Epilogue
The small chamber was warm and the fire was low, white-hot, casting a golden glow into the room that spilled over the walls and bed.
The Tender of the Keep had stoked the fire in the small chamber across from Rosamund’s bower, the chamber that Kathalin had been sleeping in because Henry and Elreda occupied the larger bower on the floor below.
But Henry and Elreda were not in their room.
They were still in the hall, having gone through the four bottles of fine Spanish wine that Henry had brought with them and more besides.
Moreover, Rosamund was still in the hall, and she and Elreda had moved to their own private corner to discuss days past as the men gathered and drank.
It was embarrassing for Alexander, actually, because his father and mother could hold more liquor than he could.
After the wedding feast following the most unconventional wedding, Alexander decided he’d had enough and begged off to retire for the night.
Gates had gone with him simply to make sure he made it back to his chamber in one piece, but Kathalin followed because she, too, was genuinely exhausted, and both men ended up escorting Kathalin to the keep.
Gates told his bride he would return to her shortly and as Kathalin went inside, Gates and Alexander walked arm in arm across the bailey towards Hyssington’s enormous gatehouse.
The rain had eased up at that point, falling in a soft mist, as Alexander wept on Gates about the beauty of the marriage and how very happy he was for his friend.
He also revealed that he was quite relieved.
He was terrified that he wasn’t ready yet to become a husband and terrified that he would fail Gates where it came to Kathalin.
Gates assured Alexander that he was, indeed, a fine friend, the very best, and he swore that he would repay his kindness someday.
Alexander became emotional and slobbery after that, and Gates tried to avoid the man’s alcohol-saturated hugs to the head.
Fortunately, he was saved by Stephan and Tobias, who were on guard duty and saw the pair coming across the bailey.
They came out to help Gates with Alexander but before Alexander was taken away by his grinning friends, he hugged Gates tightly and kissed the man loudly on the cheek, congratulating him on his marriage.
Then he turned to Stephan and began weeping all over the man, reciting the story of Lady Rosamund’s change of heart.
Stephan and Tobias were naturally stunned to hear of such a thing, as the news hadn’t made it out of the great hall until that moment, but their shock soon turned to joy on Gates’ behalf.
After accepting their congratulations, Gates watched with a smirk on his face as Stephan and Tobias dragged Alexander off to put him to bed.
A truer and more noble friend had never lived, for certainly, he owed everything to Alexander.
As of tonight, he felt like the most fortunate man in all of England.
Perhaps his sins didn’t find him out, after all.
Perhaps he had been forgiven.
But thoughts of his selfless friend and sins of the past were quickly pushed aside as Gates turned towards the keep, his mind moving to the night ahead, a night he never imagined to experience.
His thoughts were full of the evening and what had transpired, no longer reeling from the shock of it but settling into the reality of what had happened.
He was a married man now with the most beautiful bride he could ever imagine.
He never thought he’d be happy to realize he was married, but he was. He was thrilled.
Lost in thought, he had entered the keep without even realizing it, now on the third floor outside of Kathalin’s bower.
Knocking softly on the door, it was almost immediately opened and Kathalin stood there in the warm glow of the firelight, smiling at him.
Glowing, delicious firelight was all over the room, inviting him in.
“I half-expected you to spend time with your knights, drinking away your wedding night,” Kathalin said. “There is a good deal to celebrate tonight.”
Gates nodded as he entered the chamber and she shut the door behind him, bolting it. “That is true,” he said. “But any celebrating I do will be with you and not a gang of smelly men that I have spent far too much time with already.”
Kathalin laughed softly, gazing at him in the dim light. After a moment, her smile faded. “I thought I would be facing Alex at this moment,” she said softly. “Is this real? Is it really you?”
“It is.”
“I can still hardly believe it. It does not seem possible.”
Gates smiled faintly. “Nay, it does not,” he said. “I still expect to wake up tomorrow and discover it has all been a dream. I think it would kill me if that happened. I could not bear it.”
Kathalin shook her head. “Nor I,” she whispered. “I do not know what changed my mother’s mind, but I will not question it. Something gave her a change of heart and I thank God for it. He must have heard my prayers.”
“And mine.”
She cocked her head. “Did you really pray, Gates?” she asked. “I did not know you were the praying kind. You have never seemed like one.”
He shrugged. “Mayhap it wasn’t praying so much as it was my heart screaming with pain,” he said quietly. “Even God could feel it.”
“Then God was merciful.”
“He was.”
Kathalin smiled in return and Gates reached out, taking her into his arms and slanting his mouth hungrily over hers.
It seemed that he couldn’t stand it any longer.
He had to touch her, taste her, and claim her for his own.
On this night of nights, they’d been given an unexpected gift and Gates would not wait to take what was rightfully his.
For the first time in his life, he would take what legally belonged to him.
The mere thought of Kathalin as his wife was the most powerful aphrodisiac he’d ever experienced.
“Lady Kathalin de Wolfe,” he murmured against her mouth. “My wife.”
Kathalin’s arms were around his neck, instinctively pulling him closer to her, her body pressed against his, knowing that on this night, he would claim her for his own just as she would claim him.
