Epilogue #2
Jordan remembered that night very well. Edward had married the daughter of William’s best friend, Paris de Norville. Cassiopeia de Norville had been Paris’ one living daughter and the man had turned into a mess when the time came to consummate the marriage.
She fought off a smile at the memories.
“’Tis true,” she said. “But we chased him away, eventually. Just like I’m chasing ye away. Leave the happy couple alone or I’ll never have any great-grandchildren.”
Laughing softly, Patrick and Edward turned away, heading back down the corridor. When they had faded from view, Jordan turned to Cassius and Dacia, who had opened the door now that it was safe.
She lowered the switch.
“They dunna mean any harm, ye know that,” she said, looking between the pair. “They are simply happy for ye. ’Tis how this wild bunch shows their love. And the dirty songs, too.”
Cassius went to his grandmother, hugging her gently. “I know,” he said. “And I love them for it. But the fact that you’re here, and you were able to witness our marriage, means everything to me, Matha. I just wish that Poppy could have been here, too.”
Matha was what all of the grandchildren called Jordan, and Poppy was their term of endearment for William. Jordan patted her enormous grandson on the cheek.
“He is,” she said simply. “In fact, that’s why I’ve come. I want tae give ye something of him.”
As Cassius and Dacia watched curiously, Jordan pulled forth a delicate golden chain, dark with age. She held it up to Cassius, who took it carefully.
“When yer Poppy and I were married, it was a secret ceremony,” she said.
“I was supposed tae marry another man, but I married Poppy instead. I couldna wear a ring for all tae see, so he gave me a ring on that chain. Instead of putting the ring on my finger, he put the chain over my head. I’ve cherished it for seventy-two years and I brought it with me tonight because it’s something from Poppy.
In spirit, I wanted him tae be present and he is – in that chain he gave me.
I want ye tae cherish it, Cassius, and give it tae Dacia.
It represents a marriage that not even death can destroy. ”
Cassius had never heard that story about the chain before and there was a lump in his throat as he looked at it.
Bringing to his lips, he kissed it. “Thank you, Poppy,” he murmured, looking to his grandmother with tears in his eyes.
“You could have given me all of the gold in England and it would not have been as valuable to me as this is. Thank you for this, Matha.”
Jordan patted her teary-eyed grandson before looking to Dacia.
Tossing the switch aside, she took Dacia’s hands in her own and held them firmly.
“And for ye, Lady de Wolfe, a good Scots blessing,” she said.
“May ye always have a roof for the rain, wood for the fire, and the love and laughter of the man ye hold dear.”
Kissing Dacia sweetly on the cheek, she turned and headed back down the corridor where her sons and grandsons had gone. Cassius watched her go, his heart fuller than he could have imagined. Turning to Dacia, he carefully put the chain over her head and she took a moment to look at it.
“I will never remove this,” she said seriously. “This is mayhap the most important piece of jewelry I have ever had.”
Cassius smiled weakly, still quite emotional, and directed her into the chamber. Shutting the door behind them, he bolted it.
“I seem to remember my mother telling me once that she occupied this chamber when she first came to Berwick,” he said. “The window overlooks the river.”
Dacia went to a small table against the wall, one that held her capcase, and began to remove the ribbons in her hair.
“I find all of Berwick beautiful,” she said. “How fortunate you were to grow up here.”
“Fortunate, indeed. Do you want some wine?”
Dacia looked over to the table next to the bed, where someone had thoughtfully put a pitcher of wine, two cups, and several pieces of fruit.
“Nay,” she said, pulling the last of the ribbons from her hair and starting in on the ties that held the dress together.
“I think I have had enough wine to last me for quite some time. So have your uncles and father. Oh, and I forgot to tell you – my grandfather received a missive from Father Lazarus yesterday. You know the priest has been helping Darian keep an eye on the village. You’ll never guess what Father Lazarus said. ”
“What?”
“Evidently, Amata’s father pledged Amata to the same nunnery where her sister is serving,” he said. “She’s going to spend the rest of her life away from men, parties, and gossip.”
Cassius grunted. “She can still talk,” he said. “Where there are women, there is gossip.”
“It’s a silent order, Cass.”
Cassius laughed softly at the fate of Amata de Branton as he removed his fine tunic, leaving his chest bare.
Sitting on the bed, the boots were next followed by the breeches, made of the finest leather.
It was then that he noticed two dog paws underneath the bed, reaching underneath to pet Argos, who was never far away from him or Dacia these days.
The old dog was part of their family.
Nude, Cassius sat back on the bed, throwing the coverlet over his hips, as he watched his wife slither out of her wedding dress. The pretty pink dress went up on a peg in the wardrobe. Stripped down to everything but the shift, she finally turned and faced her husband.
He smiled at her.
“Well?” he said. “Shall we spend our first few moments together as man and wife?”
She came over to the bed. “I’d like to before that mob returns and demands blood.”
Cassius laughed softly. “My mother’s father did that when Markus married but, alas, his wife was a widow and already had four children,” he said. “But you… unless you have something to confess to me, I will go on the assumption that you are not a widow.”
She giggled. “Fortunately, I am not.”
“Good,” he said, his smile fading. “Come to me, angel. Do not make me wait.”
She didn’t. Swinging his big legs over the side of the bed, he pulled her shift over her head, tossing it onto the pile of his own clothing. Grasping her by her slender waist, he flipped her onto her back.
They were nude now, facing one another in the dim light.
The moon was rising, casting a silvery glow in through the partially covered windows.
Dacia was looking up at him, studying him, and Cassius could see that her focus was on his chest, his waist, and finally his manhood, which was already aroused.
He was quite well endowed. She simply lay there, looking at him, before finally lifting her gaze to his face.
