Chapter Six #5
Peyton’s expression was soft with pity. “How terrible for him. After training all of his life to be a knight, how horrible to have been denied the final rite.”
Alec nodded. “Even if by some miracle the church would allow him to marry within their law, I doubt he would do it. He holds a grudge against the white man’s religion.”
“Then who will perform the ceremony?”
“A barrister, most likely. They can be married within the boundaries of the laws of England, but the church will not recognize the union.”
Peyton turned to look at him. “Does Ivy know this?”
“Undoubtedly she does by now,” he replied, his lips a mere inch or so from her own and thinking heavily on kissing her again. “She has spent the entire evening with Ali and his parents and I am sure they have explained things.”
Peyton was not happy with the situation and turned away before Alec could kiss her again. But she leaned her head back against his great shoulder and sighed. “’Twill be a common-law marriage. As if they were not married at all.”
Alec was silent a moment. “’Twill be legal nonetheless, within the laws of England.”
Peyton did not reply. So Ivy’s marriage was to be common-law, unrecognizable by God.
What of their children, their heirs and descendants?
Would their father have allowed such a marriage to occur?
Certainly not. Peyton wondered why Lord Brian was willing to allow a marginally acceptable marriage to take place, but she kept silent.
She suspected her protests would not be well met by Alec, especially in light of his defensive manner when it came to Ali.
Alec would believe her protests were because of Ali’s color, which was far from the case.
She had resigned herself to the man’s dark appearance.
Her protests would have been the same for any suitor offering a common-law marriage.
Still, the trouble plagued her and she was hard pressed to remain silent on the matter.
Behind her, she heard Alec sigh softly, his breath hot against her neck. Her thoughts were diverted for the moment as delicious shivers danced down her spine, tingling her arms, heating her belly.
“You and Ivy did not want to be married, remember? I suspect a common-law marriage is better than none at all and considering the appearance you two put forth the day of your initial arrival, you are lucky to have any offer at all.”
There was a certain amount of humor to the statement and Peyton grinned slyly, turning to look at him. “I doubt a blind man would have been smitten with the image we presented.”
“With good reason,” Alec agreed. “Hideous!”
She laughed softly, pleased that she and Ivy had been able to accomplish a small part of their grand scheme. However, she realized she was pleased that the overall attempt had failed.
In spite of every tumultuous feeling she had experienced, she was beginning to feel comfortable with Alec in a completely different sense than she had felt comfortable with James.
It was difficult to describe the dissimilarities, but she knew one thing; she liked Alec’s arms around her.
She liked being enfolded in his huge, strong body, whereas James had been considerably smaller.
His embraces had not been nearly so satisfying and she thought herself wicked for thinking poorly of him.
“How is your head?” Alec asked after a moment.
“Rebelling against me,” she said softly. “Does Pauly truly have a potion to make the ache stop?”
“Pauly has a potion for everything,” Alec said frankly. “After I put you to bed, I shall go and see him.”
“Jubil has a potion for everything, too, only her concoctions seem to be limited to things like love potions and virility and childbirth elixirs. Not exactly the kinds of brews I find useful.”
“You may have need of a childbirth elixir if we are so blessed in the future,” Alec said thoughtfully. “Unless, of course, you would rather be quite manly about the whole thing and shun all forms of relief. Pain is terribly male.”
She rolled her eyes at his awful sense of humor.
“Alec, you are a beast. Take me to my room immediately before this conversation goes any further.”
He laughed softly and rose, pulling her up with him. “I know for a fact you are most courageous. Birthing a child should be nothing to a woman like you. You should be able to recite poetry, sew a bedrug and slug it out with Thia between labor pains.”
She pulled herself from his embrace and mounted the stairs. “And get up immediately afterward and plant an entire crop of summer vegetables. How terribly rugged I am.”
“Terribly. I think I am afraid of you.”
“You should be,” she mounted the last step into the corridor and Alec paused a moment. Suddenly, their last two sentences took on an entirely different meaning.
He truly was afraid of her and with good reason. It would be too easy to develop feelings for her beyond fondness and he absolutely refused to love a woman; any woman. Love was a weak emotion and he had no desire to become swept up in its fickle torrents.
In faith, the frightening thought had not occurred to him until just now.