by Gina Kincade
Chapter Twenty-Two
Edmund walked down the stairs holding to Aubrey’s hand, a preemptive strike lest anyone attempt to pull her from him. With each step, he knew he had the devil to pay almost literally, and yet he longed to be excited to finally meet the man who had sired him. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, two men ushered them quickly into the drawing room where his father waited.
“I pray you both slept well,” Edmund’s father addressed them with much enthusiasm.
Edmund simply nodded, dumbstruck in the man's presence.
“Good,” Aelfin continued, undeterred. “I am so pleased to have you here. Please, come have a bite to eat, and let us discuss the arrangements for your wedding upon this very night.”
Even the man's smile cock-sure, Edmund worried the man had never lost at anything in his life. He must have been a fair opponent for his mother, though. Yet more frightening was the thought he had topped her, forcing her hand in running and hiding the pregnancy. This made Edmund unsure whether he should quake in his boots, or if he should bow before the man. Instead, he helped Aubrey into a chair, taking up possession of her hand, which gained him an odd look from her.
His father turned to direct his full attentions to Aubrey, asking her about small details of the ceremony, which unjustifiably angered Edmund. With his trust up in arms, he viewed his father’s every move as a possible trick to gain his favors. Edmund would not be bamboozled, and he was through with Aubrey being the pawn in this game to win his favor. He vowed again to make a life for himself and Aubrey with or without his father in it.
He needed to have her safely beside him. Nothing else. He prayed this would not be an insurmountable task, as he prepared to fight to the death to have her remain with him this time. His father would have to rip his arm from its socket to take her now.
“I’ll say, you do look like a woman ready to wed. The color up in your cheeks makes you shine like a lady in love.” Edmund’s father said to Aubrey before he turned back to him. “You are one lucky man to have a beauty who looks upon thee so. I want to ensure your every happiness. Please, forgive me if I come on too strong. The news of your birth still has me muddled, and I am scrambling in the wake of my amazement to make up for lost time.”
“We both appreciate your kind offer, and mean to take you up on it fully. Only, please, do not trouble yourself so. Just being leg shackled to one another is enough for us.” He tried to keep his voice light enough to cover his distrust and feign civility at the same time.
“I thank you for your words, but it is no trouble at all. I am fairly flush in the pockets, and I wish to share this wealth with my own flesh and blood. This right has been denied me so for far too long. Do not make me out to be a saint, though.” His coy smile showed he had caught his own joke. Obviously well aware of their distrust of him, they both had to act well. “I have a vested interest here. I wish to see you happy, so that I can get to know you better. I ask you pardon me if I dangle around you too much, but I am anxious to have my son join me in my life. So much time lost.” The dark shadow which seemed to naturally flow over the man’s eyes made Edmund’s heart still.
Having never let go of Aubrey’s hand, even to eat and drink, he listened to his father’s plans for their ceremony. He said little, hoping to keep the peace long enough to figure this man out, befogged as to the entire matter after such a short time spent with him.
The boy in him who had longed for more love and less pomp growing up secretly wished to be loved with this second chance of a father. The man in him remained wary lest his father had evil plans they could not morally commit to. Being new at his magic, even combining it with Aubrey’s with so little practice, he feared a magical battle of black versus white magic if it would to come to that.
Lord Sanderly had hinted at the idea. His friend’s words churned within him, exposing his naiveté of the possibilities. All he had ever wished for had been parents who loved him, but now his wishes all stayed to remain with the woman he chose to love. This man, at least, made a good act of it thus far, a misfortunate he could not revel in, even for a moment.
“We have but a few demands," Edmund ventured. "Aubrey has made me aware that you bound her powers. I am going to assume this was again for her safely lest she used them to escape. She is going nowhere. I assure you that I am staying, and she is not going to leave my side. You have my word. So, please, return them to her now.”
“I am sorry. I had forgotten. Of course, I will return them at once. Please, I must beg of you to forgive me for what I had to do in my haste to ensure her safety.” Aelfin stood. The man made a few gestures with his hands and muttered words in a language unintelligible. Edmund held onto Aubrey’s hand even tighter, as if this could help her somehow. He watched her take a deep breath, and then pause.
“Are you all right?” he asked when his father had finished. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No, I believe I am fine. I feel right again. I was just doing a small check of myself to see,” Aubrey responded in a slightly trembling voice.
Edmund shook his head. The pleasantries and the magic and the wedding all had his mind moving too fast.
“It was but a simple binding spell. Even I cannot rip them from her, only stop her use of them. Much as I fear your mother had some witch do to you as a boy. I hope you do not see me as a monster like her. Yes, my powers are great, as I have practiced and refined them over the years, but I am not working against you or your wishes. I want to see my son's wishes and desires met. I would love some day to be able to practice beside you, my son, and dare I say, be able to train you having missed all of that. That is, if you wish it, too. I will not force myself upon you. My apologies again if last night made it seem so. That was not the intent.”
“I must be honest in that I have heard very little good about your magic these past few days. While we plan to remain here, and I wish to get to know you, I will have to throw the magical judgments to Aubrey. I trust her completely.”