Fleetingly, she thought of the women that Gates had taken in his time, faceless females with whom he’d had his way, but the thought, in fact, was only fleeting.
After this night, she knew there would never be another.
It would be her, and only her, in his bed for the rest of their lives.
“My husband,” she whispered in return. “My love.”
Gates picked Kathalin up and lay her upon the bed, his big body covering hers as the firelight reflected off their features.
His mouth drifted away from hers, to her neck, to her delicate shoulders, trying to avoid the fur around her neckline as a free hand began to unlace the ties on her gown.
His attentions were gentle and delicate as Kathalin lay there, eyes open, watching him.
He must have sensed her attention because he lifted his head from the swell of her bosom, his gaze melding with hers.
It was a moment full of silent words of love, of gratitude for this moment they thought they’d never experience.
Her surcoat was coming loose in his hands and he lifted himself up, kissing her nose, her cheek, as he slid the coat off her shoulders, kissing the flesh that came exposed the lower he pulled the garment.
Gently, he pulled it off her body, leaving her clad only in her shift and hose, and bathed in the warm glow of the fire.
He managed to pull all of that off of her as well.
Flipping the coverlet onto her to cover her nakedness, he stood up and pulled his tunic over his head.
His gaze never left her face as his padded under tunic came off, revealing his magnificently muscular chest, thick neck, and broad shoulders.
There was a fine matting of dark hair over his chest and Kathalin watched with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension as he removed his boots and breeches as well.
Completely nude, and nearly full aroused, he faced her for a moment, allowing her to become acquainted with his naked form, before climbing beneath the coverlet with her.
Hot flesh against flesh met and melded, searing and scorching as Gates’ lips latched on to hers again.
She was so soft and warm, and to feel her against him with such intimacy was more than he could bear.
He’d been with many women, and many times, and had experienced naked flesh against his, but not like this.
Never like this. The sheer sensation of it overwhelmed him to the point of madness.
His mouth moved away from hers, down her neck, seeking a heated nipple.
Beneath him, Kathalin bucked and gasped at the newness of the sensation but Gates held her slender body fast, hardly allowing her any movement at all.
He didn’t want her to squirm away from him as he greedily suckled her breasts, first one and then the other, using his body weight to keep her from moving too much as his right hand stroked her thighs.
They were so very supple and he left her breasts to wedge his big body in between her legs so that he could put his mouth on her thighs and groin.
He could smell her feminine musk and it was intoxicating, filling his nostrils until he could hardly stand it.
As he lifted himself upon her body again, his manhood pressing against her virginal core, he put a hand between their bodies, touching her pink folds gently, easing his way inside her.
“Relax, sweetheart,” he murmured against her cheek. “You will enjoy this, I promise.”
Kathalin, who had so far been loving everything he had been doing to her, was suddenly apprehensive. His fingers, and his great shaft, were touching a place she’d rarely touched herself. It was very sensitive and as he stroked her carefully, her entire body quivered in a way she could not control.
“I… I am not afraid,” she breathed, although it was a lie. “This is how children are born, how a husband touches a wife. This is how….”
He suddenly thrust forward, cutting her off, filling her with his fullness as she gasped at the sting of possession.
The sting of losing her innocence. But it was truly no sting at all, more of a feeling of closeness and intimacy that she had never imagined.
Gates was atop her, in her body, filling her with his manliness, and Kathalin forgot all about her apprehension.
Already, she loved the warm possessiveness of it, the feeling of being impaled by a man. It was shocking, but true.
Already, she craved it.
Instinctively, her hands move to his buttocks, her nails in his flesh, and Gates groaned with pleasure as he began to move.
She was tight, so incredibly tight as he thrust into her body, slowly and with measured force, lost in a world of fluid warmth that all revolved around the woman in his arms. Her hands on his buttocks were feeding his desire with a fervor he’d never before experienced, with anyone, and as he made love to his wife, one thought, and one alone, rolled through his head.
This is the first time I have truly made love to a woman.
The very first time.
Aye, he felt like a virgin. With the number of women he’d had in his lifetime, it was a foolish thing to think but he couldn’t help it.
Nothing he’d ever done like this in the past even came close to this moment in time when he bedded the woman he loved.
It was more than a physical need; it was an emotional one, a spiritual one, and a need that overwhelmed his entire being.
He kissed her deeply as he impaled her on his manhood again and again, the kisses infused with the love and passion he felt for her even as he filled her body with his.
This was more than simply a coupling by any standards.
It was an awakening.
Exactly nine months later, on a cold October night, the result of that awakening was born after four hours of very hard and very fast labor.
When Gates finally entered the chamber upon being informed by Rosamund that his fat and lusty son had been born, one look at his weary wife cradling the red-faced infant and Gates realized, at that moment, that nothing he had ever done in his life could compare with what he was envisioning.
He could only feel light and love and happiness beyond anything he could ever comprehend.
There was no longer any past for him; there was only the future.
The Dark Destroyer, the destroyer of women’s hearts and the rogue of epic proportions, finally knew what it meant to be a man.
A true man.
That night, Gates slept with little Liam Alexander Edward de Wolfe tucked safely in his arms.
* THE END *