.
Leith pulled out of her and slid between her legs. Kissing her, he cocked her hip up to put her right leg on his back as he positioned himself and teased her with the tip. Mary pressed her pelvis up and Leith grinned. She felt him breach her and then with one move, slid into the wetness of her heat.
He moved slowly, taking time to let her feel every inch, every slide, ever scintillating sensation that their joining gave them. Leith caressed her body, nibbled on her skin, and filled every part of her with pleasure. Her eyes never left his and his slow strokes inside her body. She cupped his jaw and brought him down for a kiss.
This was not just mere joining for the sake of slaking lust; he was showing how he loved her with his whole body. Her hands slid down his side as both of her legs wrapped around his hips. She could feel every inch of his swollen member and relished the sublime stretch and fullness he gave her.
Leith kissed her and buried his face in her neck as his tempo grew faster. He withdrew then plunged in to the hilt with hard snaps of his hips. Mary’s mind soared with pleasure as her arms wrapped around his neck.
Their breathing grew rapid and heavy. Mary was chasing the ecstasy building up inside her. She could feel his heart hammered against his chest just as she was sure he could feel hers. The tempo between them grew fevered. Her vision began to blur, so she clenched her eyes and the fire in her belly blazed to an inferno, consuming all of her.
Leith buried himself completely as they cried out in unison. She felt him pulse deep inside her as she clenched around him. His mouth came down on hers, even as she came down from the golden high, be began to rock inside her slowly, dragging out her pleasure.
When her body finally went lax, he kissed her softly and pulled out to lay beside her. Instantly, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her temple, the same temple that she had hurt on her fall so many months ago.
“What would I do without ye,” Leith whispered in her ear. “Ye filled a hole in me life I never kent would be filled.”
Sighing, Mary placed her head under his chin and breathed in the musk of his skin, “I could say the same about you. You were everything I hope for in a husband.”
He kissed the top of her head, “Sleep, love, we have a long way ahead of us. All I ask is that ye be by me side through all of it.”
“You did not have to even ask,” Mary replied.
The End?
Extended Epilogue
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1
Revelations
Ackworth, England, 1522
“I’m what?!” Lady Marion Bewforest gasped, unable to believe her own ears.
“Ahem… Marion, dear, you are adopted, we’re not your real parents,” said the Earl of Ackworth, who was sitting at the breakfast table together with Marion and the Countess of Ackworth.
“But sweetheart, it does not mean that we love you any less! You are as loved as if you were our own flesh and blood,” said the Countess, trying to hold in sobs that were rising from her throat.
Marion couldn’t breathe. Her whole life, all 21 years to the day, had been a lie. She wasn’t what she thought she was. She wasn’t who she thought she was. Her head was spinning.
“Who are my parents, then? And if you love me as your own flesh and blood, why have you been lying to me my whole life?” Marion said, after being finally able to inhale again.
“We were only trying to protect you, dear. Your mother and I wanted to wait until your 21st birthday to tell you. Until you were old enough to understand,” the Earl said, resuming his breakfast.
“When you were but a few months old, our stable boy, William, found you in our barn wrapped in a blue tartan which was clearly Scottish fabric. That’s all we know, honey,” the Countess said with a little sob let out of her lips when she reached out her hand to touch Marion’s. Marion pulled her hand away.
“So, instead of being honest with me from the beginning, you chose to lie? How can you teach me about honesty, about sincerity and kindness, when you have knowingly told a lie?” Marion said slowly, as if she were picking each and every word carefully.
“Dear daughter—” started the Earl, but Marion interrupted.
“Clearly, I am not your daughter!” Marion said, her head spinning. “I want to go find them. I want to know why my parents abandoned me! And more than anything, since my entire life is based on nothing, I need to get some real answers.”
The Earl gave her a sympathetic look over his morning porridge and scratched his head. The Countess had covered her face with her hands that were glimmering with rings.
“Marion, darling, you know I would do anything for you. But I cannot abandon my seat to start a journey that is doomed to fail. There is no way of knowing where to start looking for them, or if they are even alive,” he finally said, apologetically.
“Mother? You will come with me, won’t you? I deserve to know the truth!”
“Sweetheart, I so very much wish that were
possible. You know my health… A long journey would be the end of me,” she said hysterically, trying to keep the sobs down.
“Very well. I will go by myself. William will come with me, I’m sure of it,” Marion said.
“No, daughter. I simply must deny it. You are not allowed to go and that’s the end of it,” the Earl said, this time with a stern voice that he used when he gave orders to his men.
* * *
Marion rose up from her seat. Without a word, she turned around and headed up to her room, leaving her parents to glance at each other with worried looks.
Mesmerized By A Roguish Highlander (Steamy Scottish Historical Romance) Page 27