Lady Thief - By Rizzo Rosko Page 0,84
their grip on him with her oncoming rest.
When he pulled away to lie beside her, her eyes came open again.
“I’m cold.” She said.
He must have been as unwilling to move as she, so William pulled the half of the blanket they were not laying on and covered them with it. She snuggled into his heat and he wished they would never have to leave.
“William?”
He looked down, her voice thick and her eyes half open. He brushed the curls of red from her face. “Aye?”
“Ye should know, today, before something else happens.” She searched for his hand under the blankets and brought it to her belly, still bare as he had not lowered her chemise.
William’s voice became unexpectedly thick, Marianne could hear the wild thumping in his chest. “You are with child.”
She smiled and nodded, her eyes slipping shut. “Aye. ‘Tis yours.”
A bark of laughter erupted from his throat, and he kissed her again and again. “You need not tell me ‘tis mine for me to know it, you imp. I love you.”
She smiled dreamily at his words before her breathing lightened and she succumbed to sleep.
***
William could not sleep at all. He lay awake for hours holding his wife with visions of the coming child in his mind.
Chapter Sixteen
The snow ceased its assault on the land that night and was replaced with extreme cold. Holton, still prancing with happiness, insisted William and his entire party stay until the roads were safe for travel.
Marianne knew William would not speak with Holton regarding the theft of his property. She knew because he told her so. He also told her that ‘twas only because of the amount of food it took to feed the army he brought with him would compensate for his losses, though William did insist on taking back the stolen horses.
Though three days was hardly anything to worry over, long they became, and Marianne found herself suffering from the same illness that took hold of her when she arrived at Graystone for the first time.
Her body chilled, food did not taste as she knew it should, and only while lying in her husband’s arms could she sleep peacefully.
Even in sleep he held her near to him, and when the moonlight disappeared she allowed herself to rest her head on his naked chest and wish she were as at ease as he.
She dreamed that he loved her, told her so with his own words. Despite the number of times they made love and slept in each other’s arms in those three days, she had yet to have that dream again.
Relief came in the form of finally taking leave of Holton House and riding towards Graystone, watching its looming towers appear in the distance a second time had been wonderful and exhilarating compared to the first. With these emotions running rampant, Marianne could not deny that Graystone was her home.
Though, Marianne had trouble consenting to call it her true home as she was still not loved as she would like to be by the lord.
As promised Lord John and Lady Anne came to visit immediately after. Marianne was delighted to have a conversation partner whom she could speak with freely and who could gossip with her.
Marianne hoped Anne’s presence could take her thoughts away from the one last piece of unhappiness she still carried with her. And upon discovering that Marianne never had a nurse, Lady Anne took it upon herself to teach her the fine arts of embroidery, drawing, and music.
“I told you the day I first met you we would become friends.” Anne giggled over Marianne’s shoulders as she pointed out the flaw in her stitching.
Marianne grumbled and adjusted her shawl, wishing she had not seemed so eager to learn in the beginning as she now wished to send her needle to the devil. Lady Anne would accept nothing less than perfection and would allow Marianne no room to play. If there was an error in her stitching and Anne found it, she would have Marianne go back and do it again.
Lady Anne laughed and took the embroidery from her hands, setting it on the nearby table. “I see ‘tis not working. We shall try again on the morrow.”
Marianne scowled and flicked her crooked work. “You may try again. If my son is to have a blanket then I shall hire someone to make it for him as nothing fine will come from me.”
Anne sat next to her, paying no mind to Marianne’s insistence that she was carrying a boy