“I can only imagine what they say of me. Many are jealous of my standing gained in society. They are always wary of industrialists in your circles. I can only ask you keep an open mind and judge me not on hearsay.”
“No, I would not do that. I give no head to the jawings of the ton.” He dared not mention Lord Sanderly and place them in danger again. “I would greatly like it to have what I have heard to be wrong, and to get to know you undaunted by questions of your morality.”
“May we find we have much in common,” his father said while raising his glass to them. Edmund just hoped his next demand would help table a few doubts. He wanted the day to continue on in a less tense manner.
“Secondly,” he addressed his father once more, “we wish to be married by clergy. I do not know if this throws a kink in your plans.”
Aelfin silenced him with a raised hand. “Not to worry, my son. I have already purchased the special license from the Archbishop of Canterbury required to allow you to be married in a location other than the church and without banns. It will arrive with the clergyman. It occurred to me when planning a few hours ago, you having grown up without magic and in the elite society, you may want it so.”
“How did you manage such a thing on such short notice? You did not have the weeks required to…”
“Pardon me, but let me stop you there. You will find rather quickly that I am a man of great means and great connections. I have many who owe me favors. Let us leave it at that. Now, do you have any more demands?”
“None I can think of at this moment.” Aubrey said, catching him off guard, but the look of worry etched in her face had him trying to make himself appear less stoic.
“My one concern has been to the bride’s ring. I have sent a runner to Rundell and Bridge on Ludgate Hill to purchase a ring for Aubrey. If you do not like it, we could always journey there together to buy another some time in the near future.”
“Aubrey has never been one for jewelry or other such adornments.”
“I am sure it will be grand. Thank you, for you have truly thought of everything,” Aubrey quickly interjected between them.
Howbeit, Edmund became more alarmed by the greatness of the man. Over the remainder of breakfast, they listened to more of Aelfin’s grand scale plans for the wedding. Edmund found it near terrifying how much Aelfin Pendle had been able to accomplish in such little time. As he concentrated to quell the trembling of his body, the situation at hand made him wonder what else his father capable of.
His instincts confirmed the devil of a scrape they were in. He wanted to stay here and let this man get to know him and Aubrey. He wanted to whisk Aubrey away to safety far from them all. In fact, he had it greatly upon his mind to shift into some beast in order to run away with her far from all society. Each urge had its moment of infecting his mind.
The rest of the day his internal fight raged on. Moments inconsistent rushed by leaving him with too much to process, constantly aware of the pressure of what they had at stake. At times, a sincere love flowed through him, warm and soothing, when his father spoke to them. Yet, even then, he could still feel the dark energy about the cottage that lurked in shadows and secrets.
All day, no one made Edmund and Aubrey out to be beneath their touch. His father had probably demanded this of them all. Everyone, whether servant or friend, succumbed to Aelfin’s rule. The man did bleed freely to make Aubrey Edmund’s tenant for life.
Other times, in his father’s presence Edmund experienced a magical pull upon him, too. Proof of the man’s danger or proof of his paternity, he couldn't surmise. He would have to ask Aubrey later what she thought. Obviously uneasy most of the day, like him, she floundered between excitement over her wedding and anxiety over the man providing it. He leaned toward the hope this man was not as evil as she had been told he could be.
Edmund had insisted upon Aubrey never leaving his sight all day, even in preparation for the ceremony. It was just as well. He sat and watched them bathe her, trying to cover his needs in the process, wishing to be the one doing the bathing. He figured he deserved some of the regularities of a groom and would not silence his wayward thoughts. When he bathed, the ladies dismissed, still Aubrey had to stay. He secretly hoped to have the same effect on his bride-to-be.
Before leaving them alone, the women had issued a warning of how little time they had left to accomplish all they had to do to meet Mr. Pendle’s demands. Therefore, he bathed quickly in Aubrey’s presence. He manhandled his erection roughly with the soap as he watched her open and drop the robe the women had covered her with after her bath. When he stepped out of the tub, she stood naked waiting with a towel. Half dry, he propped her upon the basin and took her again.
He growled like the animal that had been waiting within him all day, and so he took her as his own, mating in a primal dance of lust and love. He hardened quickly, his cock at its fullest girth being squeezed all around by her wetness. He moved out slightly and then pushed his way back up inside her as far as he could possibly go several times, their pace a rush as necessitated, but not unwelcome. At the ripple of her first contraction, his hot seed to explode within her. The act drew an almost painful intensity of pleasure.
He realized he would never get enough of her as he sat there watching two women ready her for her white gown. Standing in her chemise, the picture of modesty, he'd watched the white satin gown be lowered over her head. He knew he would never forget the look of her in these moments. The gauze overdress trimmed in lace had flowers embroidered in a fine satin stitch. The whole of her wedding dress fell like a waterfall flowing over her torso and long length of leg. No sooner they had it on her than he had visions of rucking it up later. Her beauty made him a zealous man, one with a wild beast raging inside.
Chapter Twenty-Three
When Edmund walked outside with his soon-to-be bride beside him, he found himself ruffled by the number of people and the amount festivity before him. In front of it all stood his father, looking cavalier beyond all sense of modesty. There could be no mistake, the man stood proud of all he had provided them.