Cassius met her eyes, a warm glimmer in his own. “Please,” he said. “Look all you wish. I will not stop you.”
She smiled faintly. “I like the look of you.”
“Good. Any questions?”
“No questions. Let me feel you now, my husband.”
Her words set him on fire. He settled down on top of her, wedging his big body in between her legs.
Dacia was more curious than she was apprehensive, although the feel of his weight on her body made it all seem so very intimate and close.
It was the moment they would fully commit to one another, as man and wife, and she couldn’t remember when she hadn’t loved him.
As the ring on her finger said, she belonged to Cassius.
He kissed her tenderly on her freckled cheek.
“Do not be afraid,” he said. “You will like this, I promise.”
Dacia lifted her hands to his face. “Show me.”
He did.
Cassius slanted his mouth over hers, pulling her close with one arm while the other hand began to roam.
Her skin was like silk, warm and beautiful, and he touched her shoulder, her arm, dragging his hand over her belly.
Her breasts were full and beautiful, and he enclosed one in a big, callused hand, caressing gently, feeling the nipple harden against his palm.
All the while, he rubbed her thigh with his erection, moving it ever closer to the intended target.
His mouth moved away from hers, down her neck, to capture a nipple.
He suckled on it and Dacia quivered with delight.
This was not any man; it was Cassius, her husband, the only man she had ever loved, and this moment was particularly poignant for her.
It seemed as if it had been so hard-fought to reach it.
Her hands were on his shoulders, in his hair, memorizing the feel and the smell of him.
She wanted all of him.
More than that, she wanted a piece of him.
His son.
Dacia had discovered something about herself during the few months of their betrothal.
She secretly yearned for a child, a son in the image of his mighty father, because she’d spent most of her life without siblings or parents, with only her grandfather as immediate family, and it had been a lonely way to live.
Coming to know the enormous de Wolfe family had made her realize that.
She knew she wanted as many children from Cassius as he could give her.
She wanted the man to fill her with his seed and give her his son.
The erection against her thigh moved higher and now the tip of his phallus was against the dark fluff of curls.
Dacia could feel it. Instinctively, she opened her legs wide to him, feeling his manhood rub against her, feeling terrible large.
She had visions of him not being able to fit inside of her.
Cassius tightened his embrace around her, his mouth on her ear, and suddenly coiled his buttocks. He thrust hard.
Dacia gasped at the stinging sensation, his manhood feeling enormous within the confines of her tight body.
But rather than resist, she went with her primal instinct, which was to open her legs wider and moved her hips forward, trying to capture more of him.
The action drove Cassius mad and he coiled his buttocks again and drove into her again and again, driving himself all the way to the hilt as Dacia held on to him tightly.
Already, he could feel her body clutching at him, demanding him.
It was too much for him to take.
Cassius began his slow and steady thrusts, listening to Dacia groan, feeling her young and nubile body rise to the challenge.
She was deliciously tight and slick, her legs flung wide open to welcome him.
He shifted himself so that he was on his knees, grasping her legs and holding them on either side of his body as he watched her in the weak light.
Pale skinned, full-hipped and full-breasted, the sight of her fed his lust like nothing he had ever experienced.
In fact, he had lifted himself off her for a reason – he wanted to watch her as he made love to her, watching her breasts quiver every time his body came into contact with hers.
It was arousal beyond anything he had ever experienced.
He looked down, watching his manhood as it entered her body, seeing the faint stain of blood from her breeched maidenhood.
It was the sign of his possession, the evidence that she completely belonged to him now.
His thrusts increased. He could feel his release coming and he wanted her to join him, to experience the same pleasure that he was, so he released her right leg and reached down between their bodies, rubbing her swollen bud of pleasure as he continued to thrust. As highly aroused as Dacia was, Cassius’ expert fingers brought her to her first release quickly.
She started to gasp as he felt her tremors begin and he thrust hard, releasing himself within her. Still moving, still pulsing, he lowered himself onto her again, his mouth finding hers, kissing her deeply as she experienced her first release.
It was a deeply personal, and deeply moving, experience.
As their wedding feast continued long into the night, Cassius lay with his arms around his wife, in a room he had known since childhood, listening to the nightbirds call to one another as a gentle river flowed beneath the moonlight.
He was home, where he wanted to be, with the spirits of his ancestors surrounding him.
For certain, he drew strength from it just as Dacia drew strength from Doncaster.
As she’d told Cassius, she was Doncaster.
Cassius might not have been Berwick or Questing, or any of the other de Wolfe land, but he was an integral part of the de Wolfe Pack.
Their lives and loves were intertwined for eternity.
Their mark was all over the lands they loved and protected.
As Dacia slept peacefully in his arms, Cassius glanced down at her, catching sight of the gold chain around her neck.
He smiled at the sight, knowing exactly why his grandmother had given it to them.
It was a symbol of something that no man and no king could break, something forged by the gods that would keep them together until the end of time.
Like the circular chain, Dacia was his beginning and his end.
Somewhere outside the window, he thought he heard a wolf howl.
With the full moon, it wasn’t surprising, but Cassius took it as a sign.
As Jordan had said, the great Wolfe of the Border was still with them.
Perhaps not in a form they expected, but he was there just the same.
He was present in Cassius, and his father and brothers, and the rest of the de Wolfe males.
And he would be present in the eleven children the Duke and Duchess of Doncaster would eventually have.
The House of de Wolfe-de Ryes would continue on into legend and for Cassius de Wolfe, he would make his own mark in life.
And so would his wife.
Through witch’s marks, mercenaries, wounds, wicked cousins, and accidental poisonings, they had survived and would continue to survive until the end of all things. And in the end, their legend would become one.
Just like the chain, for Cassius and Dacia, there was no beginning and no end.
Theirs was a love story for the ages.
* THE END *