A Love for All Time (27 page)

She had returned for only a short time to Greenwich, and would in less than a week be off on her summer progress which would this year take her into the county of Norfolk, ending at the city of Norwich in East Anglia. She was to meet with the Duc d’Alençon’s agents, Monsieur de Bocqueville and Monsieur de Quincy, at Long Medford, and she was very excited. Not by the thought of marriage for Elizabeth had no intention of marrying, particularly a young prince but half her age; but she did look forward to the negotiations, and the wooing that would be involved. It had been suggested that Monsieur, as the Duc d’Alençon was called, might come to England. This would be a first in all the marriage negotiations that Elizabeth had lived through, and the idea frankly appealed to her. It was just one more springtime fling before her old age set in, for at forty-five, the queen of England was hardly in her prime.

“Will ye, madame?” Aidan was looking anxiously at her. “Will ye be our child’s godmother?”

“Of course, my dearest country mouse,” said the queen in her best maternal fashion. “It is I who shall be honored to be your heir’s godmother. I am touched that ye would even think to ask me.”

“Whom else should we ask but the one responsible for all our happiness,” replied Aidan with deep sincerity, and Conn once again felt total admiration for his wife.

“Madame,” said one of the queen’s women, “it is time to prepare ye.”

“Of course,” said the queen, and she stood. “Go now, my dears, and have a wonderful time with us for the next few days. I shall regret the loss of yer company this summer, but I realize how delicate a woman’s health may be with her first child, and how very much it will mean to Aidan to be safely in her home at
Pearroc Royal.
I shall come there next winter for my godchild’s christening.”

Lord and Lady Bliss arose, and bowing to the queen a final time backed from her private closet, and out into the antechamber.

T
hey had stayed in London only four days, and then Conn had insisted that they return home to
Pearroc Royal.
They had attended two masques, and gone to the bear gardens but for once that particular sport sickened Aidan greatly. She had begun to be ill in the mornings to her discomfort, but Conn considered it a wonderful sign, a sign of a healthy son.

“If,” she said to him acidly their final morning in London, and having just lost her breakfast into a basin, “ye felt as wretched as I do, ye would not be so full of glee about sons!” She rinsed her mouth with lukewarm minted water, and spit it into the basin.

Picking her up Conn settled her gently back into their bed. “Don’t fret, sweeting. In a few weeks ye’ll feel better, I’m bound.”

Aidan eyed him with a slightly jaundiced look, and curling onto her side went back to sleep as Conn tiptoed, a huge grin upon his face, from the room. He was, however, concerned that she travel in comfort, and so he decided to send their coaches, both personal and baggage, on ahead of them while he and Aidan traveled by barge upon the river. Aidan was delighted with the idea, and strangely felt much better as they glided along the water than she did upon the land.

The weather was perfect for such a venture, the skies were bright, clear blue, and totally cloudless; the sun warm and bright. There was just the faintest hint of a breeze, so light in fact that it did not even ruffle the surface of the upper river. Greenwood’s staff of bargemen were delighted for the opportunity to get out of London. Since Lord and Lady de Marisco were banished to
Queen’s Malvern,
and young Lord Bliss and his wife were living out of London, too, there was little for them to do. Indeed they considered themselves fortunate to be employed at all with no one living permanently at Greenwood. Sometimes guests of their master and mistress used the house, and then they kept busy; or perhaps the young Earl of Lynmouth needed their services; but in general the last few months had been quiet. They rowed smoothly along, enjoying the weather every bit as much as their passengers.

Aidan found the barge enormously comfortable for she was able to stretch out and doze far more easily than she was in the coach. They glided along passing all other sorts of river traffic, barges filled with freight, fishing vessels, ferries, and other private conveyances. The countryside was in lush full bloom, and there was so much to see that she grew tired with the variety. Along the banks of the river they passed cottages and great houses, children splashing in the heat of the midafternoon, washerwomen busily scrubbing, the clean linens spread over the nearby bushes drying in the hot sun, fishermen hauling in their catch.

Conn had taken off his doublet, and unbuttoned his shirt in the warmth, an idea Aidan had followed, removing her bodice, and opening the neck of her silk chemise. Although there was a helmsman at the stern of the barge he had no view of their open-sided cabin, the roof of it blocking him; and as for the oarsmen, their backs were to their passengers. It allowed them a goodly measure of privacy. Sprawling next to his wife Conn could not help but be aroused by her tempting state. The waistband of her skirt was loosened for her comfort and he unlaced her chemise to her navel as she dozed. For a long while he watched her, fascinated, intrigued by her perfection of form. Then as he began to fondle one breast, he bent his dark head to encircle the other nipple with his tongue.

“Ummmm,” she murmured sleepily, as heavy-lidded she opened her eyes for a moment. Then she closed them again, and her fingers began to caress his neck. He nipped gently at the nipple, and then he sucked upon it, setting her blood aboil for her nipples were more sensitive now than she had ever known them to be. “Conn,” she whispered frantically, “don’t! Ye make me want ye!” In answer he drew her hand down to where he throbbed, already hard and long.

“I want ye to want me, sweeting,” he whispered back, and then without even taking his mouth from her breasts he reached over to draw the drapes about their enclosure.

Her cheeks flamed at his daring, and she could still not believe that he meant to take her here, in their barge, with just thin velvet curtains separating them from the entire world. He fondled both her plump treasures noticing for the first time that Aidan’s pink nipples were now more of a deep rose in color. His hands were making her feel totally shameless, and she squirmed beneath his delicious touch.

“Roll onto yer side, Aidan,” he murmured in her ear sending a prickle of shivers down her spine.