“My people. This day I am ardently pleased to introduce to you my son, Sir Edmund Bryant, and the fetching lady he wishes for marriage, Miss Aubrey Griffen.”
Aubrey looked at Edmund to question his father deleting the use of his title without requesting to do so. He only shrugged, caught off guard by it a little himself. He could only surmise it the man’s way of making him his heir rather than a relation to the late Marquess. Aelfin had stripped Edmund of his title, but not his surname. It must have been most vexing to the man when trying to find a way to address him. To grant his father some leniency, maybe his people used no naming conventions.
Once his father had finished the flamboyant introduction, he turned from the crowd back to Edmund and Aubrey. “Come now, you two, and be bound together upon this day.”
Aelfin Pendle held out his arm for Aubrey to take hold of. When she placed her right hand upon his forearm without removing her left hand from Edmund, magic surged through the three of them, a presence so profound it stirred Edmund until he had to concentrate just to keep on walking. It moved through his muscles, tightening the knots already in his shoulders and neck while relaxing with a fiery warmth his lungs and stomach. He had to take great strides to keep up with the overly enthusiastic Aelfin, lest Aubrey’s arms be pulled. Since they moved as one unit, the people parted around them like the waves that formed behind a clipper ship.
Aelfin stopped when they reached a very large wooden platform in the middle of the crowd. After letting go of Aubrey and directing them to step up on it, the absence of his father’s power caused a gripping in his gut. The guests closed the gap they had walked through, and leaving Edmund surrounded and outnumbered in the midst of a large circle.
“I do not like the magical energy here. It is dark and suffocating,” Aubrey whispered in his ear, gripping his hand almost as tightly as he held hers.
“I am feeling suspiciously empowered by it all. I most fear that is wrong.”
“Fight it—”
Aelfin's voice cut off her next words. “May I also introduce, The Venerable Augustus Young, who carries with him a special license for marriage signed by the Most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury.”
“He certainly has friends in the highest of places.” Edmund whispered into Aubrey’s ear, trying to still their apprehension with a bit of facetious humor. Feeling alert as well as copiously sick to his stomach, in spite of being novel to it all, he sensed the magical mischief upon the slight breeze.
He started to calm a bit as the clergyman walked them through the ceremony. At least he found the words familiar, with the exception of the handfasting rites given by Aelfin himself. Giving not a tinker’s damn as to what possible dangers could await them, he set to memory the magic of the moment he had sought after for so long.
After repeating all of the applicable words, the woman facing him became Aubrey Bryant. To kiss her publicly in front of so many set his heart to thudding in his chest like the regal heart of the beast he knew he could be. Some base emotion had him wishing his mother had been forced here, tied to a post up front, and made to witness the whole event.
“There is to be further ceremony, my friends.” Aelfin’s words cut through his revelry. “Now that Edmund and Aubrey are family, I want to officially bring him into mine. As you have all been told upon invitation, another man was given the joy of holding my child in his arms the day he was born. So much was denied me, such as the right to watch him grow and to teach him my ways. I wish tonight to start making up for the days I was never given the opportunity to have. So, with no further pause, I bring forth those who have been my family for years.”
“What is going on?” Edmund said out loud, not specifically directing his words to anyone.
“I believe he is
calling forth his coven, and he wishes to go through the ceremony of initiation with you. It sounds like he has arranged it so you may join.” Aubrey interjected the words. “He must be a feared leader, as no coven would agree to initiate someone based solely on paternity.”
Edmund, aware of Aelfin’s piercing eyes upon Aubrey as she spoke, became conscious of the looks she received from the men who came to form a semi-circular shape around the platform.
“Is she right, Father? Am I to become one of your coven without even being asked? Did you ask your coven, or demand it of them?” He shook inside, but not out of fear, more like a premonition of something bad coming. He had mistrusted these feelings when young, even though they had always proved to be right.
“My son,” Aelfin began. “I thought after all I had done for you both you would welcome it. It is a very high honor indeed to be initiated into a coven as powerful as mine. I can teach you about the magic you have just recently come into. We talked of it, my training you.”
“You talked of it. I merely listened. I am unsure of the implications of this,” Edmund stated, seeing Aubrey’s frightened, pleading look.
“Be at ease, my children, and trust me.”
“Edmund, no! This does not feel right. His magic is wrong,” Aubrey interjected.
He took note of how Aubrey’s voice had quivered along with her hand in his.
“My magic is his magic,” Aelfin roared. “That fact can't be denied! ”
“Yes, but he does not chose to misuse his powers as you do yours,” the beautiful woman, standing up tall, shoulders squared, argued.
“Inside him were born the keys to a more efficacious energy than you could ever hope to teach him about,” Aelfin said to Aubrey before turning on Edmund again. “Edmund, I am offering you so much. I gave you your want of a woman, now I can give you the power to call upon everything else your heart desires. I daresay your powers could be even more than mine given your conception occurred within a circle during a powerful spell. Together, with Aubrey, we could be unstoppable. We could do anything. This is why my coven so easily agreed to this somewhat unconventional initiation rite.”
