Chapter 1 #10
As white and red translucent, heat-less flames lit the air around them, Margaret gazed up into her husband’s red-rimmed gaze, alight with sincere respect, trust, and affection...
And she realized that he wasn’t the only one who had been changed by their time together.
There was one person in the world, now, more important to her than anything else, even the most fascinating of scholarly pursuits.
..and one piece of information that she still knew about all garnets, even those with ancient, magical powers.
They were among the most fragile of gemstones.
Margaret lunged forward to yank the burning Rose from the floor.
As unbearable pain scalded her hands, she lifted the near-mythic object of all her years of study as high above her head as she could—and then she smashed the priceless gem to the ground, grabbed a poker from the fireplace to hammer at its first, telltale lines of fracture, and finally stomped on top of it herself, digging in hard with the tall, thick heel of her right boot to grind it into dust.
The final shards of the gem exploded under her foot with a sonic boom that sent her flying through new flames that were no longer metaphysical but scorchingly real...
And blackness overcame her.
When she awoke, she was surrounded by a warm glow.
The world rocked around her as she lay, her cheek pressed against a warm, firm surface that rose and fell with long, steady breaths.
A deep ache emanated from the palms of her hands, which were wrapped in soft, thick coverings, but two strong arms cradled her body and held her wonderfully close.
As the now-familiar scent of cloves and cinnamon filled her senses, she gave a sigh of deep relief and instinctively nestled even closer to that source of warmth and comfort.
Her husband’s chin lifted from her head, and he tipped her chin up to meet his gaze. “You’re awake! Thank all the saints.”
“I am,” she said wonderingly, “and we’re both alive.”
“We-ell...” A wry smile twisted his lips. “Close enough, in my case. Undead, at least.”
“Thank God,” she said fervently. “And you haven’t been changed? I haven’t, either?” Suddenly conscious of their shockingly intimate position, Margaret wriggled hastily backwards, disentangling her skirts and landing hard on the leather seat beside him. “I don’t feel any different...”
“Nor do I. You smashed the stone before its power could take effect. Even that cad Morningford survived, although he won’t enjoy waking up to discover his family’s house burned down, the Rose destroyed, and his family’s selfish ambitions failed forever.
” Lifting her bandaged left hand, he stroked the line of her thumb gently, his expression troubled. “How bad is the pain?”
“Nowhere near as bad as the pain I suffered when I realized what I’d been tricked into doing.” Margaret groaned. “If I’d only kept my mouth shut...”
“He would still have worked it out on his own in the end,” said Lord Riven. “Not everyone can be as clever as my wife, but even a fool like him will eventually stumble onto the clear truth in the end.”
“My wife...” The words felt like a caress—but they brought new horror lancing through her.
“Oh, no!” Margaret lurched upright. “I was going to use the Rose to take away your curse. I’d promised you! I didn’t even think before I destroyed it.”
“Believe me, I prefer the choice you made,” he said dryly.
“The last thing I wanted was for both of us to be changed into slavering horrors...if, that is, we’d survived the Rose’s latest effects at all.
At any rate...” He slid her a sidelong glance.
“It did occur to me, at some point in the last few days, that my current state might not be quite the curse I’d thought it.
..at least, under certain circumstances. ”
“Oh?” She tilted her head, leaning fractionally closer. Her hands still ached, but oh, he was so warm, and it felt so good to be so close to him after all the fear and horror of the night...
“For instance,” he said carefully, “remaining immortal might actually be rather useful if one wished to remain married to a younger wife...and perhaps grant her the same length of life as well, one day, if she decided that she wished to spend even longer with me.”
Margaret’s eyes widened. “You...wish to remain married?” She blinked. “Oh, of course, the law. You have to be married to stay in your house. But—”
“No,” he said, firmly, “I don’t—need to stay in my house, that is.
You’ve freed me from the leash that bound me for over two hundred years of misery.
I swore, then, to keep the Rose from ever being used for harm again.
Now, because of you, it never can be.” He took a deep, shuddering breath as he gazed at her with open yearning in his red-rimmed eyes.
“However, I promised you your freedom, and I will keep that vow.
We shall visit your uncle and aunt next and reclaim your inheritance together—quickly, too, unless they wish to have the news of their criminal manipulation spread across highest society and see all their hopes for social-climbing utterly ruined.
“Even if they do choose to hold out on that front, we have more than enough information to hold over Shaw now, to ensure that he finds his own slithering way to get back your inheritance without the delay and annoyance of a court case. Regardless, you will have both it and your independence returned to you, I swear. From what you’ve said, that inheritance should be enough to support you at your college for the rest of your life if you so choose. ”
“Enough...?” Margaret’s eyes narrowed. She’d never bothered to tell him, had she, just how large her inheritance actually was?