When she had complied she could feel him raising her skirts and bunching them about her waist. Then he was pulling her back against him, and to her great surprise she felt his manhood seek and finding her passage, fill it with his warm, pulsing length. “Ohhh,” the breath was forced from her, and he laughed softly.

“There is a lot I can teach ye, sweeting,” he murmured against her cheek, kissing her softly. “This saves ye from having to bear my weight against yer thighs right now. I don’t want to injure the babe.”

That was a revelation for she had wondered what they would do when she grew big; but right now all she knew was that he was moving inside her, and it was wonderful. She pushed against him, and catching her rhythm he was able to remove his hands from her hips, and occupy them more profitably with her breasts again. As the feelings of passion began to mount within her Aidan bit hard on her lower lip to keep from shrieking aloud. He excited her unbearably, the situation which they were in excited her, and her breath came in fierce little pants as their fulfillment approached. Then with exquisite timing, and at the precise moment of their mutual passion, Conn swiftly covered her mouth with one hand, grunting with surprise as her teeth sank into the lower heel of his palm. For several long moments they shuddered with their meeting, and then he removed his hand which she quickly caught back, and kissed where her teeth had marked him. Gently he drew her skirts down, and opening the draperies upon one side of the barge allowed the faint breeze within.

She was feeling wonderful, Aidan thought. Her whole body was relaxed, the breeze drying the light sheen of wetness that covered her breasts. “What a learned man ye are, my husband,” she said with total understatement. “I hope ye have more such lessons, and surprises in store for me.” She rolled over onto her back, and looked up at him.

Damn, he thought, how pretty she’s become. Is it me, or is it the babe, or perhaps a little of both? In either case he felt humbled. He smiled down on her. “Oh, Aidan, my love,” he said, “I have the world to show ye, and we’ve a long and lovely lifetime in which to enjoy it!” Then he kissed her, feeling her lips part to take his tongue in her mouth. How sweetly eager she was still, and he adored her for it. Her eyes grew heavy again, and he watched her as she dozed thinking again as he had each day over the last few months, how very lucky he was to have found her.

The Greenwood House barge traveled slightly north of the city of Oxford where Lord and Lady Bliss once again took passage in their coach. They were almost halfway home at that point, and so those last miles didn’t seem so terrible as the carriage bounced along the summer-dusty roads.

They arrived at
Pearroc Royal
to find that little Velvet de Marisco’s betrothal would be taking place the following week. Conn’s youngest niece was to be married when she reached sixteen years of age to the heir of the Earl of BrocCairn, young Alexander Gordon. He and his father, Angus, would be arriving in a few days from their home, Dun Broc, in the highlands to the west of Aberdeen.

Angus Gordon was an old friend of Adam de Marisco. The two had been boys together in France where the earl had gone both to study, and to serve for a time his half-sister, the little Queen of Scots, who was married to the young and frail French king. As boys they had spoken of one day uniting their families by marriage, and now the dream was to become fact with the official betrothal of Adam’s five-year-old daughter, Velvet, and Angus’ fifteen-year-old son, Alex.

Skye had not been happy with the possibility of an arranged marriage. Her first marriage had been such, and it had been a disaster from the beginning. She wanted her daughters to marry well, but she also wanted them to marry for love. She had attained this wish with her eldest daughter, Willow, who was married to James Edwardes, the personable young Earl of Alcester. She wanted the same good fortune for her other two daughters, Dierdre Burke and Velvet de Marisco. Still in all she disliked going against her husband, and so she had agreed to the match on the proviso that if when Velvet grew up she was unhappy with her parents’ arrangement, she need not abide by it, but rather seek her own heart’s desire.

Although her house would be full, it was a large house, and so Skye had insisted that Conn and Aidan remain overnight during the festivities, particularly when she learned of Aidan’s condition.

“I’m so happy for ye,” she said hugging her sister-in-law. “It seems to be a year for babies. Willow is due next month, and yer babe will come in the winter. Both my eldest sons were born in winter. We’ll ask my sister Eibhlin to come from Ireland if she can, to look after ye. Has Conn told ye of Eibhlin?”

“The doctoring nun? Aye, and I’m truly anxious to meet her for I’ve never heard of a woman doctor.”

“She’s quite amazing,” Skye said. “Our Da had eleven living children, and there are four of us considered not right by our siblings. Me, of course, for I dared to accept the responsibility of the entire family when my father died. My elder sisters, but Eibhlin, never forgave me it. Eibhlin herself who chose to become a nun, and then refused to be cloistered, but instead runs about the countryside caring for the sick. Michael who became a priest when he might have gone off to sea, and become a freebooter like our Da, and of course, Conn, who chose to find a future in England instead of fighting the English!” She laughed. “ ’Tis quite a family ye’ve married into, Aidan.”

Queen’s Malvern
began to fill up with Skye’s children. From Ireland came her eldest son, Ewan O’Flaherty, his wife, Gwen, and their children. Ewan’s brother, Murrough, arrived home from a voyage, and stopping in Devon to collect his wife, Joan, who was Gwen’s sister, brought her and their children. Willow, enormous with her first pregnancy, but blooming with pride and happiness, came with her husband. From court came the two half-brothers, Robin Southwood, the Earl of Lynmouth, and Lord Padraic Burke. Padraic’s elder sister, Deirdre, might also have gone to court, but Deirdre had no desire to do so, preferring to remain by her mother’s side instead. Now they all assembled for the betrothal of their youngest sister, and the boys teased Deirdre that their little sister would be wed long before she would.

Usually quiet Deirdre looked to the Earl of BrocCairn, and his son, and said with foresight, “I would not be happy marrying a man like Alexander Gordon. He is too fierce for me. I want a quiet man, a gentle man.”

Aidan put her arm about her young niece. “I think ye speak with much wisdom for such a little lass,” she said looking at young Alexander Gordon.