If she had, he would know that, once unlocked from her uncle’s control, it would be far more than enough to pay for multiple lifetimes of study and still make up for any possible loss of his own income or estate, either now or in the future.
“However, if you wished to make a second bargain between the two of us...” A fascinating muscle in her husband’s hard jaw flexed as he swallowed.
“I do recall you saying that you couldn’t imagine a time when either of us might wish to remain wed forevermore, but it occurred to me: you’ve lost your official purpose too, now that you’ve so neatly disposed of the Rose. So...”
The breath he took sounded ragged, but he held her gaze with all the steadiness and strength that she’d come to know so well across the past week, his brown eyes steady in the dark.
“When you told me how you first came to study it, you implied it had been a compromise of sorts. As a single lady, you couldn’t explore the world as your parents had together.
You had to find an object of wonder within our own country’s bounds. ”
Something light and bright was unfurling within Margaret’s chest, pushing back all the darkness of the night.
“That is true.” She gloried in the steadiness of her tone.
“But of course, a married couple could shock no one by traveling together...and you never had the chance to enjoy your planned Grand Tour.”
“Indeed not,” he agreed. “Someone I deeply respect told me recently that if I ever hoped to travel, I should be certain to do it soon. But it has been centuries, as you know, since I last left my home. I would prefer to do it now with a companion I both admire and enjoy.” His words were carefully chosen, but his deep voice scraped like sandpaper, and the red in his eyes glowed with heartfelt intensity.
“Do you think you might consider joining me for my journey and making me the happiest of men?”
Margaret had sworn upon the day she’d first arrived in her uncle’s cold and unloving household that she would one day win her freedom for all time.
However, as she contemplated the vampire at her side, who had held firm to his first promise across centuries and had now promised to stand for her, it occurred to her that freedom could take many different forms.
Some of them could even be delectable.
“That depends.” In a sudden, determined move, she shifted across the seat and back onto his lap, adjusting her long skirts around them both.
His breath shortened as she settled into place astride his legs, and the glow in his eyes increased, but he kept his arms firmly to his sides, leaving her free to escape at any moment. “On what exactly, madam wife?”
“We-e-ell...” She flattened her hands against his broad shoulders and found them even more solid and pleasing to the touch than she had grown to suspect over the days of their first journey. “I hope you know that I have certain expectations for any real marriage.”
He gave a pant of pained laughter as she leaned even closer, and his hot breath ruffled teasingly against her lips. “I promise, my dear, on my honor as a Riven and a gentleman. You will never have to do without good tea leaves again, no matter where in the world we may travel.”
“I should hope not.” Shifting on his lap, she tilted her head to one side.
His shuddering breath tingled against the nape of her bare neck, and she bit back an instinctive gasp of pleasure.
“But what about you?” she asked lightly.
“You might not care for the supplies of blood available everywhere we travel.”
His muffled groan was music to her ears, but his strained voice said exactly what she had most hoped to hear. “I swear, I will never again ask for anything that you’re not ready and desirous to give.”
“In that case...” With her last hesitation gone, Margaret gave him a triumphant smirk.
Oh, how she did love to win! And with this man at her side, she foresaw a very long future of mutual victories ahead of them.
“Husband, I have a request to make. You see, in all my studies of the Rose and its effects, I came across a number of rumors. Scandalous rumors!”
“Is that so?” His voice was hoarse.
“It is,” she said sternly. “As a single lady, of course I couldn’t possibly pursue them with the academic rigor they deserved.
But as a married woman, I did wonder if my husband might be willing to help me explore.
..for reasons of scholarly curiosity, of course.
..exactly what a vampiric bite might feel like, when enjoyed by mutual consent between lovers. ”
As Lord Riven’s strong arms closed tightly around her, she felt more free and unburdened than she had in years. “Madam,” he said gravely, “I would never stand between you and any of your scholarly pursuits.”
And indeed he did not...on that night or any other in their long adventure of a life together.
Those scandalous rumors, as Margaret was able to confirm to the academic world in a published article that became Lady Riven’s first widely-read and multiply-republished work, were in fact quite deliciously true.
..and she took enormous pleasure in every new and wondrous revelation they uncovered as a couple forever after.
As it turned out, marriage could be astonishingly convenient after all.
Supernatural mysteries are always best tackled with a cup of tea! Join Margaret & Lord Riven on their next adventure in A Honeymoon of Grave Consequence.